"She saved those people's lives. Just kidding." No actually that can save someone's life. Unfortunately people have been killed or seriously injured by a hard hit foul ball to the head.
I was at that game in Houston last May where the Cubs Albert Almora hit a screamer into the stands that hit a little girl in the head. Poor girl has brain damage. Very very sad and frightening
I was saved from a screaming ball to the face (wasn't paying attention to the game) in the upper stands by my boss whom was sitting next to me (office outing). My boss suffered a swollen black and blue thumb, catching it without a mitt.
These ballgirls are actually softball players from local High School/Colleges. They need to go through an audition to be on the squad of usually 4-6 ball girls. Sometime they will also do some marketing with the ball club
My cousin was a ball girl for the Phillies during their world series run. She and the other ball girls were all college kids. She was a Villanova student. They were also part of the marketing campaign and did appearances and such. The funny thing is despite being employed by the Phillies, she was pulling for the Yankees during that series cuz she was a Yankees fan.
When I was a kid my dad used to take me every year to baseball games on bus trips. One time we were sitting right next to the ball girl and I thought she was so cute for an "older" woman. I was probably 12 and she was probably 17 or 18 then lol. Her name was Ruth. She was a ball girl for The Pittsburgh Pirates.
Some teams us only girls and some use a mixture of girls and boys. They have to apply and attend a tryout where they must demonstrate they can catch a baseball. They also must know the rules of the game so they know when not to touch a ball. Almost all of the girls are softball players in high school or college. In addition to shagging foul balls during games, they also represent the team in various charity events during the season.
The Otis Nixon catch off the Left field wall(s) was spectacular, not only two steps off the walls, she also had to spin around, and regain the ball again AND make the catch some 5-6 feet off the ground! Simply amazing skill set!
The ball girls are there essentially for foul balls down the outfield lines. Behind home plate and near the dugouts, they employ bat boys to pick up bats, foul balls and other equipment left there.
No there are ball boys too. It's just awesome to see these young ladies get recognition for their work in this all boys sport. Ball boys are cool too! You should do their video next!
In Dearborn, Michigan, at Greenfield Village baseball is played, early 1900s style. The fielders are bare handed. Yup, no gloves. The pitcher is supposed to throw the ball so the opposing team has a chance to hit it. Other rules are slightly different but it’s baseball in a Michigan summer so most of the games are well attended.
Ball Girls and Ball Boys must have a baseball/softball background. They try out, they're tested over team history and those who make it also make public appearances for the team.
They have remarkable reflexes. Many of them come from local softball teams. As you saw, once in awhile they make a mistake and grab a ball that is in play, ehich typically means a ground rule double (batter gets two bases). Love your videos!
MLB - Major League Baseball has had Bat Boys almost since it's inception, at least from the late 1800's but there were never really any women on the field until sometime in the 1970's. I don't know the exact history, but there are now both Bat boys and Bat girl and Ball boys and Ball girls. These are usually local boys and girls who participate in local baseball teams, they could also be relatives of owners or players. Bat boys/girls are stationed near the dugouts of each team. Their responsibilities are primarily to feed fresh ball to the Home Plate Umpire, get players bats for them when they come On Deck (meaning they are next up to bat) and to retrieve the bat when it's thrown to the ground after a hit. Ball boys/girls are stationed in the foul areas to the left and right of the field. Their primary responsibility is to protect the first couple row of seats from getting hit by foul balls and to retrieve foul balls, so that the players on the field don't have to chase after every foul ball. They need to be very alert and understand what is and is not a foul ball. There have been some instances of Ball boys/girls interfering with a "Live" ball. In these cases the teams are very understanding. We all make mistakes.
The ball at 8:45 was actually still in play. The ball attendants are only supposed to snag balls that are out of play, otherwise it's interference. She probably didn't see the first base umpire signaling that it was a fair ball (and therefore still in play). If I remember right, the Chicago Cubs were the team that started the ball girl (or ball attendant) tradition back in the mid-80s. They got girls from local high school softball teams to be at the stadium and snag out-of-play balls to keep them from going onto the field and delaying the game. At the time, Cubs games were aired on a TV station in Chicago that was carried nationally on a lot of cable providers, so these girls became mini-celebrities. That's when the other teams in MLB started getting their own ball girls...and some teams use ball boys too (high school baseball players).
There are ball girls and boys, but this is just a collection of some of the great plays made by ball girls. They are usually from local youth leagues either in high school or local departments of recreation.
In American Baseball, we have bat boys and ball girls.....there are tryouts every year for the job and they have to prove they have knowledge of the game. Most have played baseball or softball.. Keep in mind, the baseball comes off of the bat at over 100 mph so you really have to know how to catch, trap or "play the wall" to be good at it...
They do have boys and girls do it, and sometimes even seniors at some parks (some of whom do pretty well). It typically is more girls doing the balls, while the boys will often do the bats or supply the imported with balls. They're typically local high school students.
