We all need a little help, sometimes.
And in the case of one lucky fan at Wrigley Field on Monday night, that help came from the Cubs' starting pitcher against the Rockies, Shota Imanaga.
The Cubs have a promotion at home games in which one season ticket holder wins $1,000 if the baseball that the home plate umpire rolls toward the pitcher's mound at the end of each inning makes it to the mound and stays there without rolling off. And in the middle of the fourth inning, when home-plate umpire James Hoye rolled the baseball out, it went onto the mound.
But wait just a second ... it got to the mound, but then started to roll back toward home plate. Just before it touched a blade of grass off the mound, Imanaga came to the rescue, swooping in with his glove and stopping the ball from rolling any further before picking it up to begin his warmup pitches.
Hey, it counts! And someone is $1,000 richer thanks to a generous move from the left-hander, who clearly knew what he was doing given the big smile seen on his face after he picked up that baseball.