Chad Pergram recalls scoring 3 baseballs at Riverfront Stadium in 1978

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I’m no Ted Williams.

But I could see the rotating, red seams on the scuffed-up baseball used for batting practice twirling toward me in slow motion. Each strand gyrated, bound for the first row "blue" seats on the lower level of Cincinnati’s old Riverfront Stadium.

Granted, the ball wasn’t coming at a nine-year-old me at the same clip as a 96-mph fastball which Williams may have faced from Bob Feller of the Cleveland Indians. It wasn’t dipping like a slider from the palm of Whitey Ford of the New York Yankees. The "Splendid Splinter" was known for such keen eyesight that he could pick up the revolution of the ball approaching the plate.

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Outfielder Ted Williams, of the Boston Red Sox, poses for an action portrait during a Spring Training in March, 1950 in Sarasota, Florida.  (Diamond Images/Getty Images)

There’s a reason Williams is the last hitter to crack .400 for a season: .406 in 1941.

But this ball wasn’t a fastball dealt from the pitcher’s mound.

This was a sly, no-look, underhanded toss from the field level AstroTurf to the first row of seats – precisely where the stands cut at a sharp angle to run parallel to the right field line.

And the furtive fling wasn’t even coming from a Major League hurler.

It was coming from Joseph "Stretch" Suba, the longtime (and legendary) bullpen catcher of the Houston Astros.

The day was September 12, 1978. The Reds would go on to defeat the Astros 4-3 that night. The game was best known for Champ Summers (great name) of the Reds touching up Astros’ pitcher Mark Lemongello (greater name) for the first home run by the home team into the right field "red