{"id":230141,"date":"2025-10-21T20:18:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T20:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/230141\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T20:18:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T20:18:07","slug":"fan-who-caught-george-springers-home-run-ball-says-hes-never-felt-so-alive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/230141\/","title":{"rendered":"Fan who caught George Springer\u2019s home run ball says he\u2019s never felt so alive"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Michael Angeletti caught George Springer’s home run ball in game 7 of the ALCS.Rianna Lim\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Michael Angeletti says he knew he would catch George Springer\u2019s home run ball before it actually happened.<\/p>\n

The Toronto native was sitting in the front row in left field at Rogers Centre wearing a Springer jersey during Game 7 of the American League Championship Series.<\/p>\n

The score was 3-1, with the Blue Jays<\/a> down in the seventh inning, when Springer stepped up to the plate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was actually texting my cousin \u2013 telling him I was front row, about to catch the home run ball \u2013 to leave me alone,\u201d Angeletti said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I dropped the phone, caught the ball, and here we are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mere seconds before the swing, Angeletti said he had just told the person sitting next to him that seventh innings are historically big for the Blue Jays.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the magic happened in the seventh inning with Bautista and the Rangers way back when,\u201d Angeletti recalled saying, referring to the 2015 American League Division Series game that saw Jos\u00e9 Bautista\u2019s iconic bat flip.<\/p>\n

Cathal Kelly: George Springer gave the Jays an all-time moment to lift them to the World Series<\/a><\/p>\n

Angeletti said he\u2019d hoped to experience some of that seventh-inning magic, and with one swing of Springer\u2019s bat, he and more than 44,000 other fans in Rogers Centre erupted into roaring cheers.<\/p>\n

The three-run home run led the Blue Jays to a 4-3 victory over the Mariners<\/a>, clinching Toronto\u2019s first World Series berth since 1993. The Blue Jays will now face the Los Angeles Dodgers in the fall classic, with Game 1 set for Friday night.<\/p>\n

Angeletti said he\u2019s travelled to 72 countries and five continents, but the feeling of being in the crowd during that moment was unmatched. As the owner of tour company Niagara Toronto Tours, he said he knows what it takes to make an experience memorable.<\/p>\n

\u201cStay unpredictable,\u201d he said, and you might just end up with a piece of baseball history.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was tired of being on the couch and scrolling and just passively watching,\u201d Angeletti said. \u201cI needed to feel something real, and that\u2019s why I spent this money tonight.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt the most real I\u2019ve ever felt in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s open to doing \u201cwhat\u2019s best for the ball\u201d if it means trading it back to the Blue Jays as a piece of historic memorabilia, he said, but for now he\u2019s content with savouring the moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel blessed to be a part of Canadian sports history,\u201d Angeletti said. \u201cI\u2019m a Toronto sports fanatic. I love all our teams, especially the Blue Jays.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Michael Angeletti caught George Springer’s home run ball in game 7 of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230142,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,82,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-230141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}