When Vig Namisivayam ’16 stepped into Yankee Stadium on Wed. Oct. 10, his expectations were already “higher than usual.” It turned out, rather fittingly, that his expectations were not only met, but exceeded.
“Once Raul Ibañez struck down on the ball, the crowd erupted, as it looked like a home run right off the bat,” Namisivayam said. “After it went over the fence, I was excited, obviously, since the Yankees had tied the game, but I never expected the ball to come to us.”
Among a sold-out Yankee Stadium crowd, Ibañez’s decisive solo shot ended up landing seven rows in front of Namisivayam and his family. The ball proceeded to fatefully carom into their section—behind the right field fence in section 103, row 19—and his mother, Kara Namisivayam, picked the ball up off the ground.
“My mom simply reached out, grabbed the ball from under the seat, and gave it to me, or it could have been my sister. That detail is still unclear,” Vig Namisivayam said.
Regardless of the initial possession, Vig Namisivayam said he received attention around school the next day for his newest acquisition.
“I had a lot of people come up and congratulate me, and it felt pretty good,” he said. “But, to me, it just feels cool to own a piece history.”