It's partly tradition but more a defensive mechanism for the fans. If you noticed all the footage was from stadiums that have a section of the stands canted in toward the outfield. That puts those fans in a direct line from homeplate and a line-drive hit from a batter is usually moving in excess of 90-100mph (about 145-161km/h) at that point along it's path which can be highly dangerous if it hits someone. As others have stated those girls are players, usually from local High school teams. In a lot of cases they are not much younger than the guys on the field.
Yes, Courtney, there are both boys and girls Ball attendants. For instance, the New York Yankees have not made the change to Ball girls. Most of the girls are experienced competitive softball players and have made plays that major league ball players would be proud of. They are there to protect the fans and to make the fans more a part of the game. Notice that they give kids the balls they catch. They sign autographs and some play catch with outfielders between innings. Sometimes the best plays in a game are made by the ball girls. Some of those catches you saw them make are coming off the.bat at 100-107 mph.
I often wonder about sixes in cricket surely people get hurt when the ball is hit into the crowd.In hurling in ireland the balls called sliothars are very similar to baseballs and cricket balls,however balls get into the crowd only accidentally and they are nets behind the goal and uprights.
yeah they switch out too sometimes the boys are in the field and the girls are in charge of the bats. local high schools;little league; charities;; things like that
MLB used only ball boys until 1971 when the Oakland Athletics held an audition for girls. Now the teams use both, alternating games between ball boys and ball girls.
At least here in Washington, DC, the ball girls are recruited from the college softball teams. I teach part-time at a local university and my TA played on the inter-collegiate softball team and several of her teammates were ball girls. Each stadium has their own policies of ball girls or boys or a mix and where to recruit from. The softball players already have the skill set necessary to catch the hard hit foul balls while understanding the rules so they don't, usually, interfere with fair balls.
They use to have some ball boys but the ball girls are much easier on the eyes so it morphed into ball girls only. They still use some batboys to get and hand each hitters baseball bat to them when it is that players turn at-bat.
I don't know if you know about softball. Its very similar to baseball, except the ball is a bit bigger and the bases are closer together. Women often play it in high school and college, and they are as every bit as competitive as men in that sport. Some awesome pitching and hitting. You should check out a few highlights.
First trick Courtney, is you have to go thru a selection process and prove you can actually play baseball. There is a video about the FIRST pro(?) Ballgirls that were hired and at least one of them actually plays catch (warm up) with the outfielders.
So in Major League Baseball they have Ball Girls who work the foul areas during a game and then have Bat Boys who help run bats and other equipment for the players and the Umpire crew. All teams have Bat Boys, but not all teams have Ball Girls.
My favorites are when the ball girl or boy runs out to grab a fair ball that gets past 1B/3B in fair territory then rolls into foul territory, and so they think it's a foul ball....the "WTF did I just do???" look on their faces when they realize it's a fair ball is hilarious
The one were the girl jumped up on the wall was all video editing for a commercial & did not really happen at 3:34 of video. I noticed most of these the girls just throw their gloves up at ball & very few actually looked the ball into the glove.
They pay those girls to watch guide lines maybe save a fan from being hit. An they sometimes play catch with players to warm their arms before each inning.
they are part time jobs usually. At times even highschool girls who have exceptional fielding skills. But paying jobs that they interview for. foul balls for souvenirs is a baseball tradition and given to the kids to keep and remember the experience. the line drives are VERY dangerous down both lines, so yea they save alot of fans from getting hurt. the pop up fly balls can be caught barehanded by fans. Love your reactions and love for sports.
3:25 that one is fake. It was part of an energy drink commercial. Note that all the other clips have the ball girl protecting the outfield porch area, and that one has all the way at the outfield wall - nobody has ball girls in that area. Ball girls do fulfill a role. If they weren't there, then any ball that goes over there, the first or third baseman would have to run over and get it. By having the ball girls there, they don't have to wait for players to get over there and then back into position, so there's interruption to the flow of the game. The ball girls (together) can potentially field dozens of balls in a game, so it's more than just tradition. The ball girls in this video are typically local high school/college softball players. The reason why they're girls is that the boys get assigned to be bat boys - bat boys have duties that take them into the locker room, at times when there are players in various states of undress present.
Ball girls do save lives. Some of that stuff is coming at the crowd pretty fast, and if they are distracted, they might not be able to pick the ball up with their eyes, as it comes towards them.
It's both girls and boys. Mostly high school age girls. I think the Giants (anyone??) have old men (seniors) they call Ball Dude's. They have to try out and its actuallylly really difficult to get picked. They also do a lot of community outreach stuff for the teams. It's a really great program for young men and women
It's also important to note that they are just sitting on a stool/cooler/bucket before they have to snap into action. Going from zero to full speed is very difficult with how oddly that ball can bounce down the foul lines.
Yes, the girl at about 8:55 dropped the ball because she interfered. The line from home plate to first and 3rd bases continuing out to the wall is a foul line. Anything hit in the air past the line is foul. It can be caught by a player (not the ball person) for an out. Or it's a strike against the batter if it lands (unless the batter already has 2 strikes, then he's still at bat)
Just days ago they reached agreement to extend the safety nets farther down the sides...I think there should also be safety nets to keep people from falling out of the upper levels of stadiums.
