Five minutes before he dove onto the baseball that had been hit for Anthony Volpe’s first profession homer, Marvin Castillo bemoaned never securing a house run ball in about 25 years of attending Yankees games.
So when opportunity finally knocked Friday night, there was no stopping Castillo, who was at Yankee Stadium together with his wife, Andrea, and was in his seat when Volpe led off the highest of the primary inning against the Twins with a 394-foot blast to left-center field.
Wearing a pinstriped Yankees jersey with Aaron Judge’s No. 99 on the back, the 30-year-old Brooklyn resident emerged from the scrum as a fan seated directly behind him raised his hands to his head and opened his mouth in disbelief.
“Nobody caught the ball and it type of rolled to my right side. I just went for it,” Castillo told The Post shortly after gaining celebrity status amongst fellow fans Section 136. “It’s amazing that I used to be just saying that to my wife and he hits it out here. I used to be so excited to get a ball that I didn’t even understand it was Volpe and his first home run until people began yelling, ‘Hang on to that ball!’ ”
Castillo quickly handed over the baseball to the stadium officials, who put together a fan-experience package to get back Volpe’s keepsake.
Castillo said he was offered autographs, photos with Volpe after the sport, a clubhouse tour and tickets to a future game with a likelihood to look at batting practice on the sphere.
“My wife had said, ‘Possibly we could leave the sport early to go take a look at sheets,’ ” Castillo said. “We’re not leaving early now!”
Actually, Castillo joked, his next shopping trip is likely to be for a Volpe jersey.
Volpe, the Latest Jersey native who grew up idolizing Derek Jeter, needed 14 games to hit his first home run, but he did it leading off an inning, just as Jeter did on Opening Day in 1996, though Jeter was batting ninth and was playing his sixteenth MLB game.
Volpe said he “blacked out” running the bases.
“I actually have to get [the ball] inscribed,” Volpe said before meeting Castillo. “Definitely have to present a shout-out to the family that gave it up.”
“I’m super excited for his profession,” said Castillo, who was available for Volpe’s MLB debut. “We showed him a lot love on Opening Day. Glad to have a young, native guy at shortstop.”
Castillo’s phone quickly was flooded with pictures and videos of the moment.
His ears quickly were flooded with advice from fans reminding him that baseball is likely to be value a number of money someday if Volpe goes on to have the type of long, successful profession that is predicted of No. 1 prospects.
“As a diehard Yankees fan, I’m not going to take that away from Volpe,” Castillo said. “I let the Yankees know from jump that I used to be going to present it back to him.”
With the ball in a single hand and his phone in the opposite, Castillo called his older brother.
“I wouldn’t be a fan if it wasn’t for him,” he said. “I used to be about six after we got here to my first game and Joe DiMaggio was driving around on a cart. But that is my best moment on the stadium simply to feel the love and excitement from other Yankees fans. Anyone who has been to a game here knows you’ll be able to come by yourself and leave with 1,000 recent friends.”
