He finally didn’t get one.
Polarizing ballhawk and MLB superfan Zack Hample, known for his expertise in snagging baseballs, came up just a few feet short of catching Pirates prospect Henry Davis’ first career home run Thursday.
Davis, 21, gave Pittsburgh a 3-1 lead with a titanic blast off Marlins pitcher Andrew Nardi in the eighth inning of the Pirates’ eventual 6-4 loss in Miami.
The blast sailed into the left field seats at loanDepot Park, about one row from where Hample was standing, as he watched the ball get retrieved by another fan.
Davis’ first big league blast ended up in the hands of fellow ballhawk Dennis Mora, who returned the ball in exchange for a signed bat and baseball and a picture with the Pirates backstop, according to Craig Mish of the Miami Herald.
Davis, a native of Bedford, New York, was called up to the majors by Pittsburgh this past Sunday.
The first overall pick in the 2021 MLB Draft was ranked as the Pirates’ third-best prospect by MLB Pipeline — and promptly doubled in his first career at-bat.
Davis, who was the first native New Yorker to be drafted first overall since B.J. Surhoff in 1985, focused more on the team’s loss instead of his homer after Thursday’s game.
“That was a great moment with my teammates,” Davis said after Thursday’s loss, per MLB.com. “It was a good moment, just wish we had won the game.”
As for Hample, whose highlights include catching Alex Rodriguez’s 3,000th hit and Mike Trout’s first career homer, missing out on Davis’ home run has not stopped his prolific pace of snagging baseballs.
The controversial fan, who claims to have snagged more than 12,000 balls at MLB games, has caught three round-trippers at games this season — including two hit by Orioles outfielder Cedric Mullins in May.
Hample’s snag of Mullins’ May 15 home run riled up fans after he refused to gift the ball to popular Twitch streamer A.J. Rodriguez, a superfan of the Baltimore outfielder who was in attendance at the game.
Nevertheless, Hample later apologized and offered to send Rodriguez the Mullins homer he caught on May 23.
Hample’s antics at games have nonetheless drawn the ire of fans and players, which he downplayed in a 2022 interview with The Post.
“People assume that I’m a bad guy, and what I’m doing is somehow hurting others or negative,” Hample said. “People who think that have clearly never watched my videos, and they have definitely never seen me in person.
“When I’m at a game, it really is a joyous experience.
Some of Hample’s other controversies include publicly complaining about following MLB stadium rules and sneaking into an MLB game meant only for military members.