Beer and Food Flies as 2 Fans at AT&T Park Scramble for Foul Ball

You always hear about foul ball heroes and villains—the guy who catches the ball with his beer or ducks out of the way and lets his girlfriend take a liner to the hip.

These are the main characters, the stars of foul ball cinema.

But what about the supporting actors? The geeks on the periphery who reach and get nothing but air? Without these people—the ones who didn't catch it—the joy of coming up with the foul ball evaporates.

They are necessary and largely unsung cogs of the baseball ecosystem, and they deserve some recognition.

Thus I point your attention to Wednesday night's game between the Chicago Cubs and San Francisco Giants, where one Chicago sports fan risked everything in his possession for a falling baseball and ended up with nothing but wet starch to show for it.

The fan in question was a Cubs fan, or at least a supporter of the Windy City (the Bears hat and Blackhawks shirt symbolizing the balance of pain and joy of being a Chicago sports fan), and he dropped everything—tray of fries and all—for a foul ball near some stairs at AT&T Park.

The fries flew, another man rushed in spilling beer, and a scrum ensued.

When the dust settled, it was Beer Sleeve who emerged victorious:

MLB

In the background, Fry Man slunk off, suddenly a victim of collateral damage—a tragic side character in someone else's movie.

All he had left was his hat and a stair full of soggy fries:

MLB

But that's life, guys.

Sometimes, you get the ball; sometimes, you get the stair fries.

But the point is: Never stop trying. No one ever got anywhere in this world by spending all their time worrying about where their fries will land. Isaac Newton said that.*

*Citation needed.

Dan is on Twitter. You are not defined by your stair fries.