CHICAGO — When the Chicago Cubs pitcher Travis Wood unexpectedly hit a home run Saturday night in Game 2 of his team’s National League division series against San Francisco, the baseball found a happy nesting spot in the left-field bleachers at Wrigley Field. The Cubs fan who snared it even returned it to Wood after the game rather than keep it as a memento.
But at Wrigley, not all home runs are received equally.
A longstanding protocol there dictates that when a visiting player hits one out, any upstanding Cubs fan who catches the ball is obliged to launch it back onto the field.