Crookston High School Construction trades teacher and Crookston resident, Travis Oliver, is a big Minnesota Twins fan and has watched the Minnesota Twins play on the road over the years and he made a trip to Chicago last week to watch the Minnesota Twins play the White Sox and Cubs and little did he know the trip would make him famous. Travis has visited 22 parks over the years and has seen the Twins play in eight different stadiums. He was at the Twins game on Saturday at Wrigley Field and before he was settled into his seat he had a foul ball off the bat of Brian Dozier coming at him. “You’re just settling down in the top of the first inning and you’re not really fully engaged. I was just taking a sip of beer and I was looking and it was a right-handed batter and there is a possibility of a foul ball coming this way,” said Oliver. “Low and behold….crack….the ball was coming at us. The guy behind me was paying attention and had a hot dog and ended up spilling that on himself and I just reached up and snagged it out of the air and after that I got a lot of high fives from a lot of different people, especially sitting in that area. It was pretty cool.”
Oliver quickly realized he was on TV (Fox Sports North) and he started getting text messages from a lot of people. “I don’t check my phone very often, but I had to that day because it was going crazy,” said Oliver. “I was trying to watch the game and I didn’t want another one coming my way and be typing on my phone and get whacked in the head.”
Oliver isn’t a stranger to getting the elusive foul ball at a pro baseball game. “I got one in Milwaukee and I didn’t catch one but got one in Cleveland, a Joe Mauer foul ball,” said Oliver. “I am always looking out for them.”
His one hand grab was shared as a highlight by ESPN. You can see the video highlight by click here.
