Golden lovers, who are both male and female fans, wait on the sidelines to capture any foul balls that fly their way.
These people not only speed up the game by catching the foul balls out of reach of the players, but also add to the overall fan experience.
A real estate agent for Realty Executives with more than 25 years experience, Galloway said he always had a love for baseball. He was a Little League coach in Arcadia for 11 years.
Several years ago he read about the Golden Glovers and decided to go for it.
“The actual concept of being on a major league field with a glove in my hand was really exciting,” Galloway said. He called and was put on a waiting list.
“It took about five years before they called me back,” he said.
Once called, he had to try out. “You just have to show them you can field the ground balls and run them down, if necessary. I thought I did okay, but it was a long, hard wait for the call that said I made it.”
Galloway said there is more than catching foul balls involved.
“You have to watch the umpire on any ball that might be fair,” he said. “You never want to touch a fair ball – it can get pretty bad if you do that.”
And, “You need to be 100 percent focused on every pitch, because you don’t want to catch one with your nose. It’s all mental. At the end of a game you can be so drained,” Galloway said.
Highlights include the time he caught his first grounder “and the crowd started cheering. That totally surprised me. I also remember one time a man waved me over and said his daughter wanted my autograph. There was a little girl of about five or siz standing next to him with a pen and pad of paper in her hand looking up with such adoring eyes.
“I remember telling the father that that was my very first autograph,” Galloway said.
“I’ll always be grateful to the Diamondbacks for this wonderful opportunity.”
E-mail Tracy at: tracywerth@cox.net
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