Sports
Dodgers fan pulled switcheroo after catching a 'hated Padre' homer. Why did he keep the ball?
As soon as he heard the crack of the bat, lifelong Dodgers fan Renan Zuniga knew exactly what to do.
The 45-year-old finance manager from Victorville sprung out of his usual seat in the left-field bleachers at Dodger Stadium, jumped as high and stretched as far as he could, and made a fantastic catch to pull down a home run ball San Diego Padres star Manny Machado hit off Dodgers pitcher James Paxton on Sunday evening.
Zuniga wasn’t done with the slick moves. Immediately after landing on his feet and securing the home run ball in the glove on his left hand, Zuniga slipped his right hand into the pocket of his Dodgers jacket, pulled out another ball and threw it onto the field.
It was an attempt to create the illusion that he was tossing back the home run ball hit by an opposing player — something he had no intention of doing with the first home run ball he ever caught on the fly during a baseball game after nearly two decades of trying.
“It was just reactionary,” Zuniga told The Times in a phone interview. “I didn’t even think about it, I just knew what to do because in my head I rehearsed it a million times.”
As it turns out, Zuniga might have been too well prepared for the moment. ESPN aired video of his “hidden ball trick” during its broadcast of the “Sunday Night Baseball” game in which the Padres earned a 6-3 win.
“I caught it and did it all so quickly that the camera still happened to have not panned away from me, you know?” Zuniga said. “And it also didn’t help that it was a nationally televised game too.”
ESPN’s Buster Olney caught up with Zuniga for an in-game interview in which the affable fan admitted he “got caught” while trying to avoid getting “booed mercilessly by the Dodgers faithful” for not throwing back a home run ball hit by a “hated Padre.”
Zuniga was speaking from experience.
He started attending Dodgers games at age 7 with his mother, Joyce, who died in 2021. He now attends 25 to 30 games a year, usually accompanied by either his 19-year-old daughter, Taylor; his 17-year-old nephew, Daniel Villela; his 8-year-old nephew, Mikey Gullart; or his aunt, Avis Latscha (his 24-year-old daughter, Kaitlyn, used to attend games with him as well, but she now lives in Omaha).
At Sunday’s game, Villela was with Zuniga.
“I’ve always been enthralled with wanting to catch or get a home run ball,” he told The Times. “I started having season tickets in 2006, and I believe it was Sept. 13, 2007, when I finally got my first home run ball. The Dodgers were playing the Padres, David Wells was pitching, and Morgan Ensberg of the Padres in the sixth inning hits a home run.”
Zuniga had a shot at catching the ball on the fly, but it bounced off his forearm and onto the ground. Still, he was able to grab the ball “a millisecond” before another fan.
“He says, ‘Please don’t throw it back. Give me the ball. I’m a Padres fan,’” Zuniga said. “I look at him and I said, ‘Are you kidding? I am not throwing this ball back. I’m keeping it.’ To me, it’s like, I finally got my first home run ball.”
But Zuniga wasn’t able to explain that to the multitude of Dodgers fans who started chanting, “Throw it back!” at him, as has become tradition at numerous ballparks.
“So normally what will happen is they’ll chant for 10, 15 seconds and if you don’t, you get booed and they move on,” Zuniga said. “On this day, they are not letting it go. … It was kind of like they put a damper on my childhood dream of getting a home run ball.”
Eventually, Zuniga had had enough. He discreetly grabbed another ball he had gotten during batting practice that day and switched it out with the home run ball.
“I stood up. I tossed the ball in the air a few times so people could see I had the ball, and I threw it onto the field,” he said. “And everybody cheered me and everybody got off my back. Since that day, I know to bring a ball with me in case it happens again.”
Since then, Zuniga has come away with two other home run balls that have landed in his vicinity at Dodger Stadium. When the MLB All-Star Game was held at Dodger Stadium in 2022, Zuniga was on hand for the home run derby and caught a ball blasted by former Dodger Albert Pujols, then with the St. Louis Cardinals. It was the only home run ball, outside of batting practice, that Zuniga had caught on the fly.
San Diego Padres designated hitter Manny Machado hits a home run during the fourth inning against the Dodgers on Sunday.
(Eric Thayer / Associated Press)
Until Sunday. Now the home run balls hit by Pujols and Machado sit in a place of honor in his man cave — even though the recent addition was hit by someone Zuniga said is “in my top five of my least favorite players in all of Major League Baseball” — among his extensive collection of Dodgers memorabilia. That collection also includes 30 baseballs individually autographed by every member of the 2020 World Series champion team and “every bobblehead ever given out at Dodger Stadium.”
Zuniga joked with Olney that his wife, Keli, would be mad at him for bringing home yet another ball.
So, was she?
