Broadcasters go wild for two Padres Ball Girl catches

In two Padres games, there's been two separate plays that made the broadcasters giddy with delight. Both catches were made by Padres Ball Girls down the right field line. If you only heard the audio, you'd think the girls made diving behind the back catches with their bare hands and their eyes closed. These guys need to settle down.

Opening Night

The Opening Night catch was decent. It was made on a line drive hit by Yonder Alonso and the ball girl, who was probably 200 feet down the line, had to extend out slightly over the wall towards the seats. These girls undoubtedly have softball experience, so I would consider it fairly routine for her. I'd venture a guess that just about anybody that's ever played competitive baseball or softball above the age of 9 could make this play. I'd say, "nice grab" and leave it at that.

Instead, John Kruk is calling for it to be the night's Web Gem on ESPN and claiming Jerry Coleman would have "hung a star" on it. Oh, doctor.

Opening Day

In my opinion this is the more difficult of the two catches, even though it's not hit as hard. If this looping drive hit by Denorfia over the head of Adrian Gonzalez , bounces off the packed dirt you could be making a trip to the dentist. Instead the ball girl drops to her knees and makes the catch. Still, I'm not sure the play warrants the praise that Enberg and Grant heap on her. They even compare her calm demeanor under pressure to the male fan who cowers away from the ball. But isn't he returning to his seat with a beer in hand? He's not sitting on a stool with a glove and helmet on, with a paying job that asks him to catch foul balls. "Nice catch", would have been sufficient.

Am I being to hard on the announcers? Maybe, but I can't help but think we should expect an experienced ball girl / softball player to make these plays. The over the top praise just seems to reinforce low expectations for women in sport.