It depends on the teams. Boys usually are bat boys. I assume because they can go into the locker rooms without any fuss with naked men and such. The ball girls in most cases have to audition/tryout. There are TH-cam videos on it. They have to show their skills (most are college and high school softball team members), and have other dudes like playing in celebrity softball games, on camera stuff, etc....
Unlike cricket, a baseball usually lasts about three pitches before it's replaced. Balls are almost always tossed into the crowd as a souvenir. They used to be only boys but those days are over.
Traditionally it was only boys (usually around15-16 years old.). Then girls were added to help keep all kids involved. However, some teams still only use boys. Main reason - they and the bat boys do a lot of tasks for the team and players in the club house (locker room) where situations might make a young girl, er, uncomfortable.
You haveeeee to watch this video called “joy in wrigleyville” it’s about the Chicago Cubs ending the biggest curse in any sport. It’s longish but so impactful. Especially as a huge cubs fan
Also if you do watch it. It cuts off a part towards the end for some reason. There’s a separate video it should be second after looking up joy in wrigleyville it’s called cubs end the curse
If you move to Florida then you won't miss out on cricket. Team USA is currently ranked 14th in the world and trying to qualify for the next World Cup. They play most of their games down in Lauderhill, Florida.
That one play where the ballgirl runs up the wall wasn't real. It was actually a commercial for a television advertisement here in the states. I think it was Gatorade lol
The ball girl/boy is intended to do two things. stop balls that are likely to head into the stands at a force strong enough to cause injury. Yes, they know that they can only cover a small area but they are there as a token of protection for the fans with field-side seats. Their second purpose is to clear foul balls from the field so that there are not two balls on the field at the same time. There have been times where the ballboy/girl has inadvertently gone after a ball that is the field of play. Yes, it is embarrassing and does cause a slight problem to play. There are rules on how to deal with situations like this, usually an interference call and a double for the batter.
A hard foul ball still comes off the bat at REALLY high speed, sometimes over 100 mph. Watch some of the videas of fan injuryies from fouls. These ball girls and boys really do save lives sometimes.
If the ball crosses the baseline before the base, it's a foul ball and out of play, so the ball girl can grab it. If it lands inside the line past the base and then crosses the line, it is a fair ball and is in play. The girl grabbed an in-play ball, which immediately stops play.
They changed the term to ball attendant, but more often then not college softball players try out to be ball girls and junior high school boys are bat boys. BTW, catching foul balls, saving fans from getting hit, isn't their only responsibility. Ball girls are also ambassadors for their team. Helping with events and so much more. Our ball girls in Philly are the best.
Keep in mind that these girls (and boys) are Fielding balls that are hit just as hard to them as Major League players are fielding. Just because they are in foul territory doesn't mean they magically slow down. No indeed. These girls are making Major League catches. And yes they sometimes make errors. They sometimes interfere with balls that were ruled as being still in active play for the defensive players. And, unfortunately, the ball attendants (girls and boys) are sometimes injured. There are some teams that do not have ball attendants whatsoever. Some have boys or men. My favorite video is not here. It is the girl who knocked down the idiot who ran onto the field, disrupting the game, making security personnel have to chase him down. They were unable to catch him until the ball girl tackled him and flipped him over the fence, back into the seats where security were able to catch up to him and remove him. I understand he was banned for lifetime from attending ANY MLB games. Now THAT WAS TRULY AWESOME!
Greg Ward ... so because it was *used* in an ad, it must have been *staged* for the ad?! Use your head; these clips are from national broadcasts of professionally played games; I don't care how big the advertizer is, they aren't going to let you insert a 'play' into the broadcast! Jeesh!
Mark 1:01. Hi! You asked why is it just girls. Until you asked, I never gave it my thought. But as soon as I saw what they looked like, I realised that the sport doesn't have cheerleaders on the side. Ergo my guess is, "Ball Girls", as they are being called in this non-Tennis sport, would be their version of them. Like how with high school wrestling they use, "Matt Maids", rather than the term, "Cheerleader", it can "throw you off", as they say, in making the connection. That's my guess. 🤔 Thanks for the fun videos! 👍😊😎
Mark 2:08. Hey! I've been hit on the head by home run balls and foul balls, so I know it hurts! I think that I had forgotten that like, Tennis, they use youngsters to chase balls. If I once knew, or would be because of, "Inside Edition", or some show that might have done a feature on them. I am not an avid viewer of sports. Boys too? I thought they were called, no pun intended, "Bat Boys"? I knew about them.
