cubs fan wrigley field throwing homerun ball back

Published Aug. 12, 2014 4:58 p.m. ET

foxsports

I'm really glad it was an old dude who did this. Because if it were a young dude, I might worry about my credibility here.

But it's an old dude. Which makes me as credible as the next guy. So, watch this:

Great catch!

Which is completely canceled out when he reaches down and grabs some grubby old baseball, probably gnawed on by the family pooch, and throws that baseball back into play, keeping the enemy homer-ball for ... what? His sentimentally valuable collection of enemy homer-balls?

I just don't get this at all. Throwing a home-run ball back is a fine symbolic gesture ... but it's only symbolic if it's the actual baseball! If it's the actual baseball, you're sacrificing something that has some value, however moderate. But without the sacrifice, there is no gesture. And with no gesture, there is no meaning.

It started out as something sorta beautiful. Now it's nothing. So they should just stop doing it, since obviously it doesn't mean anything any more.