Aaron Judge 61st HR: Fox Sports' Sara Walsh not happy her Blue Jays coach husband gave away lucrative ball
Aaron Judge's 61st home run ball was bound to be a highly lucrative collector's item. Unfortunately for the fans/collectors/prospective auctioneers in the stands at the Toronto Blue Jays' Roger Centre, a clashing of gloves caused the ball to land in the Toronto bullpen.
At that point, only a few people had access to a ball that figures to fetch seven figures at auction, and they all worked for the Blue Jays.
According to reporters on the scene, the person to ultimately get their hands on the ball was Blue Jays bullpen coach Matt Buschmann. That left Buschmann's wife, Fox Sports reporter and former ESPN SportsCenter anchor Sara Walsh, among the many baseball fans excited about the historic moment.
Per Walsh, she is currently in Florida powering through Hurricane Ian, but jokingly announced her retirement thanks to her husband's windfall:
Bad news is I’m down here in Florida battling a hurricane, but the good news is I can announce my retirement…. pic.twitter.com/gbhFSgDZBL
— Sara Walsh (@Sara_Walsh) September 29, 2022
That playful happiness would turn into playful wrath in less than a half-hour, when Walsh posted a screengrab of Buschmann returning the ball. She saw the decision as grounds for divorce:
Oh cool. He just handed that back without checking to see if our house is still here? I’d next like to announce our divorce. pic.twitter.com/37HmHIoomS
— Sara Walsh (@Sara_Walsh) September 29, 2022
Of course, Buschmann might have not had much of a choice in returning the ball. While legal precedent has established home run balls to be property formally abandoned by MLB and up for grabs for fans, Buschmann being an employee of one of the league's franchises probably meant it was his duty to the club to return the ball.
It turns out, per Walsh, that he was happy to hand it over.
Just a reporter doing work here… per my sources…
— Sara Walsh (@Sara_Walsh) September 29, 2022
Matt Buschmann wasn’t forced to give the ball back but he handed it over to Zack Britton. @Busch26 told me:
“The Judge and Maris family have been flying all over the country. They deserve to have that ball.” #bluejays
It made its way back to Judge, who gave it to his mom.
Here’s #AaronJudge giving the historic No. 61 HR baseball to his mom, Mrs. Patty Judge. #Yankeespic.twitter.com/pw1mVEyBHY
— Marly Rivera (@MarlyRiveraESPN) September 29, 2022
Walsh and Buschmann have been together since his time as a minor league player, but they knew each other before when Walsh, a former college soccer player, covered Buschmann's college career at Vanderbilt as a reporter for Nashville's WKRN.
Former Cy Young winner David Price, Buschmann's teammate at Vanderbilt, reportedly got them back in contact after being interviewed by Walsh on SportsCenter in 2012 and the rest is history. The two married in 2014, Buschmann made the big leagues in 2016 and Walsh gave birth to twins in 2017.
Buschmann's MLB career was very short, consisting of only three relief appearances in April 2016, but he has since found work as a coach while his wife moved to Fox in 2018.