Mark 6:45. You said, "The ball girls are so cute!", and that goes back to my thoughts about, Cheerleading. With some teams now being called, "dance squads", instead, by the way. I may take up viewing, "MLB" games, now that males aren't the only players to see. 🤔
Really?! They just give the baseballs away like that now?! I'd hate to be the one in charge of buying replacements, as instead thinking of it as, "job security", I'd be very frustrated, like the guy in the Underworld, pushing that boulder. (That's why being a stocker, was not a good fit for me.) I wonder what the budget is? "Moneyball", didn't answer that one. 🤔
Hmm. I seem to recall, in the past, if a foul ball was caught like that, the batter was out. Usually, catchers are seen trying to do that. So then, when did catching foul balls cease being counted like that? 🤔
Also, people used to make jokes about people needing chairs or camp sites, because no one ever hit a ball out to them. Animated cartoons, have such scenes. But now there are actually guys and gals, sitting on overturned, or upside down, buckets, sometimes on folding chairs, waiting for something to be hit towards them?! When did that begin?! 🤔
There are ball boys too, this video just highlights the girls. The collective name for them is ball attendant. It's a lot harder than what it looks like in this video for one simple reason; you have to pay close attention to the foul ball rules. If an attendant catches a ball that landed fair first, but then bounced foul, that is a major no-no. Now the attendant has interfered with the game because that ball was a live ball before she/he caught it. The attendant has now changed the outcome of the game. If an attendant does that, they are usually fired after the game is over. So, it's important that the attendant knows that the ball is out of play before they grab it, which is a split second decision and sometimes not easy to do while they are trying to catch a ball that is coming right at them, as I'm sure you can imagine. Here's compilation of ball attendant mistakes: th-cam.com/video/MX8hFvJhl4Q/w-d-xo.html
A friend of mine was a "ball boy" for the Dodgers many years ago. He made the Top 10 Plays of The Week on ESPN by laying out into the stands to make a catch. He hated that job because all of the bat and ball boys were also assigned to do the players' laundry and clean up after them. They were basically locker room attendants. I doubt that works with women as "ball girls".
It’s usually just local high school baseball players. When I was like 14 or so I got offered to be a batboy (which is just fetching players bats and stuff) for a game. I declined though because it was gonna be like 100+ degrees and I didn’t feel like sweating my ass off in front of like 10,000 people.
Courtney, I enjoy watching your vid's. I like seeing your reactions. At least found out what mountain oysters where. A friend tried them. She got sick after they told her what they were.
8:54 - The reason the ball girl dropped the ball is because the batted ball was ruled fair and a live play. She inadvertently interfered with a live ball that was in play and rolled into foul territory.
Courtney, at 8:42 and again at the end, the ball girls accidentally touched a live ball that was ruled fair by the base umpire, that’s why the reaction. The batter will be awarded 1st base at least for interference, sometimes they will be awarded 2nd. Cheers!
It became a thing I think in the last 10 years. There were bat and ball boys, but the girls were more popular. They must recruit from college women’s softball and baseball teams.
its both boys and girls, usually from local high school teams.
sneakapikachu boys are usually on bats, girls on balls, no clue why:
sneakapikachu in San Francisco it’s retired gentleman, called ‘Ball Dudes.’ They’re all like 65 or older..
@Cal Leary
Or grown women, one ball girl was an financial advisor for an investment company. They apply each season.
Part of the position is knowing when NOT to catch the ball. They are only allowed to get dead balls.
"She saved those people's lives. Just kidding." No actually that can save someone's life. Unfortunately people have been killed or seriously injured by a hard hit foul ball to the head.
stonecoldku I would never sit near line drive territory. Outfield or upper deck for me! My friend fractured her wrist with a line drive foul!
I was at that game in Houston last May where the Cubs Albert Almora hit a screamer into the stands that hit a little girl in the head. Poor girl has brain damage. Very very sad and frightening
That's actually what they're there for: safety.
I was saved from a screaming ball to the face (wasn't paying attention to the game) in the upper stands by my boss whom was sitting next to me (office outing). My boss suffered a swollen black and blue thumb, catching it without a mitt.
@What Not To Do At a Stoplight I wish that was the case, but it isn't, people have died being struck by a foul ball.
When you realize these are major league players smashing that ball then you really admire some of these catches.
Truuuue!!
These ballgirls are actually softball players from local High School/Colleges. They need to go through an audition to be on the squad of usually 4-6 ball girls. Sometime they will also do some marketing with the ball club
My cousin was a ball girl for the Phillies during their world series run. She and the other ball girls were all college kids. She was a Villanova student. They were also part of the marketing campaign and did appearances and such.
The funny thing is despite being employed by the Phillies, she was pulling for the Yankees during that series cuz she was a Yankees fan.
When I was a kid my dad used to take me every year to baseball games on bus trips. One time we were sitting right next to the ball girl and I thought she was so cute for an "older" woman.
I was probably 12 and she was probably 17 or 18 then lol. Her name was Ruth. She was a ball girl for The Pittsburgh Pirates.
Some teams us only girls and some use a mixture of girls and boys. They have to apply and attend a tryout where they must demonstrate they can catch a baseball. They also must know the rules of the game so they know when not to touch a ball. Almost all of the girls are softball players in high school or college. In addition to shagging foul balls during games, they also represent the team in various charity events during the season.
