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That's Carden Gillenwater:

Carden Gillenwater Statistics and History | Baseball-Reference.com

He was literally the fan who caught a ball and was given a contract. From his obituary in the St.Petersburg Times in 2000:

"Someone from the pros first took note of Mr. Gillenwater's ability when he was 15.

He was crouched on the limb of an elm tree watching an exhibition game between New York Yankees and a Knoxville, Tenn., team, when Babe Ruth hit a home run.

"I caught the ball with my bare hands," he wrote. "About 10 minutes after I caught the ball, two men dressed in suits came up to the tree, looked up and said, "Which one of you caught that ball?' "

Thinking they were the police, Mr. Gillenwater threw them the baseball and jumped from the tree.

The men, however, were not police. One was from the Yankees' front office, the other was the president of the southern baseball league, wrote Mr. Gillenwater.