Sometimes you need fast reflexes. Other times it's about being the beneficiary of a fortuitous bounce.

Mostly, though, it's about being in the right place at the right time.

And the result is a memory that will last a lifetime.

On Saturday, July 7, the Salt Lake Bees played their 90th game of the season. Just another game, by the looks of the box score - a 9-8 Bees victory over the Colorado Springs Sky Sox before a crowd of 7,111 at Franklin Covey Field.

But what made that night anything but ordinary for a select few in attendance was the fact that they were at the right place at the right time at one point or another during the evening.

There were 28 balls hit out of play that night, 19 that landed in the stands - four on home runs. The Salt Lake Tribune tracked each ball and spent time with the fortunate few who brought home a free souvenir.

For most, it was a right-place, right-time moment they won't soon forget.

The following is a comprehensive look at where those balls landed and at some of the people who caught them:

Daniel Neville, 27, Salt Lake City

CATCHING HOME RUN BALLS BECOMES TWO GOOD

Four pitches into the game, the Sky Sox have a 1-0 lead on shortstop Clint Barmes' leadoff homer.

Out on the left-field berm, Daniel Neville of Salt Lake City is in perfect position to catch the first home-run ball of his life.

It doesn't take long for No. 2 to follow.

In the bottom of the second, Bees designated hitter Nick Gorneault rips an 0-2 pitch that Neville tracks off the bat.

He covers a good bit of ground in making a running catch in his socks on the soggy grass.

Whatever the odds, Neville has two home-run balls in two innings.

He hears a taunt - "Oh, you're just getting greedy now" from a softball buddy seated nearby. Neville fires off a text message to another friend. "I am feeling on top of the world right now," he says.

Maybe it's no coincidence the balls found their way to the 27-year-old.

He and his wife, Darci, a college softball player, are at their seventh Bees game of the season and have set up a blanket in prime territory for home runs in the left-field power alley.

Neville, who works for UPS, plays outfield in a softball league and brings his glove to every game, counts about five home run balls he'd previously missed.

One sailed over his head, another somehow eluded his glove. Now he's in baseball ecstasy.

"There is nothing like catching a home run ball - absolutely nothing - because you had to do something to get it," Neville says.

"It's not like the Jazz game where they shoot a T-shirt at you, or the cheerleaders throw a little stuffed ball at you, or you wave your Albertson's card and get $100 off. The home run ball, there are 20 people like you running to get it. And it really feels good."

Neville debated throwing the Barmes homer back and remarked at how the ball didn't have a single mark on it.

He was asked who made better contact and said Gorneault for sure. "His was all talent," Neville said. "You can tell."

He gave the ball from the first homer to a nearby child and kept the second for himself.

For similarly ball-hungry fans, Neville says the $6 outfield seats are the place to be. "You've always got a chance," Neville says. "If it's within 30 feet, you can run and get it."

- Ross Siler

Paul Meyer, 39, West Jordan

FAN PICKS HIS SPOTS CAREFULLY FOR FOUL BALLS

They had seats behind the dugout, good ones too. They belong to a friend who is a season-ticket holder. And he's in Las Vegas, so the seats are open.

But Paul Meyer and his family know where the foul balls go, so that's where they sat.

"It's always on the ends," he said, "that's where you get the foul balls."

As luck would have it, a screaming-line drive was hit right toward Paul.

"This one here was a bullet," he said. The ball went to his 11-year-old daughter Megan. Kaitlyn, 12, got a ball about two weeks ago when Paul caught another one.

Paul said the secret is to be on the upper deck down the first-base line. Many people don't sit there, he said, so you have a better chance at foul balls.

He was barely able to catch this one, he said, because he came up from the concession stand with a Philly Cheese steak and hadn't even sat for a minute before the ball came at them.

Paul's hands were beet-red from catching the line drive bare-handed. His thumb started to turn a reddish purple. He said he left the baseball gloves in the car because his kids are too old to think they're cool anymore.

But at least they came away from the game with a souvenir. Now, they both have one.

"That's half the fun right there," Paul said.

- Baxter Holmes

Tom Lashoff, 49, Mountain Green

LIFETIME FAN SNAGS FIRST FOUL BALL

The Lashoffs had been to Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium many times to see the New York Yankees or the Mets. They never caught a foul ball, though.

They moved to Utah in December and at their second Bees game, a bouncing, ricochet came their way.

"It was close," said Tom, 49, who snagged the ball. "It must have had some spin on it."

Several people had a chance at the ball in the crowded section in the upper deck down the first-base line. The ball bounced from different hands before it traveled down and Tom snatched it.

When asked about the number of games he'd been to, Tom couldn't even tally the total.

"I've been going to baseball games ever since I was seven years old."