The Otis Nixon catch off the Left field wall(s) was spectacular, not only two steps off the walls, she also had to spin around, and regain the ball again AND make the catch some 5-6 feet off the ground!
Simply amazing skill set!
If it was 5-6’ she wouldve caught it at face level while standing on the ground...her hand was at least 13’ in the air...
The ball girls are there essentially for foul balls down the outfield lines. Behind home plate and near the dugouts, they employ bat boys to pick up bats, foul balls and other equipment left there.
No there are ball boys too. It's just awesome to see these young ladies get recognition for their work in this all boys sport. Ball boys are cool too! You should do their video next!
In Dearborn, Michigan, at Greenfield Village baseball is played, early 1900s style. The fielders are bare handed. Yup, no gloves. The pitcher is supposed to throw the ball so the opposing team has a chance to hit it. Other rules are slightly different but it’s baseball in a Michigan summer so most of the games are well attended.
The one at 8:42 I guess bounced on the fair side of the white foul line before going over which makes it fair to play.
Yeah, the one where the girl climbed the wall was staged for a commercial
steve hardman -- Was it really? :-(
@@chivalryalive Yeah, that was in the early days of the internet.
Watch Gatorade's ad where a ball girl makes an outstanding play in the outfield.
When I saw the name of the video I wondered if that video was gonna be in it
yep
Ball Girls and Ball Boys must have a baseball/softball background. They try out, they're tested over team history and those who make it also make public appearances for the team.
They have remarkable reflexes. Many of them come from local softball teams. As you saw, once in awhile they make a mistake and grab a ball that is in play, ehich typically means a ground rule double (batter gets two bases). Love your videos!
MLB - Major League Baseball has had Bat Boys almost since it's inception, at least from the late 1800's but there were never really any women on the field until sometime in the 1970's. I don't know the exact history, but there are now both Bat boys and Bat girl and Ball boys and Ball girls. These are usually local boys and girls who participate in local baseball teams, they could also be relatives of owners or players.
Bat boys/girls are stationed near the dugouts of each team. Their responsibilities are primarily to feed fresh ball to the Home Plate Umpire, get players bats for them when they come On Deck (meaning they are next up to bat) and to retrieve the bat when it's thrown to the ground after a hit.
Ball boys/girls are stationed in the foul areas to the left and right of the field. Their primary responsibility is to protect the first couple row of seats from getting hit by foul balls and to retrieve foul balls, so that the players on the field don't have to chase after every foul ball. They need to be very alert and understand what is and is not a foul ball. There have been some instances of Ball boys/girls interfering with a "Live" ball. In these cases the teams are very understanding. We all make mistakes.
The ball at 8:45 was actually still in play. The ball attendants are only supposed to snag balls that are out of play, otherwise it's interference. She probably didn't see the first base umpire signaling that it was a fair ball (and therefore still in play).
If I remember right, the Chicago Cubs were the team that started the ball girl (or ball attendant) tradition back in the mid-80s. They got girls from local high school softball teams to be at the stadium and snag out-of-play balls to keep them from going onto the field and delaying the game. At the time, Cubs games were aired on a TV station in Chicago that was carried nationally on a lot of cable providers, so these girls became mini-celebrities. That's when the other teams in MLB started getting their own ball girls...and some teams use ball boys too (high school baseball players).
Thanks!
There are ball girls and boys, but this is just a collection of some of the great plays made by ball girls. They are usually from local youth leagues either in high school or local departments of recreation.
There are also bat boys and girls.They retrieve the bats when players drop them after plays.
In American Baseball, we have bat boys and ball girls.....there are tryouts every year for the job and they have to prove they have knowledge of the game. Most have played baseball or softball.. Keep in mind, the baseball comes off of the bat at over 100 mph so you really have to know how to catch, trap or "play the wall" to be good at it...
They do have boys and girls do it, and sometimes even seniors at some parks (some of whom do pretty well). It typically is more girls doing the balls, while the boys will often do the bats or supply the imported with balls. They're typically local high school students.
It's partly tradition but more a defensive mechanism for the fans. If you noticed all the footage was from stadiums that have a section of the stands canted in toward the outfield. That puts those fans in a direct line from homeplate and a line-drive hit from a batter is usually moving in excess of 90-100mph (about 145-161km/h) at that point along it's path which can be highly dangerous if it hits someone. As others have stated those girls are players, usually from local High school teams. In a lot of cases they are not much younger than the guys on the field.
Yes, Courtney, there are both boys and girls Ball attendants. For instance, the New York Yankees have not made the change to Ball girls. Most of the girls are experienced competitive softball players and have made plays that major league ball players would be proud of. They are there to protect the fans and to make the fans more a part of the game. Notice that they give kids the balls they catch. They sign autographs and some play catch with outfielders between innings. Sometimes the best plays in a game are made by the ball girls. Some of those catches you saw them make are coming off the.bat at 100-107 mph.
