The Story of Griffey's Warehouse Ball, and the Orioles Fan Who Snagged It

[Billy F-Face3]

https://www.mlb.com/news/ken-griffey-jr-home-run-derby-warehouse-homer

 

 

July 12, 1993, was a hot night in Baltimore and Camden Yards, packed to the gills with fans looking to catch a Home Run Derby ball, felt even hotter.

The Rangers' Juan Gonzalez and the Mariners' Ken Griffey Jr. had blasted their way to seven home runs a piece -- beating out heavyweights like Albert Belle, Cecil Fielder and Barry Bonds. Now, the two would face off in a playoff, the first playoff in Derby history, to see who was the best power hitter in the game.

But before they went head-to-head, there was a short break in the action.

17-year-old Mark Pallack and his friend, Jim Gates, saw the pause in play as an opportunity to get out of the heat of the right-field bleachers and take a walk down Eutaw Street -- the little road that goes in between the back of the bleachers and the stadium's warehouses. Maybe they could get some separation from the suffocating crowds; take in some of those cool breezes drifting off the harbor.

"I said to my buddy, I was like, 'Let's go get some air for a few minutes,'" Pallack told me in a phone call.

But that "short break," proved to be much shorter than expected.

All of a sudden, a loud gasp went up from the fans around them and a ball sailed through the sky -- rocketing off the brick warehouse. Pallack quickly sprang into action.

"I just lunged, just jumped on it," he remembered. "My back was on the asphalt, on the concrete, and I was just cradling it in my chest. It was crazy. There was at least 30 or 40 people who jumped on me."

Pallack didn't know it in the moment, but he had just snatched up a souvenir from a home run that would be replayed for the next three decades. One of the coolest highlights involving one of the coolest athletes of all time.

Ken Griffey Jr.'s 465-foot dinger off Camden Yards' B&O warehouse.

 

 

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Eventually, security cleared out the dogpile. Pallack had some scrapes and bruises but nothing worse for the wear.

"We were just laughing," Pallack said. "I had the ball in one hand and was high-fiving [Bill] with the other hand. I was disheveled, but in a state of euphoria."

Through crowd murmurs and stadium PA announcements, Pallack soon learned that this was (and still is) the only home run ball to ever reach the warehouse on the fly. Realizing the significance of the hit, an Orioles PR person approached Pallack and offered to bring him to meet Griffey after the contest. (Griffey ended up losing to Gonzalez in the tiebreaker, but the warehouse homer was the only thing anybody was talking about).

 

So, once Gonzalez was crowned the champ and the on-field festivities were over, Pallack and Gates were ushered down from outskirts of Camden Yards to teenage-baseball-fan-heaven. A place where baseball's biggest stars and celebrities -- in town for the Midsummer Classic -- congregated together.

The All-Star clubhouse.

"As you can imagine, a 17-year-old kid. Baseball is my thing," Pallack said. "All of a sudden Bill Clinton is walking by me, Michael Jordan, Kirby Puckett walking out of the shower -- I'm just like, 'Where am I right now?'"

 

Ken Griffey Jr Exchanging Autographs With Michael Jordan

MJ and Griffey exchanging autographs

Posted by MLB on FOX on Sunday, May 10, 2020

But instead of focusing on the players, the media had descended on Pallack -- the kid who somehow snagged the now famous warehouse home-run ball. Along with signing a bat for Michael Jordan that weekend, Griffey came over to sign the ball for Pallack.

"He took a couple minutes to come over and sign and stuff," Pallack told me. "He said, 'That's a pretty cool catch.'"

Pallack and Gates, of course, wanted to tell all their friends about their incredible night. Fortunately, a friend was having a house party on the outskirts of the city, back near where Pallack lived. The two looked at each other, smiled and knew this would be the perfect place to make their big announcement.

Pallack showed up to the front door with the ball in a little plastic sandwich bag, displaying it for anybody who wanted to see. A rubber band held the top closed. All the partygoers, of course, had watched the Derby and seen the Griffey homer. They were shocked to find out that their friend Mark was the guy who picked it up. In fact, that's exactly what he kept saying to people while holding up the ball and telling the story: "I'm the guy!"

"I was obviously the most popular kid at the party," Pallack laughed. "We were all just jumping up and down."

The next day, Pallack couldn't wait to show the ball to a good friend, Tiffany, down the street from his house. She couldn't believe he had gotten the ball, either. Years later, the two would get married -- although Pallack doesn't seem to think his getting the ball that night and showing it to her played a major factor in her saying yes.

 

 

Pallack's Derby story ended up getting reported in multiple media outlets, including the Baltimore Sun and Washington Post. He got numerous money offers for the ball, but wanted to keep the prized possession somewhere in Baltimore it could be prominently showcased. He ended up donating it to the Babe Ruth Museum -- a place he's since served on the Board of Directors and stayed very involved with over the decades.

"Yeah, I've gone full circle with it," he said.

And, even 30 years later, he has constant, wonderful reminders of the memory. The clip is passed around all the time on the internet as one of Griffey's career-defining moments and, soon after the homer, the Orioles put up a plaque on the brick it ricocheted off of into Pallack's hands.

Its marker is there forever for friends to take selfies with, for future sluggers to take aim at and, most importantly, for Pallack to reminisce with when he's with his loved ones back at Baltimore's ballpark. Warm flashbacks of that wild evening back in 1993.

"I showed my daughter," Pallack said. "You know, it's a neat experience because I love, even being 47, going to a baseball game is still one of the great experiences of my life. It's serendipity that I caught it. We'll go by there and snap some pictures and just laugh about it. ... It's a great memory."

 

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[Frobby]

Thanks for bringing my this story to our attention.  Not to be a scold, but board rules say we’re not supposed to copy and paste entire long articles.   

[Moose Milligan]

@Can_of_corn I need a ruling. This is about something that happened at Camden Yards but Griffey wasn’t an Oriole. Does this belong here or in the MLB section? 
 

 

[Can_of_corn]

Neither.  Orioles History.

[Billy F-Face3]

1 hour ago, Can_of_corn said:

Neither.  Orioles History.

 

3 hours ago, Frobby said:

Thanks for bringing my this story to our attention.  Not to be a scold, but board rules say we’re not supposed to copy and paste entire long articles.   

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind for the future.