Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez watches his solo home run in the second inning. (Ron Antonelli)
Unlike many Yankees fans who spent the weekend in The Bronx, Craig Foskey didn’t come to boo Alex Rodriguez.
In fact, the New Jersey man, who caught A-Rod first home run since returning to the Yankees six days ago on Sunday, thinks he is being unfairly targeted by baseball.
“You know what? I’m good with A-Rod,” the South Orange, N.J. native said. “I have no problems with A-Rod. If he cheated, he cheated like everyone else. He should get penalized like everyone else. I think his penalty is too harsh.”
“I side with baseball, with them giving the other guys the 50 games. He should get 50 games, too. It’s his first offense.”
That doesn’t mean Foskey plans on giving Rodriguez a sweetheart deal for the ball, given the slugger wants it. In fact, he’s not exactly going to root for A-Rod from here on out to hit a ton of homers.
“Get suspended for life,” he joked. “That would be nice.”
The 41-year-old Foskey, seated down the left-field line in Section 133, Row 13, caught Rodriguez’s first homer of the year after being sidelined with offseason hip surgery and being given a 211-game suspension for performance-enhancing drug use in Sunday’s game against Justin Verlander and the Tigers.
Foskey said it’s the luckiest moment of his life — “if [the ball] is worth a lot of money.”
Wearing a dark blue Yankees shirt and black hat, he was engulfed in a jumbo tub of popcorn, when everyone around him stood up and Yankee Stadium came to life in anticipation of A-Rod 648th career home run in the second inning. Foskey stood up, popcorn now in his left arm, and looked for the ball. He, however, couldn’t spot it, the sun blocking his view.
“I duck popcorn in hand — see, I didn’t lose any popcorn — so I duck and the ball literally hits the back of my chair over my head,” he told The Post shortly after hauling it in. “It bounces next to me and my buddy tries to grab it with the guy in front of us, and it rolled back and I scooped it up.”
A Yankee fan, but far from a diehard, Foskey said this is his second game of the year. He usually goes to one a season, and before yesterday had never caught a foul ball.
“I probably will sell it, to be honest with you, get the best price for it,” said Foskey, a Verizon supervisor. “I’ll sell it back to [A-Rod] if he wants it.”
Asked how much money he would want for it, Foskey said he wasn’t sure, but he “would love to have a conversation with him.”