Ball boys are easy targets — but not always deserved ones. Whether they're teenagers, hot girls or, in the case at San Francisco's AT&T Park, senior citizens, it isn't always immediately clear to the designated foul ground protector whether that hot smash down the line is a live or dead ball. And if you're not especially paying complete attention to the task at hand at a key moment? Well…mistakes get made.
But at least the Kansas City Royals' ball boy stationed on the right field side during Sunday's Royals-Yankees matchup learned from his mistakes, as evidenced in this video posted to Crave sports site NESN.
Yes, the kid was clearly out to lunch when he absent-mindedly picked a scorching 4th inning fair ball line drive off the bat of Yankees second baseman Brian Roberts and casually handed it to a fan. It was only after a quizzical look from Royals' right fielder Norichika Aoki that the kid realized what he'd done.
Roberts got second on the ground-rule double — but you can almost hear the voice in the kid's head after his miscue: "I'm not gonna screw up again…I'm not gonna screw up again…I'm not gonna screw up again."
So an inning later, when Royals third baseman Mike Moustakas ripped another liner into foul ground — this time, a foul ball — well, the kid made the only play he could make at that point.
No play at all.
His statue-like form as the ball scoots by him says it all.
