It was fitting that Joe Rofrano would be the one to catch Evan Longoria’s record-breaking home run Saturday night.
Rofrano had been a fan of the Tampa Bay Rays since 2006, when he was 13 years old. He’d been a fan before the pennants, before the magical World Series run, back when the the Rays were still the Devil Rays. He followed the team faithfully from his home in New Jersey, while all of his friends were cheering for the Yankees. Whenever he came to visit his grandparents in Treasure Island, multiple trips to Tropicana Field were always on the itinerary.
“I’ve admired the Rays since I’ve was even younger than that, since I’ve been going to games with my grandparents,” he said.
At first, Rofrano rooted for the team because they were the underdogs, but over time that changed.
“My dad told me to always root for the underdog, but then it grew to, 'you could really tell these guys cared who they played for, that they cared about the community,' ” he said. “It was more about the name on the front of the jersey and not on the back.”
Rofrano had been at the Trop for the Rays disappointing loss against the Yankees on Thursday, but after their win on Friday, he was optimistic. Sitting in section 141, with his Longoria jersey on his back, he was ready. (Full disclosure: I was sitting next to him, as I am his aunt by marriage.)
His moment came in the third inning, when Longoria swung hard and sent the ball flying high in the air in left field. The ball hit the catwalk and ricocheted right into Rofrano’s outstretched hand.
It was Longoria's 164th home run with the Rays. He’d broken the franchise record previously held by Carlos Pena. The crowd erupted with joy.
Rofrano turned to his uncle, showed him the ball and yelled, “Aaaahhhh!”
Moments later, once the reality of what happened sank in, everyone else started yelling, too. A sea of hands went up, all waiting for high-fives from the guy who had caught The Home Run. When Rofrano finally sat down, he picked up his phone with shaking hands and realized it had blown up with text messages from friends in New Jersey who saw the catch on TV.
Later, Rofrano said he had nearly caught a Longoria foul ball at a game in Baltimore and he wasn’t going to let the opportunity slip by again.
“I was going to do everything in my power to make sure this one didn’t go off my fingertips,” he said.
Once the ball was in his hand, he said it felt like time froze.
“I caught it and looked at it in my hand and I realized what I had just caught, and I was ecstatic,” he said. “I couldn’t believe what was happening, that finally I got my first home run ball I ever caught, and it was a Longoria home run ball, and it was the record-breaking ball. It was wild.”
Catching the ball would have been exciting for anyone, but it was particularly significant to the Seton Hall junior, as it had been hit by Longoria, his “childhood idol.”
“Evan Longoria would be the equivalent of the Derek Jeter to all my friends,” he said. “I just knew from the day he stepped up to bat that this was going to be the guy that I was going to tell my kids about watching when I was younger.”
Rofrano left the Trop that night with an ash Louisville Slugger signed by Longoria, which he had received in exchange for the ball outside the team’s clubhouse. It’s a memento of a night Rofrano will undoubtedly have no trouble remembering for the rest of his life.