Zack Hample ballhawking at PNC Park
One of the most controversial people in pro baseball created a social media firestorm Sunday when he revealed he had gotten into the Fort Bragg Game.
Zack Hample is a "professional" ballhawk who travels the country in search of Major League baseballs.
Near the end of the game between the Atlanta Braves and the Miami Marlins, Hample tweeted that he caught 11 baseballs.
His tactics in Major League ballparks have repeatedly come under fire. Most on social media took issue not with his efforts, but with his attendance at the special for-the-troops game.
Officials distributed 12,500 tickets, with most going to troops, their families, veterans and Fort Bragg civilian employees. But Fort Bragg has 54,000 troops, and tens of thousands more dependents.
Unused tickets were to be turned back in so troops who were not originally assigned tickets could attend.
Hample, who lives in New York, somehow cajoled a ticket.
On Twitter, he said he received it through a friend whose entire unit was slated to go to the game. That "friend" was going to bring his girlfriend, but instead took Hample.
Days before the game, Hample was using social media, offering $1,000 for tickets to the game.
In response to the outrage over his first caught ball, Hample "decided to donate $100 per baseball that I snag today to AMVETS.org. I"m also giving all my b***s away today except one."
That did little to assuage the social media masses.
2016 The Fayetteville Observer (Fayetteville, N.C.)
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Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/ct-zack-hample-fort-bragg-game-20160704-story.html
