Game 6 hero David Freese had to have been walking on air in the waning hours of Thursday night and into Friday morning. This comes after he hit the game winning walk-off home run for the Cardinals sending the World Series to a Game 7 Friday night from Busch Stadium.
A side story though coming out of last night’s magic for the Cardinals revolves around the fan that got Freese’s home run ball.
Dave Huyette was the fan who ended up grabbing the ball when Freese’s home run landed in the grassy area next to the outfield bleachers.
Now Huyette could’ve made a nice buck off the home run ball however he decided that he wasn’t going to hold the country hostage and decided to give the ball back to Freese and the Cardinals.
“Maybe if I had been wanting for money, it’d be different,” Huyette said. “But I make a good living. I wasn’t going to hold the country hostage for the ball.
“I told them I didn’t need any money, but it’d be nice to meet some of the players.”
Now it may appear that I’m doing a complete 180 in terms of my thoughts on Huyette giving up the ball for almost nothing in return. However unlike Christian Lopez, the man entrenched in over $100,000 worth of debt and who gave Derek Jeter back his 3,000 hit ball for absolutely nothing, Huyette actually did some thinking before making any hasty decisions.
Like Huyette said, he wasn’t looking for money given that he already makes a good living and probably doesn’t have a ton of student loan creditors breathing down his neck.
Instead though, he traded the ball to the Cardinals for a signed bat by the entire team, a chance to hang out with the Cardinals after one of the best games in MLB history and memory’s that will last a lifetime.
I’d say the only jackass out of all of this would be his friend Jeremy Reiland who decided to wear a Cubs shirt to a game that the Cubs weren’t even playing in.
Ref: Yahoo! Sports, Big League Stew (image)
