August 17th, 2020 at 8:00 am 
by Ron Cervenka In addition to being the very best of the very best at their trade, Major League Baseball players are also the biggest fans of the game. One need look no further than Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner to confirm this.
Over the past two weeks, the extremely popular Dodger fan-favorite twice asked for the ball on a milestone play; the first being when he was hit by a pitch on August 4 to set a new Dodgers record for times being hit by a pitch at 74 – this one by San Diego Padres right-hander Dinelson Lamet, and the second on August 11 when he collected his 1,000th career hit – a laser shot double high off the left-field wall off of Padres right-hander Garrett Richards.
On Sunday afternoon at Angels Stadium, there was another Dodgers player who asked for the ball … sort of.
In the top of the third inning with the Dodgers trailing their interleague rivals 1-0, 22-year-old switch-hitting Dodgers catcher Keibert Ruiz, batting left-handed and making his major league debut, hit a 1-1 four-seam fastball off of Angels veteran right-hander Julio Teheran over the wall in right field for his first major league home run in his first major league at-bat, becoming the first catcher and seventh player in franchise history to do so.
(Photo credit – Marcio Jose Sanchez
Even before Ruiz reached home plate, Dodgers left-hander Julio Urias and two Dodgers staff members rushed to where the ball landed and began searching for it in the COVID-19 empty stadium. Although it took a while, Ruiz’s prized ball was eventually found and immediately authenticated and later presented to the proud young Valencia, Venezuela native.
(Video capture courtesy of SportsNet LA)
(Video capture courtesy of SportsNet LA)
What does Ruiz plan to do with his prized ball, you ask?
Great question!
“It’s going to my house, to my mom, my dad, to our family,” Ruiz answered when asked this very question. “They important for this moment.”
Even at only 22 years old, this kid clearly gets it.
Play Ball!
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Posted in 
I had one question in mind while watching that game. Can they really be sure it was Ruiz’s ball they found, not a ball that had been hit there previously that nobody bothered to look for?
If the answer is no I’m probably asking a question that nobody wants asked. I reckon I’m just like that.
I guess it is certainly possible, but I have to believe that if there was more than one ball out there under the tarp, that collective group of Dodger players looking for the Ruiz ball would have found every ball out there.
Just my 2¢.