Catalina McKasson On Her Catch: It’s Been Crazy

Safe to say, few of us spent our Cesar Chavez holiday as memorably as Deputy Probation Officer Catalina McKasson. Her leaping catch as a Padres ball girl Sunday drew national attention and kept her busy on her day off.

There were back-to-back interviews with local and national media—the U-T, the Today Show, Fox... And then watching the coverage with her daughters and seeing that catch over and over. 

Back at work Tuesday, it was impossible to keep a low profile.

“It’s been crazy; my co-workers are having fun giving me a hard time,” said McKasson, who does background investigations and reports on young people who go to juvenile hall.

“We feel like we’re around a celebrity right now,” Acting Supervising Probation Officer George Simmons said. “The catch she made was simply awesome.”

McKasson, a former elementary school teacher who joined the Probation Department about a year ago, after a brief stint there right out of college in 1996, said she’s worked for the Padres part-time since 2002. Her duties include shagging foul balls, running relief pitchers’ jackets off the field once they take the mound, and, every once in a while, grabbing a scary line drive.

“We’ve all made great catches and we’ve all made errors,” McKasson said of herself and the other women she works with. She says a catch she made in 2012 was even better, but Sunday’s was her first to get so much attention.  It came during a sold-out, nationally-aired season opener. And the quick nab she made clearly saved a fan from injury. That felt good.

“They were very thankful,” McKasson said.

The game went on, and McKasson resumed her duties. She had no idea people all over the country were talking about the catch. Her social media savvy daughters, ages 12, 14, and 17, clued her in when she got home Sunday, showing her how the play had already generated online buzz.

The attention has been a lot of fun for the whole family. McKasson’s daughters were interviewed on Fox News, too.  

“They’re having a good time with it,” she said.

A San Diego native, McKasson said working for the Padres started as fun part-time work when she was a stay-at-home mom. She continued the gig while she was an elementary school teacher, and last year, she made it work while she embarked on her new Probation career too.

McKasson played high school sports, and these days she plays on a softball team with fellow Probation employees. The next game is Thursday, and the pressure is on, McKasson joked.

“Expectations are kind of high.”