Baseball Fan Is Sport's Top Catcher

Freelance Writer Is Undisputed King Of Shagging Baseballs At Major League Parks

(CBS)  Who doesn't root for those wide-eyed kids, wishing so hard to get a major league baseball?

Zack Hample, that's who.

Hample is a 29-year-old freelance writer — and the undisputed king of shagging baseballs, CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman reports. Hample has collected almost 3,000 baseballs from big league parks. He has foul balls, batting practice balls — even the occasional home run ball.

"I am a fan. I am a very passionate fan. Some would call me an obsessive fan," Hample says.

This fan has a method to his particular madness.

"It seems like maybe one out of every 10 games, if I'm the first one in and I'm the first one down to the seats, I'll find a ball just lying in the seats," he says.

Another Hample secret is his "two-hat" scam. Visiting players love to spot their "fans" on the road and reward them with baseballs, he explains.

"I'm a Cubs fan all the way, man!," Hample says, pulling a Cubs cap from his bag at Philadelphia's Citizens Bank Park. And, frighteningly, he also can ask for baseballs in 27 languages ... including sign language.

Hample, who is single and girlfriend-less (go figure), dashes all over the ballpark to where he's figured out the fouls are likely to land.

"There's 30,000 people in this stadium and for a moment, all eyes would be on me or anyone else who catches a ball," he says. "It's about beating the odds and beating the competition."

Hample also has a famous glove trick.

"I have the rubber band, prop the glove open with a pen," he explains With a spring-loaded glove-on-a-rope, he can get to baseballs no one else can. It amazes and amuses players, although security personnel don't always think it's so funny.

"If I catch you doing that again, you're outta here!" a guard tells him, taking the ball and tossing it back onto the field.

Even with the bust, Hartman says, Hample managed to get 13 balls in one night.