Another man almost dies trying to catch a baseball at the homerun derby

We didn’t realize that random baseballs were so valuable…

The ball arching against Chase Field’s bright lights, Keith Carmickle climbed up on a narrow table, leaned forward and lost his balance, momentum carrying him toward a 20-foot fall to a pool deck below.

Had it not been for the quick reactions of his brother, a friend and a handful of fans Monday night at Major League Baseball’s All-Star Home Run Derby, Carmickle might have suffered the same fate as Shannon Stone, the Texas Rangers’ fan who died Thursday night trying to catch a ball thrown into the stands.

“I thought: I’ve lived a good life,” Carmickle said.

Seated in a small section of seats above the right-field fence, Carmickle, from Kingman, and his group had already grabbed home run balls by Robinson Cano and Adrian Gonzalez, and were looking to add another to their collection when Milwaukee’s Prince Fielder came up in the second round of the derby.

Trying to snare a towering shot by Fielder, Carmickle stepped up onto a metal table about 18 inches wide and reached down for the catch. He missed the ball, which hit the wall several feet below him, and the momentum carried him forward, headfirst over a short railing.

Carmickle was headed for a hard landing when his friend, Aaron Nelson, grabbed his legs and his brother, Kraig, grabbed him around the arms. The crowd above and below gasping, Carmickle dangled briefly over a deck where a couple of cameras were positioned behind Chase Field’s pool before his brother, Nelson and a few fans pulled him back to his seat.

What is the big fascination with catching a foul ball or homerun at a game?? That 3,000th hit that Jeter did the other day might have been worth it. That’s a potential $250,000-$300,000 baseball, but why damn near die for a worthless piece of memorabilia? Whatever…

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