NEW YORK—While some serious sports fanatics pay good money to enjoy a week at baseball fantasy camp, very few actually get paid to live the dream of rubbing shoulders with their heroes on a daily basis.
Meet Ray Negron: former Yankee batboy, lifelong Yankee fanatic, and one lucky guy.
As a teenager growing up the Bronx, Negron’s life might have gone a bad way the day he was caught vandalizing Yankee Stadium. But he was in luck—he wasn’t stopped by police, he was caught by none other than Yankees owner George Steinbrenner.
“He [Steinbrenner] caught me doing graffiti right over there,” said Negron, now a successful author and movie producer, as he motions to a site on the grounds of where the old Yankee Stadium once stood.
“He had me locked up, and then he came back, got me out, took me to the Yankee locker room and he made me the batboy that night,” recounts Negron.
“He told the equipment manager, ‘Give him a uniform. He’s got damages he’s going to work off!’”
The punishment soon turned into a dream job as Negron became the Yankees everyday batboy—and later an assistant to Steinbrenner himself—in a clubhouse that would include legendary players like Reggie Jackson, Thurman Munson, Catfish Hunter, Bobby Murcer, and manager Billy Martin.
