Catching a part of history
PITTSBURGH — A big fan of baseball, travel and the Pittsburgh Pirates, Brendan Henne admits he’s not much into memorabilia.
“I’m more into making memories,” the 2017 Seneca Valley graduate said.
He made himself a doozy Thursday night at PNC Park.
Attending the Pirates’ game against the Boston Red Sox that night, Henne and his younger brother, Luke (2019 SV graduate), and a couple of friends sat in Section 142, Row B, just above the Clemente Wall in right field.
“My brother and I go to 35 or 40 games a summer,” Luke Henne said. “It’s bonding time for us. Baseball and travel have brought us extremely close as siblings.
“We usually enioy sitting in the outfield. This season, for some reason, we hadn’t sat out there for a single game.”
Until Thursday night. And they picked the right night.
The Pirates’ Bryan Reynolds homered in the first inning, the 2,999th home run in PNC Park history. Brendan Henne said he became excited about the prospect of seeing history.
He never guessed he’d become a part of that history.
Reynolds launched his second homer of the game in the fifth inning. The ball barely cleared the wall and sailed just over the head of Henne’s group.
“The ball deflected off the chest and hands of a couple of people seated in the row behind us,” Brendan said. “It wound up landing right in my hands ... easiest catch I’ve ever made. The ball never touched the ground.
“I was so excited just to catch a home run. That’s never happened to me before. After a minute or so, it hit me. I was holding the 3,000th home run ball at PNC Park. I just started screaming.”
His brother, serving as an intern for Dan Hart and the Pirates’ media relations team this year, figured he wouldn’t be holding the ball long.
“The Pirates were going to want that baseball,” Luke said. “Sure enough, the team’s head of security came over to talk to (Brendan) moments after he caught the ball.”
The baseball was destined for the PNC Park Hall of Fame — if Henne would part with it, of course. Negotiations didn’t take long.
Brendan first wanted a Jack Suwinski jersey.
“He’s my favorite player, but since he’s in (Class AAA) Indianapiolis right now, they couldn’t do that,” he said of the jersey. “Then I just wanted to meet Bryan Reynolds, hand him the ball, get a couple of pictures with him.
“Like I said, I’m all about memories.”
The Pirates did one better. They brought Brendan on the field immediately after the game, he met Reynolds, posed for pictures — and received an autographed bat from him.
“Man, I was on Cloud Nine,” Brendan said. “He (Reynolds) is a quiet guy, but I told him I appreciate him being an open man of faith, that it was nice to see a superstar openly profess that. He was very patient in pausing for all the pictures I wanted.”
After graduating from Seneca Valley, Brendan Henne went on graduate from Robert Morris University with a degree in sports management. He is the assistant athletic director at Penn State Shenango.
Luke Henne is attending Duquesne University and assists the Pirates in creating and updating player bios, game notes and press releases as part of his internship.
Both brothers were junior varsity hockey players at Seneca Valley. And they are more than casual baseball fans.
“We travel to a number of road games together,” Luke said. “We’ve been to Cincinnati and Tampa Bay to see the Pirates this year. Baseball and the Pirates unite us all the time. I’m grateful for it. I don’t know how many siblings share a passionate bond as strong as the one we do.”
Brendan said: “We’ve gone to 19 different major league ballparks together over the years, seen the Pirates play in 12 or 13 of them. We’ll travel for hockey and football games, too.
“I may not have that baseball anymore, but the memory of that night and that game will stay with me forever.”