From Canberra to Major League: Health worker Tim Garrett nabs home run ball at Chicago White Sox game

A Canberra health worker turned a work trip into a bucket list tick in the US this week.

Tim Garrett lost his mind when he was on the spot to claim a home run hit in a US Major League baseball game, fulfilling a dream for many a Locker Room reader - and you can see it all unfold below.

After being at a work conference in Madison, Wisconsin, Garrett and colleague Mo engineered their way to a Chicago White Sox home game before their flight home. The boys thought they were in with a chance when they found their seats overlooking the deep left field. Then the dream came true when Luis Robert Jnr got onto one from the Astros pitcher at the bottom of the fourth.

Garrett takes up the story from there, admitting that he didn't quite claim the glory.

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"I would love to say that I then picked up the flight of the ball and performed a Harry Himmelberg mark of the year, but alas I saw the ball in the air at the last moment, to see it slip trough the White Sox fan hands in front of me, bounce off the seats and nestle next to Mo's jacket. I pounced on it, did my best Ferris Bueller impersonation and lost my mind."

He resisted some neighbouring kids' desperate pleas to hand over the prize ("that's what's wrong with kids these days, they just want to be given everything").

Instead he's bringing the ball home to give to a mate going through a health battle.

Garrett says his jumbo-screen exploits, including fist pumps deserving of his beloved Belconnen Magpies winning a grand final, have been shared far and wide.

"I instantly regretted my celebration, but what can you do? It was an amazing week of work, topped off by a one in a million chance outing."

At long last, Canberra has a crowd catch to be proud of - because we've seen far too many people drop them at Manuka Oval, including a pair of cricket tragics known to your columnist.

One used to write for this very masthead. Another is a Queanbeyan Whites club president who grinned the sound of his phone ringing again and again one Wednesday afternoon was "a disaster".

Grant Jones went viral on social media after dropping his donuts and a crowd catch at the T20 between Australia and Sri Lanka at Manuka Oval last year.

If only his phone was ringing with people keen to talk about his career-best golfing score of 63. Nine-under par for an amateur is bloody impressive, after all.

They don't always drop them in the crowd at Manuka Oval.

A fella with hair as white as his singlet hung over the side of the bleachers and took a brilliant one-handed catch seven years ago. The effort was so good even Nathan Lyon had to give the bloke an applause.

Wind back even further and there was another lad known to this columnist who took a belter in the Manuka Oval concourse at a Prime Minister's XI game.

To this day he is still filthy on the late Tony Greig's commentary, which suggested the catch had ricocheted off another punter.

Canberra punters will have plenty of chances to nab their own catch this summer with two women's Twenty20 internationals, one men's one-day international and the Prime Minister's XI all descending on Manuka Oval.

Odds on Garrett doubling up this summer?

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