On Sunday night, Justin Turner hit one of the most memorable home runs in the history of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
With the game tied at 1-1 in the ninth inning, the California product hit a three-run walk-off dinger to give the Dodgers a 2-0 lead in the National League Championship Series.
The man who caught the home run, Keith Hupp, was featured across highlight shows all over the world wearing a Chase Utley Dodgers jersey. Dodgers fans were thrilled to see their team inch closer to the World Series, and Hupp’s reaction encompassed that perfectly.
Hupp is a retired police officer and used his non-preferred hand and his son’s baseball glove to make the sweet snag. Hupp, a lefty, made the catch with his his left hand because he’s dislocated his shoulder numerous times, according to an interview he told J.P. Hoornstra of The Orange County Register.
Hupp might be the Dodgers good luck charm, as he caught Turner's home run off of Jake Arrieta last year’s Game 3 in the NLCS in almost the exact same place agains the same team.
He was also caught Cody Bellinger's 36th home run of his rookie season, breaking the rookie record set by Mike Piazza, and actually purchased Bellinger's 35th home-run off the fan that caught it. Hupp packaged the two balls over to the Dodgers in exchange for a game-worn Bellinger jersey.
Hupp has 24 home runs in his collection, with eight of them being caught on the run. Although this one might be the biggest one he’s ever caught, he met a security guard to arrange a meeting with Turner post-game.
Hupp said he wasn't sure what he wanted out of Turner for the home-run ball, so Turner told him to brainstrom something over the next years days and reach out to the Dodgers. The home-run that Hupp caught happened 29 years to the day of Kirk Gibson’s notorious home run that won the 1988 World Series.
