Blue Jays fan Frankie Lasagna describes nearly catching Aaron Judge’s 61st home run: ‘The disbelief comes over you’

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Aaron Judge tied Roger Maris’ American League single-season home run record Wednesday night. He hit his 61st of the year in a Yankees victory over the Blue Jays, much to the delight of the Rogers Centre crowd in Toronto.

Well, to the delight of most of the crowd. At least one fan was disappointed.

But the fan, Frankie Lasagna, wasn’t upset that the homer had been hit. Rather, he was upset that he hadn’t caught it.

MORE: How Aaron Judge tied Roger Maris’ home run record vs. Blue Jays

Lasagna, a 37-year-old owner of an Italian restaurant in Toronto, appeared to have had a chance to snag the ball after it cleared the left-field wall. But it glanced off his outstretched glove and fell into the Blue Jays’ bullpen, where bullpen coach Matt Buschmann picked it up.

“I would never, ever bring a glove other than this situation,” Lasagna told The Canadian Press. “I needed a bigger one.”

Lasagna said that he simply couldn’t believe he had been so close to making the catch.

“The disbelief comes over you and just the shock and the amazement,” he said. “I was like, ‘Oh, my God, I almost had it.'”

Lasagna was captured on camera seeming inconsolable in the wake of the drop. He threw his glove and his hat and appeared to be lamenting the muff with fans around him.

“It’s like you’re in the game, you’re fielding and getting ready for the pitch,” Lasagna said of the anticipation building up to that moment. “When he hit the ball, it was like, ‘Oh, my God! Oh, my God!’ I think I hit my buddy in his neck (as I stretched out). I almost got it.”

However, he did not make the catch, and it’s easy to understand why he would have been upset. The New York Times estimated that the ball could have fetched $250,000 or more at auction.

That’s one costly drop, especially since Lasagna had planned to keep the ball if he caught it.

MORE: Tracking Aaron Judge’s home run pace for 2022

Lasagna wasn’t the only one grieving a lost fortune during the game. Fox Sports NFL reporter Sara Walsh was doing so from afar.

Walsh was in Florida waiting out Hurricane Ian but got word that Buschmann, her husband, had picked up the ball. She took to Twitter to announce her plans to leave TV.

Less than half an hour later, she got word that Buschmann had given up the ball. At that point, she announced her plans to leave Buschmann.

Of course, Walsh’s posts were made in jest. After the game, she tweeted Buschmann’s motivation for giving the Yankees the ball:

Lasagna’s pain seemed real and raw, however.

Hopefully, that will fade as he realizes that he has a great story about being the person who almost caught Judge’s history-making homer.

And there’s no doubt that his restaurant, Terrazza, will get plenty of attention given his story and — more importantly — his name.

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