And this was his first foul ball. Actually, the ball went to his seven-year-old son, Ryan, who wore a faded purple tie-dye shirt and fittingly, a Yankees cap.

"This is the best night of my life!" Ryan shouted with a smile that stretched almost as far as the distance the ball traveled.

The youngster said he's going to "show it to some of my stuffed animals" when he gets home.

- Baxter Holmes

Darin Ludwig, 26, Salt Lake

PROTECTING KITH AND KIN PART OF BIG CATCH

After leaving more than 150 major and minor league baseball games empty handed, Darin Ludwig had nearly abandoned hope of ever snaring a foul ball.

But the Taylorsville native's fate changed thanks to a few good bounces during a recent Salt Lake Bees game.

Just as Ludwig, 26, prepared to dip into his bag of popcorn, Gregory Porter sliced a foul ball high above the visiting team's dugout in the fourth inning. The ball ricocheted off a suite window, bounced off an upper-level seat and came screaming toward Ludwig and his companions in Section 16, Row 8.

A former pitcher, Ludwig glanced over his right shoulder and back-handed the ball with his right hand while still clutching his bag of popcorn.

"I've come to games before thinking, 'I'm going to get one,' and never have," said Ludwig, a sprinkler system installer. "Today, I just came to have fun and finally got my first one."

Ludwig's father was at the concession stand and missed his son's big moment, but Ludwig's girlfriend, Britny Swapp, and her friend witnessed the heroics taking place in Seat 15.

"I felt like he was protecting us with his big, strong arm," Swapp said. "I am so excited for him to have caught the ball. We are all going to sign it for him."

Aside from sparing human flesh from stitch marks, Ludwig managed to protect another precious commodity seated in the seat pocket in front of him.

"I saved all the beers," Ludwig said with a laugh. "That's all that matters."

- Rhiannon Potkey

Ryan Belton, 25, Murray

UNDERHANDED GRAB BECOMES PART OF COLLECTION

Ryan Belton is typically a gentle, kind-spirited soul.

But the Murray resident was willing to channel his alter ego to snag his first foul ball.

Thankfully, Belton didn't have to shove aside any children or old ladies to achieve the milestone during a recent Salt Lake Bees game.

The 25-year-old simply reached underneath the seat behind him in Section 107, Row 2, Seat 12 to grab a ball hit by Bees infielder Casey Smith in the sixth inning.

"The joke has always been if a ball lands next to a little kid, I'm keeping it," Belton said. "Ricky Henderson did it, so I am justified. I sound like a jerk, but getting a foul ball is something I have always wanted to do."

A Chicago Cubs fans, Belton shed his lovable foul-ball loser tag on 7/7/07.

"It's always been a dream of mine and now it came true," Belton said. "Catching a foul ball is part of coming to a ballgame. It makes you feel like you are part of the action."

Belton, who attended the Bees game with his wife and two nephews, plans to add the ball to his sports collection at home, which consists of several hockey pucks, some old-time baseball hats and a few autographs.

Although it didn't dampen his excitement, Belton did have one regret about his foul ball.

"I just wish it came off the bat of Brandon Wood, not Casey Smith," he said. "Brandon Wood has a little more potential I think."

- Rhiannon Potkey

Ken Lund, 39, West Jordan

ALWAYS BE ON ALERT

A couple of pitches before he collected his first foul ball at a recent Salt Lake Bees game, West Jordan resident Ken Lund was put on alert.

During an at-bat by Colorado Springs infielder Douglas Bernier, Lund watched the Sky Sox player line a foul ball into the right-field upper deck at Franklin Covey Field. Lund, sitting in the lower deck, in section 5, row 15, seat 18, took his attention away from the cold beer he was enjoying and toward Bernier's at-bat on the field.

"I told my wife [Sherri] we need to start paying attention," Lund said.

He did, and it paid off.

Bernier lined another screaming foul ball, this time into the lower deck and toward Lund. Lund had the first shot at catching it, but it went through his fingers and bounced to the row above him. Another fan touched the ball before Lund was able to collect the souvenir.

"I was just hoping nobody got hit," Lund said.

It was the third Bees game Lund attended this season and the first time he had ever left a baseball game with a foul ball. It's never been a goal of his to leave a game with a foul ball, and when he was interviewed by a reporter about retrieving it, he hoped for a better prize than a baseball.

"Do we get a free beer or anything?" Lund asked.

- Andrew Aragon

Cole Helm, 24, West Valley City

THROW IT BACK! THROW IT BACK!

Many adults attend baseball games hoping to leave with a foul ball or a home run ball. They take their mitts to games, and they might even beat a little kid in a race so that they can take home a souvenir.

Not Cole Helm.

