TAMPA, Fla. – As the World Series begins Friday evening, everyone in the crowd can look to inspiration from a Gibsonton woman.
Back in May, she went viral after catching a Tampa Bay Rays homer in an unusual fashion, and now, a merchandise company has made her the inaugural member of a special club.
The backstory:
Shea Vanscoter, a Tampa Bay Rays fan, knows her way around the baseball diamond. She was a college softball player and grew up playing middle infield, and therefore, is used to catching everything in her glove.
That is, until a perfect spring evening at Steinbrenner Field for Vanscoter and her boyfriend, David Corredor.
“We had just come from the beach earlier that day, so we were just hanging out just enjoying our all day off,” Vanscoter said.
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They were sitting behind the outfield fence and started to wonder.
“We’re like. ‘We don’t have gloves, what are we gonna do?’ And I was like, ‘oh, it’s okay, I’ll just use the bucket hat to catch it,'” Vanscoter said.
What they’re saying:
That’s when Danny Jansen came to the plate, and whacked a high shot into deep left. Apparently, it is possible to speak things into existence.
“[He] hits it, and I’m like, ‘oh, that’s coming to me,'” she said.
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For the first time in her life, she didn’t need a glove – just her bucket hat.
And the images of her catching the ball and celebrating afterward rocketed around the internet. She realized she was soon known around the ballpark.
“We were in line to get into the stadium doing our tickets and the girl’s like, ‘we’ve been looking for you,'” Vanscoter said. “And I was like, ‘me? For what?’ I was confused. And she was like ‘you’re the girl with the bucket hat.'”
Big picture view:
Fanatics, the sports marketing giant who seldom misses a chance to plug their caps and clothes, wanted a piece of the action.
“‘Hi Shea, we have a fun project we’re working on with the MLB, and we’d love for you to be a part of it,'” Vanscoter said of the conversation with Fanatics.
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Instead of a golden glove, they sent her a golden cap and asked her to record her unboxing it.
What you can do:
While she is the first member of the Golden Cap Club, Fanatics is offering a chance for anyone to become a member. All you have to do to be a member is catch a home run in your cap in a postseason game and tag Fanatics. You’ll get a Golden Cap and a gift certificate for the amount of feet the homer traveled in dollars.
“It’s a golden cap. I was a golden glover this year. Like I got that award in college. So, it was like ironic,” Vanscoter said.
So what’s the lesson? Be ready… and always have your hat.
“Cool things happen to people all the time,” Vanscoter said. “Like, I just got to experience my cool thing. This is like the one in a million, once in a lifetime thing.”
The Source: The information in this story includes an interview with Shea Vanscoter, a Tampa Bay Rays fan who caught a homer and became the inaugural member for the Golden Cap Club.