I often wonder about sixes in cricket surely people get hurt when the ball is hit into the crowd.In hurling in ireland the balls called sliothars are very similar to baseballs and cricket balls,however balls get into the crowd only accidentally and they are nets behind the goal and uprights.
yeah they switch out too sometimes the boys are in the field and the girls are in charge of the bats. local high schools;little league; charities;; things like that
Charly Finley. The old owner of the Oakland A’s started ball girls in the middle 1970’s.
MLB used only ball boys until 1971 when the Oakland Athletics held an audition for girls. Now the teams use both, alternating games between ball boys and ball girls.
At least here in Washington, DC, the ball girls are recruited from the college softball teams. I teach part-time at a local university and my TA played on the inter-collegiate softball team and several of her teammates were ball girls. Each stadium has their own policies of ball girls or boys or a mix and where to recruit from. The softball players already have the skill set necessary to catch the hard hit foul balls while understanding the rules so they don't, usually, interfere with fair balls.
They use to have some ball boys but the ball girls are much easier on the eyes so it morphed into ball girls only. They still use some batboys to get and hand each hitters baseball bat to them when it is that players turn at-bat.
I don't know if you know about softball. Its very similar to baseball, except the ball is a bit bigger and the bases are closer together. Women often play it in high school and college, and they are as every bit as competitive as men in that sport. Some awesome pitching and hitting. You should check out a few highlights.
First trick Courtney, is you have to go thru a selection process and prove you can actually play baseball. There is a video about the FIRST pro(?) Ballgirls that were hired and at least one of them actually plays catch (warm up) with the outfielders.
So in Major League Baseball they have Ball Girls who work the foul areas during a game and then have Bat Boys who help run bats and other equipment for the players and the Umpire crew. All teams have Bat Boys, but not all teams have Ball Girls.
My favorites are when the ball girl or boy runs out to grab a fair ball that gets past 1B/3B in fair territory then rolls into foul territory, and so they think it's a foul ball....the "WTF did I just do???" look on their faces when they realize it's a fair ball is hilarious
A good couple baseball videos are loudest cracks of the bat and hardest Infield throws
The one were the girl jumped up on the wall was all video editing for a commercial & did not really happen at 3:34 of video. I noticed most of these the girls just throw their gloves up at ball & very few actually looked the ball into the glove.
They pay those girls to watch guide lines maybe save a fan from being hit. An they sometimes play catch with players to warm their arms before each inning.
In Junior High & in High School -Girl do play baseball!
In San Francisco, they use older guys and some older ladies as ball "boys/girls" at Oracle Park.
they are part time jobs usually. At times even highschool girls who have exceptional fielding skills. But paying jobs that they interview for. foul balls for souvenirs is a baseball tradition and given to the kids to keep and remember the experience. the line drives are VERY dangerous down both lines, so yea they save alot of fans from getting hurt. the pop up fly balls can be caught barehanded by fans. Love your reactions and love for sports.
3:25 that one is fake. It was part of an energy drink commercial. Note that all the other clips have the ball girl protecting the outfield porch area, and that one has all the way at the outfield wall - nobody has ball girls in that area.
Ball girls do fulfill a role. If they weren't there, then any ball that goes over there, the first or third baseman would have to run over and get it. By having the ball girls there, they don't have to wait for players to get over there and then back into position, so there's interruption to the flow of the game. The ball girls (together) can potentially field dozens of balls in a game, so it's more than just tradition.
The ball girls in this video are typically local high school/college softball players. The reason why they're girls is that the boys get assigned to be bat boys - bat boys have duties that take them into the locker room, at times when there are players in various states of undress present.
Ball girls do save lives. Some of that stuff is coming at the crowd pretty fast, and if they are distracted, they might not be able to pick the ball up with their eyes, as it comes towards them.
The clip of the girl climbing the wall is actually an old Gatoraide commercial.
Those are some very nice catches and there are ball boys.There are also bat boys, who take care of the bats.
It's both girls and boys. Mostly high school age girls. I think the Giants (anyone??) have old men (seniors) they call Ball Dude's. They have to try out and its actuallylly really difficult to get picked. They also do a lot of community outreach stuff for the teams. It's a really great program for young men and women
‘Why is it just girls’?, ‘look at that smile’! You just answered your own question!
9:10 The look on Escobar's face.
It's also important to note that they are just sitting on a stool/cooler/bucket before they have to snap into action. Going from zero to full speed is very difficult with how oddly that ball can bounce down the foul lines.
I was at that game where the ball girl ran up the wall to catch the ball at the Fresno Grizzlies game.
Yes, the girl at about 8:55 dropped the ball because she interfered. The line from home plate to first and 3rd bases continuing out to the wall is a foul line. Anything hit in the air past the line is foul. It can be caught by a player (not the ball person) for an out. Or it's a strike against the batter if it lands (unless the batter already has 2 strikes, then he's still at bat)
Just days ago they reached agreement to extend the safety nets farther down the sides...I think there should also be safety nets to keep people from falling out of the upper levels of stadiums.