“This moment was kind of big,” he said, “so I think I got a free pass on this one.”
He also seems to have gotten a free pass from fans, rather than the anger or jeering he might have been expecting.
“My friends, my family, my co-workers, the softball players I play with — everyone has been giving me a lot of positive feedback,” Zuniga said. “It’s weird that me getting quote-unquote busted on camera has turned into a funny moment for everybody.
“People are reaching out, ‘Hey, I don’t know if you remember me, I used to work with you. I saw you on TV. That was great!’ I believe everybody in the world is just getting the biggest kick out of this.”
Sports
‘Demon’ Finn Balor settles score with Dominik Mysterio at WrestleMania 42
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LAS VEGAS – Finn Balor and Dominik Mysterio were once brothers in arms in the Judgment Day. The two helped the faction run “Monday Night Raw” for several years.
As championships and opportunities came and went, the rift between Balor and Mysterio grew. It came to a head when Balor caused Mysterio to lose the Intercontinental Championship to Penta. Balor leaving the Judgment Day left Mysterio and Liv Morgan as the leaders with JD McDonagh, Raquel Rodriguez and Roxanne Perez sticking around.
Finn Balor is introduced before his match against Dominik Mysterio during WrestleMania 42 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nev., on April 19, 2026. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
The latter four chose to ride with Mysterio and attacked Balor on one episode of Raw.
The bitter war led to a match Sunday night at WrestleMania 42. To make matters more interesting, Raw General Manager Adam Pearce made the match a street fight hours before the show was set to begin.
Balor had vowed to bring the “Demon” out and he certainly did.
JACOB FATU PUTS DREW MCINTYRE IN THE ‘REAR VIEW’ IN UNSANCTIONED MATCH AT WRESTLEMANIA 42
Finn Balor is introduced before his match against Dominik Mysterio during WrestleMania 42 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nev., on April 19, 2026. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
Balor made his way to the ring in his “Demon” gear, dripping with red and black paint. Mysterio was in a mask with other Mysterio supporters.
The two then proceeded to beat the crud out of each other.
Mysterio wrapped Balor’s head in between a chair and hit a 619 on him. He tried to pin Balor, but to no avail. At another point, Mysterio tossed Balor through a table set up in the corner.
As many have learned, it’s hard to keep your demons down. Mysterio learned the hard way.
Balor would not give up. Balor clotheslined Mysterio, hit him with a chair multiple times before wrapping his head in between the chair and drop-kicking him into the corner. Balor put Mysterio onto a table and hit the Coup de Grâce for the win.
Dominik Mysterio is introduced before his match against Finn Balor during WrestleMania 42 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nev., on April 19, 2026. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
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Balor excised his own demons, while Mysterio is still haunted.
Sports
Ryan Ward has a solid debut, but bullpen blows it again as Dodgers lose to Rockies
DENVER — What do you know? The once-stampeding Dodgers have been caged by the Colorado Rockies.
With a 9-6 loss Sunday at Coors Field, the two-time defending World Series champions lost back-to-back games for the first time this season. The Dodgers again couldn’t hold a lead, letting the Rockies tee off for 15 hits.
Nor could the Dodgers keep up offensively at the hitter-friendly park — though they put some pressure on in the ninth inning, when Shohei Ohtani led off with a ground-rule double and the Dodgers scored twice to cut the lead to three runs. Then the new guy, Ryan Ward, made the final out in his big league debut, robbed of a hit and a chance to keep chipping away by a diving Troy Johnston in right field.
Before that, the Rockies — who beat the Dodgers twice in 13 meetings all of last season — chased starter Roki Sasaki from the game in the fifth inning and then ruffled the Dodgers’ relievers. That included closer Edwin Díaz, who came on in the eighth and promptly gave up three singles, a walk and two runs before being pulled with the Dodgers trailing 8-4.
Dodgers starting pitcher Roki Sasaki gave up three runs on seven hits in 4-2/3 innings Sunday against the Rockies in Denver.
(David Zalubowski / Associated Press)
He and Blake Treinen combined to face eight batters without getting an out.
“They both weren’t sharp,” said manager Dave Roberts, who had theories but not many answers — though he did have real concern, especially about Díaz, who recently had his right knee checked out by the medical staff.
Roberts said the closer wanted to pitch after nine days off, even though it wasn’t a save situation. But his velocity was slightly down (95.4 mph vs. 95.8) and so, “today was a tough evaluation,” the manager said.
“It really was,” Roberts said. “Because, you know, I know what it’s supposed to look like, and when it doesn’t look like that, it gets a little concerning, really.”
And losing for the second time to the Rockies, who are now 9-13? Being in danger of losing their four-game series, after arriving in Denver without having lost to a National League opponent, against a club that hasn’t made the postseason since 2018?
