@2 - I'm confused. That Snopes link just says FALSE, but doesn't say if it was faked or what exactly the deal is, as far as I can tell. Even if it was staged, the ball was still hit and he still caught it?
The best thing about it is that the question she asks, and the response he supplies, is so pitch-perfectly banal that it could be recorded during Spring Training and played back just before the playoffs without betraying a hint of implausibility.
Another clue that it's fake: The batter is supposedly taking batting practice, but there's no batting cage behind him, and the pitcher isn't standing behind a protective screen either.
@5, yeah the snopes article is vague. Let me try to clear it up a bit: The line drive that you're seeing in that shot is not real. There was no ball coming at our fine young reporter's ear. The quote from Longoria about how quickly that segment was shot is misleading because they shot an actual whole commercial during the same evening, in addition to this quick one. Think about it - he's amazed that it's so popular --BECAUSE it's just a commercial, not an act of superhuman badassery.