ARLINGTON, Texas — On the video that he recorded and later tweeted, it’s clear that Ashin “Shane” Rangani had an extraordinary view of Aaron Judge’s historic 62nd home run.
As in, the baseball exploded off of Judge’s bat and soared directly at Rangani.
A baseball that is worth at least $2 million.
“Here it comes! Here it comes! Here it comes! I’m here! I’m here! I’m here!” Rangani shouted, dropping his phone and raising his hands to make the catch of a lifetime, against his chest, he figured.
By now you probably know that it was Cory Youmans, not Rangani, who made that catch. Youmans disappeared from public view after being whisked away by security, and he did not publicly resurface on Wednesday as the Rangers and Yankees returned to Globe Life Field for both teams’ regular-season finale.
Also returning to Globe Life on Wednesday was Rangani, in fact to the exact seat, 6, same section, 31, in which he experienced what many fans would consider to be a heartbreaking moment the previous night.
Also returning to the seats next to Rangani were the Van Wyhe family of Grand Rapids, Mich., whose what-if tale from Tuesday night is perhaps even more unfortunate than Rangani’s, though his was more well-known after he did interviews with The Dallas Morning News, The New York Post and Inside Edition.
“Within my group of friends, I’m famous for being a loser,” Rangani said with a chuckle. “So that’s pretty much what I’m trying to live down right now. That’s what I’m battling.”
During a visit to Section 31, Row 1 on Wednesday, The News learned more detail about how it came to be that Youmans became pseudo-famous and potentially rich and others in the immediate vicinity did not.
It turns out that Youmans wasn’t meant to be in front of Seat 3, Row 1, Section 31 when with his right-hand glove he speared Judge’s first-inning home run.
Numerous witnesses said Youmans’ seat was in Row 2 and roughly eight seats over, but he was able to scurry over with his skill, size, quick-thinking and apparently some help from fate – and bad luck on the Van Wyhe family’s part.
The most striking part, though? Neither Rangani, nor the Van Wyhes, seemed upset Wednesday as they returned to the scene and enjoyed the afternoon game, won by the Rangers, 4-2. Here’s how Rangani recounted the experience of seeing a $2 million ball headed toward him:
“I throw my phone down. And I go to catch it. I’m telling you, it was coming right at me. And I was sure. I knew nobody else was going to catch it. I had the best angle.
“And this guy bodies me and takes it and I thought for split-second, ‘That’s mine. I’m gonna get that back.’ And then I thought really quick after that, ‘I can’t take that back. It’s fair. I would have done the same thing.’”
Steve Van Wyhes, his wife Michelle Flier and their kids Eden and Elijah watched helplessly as Judge’s American League-record 62nd home run sailed toward the seats they purchased back in June.
Steve and Michelle say the family arrived at the top of Section 31 in plenty of time for the 7:05 p.m. first pitch. A ballpark usher, however, told them they needed to go down the aisle on the other side of the section. When the family reached the other side, they realized that, in fact, the usher was wrong.
They tried to navigate down the wrong aisle toward their seats, but by then Judge had stepped into the batter’s box, virtually every fan in the stadium was on their feet and the Van Wyhes couldn’t get to their seats.
“We were here,” Steve Van Wyhes said. “We got to witness history. It was great. I wasn’t mad or anything. I was just excited to be here and see it; been a Judge fan for years.”
Michelle and Eden, 19, were initially upset, though. Both say they cried. Like his mother and sister, Elijah, 17, realized the significance and the missed opportunity to catch, literally, baseball history. Steve brought his glove and says he has no doubt he would have caught the ball.
But...
“I wouldn’t have sold the baseball,” he said. “People are like, ‘That’s a two and a half million-dollar baseball. You’re out two-and-a-half-million.’ I’m like, ‘No, I would have kept it.’
“I just wanted the ball. I know it sounds crazy, but it’s the truth. We planned this. We bought the tickets in June and we were here all four games. And we got to witness history.”
Steve owns the Michigan-based telecommunications company, PrestoTech, for which Rangani works in Dallas. PrestoTech is affiliated with AT&T.
Steve Van Wyhes says he became a fan of Judge’s when the Yankees drafted him in 2013. During a 2017 Yankees game in Detroit, Judge tossed a ball to Eden, who was unable to catch it with her arthritic hands. When the ball fell to the turf, Judge retrieved it and gave it to Eden.
Back to Youmans. Muscular and athletic though Youmans showed himself to be, Rangani and other witnesses say there is no way Youmans would have reached the home run had the Van Wyhes’ seats – Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4 – not been vacant.
Quickly recovering from his surprise and disappointment at getting bodied out of the way by Youmans, Rangani hugged and cheered Youmans, then shot a quick video that he later tweeted.
“This dude caught this s--- right here,” a grinning Rangani said, pointing to a visibly shell-shocked Youmans. “Can you show the ball?”
Youmans’ briefly lifted his still tightly closed glove, with just enough space to reveal part of the white sphere. Then someone yelled, “Security is coming!”
“People were looking at him,” Rangani said of Youmans. “He didn’t say a word. He was shaking. He was pale. He’s holding onto that ball so tightly and I just kept telling him, ‘Don’t give that ball up.’”
Initially, according to several witnesses, security officers believed that the fan who jumped over the front row railing did so to retrieve the ball, and that he had disappeared under the stands with the ball.
Security continued to ask fans if they knew where the ball was. Several fans finally pointed at Youmans, who, according to Rangani, initially denied that he had the ball.
“Then he (Youmans) asked me if I was the last to touch it,” Rangani said. “And I lied. I was like, ‘Yeah, I touched it,’ knowing he had the ball. He had the ball, they were gonna find it. They kept asking him and finally they realized he’s got the ball.”
Rangani said that Youmans told security that he wanted to stay and watch the game. Security told him that he was required to be ushered away, for his safety.
As Youmans was escorted from the bleachers, Rangani and other fans cheered. Not because security was leading him away, but because everyone knew that Youmans had, clutched in his mitt, a piece of history that each of them had hoped to grab.
Many probably had dollar signs in their eyes and on their minds. Not Steve Van Wyhes.
“I’m just glad we were here and got to see history,” he said.
As Rangani and the Van Wyhes family recounted Tuesday night and sorted through their emotions during Wednesday’s fourth inning, Yankees DH Jose Trevino cracked a long fly ball toward the left field bleachers. Fans in Section 31 rose and shouted as the ball landed maybe 15 feet from the site of Judge’s much more famous home run.
Rangani laughed, incredulously.
“Why?” he shouted. “Why can’t we just catch a ball in this section?”
