“It was the best moment of my life,” says 10-year-old Dodger fan who caught Freddie Freeman’s walk-off grand slam

By Laurie Perez, Dean Fioresi

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    LOS ANGELES (KCAL, KCBS) — What he was told was just going to be a trip to the orthodontist’s office wound up being the best day of one Dodger fan’s young life on Friday, when he came up with Freddie Freeman’s walk-off grand slam that sent the Boys in Blue to an early lead in the World Series.

He says just going to Game 1 would’ve been more than enough, until the incredible series of moments that led to what he says is the highlight of his young life.

“I knew it was gonna be gone the second I heard the crack of the bat,” said Zac.

What he didn’t know, was what was coming. Zac’s father Nico was recording the moment that Freeman roped his walk-off grand slam to deep right field, showing the flight of the ball as it landed in the crowd — and then darkness.

The video cut out in the midst of the mad scramble for the ball, all of which happened as Zac’s mother Anne watched on with bated breath.

“I was like, ‘Oh my God, he’s gonna get trampled under there,'” she recalled, watching her 10-year-old son at the bottom of a dogpile of fans desperate to grab the piece of history.

Zac, thinking quickly, was able to gain the upper hand despite being smaller than most of the others involved.

“It bounced on the seat in front of us,” he said. “I was like, I was like on my knees … basically laid out on the ground trying to find it. I saw the ball, but I knew I couldn’t get it, so I knocked it to my dad.”

Nico still struggles to find the words to describe the moment that he picked the ball up.

“I don’t even really remember, it was such a blur. It was just so chaotic and, you know, I was just so excited to give it to ac and then I looked at him and he just had tears streaming down his face,” Nico said. “I was like, ‘Oh no, what’s wrong?’ And he was just so excited, he was just, like, tears of joy streaming down his face.”

Anne says that she knew the exact moment that her family somehow came up with the prize.

“I knew that ball was under Nico, like, I saw the look in his eye and I was like, ‘He has that ball.’ … He hadn’t raised it up yet, but I was like, ‘Oh, yeah. He has that.'”

It was that moment that Zac will never forget.

“Then he handed it to me. It was the best moment of my life.”

While the family hasn’t yet decided what their course of action is when it comes to the ball, some memorabilia experts say it could already fetch $1 million, and that’s before the potential Dodgers’ World Series title.

“So, that kid is unbelievably lucky, right? That ball, if you look at other balls — the Shohei ball, the 50-50 ball that just sold for $4.5 million — with Freddie Freeman, it’s at least in my humble opinion … gonna go for a million, a million plus easily,” said Eric Chao.

Despite knowing that, Zac said he’s not inclined to sell.

“I really have no idea,” he said. “All I hope is that I can get Freddie Freeman to sign it.”

On top of the ecstasy of snagging the ball, the family says that fans all around them were more than excited to bask in the glory of the win with them.

“All the fans around us were so nice too, you know,” Nico said. “Everybody was excited that Zac had it and hundreds of people wanted to take pictures with him and the ball after the game. … We were there for probably, I don’t know, it seemed like an hour after.”

Zac, who says he’s been to about 30 Dodgers games in his life — none of which they’ve lost — said even if they didn’t get the ball it would’ve been an incredible experience.

“It was just amazing. It would have just been amazing, even if I didn’t, even if we didn’t get the ball.”

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