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Jon Kramer couldn't believe his bad luck.
The 28-year-old data analyst from Culver City and his friends were sitting in loge-level seats along the third-base line at the Boston Red Sox-Dodgers game Sunday. They decided to take a walk to Centerfield Plaza during the bottom of the fifth inning for some food and drinks.
Walking past one of the large video monitors, Kramer noticed Shohei Ohtani was at the plate. He stopped to watch and saw the Japanese superstar hit his 30th home run for the Dodgers this season.
"He hits the home run and my first thought is, ‘I can’t believe I’m watching this on a screen instead of at my seat. We left at the wrong time and blah, blah, blah,'" Kramer told The Times on Monday.
But an estimated two seconds later, Kramer couldn't believe his good fortune.
"The ball comes flying over the pavilion, lands — it hits a guy behind me like in the chest and hit the ground, and I was just right there and picked it up,” Kramer said.
Ohtani's bomb off Boston's Kutter Crawford traveled 473 feet and nearly cleared the roof over the right-center field stands. Instead, it appeared to somehow fly through the small space between the hanging "Daiso" sign and the roof before landing in the plaza area.
"I’ve been going to baseball games my whole life and I’ve never even come close to getting a home run ball, let alone a ball that [nearly] left Dodger Stadium," Kramer said. "So just right place, right time.”
In the immediate aftermath, Kramer said, he was swarmed by Japanese reporters as well as Dodgers fans looking to have a selfie taken with the ball blasted by Ohtani. He said his fiancee, Julia Brosseau, from Boston, had to quickly remove her Red Sox hat to pose for pictures with him.
Kramer said he left his number with Dodgers personnel in hopes of possibly getting Ohtani to sign the ball. But even if that doesn't happen, Kramer said, he still has a unique display piece for his desk.
"It's so surreal," he said. "The fact that this ball — on ‘Sunday Night Baseball,’ national television, everyone’s talking about it, trending on social media — and it’s like, 'Yeah, I have that ball.' So it’s pretty insane. I spent all day just kind of watching replays and, like, basking in how insane this moment is.”
Daniel Weinman was crowned winner of the 2023 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event on Monday, taking home a record breaking $12.1 million in winnings. Weinman had to outlast the other 10,043 entrants to take home the prize and get his hands on his share of live poker’s largest ever prize pool – a staggering $93,399,900. As well as taking home the prize money, 35-year-old Weinman also got his hands on the WSOP Main Event bracelet. The huge bracelet contains 500 grams of 10-karat yellow gold, as well as 2,352 various precious gemstones.
Daniel Weinman won the World Series of Poker's main event world championship on Monday in Las Vegas, earning $12.1 million along the way. Playing in the tournament for a 16th year, Weinman was tops in a deep pool of 10,043 players vying for $93.39 million. His victory came after just 164 hands at the final table. "I was honestly on the fence about even coming back and playing this tournament," the 35-year-old Atlanta native told reporters afterward. Weinman's final table featured Jan-Peter Jachtmann, who landed in fourth place and took home $3 million, as well as Toby Lewis, who finished seventh and secured $1.42 million. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the main event's entry pool far outpaced the previous record of 8,773 set in 2006. "I've always kind of felt that poker was kind of going in a dying direction, but to see the numbers at the World Series this year has been incredible," Weinman said. "And to win this main event, it doesn't feel real. I mean, [there's] so much luck in a poker tournament. I thought I played very well." Steven Jones finished second, securing $6.5 million. And Adam Walton settled for third and a $4 million prize.
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