During the 2011 and 2012 seasons, I took a break from concessions and worked as a game day intern. My main responsibilities included working with the ushers and security during games and also filing incident reports when someone got injured while at the ballpark. Other than that, I would do whatever I could to help other people out whether that meant refilling paper towels in the restrooms, laying out programs around the park before a game, or retrieving a lost shoe from under the right field stands.

Yes, I said shoe. And yes, I actually had to get someone’s shoe back for them from under the bleachers. Let me start at the beginning.

On a typical game day, I would spend the majority of the night making my way around the ballpark and checking in with the ushers throughout the night, giving them breaks and talking and just making sure everything was going smoothly.

The night of The Great Shoe Rescue, the ushers had all left for the night and I was standing in the plaza talking to some of the other interns. I was then approached by a front office member who said they needed someone to crawl under the stands and retrieve a lost item. Since I was the smallest person there, they chose me.

We walked the short distance down the plaza to the storage closets under the right field stands – the same closets that years before had held the cash register I carried on my first night of work – and that is when I realized that I knew the person who lost the shoe. There was one of my good friends from college, standing in the plaza wearing only one flip-flop and a rather sheepish look his face. I started laughing and just shook my head.

After establishing where his seats were located in regards to where I would have to crawl under the stands, I began my adventure. I walked into the storage closet that was closest to his seats and, using the flashlight on my phone, began to scope out the easiest route. I started climbing over and under the metal beams of the stands, moving towards where my friend was standing above me at his seat, and prayed that I wouldn’t hit my head, fall, or rip my pants. I was also wary of what I might find under the stands other than a lost shoe.

Eventually I made it to the spot he was standing above, and lo and behold, there was a lonely flip-flop lying on the ground. With the way the right field bleachers are built, I was able to pass the sandal to him from under the seats, and made my way back out towards the storage closet where I had entered.

The Great Shoe Rescue was a success!

Believe it or not, this was not the first, nor the last, time that I would adventure under the stands to retrieve a lost item. This is one of the downfalls to being one of the smallest people working in a location where items get dropped much more often than you would think. Over those two years I retrieved shoes, cellphones, sunglasses, and even a sock. It was always an adventure.

Oh, and don’t worry, I didn’t let my friend forget the fact that he lost his shoe at a baseball game.

Confessional: What is one of the strangest things you have ever lost while out somewhere? Did you find it? Have you ever had to help retrieve any odd items at your job?