NewsBite

Toronto Blue Jays fan stares down foul ball

This elderly female baseball fan has drawn comparisons to NBA legend Kobe Bryant after one of the biggest boss moves of the season.

Andrew McMurtry
2 min read
April 2, 2019 - 5:46AM
Unflinching grandma has no fear.
Unflinching grandma has no fear.

A Major League Baseball fan has become a viral sensation as she stared down a foul ball that went straight at her.

The normal reaction to danger, even with a net in the way, is to take flight.

Even for those predisposed to fight would generally look to take evasive action.

Not this lady.

In the fourth inning of Saturday’s 3-0 win over the Detroit Tigers, Toronto Blue Jays third baseman Brandon Drury clipped a foul a ball straight back at the net.

But with the steely determination of a ballpark veteran, the long-time fan hardly moved as the ball flew at her face — she almost looks bored.

The move will join the annuls of great non-flinches along with Kobe Bryant.

The infamous 2010 clip-turned-GIF featuring Kobe Bryant standing unfazed as Matt Barnes pump-faked a basketball at his face has long been the gold standard, even though footage released last year debunked that myth.

An overhead view of the clip showed Bryant wasn’t standing directly in front of Barnes as he faked the inbound pass.

Bryant explained in 2015 that he never expected Barnes would throw the ball at his face during the game.

“He’s crazy, but he’s not that crazy, so I didn’t flinch,” he said at the time. “It was just a split-second reaction. I processed it pretty quickly and realised what was going on.”

But there’s no debunking this lady’s mettle.

And the Blue Jays were impressed by their fan while social media shared it around with the video from the MLB already getting 1.01 million views.

As the tweets above show, the woman known as “Grandma Blue Jay”, “Baseball Grandma” or “Home Plate Lady” — with the parody Twitter accounts to boot — is a staple of Blue Jays fandom, a long time fan and season ticket holder.

The 2019 MLB season will be live and on demand on Kayo Sports for just $25 per month for two devices at once on Apple, Android and Telstra TV, for Apple and Google Android smartphones, on web browsers and via Google Chromecast Ultra devices. Click here for your free trial.

She has been an almost constant presence at Blue Jays home games with theories about her including that she’s the wife of Ted Rogers, the former president and CEO of Rogers Communications, or perhaps Loretta or Kellie Watson, who won a competition to name the stadium in 1987.

But back in 2016, CBC News spoke to the woman, who wished to remain anonymous.

She is just a season ticket holder and doesn’t have any special connection to the Blue Jays.

But fans still don’t buy she’s nothing special after the viral hit.

More related stories

Original URL: https://www.news.com.au/sport/american-sports/mlb/toronto-blue-jays-fan-stares-down-foul-ball/news-story/e7251d51dd832fd5e042fe6665fd95fe