It depends on the teams. Boys usually are bat boys. I assume because they can go into the locker rooms without any fuss with naked men and such. The ball girls in most cases have to audition/tryout. There are TH-cam videos on it. They have to show their skills (most are college and high school softball team members), and have other dudes like playing in celebrity softball games, on camera stuff, etc....
Unlike cricket, a baseball usually lasts about three pitches before it's replaced. Balls are almost always tossed into the crowd as a souvenir. They used to be only boys but those days are over.
Love these videos of ball girls and boys. Great video.
That’s awesome that you’re coming to the states
Traditionally it was only boys (usually around15-16 years old.). Then girls were added to help keep all kids involved. However, some teams still only use boys. Main reason - they and the bat boys do a lot of tasks for the team and players in the club house (locker room) where situations might make a young girl, er, uncomfortable.
You haveeeee to watch this video called “joy in wrigleyville” it’s about the Chicago Cubs ending the biggest curse in any sport. It’s longish but so impactful. Especially as a huge cubs fan
Also if you do watch it. It cuts off a part towards the end for some reason. There’s a separate video it should be second after looking up joy in wrigleyville it’s called cubs end the curse
The ball girls and guys get bigger applauses from the fans at the games.
If you move to Florida then you won't miss out on cricket. Team USA is currently ranked 14th in the world and trying to qualify for the next World Cup. They play most of their games down in Lauderhill, Florida.
Ball girls and bat boys college tuition gets paid for if they are selected for either position
The yellow tower is the foul line. She looked up and went, "Oh crap!"
That one play where the ballgirl runs up the wall wasn't real. It was actually a commercial for a television advertisement here in the states. I think it was Gatorade lol
Some ballparks have senior citizens doing that like in AZ.
The ball girl/boy is intended to do two things. stop balls that are likely to head into the stands at a force strong enough to cause injury. Yes, they know that they can only cover a small area but they are there as a token of protection for the fans with field-side seats. Their second purpose is to clear foul balls from the field so that there are not two balls on the field at the same time. There have been times where the ballboy/girl has inadvertently gone after a ball that is the field of play. Yes, it is embarrassing and does cause a slight problem to play. There are rules on how to deal with situations like this, usually an interference call and a double for the batter.
Most of these girls are high level Division I softball players. They are highly skilled.
It's not just girls who do it some teams do just girls others do season ticket holders or have contests
Courtney...I really love you channel....I'm from the US and learn alot with your vids too.......
A hard foul ball still comes off the bat at REALLY high speed, sometimes over 100 mph. Watch some of the videas of fan injuryies from fouls. These ball girls and boys really do save lives sometimes.
My team the Arizona Diamondbacks actually uses senior citizen men as foul ball retrievers.
It depends on the team actually, some have ball girls, some gave ball boys, and the San Francisco Giants use elderly "ball dudes"
In San Francisco, they can't use kids, because the fans would be perving on them
You're so awesome!! Love your reactions, please keep up the great work!!
If the ball crosses the baseline before the base, it's a foul ball and out of play, so the ball girl can grab it. If it lands inside the line past the base and then crosses the line, it is a fair ball and is in play. The girl grabbed an in-play ball, which immediately stops play.
They changed the term to ball attendant, but more often then not college softball players try out to be ball girls and junior high school boys are bat boys. BTW, catching foul balls, saving fans from getting hit, isn't their only responsibility. Ball girls are also ambassadors for their team. Helping with events and so much more. Our ball girls in Philly are the best.
Courtney, you should take a look at Tom Hanks and Gina Davis in "A League of Their Own",
When the Padres played at Qualcom (never intended for baseball) I saw tons of people get smoked including my own bro twice
It's good to see them recognized.
Keep in mind that these girls (and boys) are Fielding balls that are hit just as hard to them as Major League players are fielding. Just because they are in foul territory doesn't mean they magically slow down. No indeed. These girls are making Major League catches. And yes they sometimes make errors. They sometimes interfere with balls that were ruled as being still in active play for the defensive players. And, unfortunately, the ball attendants (girls and boys) are sometimes injured. There are some teams that do not have ball attendants whatsoever. Some have boys or men. My favorite video is not here. It is the girl who knocked down the idiot who ran onto the field, disrupting the game, making security personnel have to chase him down. They were unable to catch him until the ball girl tackled him and flipped him over the fence, back into the seats where security were able to catch up to him and remove him. I understand he was banned for lifetime from attending ANY MLB games. Now THAT WAS TRULY AWESOME!
Be proud. I'm reacting to you while watching my team, the Packers, play.
Lance G go pack go!!! 🧀🧀🧀
@@Ashley-jp4nnVictory!!!
the girl that climbed the wall then tossed the ball to the player was fake, was used in a commercial or something
Greg Ward ... so because it was *used* in an ad, it must have been *staged* for the ad?! Use your head; these clips are from national broadcasts of professionally played games; I don't care how big the advertizer is, they aren't going to let you insert a 'play' into the broadcast! Jeesh!
