Message #870233

[imref]

Kilgore:

When the game ended, reliever Todd Coffey handed Lombardozzi a ball and told him it was the one from his first hit. Someone had scribbled on it, “0 for 15, now 1 for 16.”

“I was like, ‘I hope this is a fake ball,’ ” Lombardozzi said.

It was. The real one rested next to his locker after the game. He had not yet decided what he would do with it. He walked out of the clubhouse and down the corridor, where his father was trying to remember the first thing that came out of his mouth when he watched his son’s first big league hit.

“It wasn’t words,” he said.