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Blue Jays fan comes oh-so close to catching Aaron Judge's historic, valuable 61st home run ball

By Jason Owens, Yahoo Sports

New York Yankees v Toronto Blue Jays TORONTO, ON - SEPTEMBER 28: Aaron Judge #99 of the New York Yankees runs the bases as he hits his 61st home run of the season in the seventh inning against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre on September 28, 2022 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Judge has now tied Roger Maris for the American League record. (Photo by Cole Burston/Getty Images)

By Jason Owens, Yahoo Sports

This is hard to watch.

While Aaron Judge secured his place in baseball history, a fan in left field came painfully close to securing a huge payday. Instead he watched a historic home run ball bounce into the bullpen.

Judge launched a 94 mph sinker off of Toronto Blue Jays reliever Tim Mayza in the seventh inning on Wednesday to secure a 5-3 lead for the New York Yankees. More importantly, the two-run blast was his 61st of the season to tie Roger Maris for the most single-season home runs in AL history.

The home run ball holds value both in baseball history and on the auction block — if it were to get there. But this one looks like it's going back to Judge after a Blue Jays sitting in left field fan just missed snagging it.

Check out the fan in the video below wearing the dark blue jersey. He reached over the railing just short of the ball as it bounced off the wall and into the bullpen.

A closer angle in slow motion shows just how close he was.

And then there's the dude in the lighter blue jersey. An angle from home plate shows him reaching across three other fans in an effort to snag the ball. And all he did was get in the way of the guy who might have had a chance to catch it.

Our would-be hero in dark blue — who turns out to be a Bo Bichette fan — immediately removed his glove and chucked it into his neighbor's head in disgust. Our light-blue clad villain could only manage a surrender cobra that's destined for Twitter meme-dom.

Shy are they so upset? The ball's not just a nice souvenir. It's worth a small fortune on the memorabilia market. Experts have estimated the ball to be worth $150,000 — on the low end. Others have estimated that it would fetch between $250,000 and $400,000 on the auction block. We might never know.

It turns out that Blue Jays bullpen coach Matt Buschmann reportedly snagged the ball. Much to the delight of his wife and Fox Sports reporter Sara Walsh, who was watching the events play out from home in Florida in the middle of Hurricane Ian.

Alas, Buschmann and Walsh don't appear on the path to cashing in. It looks like Buschmann instead handed the ball over to security, who will presumably give it to Judge.

Best wishes working this one out at home, Matt.

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