@@ephennell4ever I didn't word that correctly, it was CREATED for the ad.
Yes Courtney you were correct in that the ball lady handled a live ball at approx. 9:00.
This is a good recommendation. I watch these alot
The girl that jumped off the wall and caught that ball hey one amazing catch
Also fake. Trampolines were involved. It was a Gatorade commercial.
It's still was an amazing catch
Mark 1:01. Hi! You asked why is it just girls. Until you asked, I never gave it my thought. But as soon as I saw what they looked like, I realised that the sport doesn't have cheerleaders on the side. Ergo my guess is, "Ball Girls", as they are being called in this non-Tennis sport, would be their version of them. Like how with high school wrestling they use, "Matt Maids", rather than the term, "Cheerleader", it can "throw you off", as they say, in making the connection. That's my guess. 🤔
Thanks for the fun videos! 👍😊😎
Mark 2:08. Hey! I've been hit on the head by home run balls and foul balls, so I know it hurts!
I think that I had forgotten that like, Tennis, they use youngsters to chase balls. If I once knew, or would be because of, "Inside Edition", or some show that might have done a feature on them. I am not an avid viewer of sports.
Boys too? I thought they were called, no pun intended, "Bat Boys"? I knew about them.
Mark 6:45. You said, "The ball girls are so cute!", and that goes back to my thoughts about, Cheerleading. With some teams now being called, "dance squads", instead, by the way. I may take up viewing, "MLB" games, now that males aren't the only players to see. 🤔
Really?! They just give the baseballs away like that now?! I'd hate to be the one in charge of buying replacements, as instead thinking of it as, "job security", I'd be very frustrated, like the guy in the Underworld, pushing that boulder. (That's why being a stocker, was not a good fit for me.) I wonder what the budget is? "Moneyball", didn't answer that one. 🤔
Hmm. I seem to recall, in the past, if a foul ball was caught like that, the batter was out. Usually, catchers are seen trying to do that. So then, when did catching foul balls cease being counted like that? 🤔
Also, people used to make jokes about people needing chairs or camp sites, because no one ever hit a ball out to them. Animated cartoons, have such scenes.
But now there are actually guys and gals, sitting on overturned, or upside down, buckets, sometimes on folding chairs, waiting for something to be hit towards them?! When did that begin?! 🤔
There are ball boys too, this video just highlights the girls. The collective name for them is ball attendant.
It's a lot harder than what it looks like in this video for one simple reason; you have to pay close attention to the foul ball rules. If an attendant catches a ball that landed fair first, but then bounced foul, that is a major no-no. Now the attendant has interfered with the game because that ball was a live ball before she/he caught it. The attendant has now changed the outcome of the game. If an attendant does that, they are usually fired after the game is over. So, it's important that the attendant knows that the ball is out of play before they grab it, which is a split second decision and sometimes not easy to do while they are trying to catch a ball that is coming right at them, as I'm sure you can imagine.
Here's compilation of ball attendant mistakes: th-cam.com/video/MX8hFvJhl4Q/w-d-xo.html
A friend of mine was a "ball boy" for the Dodgers many years ago. He made the Top 10 Plays of The Week on ESPN by laying out into the stands to make a catch. He hated that job because all of the bat and ball boys were also assigned to do the players' laundry and clean up after them. They were basically locker room attendants. I doubt that works with women as "ball girls".
It’s usually just local high school baseball players. When I was like 14 or so I got offered to be a batboy (which is just fetching players bats and stuff) for a game. I declined though because it was gonna be like 100+ degrees and I didn’t feel like sweating my ass off in front of like 10,000 people.
catch at 3:32 is a production shot, advert for some product
amazing video
The San Francisco Giants have senior citizens doing that job. They call them ball dudes and dudettes
And they're really bad.
Courtney, I enjoy watching your vid's. I like seeing your reactions. At least found out what mountain oysters where. A friend tried them. She got sick after they told her what they were.
A another really good MLB vid is this on - Boy hands souvenir over to girl behind him. This is a class move for a young man his age.
They really do save people from injuries. Imagine those balls flying 100mph towards someone's head
Original baseball uniforms were made of wool. Imagine that in the summer.
Jedi Mind I don’t know that those polyester ones are any better on a humid day🤣
8:54 - The reason the ball girl dropped the ball is because the batted ball was ruled fair and a live play. She inadvertently interfered with a live ball that was in play and rolled into foul territory.
Softball is a huge sport in American high school and colleges, so there are a lot of young women who know how to play the game.
Courtney, at 8:42 and again at the end, the ball girls accidentally touched a live ball that was ruled fair by the base umpire, that’s why the reaction. The batter will be awarded 1st base at least for interference, sometimes they will be awarded 2nd. Cheers!
It became a thing I think in the last 10 years. There were bat and ball boys, but the girls were more popular. They must recruit from college women’s softball and baseball teams.
Enjoy when you get to the states!!
They are usually top softball players that can try out
Disappointing deep foul balls:
Red Sox Ball Girl: Imma end this man’s entire career.