After 46 long years starting with my first game in 1962 (Giants vs the Colt 45's) I finally caught a foul ball 2 weeks ago. (Rockies vs Giants) April 28th off of Ray Durham.

I was like a kid again. I have had about eight attempts catching a foul ball over the years. I have averaged about twenty ball games a year so after going to over 700 games I was due. Those eight attempts including the usual; the ball hitting the seat in front of me, or as a smaller kid, jumping the fence in left field at Candlestick and running for a home run ball only to be pushed aside by some big kid.

In a game in the late sixties I came really close. I was taken to the game by a family friend Bernie Diamond and was sitting on the 1st Base side in the box seats at Candlestick. The ball came right to me. I jumped knocked the beer of the guy next to me all over him and the popcorn in the hands of the guy next to me on the other side all over him touched the ball and dropped it.

2002 Game 6 of the playoffs against the St. Louis Cardinals I got a taste of what Bill Buckner must have felt like. On national television with the camera following the ball, the ball hit my hands dead on and I dropped it. It was so much in my hands that instead of booing me the fans around me went silent. I had one of my little league players next to me and I quickly asked him, Matt how come you didn't help me with that one. He responded, " Mr. Hansson it was so yours."  The phone calls I received the next day asking if that was me that had dropped the ball didn't help either.

In 1996 at an opening day game, I was standing with my son and his friend and father. Both his father and I (the same age) were figuring that we had then seen over a 1000 games between us. My friend started to pray to God please just give me one ball and then Barry Bonds hit a foul ball that landed right in his hands. True story and proof there is a God.

To some people catching foul balls are just plain lucky. In one game at Candlestick one guy caught two foul balls in the same game, a couple of innings apart.

Like a bucket list, catching a foul ball was definitely on my list. It was not a pretty catch. I moved over five empty seats and watched it fly to me. I kept thinking the last time I saw a ball heading my way without a glove and decided this time I would not try to catch it with my hands alone. So I guided the ball to my stomach so that it would hit me and then I could grab it.  It almost worked. The ball hit my stomach  and rolled to the seat in front  of me but this time not to be denied. I jumped over the seat falling just in time  to grab the ball.

It did not hit me at first what catching that ball really meant. In fact it was almost a letdown. It was not until the next day that I was riding an unbelievable high. I was telling everyone about it. Everyone was excited for me, others told their stories about catching their first ball or not. Some didn't get it. My sister told me "Hans its only a ball." 

This was not about a ball - it was about a lifetime goal. As a salesperson we zero in our goals all the time. We aim to secure a new client that may be a long shot to get and if we are successful in getting that client it feels like the biggest day in your life.

Salespeople exist for days like this. Its about the rush. Its about the climb up the mountain that can't be achieved and doing it. That is why sometimes when you actually achieve your goal you could feel that temporary letdown I felt after finally catching this ball. You made it but the rush to get to that goal is what gets your adrenaline going. There s not a better feeling!