The West Valley City resident, sitting with a large group of friends on the right-field lawn, collected a home run ball hit by Colorado Springs infielder Omar Quintanilla in the ninth inning of a recent Salt Lake Bees game.

But he didn't keep it. In true Wrigley Field-style, Helm, 24, tossed the ball back onto the playing field at Franklin Covey Field.

"You can't keep a [home run] ball from the opposing team," Helm said. "It is not good Bees etiquette."

Helm, like many other Salt Lake fans, was growing restless during the Sky Sox's ninth-inning rally. Colorado, down five runs at the start of the ninth, got within 9-8 on Quintanilla's home run.

Quintanilla's shot landed a few feet in front of Helm, who then had to fight past several of his friends to grab the home run ball. Helm angrily tossed the ball into right-field before the Bees recorded the final out and won the game.

He didn't leave Franklin Covey with a souvenir. But his Bees pulled out the win and Helm earned some bragging rights - over his friends that he beat to the home run ball.

- Andrew Aragon

Steve Hale, 31, Roy

A FOUL FOR ALL SEASONS

As the ball rolled down the nearby steps from the upper deck, Steve Hale of Roy rushed to it. He thought he would have to fight through a crowd of eager fans.

But he really had just one competition.

And that was a little girl, he said, who had no idea the ball gently rubbed against her feet.

"I think she was walking to her parents," said Hale, 31.

Hale was with his cousin, Travis Thein, of Layton, Thein's two kids, Tanner, 7, and Tyson, 11, and a family friend. The group was making its first of about six games this summer.

With the ball he caught - Hale said it wasn't his first - he quickly gave it to Tanner, whose dream of being a professional athlete changes with every sports season.

"When it's baseball season, he wants to be a baseball player. When it's football season, he wants to be a football player. When it's soccer season, he wants to be a soccer player," Travis said. "He likes to skateboard, too."

Maybe the foul ball was a sign.

- Chhun Sun

John Case, 53, Taylorsville

ADDING TO THE COLLECTION

Grounds worker at Franklin Covey can't stop shagging habit

It started with just one bouncing baseball.

As John Case walked to work at Franklin Covey Field, a foul ball from the Salt Lake Bees game flew over the stadium wall and landed a few feet away from him.

The 53-year-old Taylorsville resident picked it up, fingered its red stitches and imagined the possibilities. Two years later, Case's collection of foul balls has grown to 43 and counting.

"At first it was just the excitement of chasing the balls to see if I could get them before other people," Case said. "Now it's become a habit that I really look forward to."

Case is a custodial worker who cleans the stadium after Bees games. Since his fascination with shagging foul balls began, he arrives at the park two hours before his shift and stands on the patch of grass across West Temple Street.

While waiting for balls to fly over from behind home plate or just down the first base line, Case will puff on a few cigarettes or pace along the chain-linked fence to pass the time.

Occasionally, he will have some competitors infiltrate his territory.

"I had one kid come out here and shove me to the ground to get the ball. I let him have it because it's just one ball and I can get more," Case said. "I have my bruises, but it don't stop me."

When the action on his side of the street is slow, Case will wander over to the third-base side to check for balls. He often encounters a panhandler who has one or two stashed away.

"I will give him $5 for a ball to help him out," Case said. "He doesn't have any use for it and the money could help him get a dinner."

A lifelong Salt Lake area resident, Case attended Kearns High but dropped out a few credits shy of graduation. He went back to school eight years ago to get his diploma before joining the cleaning crew.

He splits his time between Franklin Covey and Energy Solutions Arena.

"I enjoy this kind of work," Chase said. "I have met some nice people and some entertainers like Prince and the people on AC/DC and I met Leann Rimes."

Shagging has been in Case's genes from an early age. He started with golf balls that he used to sell and now the baseballs keep him busy.

"I am a pack rat," Case said. "I collect old bottles, containers, toy cars. Just a lot of odds and ends."

He keeps the baseballs at the house he shares with his father. A few of them are in plastic display cases while the others are loose on the floor.

Case never knows who hits the balls he grabs, but it doesn't really matter to him.

"Sometimes I wonder if our team or their team did it," he said. "But you can't really hear the loudspeaker when you are standing outside. It just sounds like a bunch of jumbling."

The most memorable ball Case retrieved actually came inside the stadium when a Bees player hit a home run in the ninth inning just as Case was preparing for clean-up duty.

"It was starting to rain and I was one of the only ones standing out there so I got it," he said. "I was proud of that one."

Although Case eventually plans to stop working at Franklin Covey, he can't envision his foul-ball chasing days ever ending.

"Even after I retire, I will still come out here and do it," he said. "It's just something fun that I enjoy."

- Rhiannon Potkey