When Keeping a Foul Ball Meant Risking Arrest
A 1922 legal precedent allows fans to keep foul balls.
In 1998, the Philadelphia Phillies named 87-year old Robert Cotter “Fan of the Century” and presented him with an autographed baseball of the entire team. It wasn’t that Cotter stood out as the club’s most passionate fan, but the Phillies were making amends for an incident that took place more than 75 years earlier when Cotter was just 11 years old. In …