PHOENIX — An Arizona Diamondbacks fan caught two home run balls from the same player, in the same inning, on back-to-back days at Chase Field — a feat with odds of one in tens of millions.
Allan Johnson of west Phoenix, a retiree who goes by AJ, made both catches with the same baseball glove his late parents bought him when he was 19 years old.
The story starts on Mother's Day, when AJ took his wife, Mary Jane, to a Diamondbacks game hoping to catch her a home run. It didn't happen. On the way home, the couple stopped by his mother's grave.
"I told mom and said, 'Mom, I tried to catch Mary Jane a home run, it didn't happen. Ya know, maybe next time,'" Johnson said.
About a week later, AJ and Mary Jane headed back to Chase Field — though not exactly as planned. When they arrived, AJ realized he had accidentally bought tickets for the following night's game.
Already there, the couple bought a second set of tickets on the spot.
Sitting near the left field bullpen, in the second inning, San Francisco Giants shortstop Willy Adames hit a home run to left field.
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"It's coming at me, it's coming at me, it's curving so I jump up on top of the bleacher, and I catch it in mid air," Johnson said.
With their original tickets still in hand, AJ and Mary Jane returned to Chase Field the next night. Before the game, a Giants staff member helped get Adames to sign the home run ball from the night before.
Then, in the second inning, Adames stepped to the plate again — and hit another home run to left field. The ball landed in AJ's glove.
The second catch carried even more meaning for Johnson. It came on his late mother's birthday — the same woman who took him to little league games as a child and bought him the glove he still uses today.
"I think my mom is with my dad, They're both deceased, saying everything is going to be alright, it's going to be all good," Johnson said.
The odds of catching a foul ball at a major league game are roughly 1 in 1,100. The odds of catching an MLB home run are 1 in 40,000 to 50,000. The odds of catching two home runs from the same player, in the same inning, on consecutive days: one in tens of millions.
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