Like - The Collective Dislike of Zack Hample

Guest Post by Ben Posedel

By all accounts, what Zack Hample is doing is insanely impressive. To date, he's caught over 12,000 baseballs that have left the field of play. The sheer amount of games attended to amass this many balls is something to envy. And yet, Hample finds himself pretty universally disliked. A big part of that is his aggressive tactics. A self-proclaimed "ball hawk," he's even gone as far as to swipe a ball a kid dropped and refused to give it back. But the collective dislike feels like something even bigger. Hample has managed to single-handedly remove the magic of catching a homerun and commodified it in a way that's akin to the great capitalists of our day. Much like Jeff and Elon, he's amassed a fortune, not caring about the wreckage in his wake. As a proud member of the baseball community (huge fan of the game), it makes me proud to be a hater and provides a glimmer of hope as a metaphor for life: If we can rally around hating Zack Hample, maybe, just maybe we can find it in our hearts to be haters where it truly matters.

(p.s. if you’re interested in writing a guest post, please get in touch! I’d love to hear from you.)