It’s well below the bar the Dodgers have set, and it added a bitter note to Ward’s otherwise sweet debut.
Ward punched a big league clock for the first time wearing No. 67 and cranked his first hit off Rockies starter Michael Lorenzen in the fourth inning, lining a changeup to right field for a single that scored Andy Pages, made it 3-0 and got the 20-some members of Ward’s party up, jumping in place, hugging and high-fiving.
“When I was on first base, I got to see them all jumping around up there,” Ward said. “That was a pretty special moment.”
He also singled in the sixth and swung on the first pitch in his first at-bat, a fly out in the third inning.
The Dodgers gave Sasaki a 2-0 lead in the third. Alex Freeland drove in Hyeseong Kim, and Shohei Ohtani doubled in Freeland — and extended his career-best on-base streak to 51 games, moving past Willie Keeler into third place in Dodgers history.
Sasaki went 4-2/3 innings, threw 78 pitches and gave up three runs on seven hits, striking out two and walking two. His ERA after his fourth start: 6.11, worst in the six-man rotation.
The Dodgers fell behind 6-5 in the seventh when Treinen — who was cleared Friday after he was struck in the head by a batted ball during batting practice — gave up four consecutive hits, including a two-run home run by Mickey Moniak.
The result likely will be a minor detail when Ward tells the story years from now about getting the call after first baseman Freddie Freeman was placed on the paternity list.
The Dodgers’ No. 19 prospect and reigning Pacific Coast League MVP spent the last seven years in the minors. Last season, he hit 36 home runs and drove in 122 runs with a .937 on-base-plus-slugging percentage for triple-A Oklahoma City, and he has a 1.020 OPS and four homers this year.
Ward made it a point to improve his chase rate, draw more walks and get on base more frequently, everything the Dodgers asked of him. He also passed the broadest patience test.
“The plate discipline, being a better hitter … he’s done all that,” Roberts said. “He’s improved his defense. But honestly, for me, just not to let his lack of opportunity in the big leagues deter him. That’s easy when you get frustrated and let it affect performance, and he hasn’t done that.”
If anything, Ward said, the waiting made him better.
“I used it to keep going. ‘OK, if I’m not there yet, what do I have to do to get there?’” he said. “‘What part of my game do I need to work on to keep getting better?’
“I used it as fire to keep working.”
That will be the Dodgers’ assignment too.
In the finale of the four-game series Monday, the Dodgers are expected to start left-hander Justin Wrobleski (2-0, 2.12) against Colorado left-hander Jose Quintana (0-1, 5.63).
Sports
ESPN’s Stephen A Smith hears boos from WrestleMania 42 crowd
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LAS VEGAS – Danhausen’s curse may be real after all – just ask Stephen A. Smith and the New York Mets.
While the latter dropped their 10th game in a row, Smith got his share of the curse on Saturday night during Night 1 of WrestleMania 42. Smith was in attendance for WWE’s premier event of the year and heard massive boos from the crowd.
Stephen A. Smith attends WrestleMania 42: Night 1 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada, on April 18, 2026. (Andrew Timms/WWE)
Smith was sitting ringside to watch the action. The ESPN star appeared on the videoboard above the ring at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. He appeared to embrace the reaction and smiled through it.
The boos came after Danhausen appeared on “First Take” on Friday – much to the chagrin of the sports pundit. Smith appeared perplexed by Danhausen’s appearance. Smith said he heard about Danhausen and called him a “bad luck charm.”
Danhausen said Smith had been “rude” to him and put the dreaded “curse” on the commentator.
WWE STAR DANHAUSEN SAYS METS ‘CURSE’ ISN’T EXACTLY LIFTED AS TEAM DROPS NINTH STRAIGHT GAME
Stephen A. Smith attends WrestleMania 42: Night 1 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada, on April 18, 2026. (Andrew Timms/WWE)
Smith is far from the only one dealing with the effects of the “curse.”
Danhausen agreed to “un-curse” the Mets during their losing streak. However, he told Fox News Digital earlier this week that there was a reason why the curse’s removal didn’t take full effect.
“I did un-curse the Mets. But it didn’t work because, I believe it was Brian Gewirtz who did not pay Danhausen. He did not send me my money so it did not take full effect,” Danhausen said. “Once I have the money, perhaps it will actually work because right now it’s probably about a half of an un-cursing. It’s like a layaway situation.”
Danhausen enters the arena before his match against Kit Wilson during SmackDown at SAP Center in San Jose, Calif., on April 10, 2026. (Eakin Howard/Getty Images)
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On “Friday Night SmackDown,” WWE stars like The Miz and Kit Wilson were also targets of Danhausen’s curse.
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