A Menomonee Falls mother and son are heading to the World Series with a modest hope of taking home a baseball. For Shawn and Sue Bosman, though, simply sitting in the stands together after a difficult year may matter more than any souvenir.
Shawn is a "ballhawk," a fan who stations himself around the ballpark in hopes of catching baseballs hit into the seats. He has been at it for about 20 years and says he has caught 198 balls at Brewers games. TMJ4 News first met him in 2018, when he had snagged his 85th.
His mother is the one who got him started. Sue says she stopped keeping count in 2010, when she reached 300. Between them, the pair have caught more than 500 balls at Brewers games.
For years, the two attended many games side by side. That routine was interrupted last season, when Sue was diagnosed with cancer. "I was too sick to do anything," she said.
While Sue went through surgery and chemotherapy, she could not join her son at the ballpark. Shawn found ways to keep her part of the experience. During one game, Sue saw him on television after he caught a ball. "The camera zoomed in on him and he was holding the ball and waving and said, 'Hi Mom,'" she recalled.
One especially memorable ball came from Christian Yelich's grand slam in 2025. "A lot of people ask me about that one," Shawn said. The ball eventually ended up at Sue's home, where it sat on her bedside table. The baseballs Shawn brought back became reminders of the place she hoped to return to. "Just think about this. There is going to be playoffs. There might be a World Series. I have to get back there," Sue said.
Now that Sue has finished chemotherapy, the two are returning to the ballpark together for the World Series. Shawn secured tickets for Games 1 and 2, as well as Games 6 and 7 if the series goes that long.
The longtime ballhawks would not mind adding a World Series ball to their collection. Shawn says, however, that catching one is not what he expects to remember most after the year they have had.
"The hard part was getting here," Shawn said. "Today is about enjoying it. If we so happen to be in the right place at the right time that would be pretty cool. But we are here and that is what matters."
After years of chasing baseballs together, mother and son say this World Series is about something simpler: being back in the stands side by side.
