Video of the pesky Fremantle forward being whacked in the groin by the ball against Greater Western Sydney in round 17 last season has been watched more than 672,000 times on the AFL's official YouTube channel.
Watch the video here
It is by a massive margin the most-viewed video on the channel – by comparison, the final two minutes of the Hawthorn-Geelong round 19 match last season when Tom Hawkins' goal after the siren sealed the Cats' win has been watched almost 150,000 times to be in second place.
And Ballantyne's painful encounter with the Sherrin has been particularly popular with US viewers. The video has been watched there more than 161,000 times, more frequently even than in Australia, where it has had 112,000-plus views.
The massive viewing figures in the US and elsewhere overseas – in Poland, there have been more than 67,000 views; in Germany, in excess of 38,000 – are because it found itself onto some popular websites.
More than 59 per cent of all views were when the video was embedded in websites such as failblog.org and cheezburger.com, which promises "All your funny in one place".
They have screamed "Ball! Yes!" all over the world - more than 22,000 views in Canada, 15,000-plus in Mexico, and 13,000 in France. Other countries in the top 20 include Brazil, Russia, Latvia, Romania and Indonesia.
And there is one man in Burundi in central Africa who got the giggles over Ballantyne's mishap. Yes, it is almost certainly a man – figures show that 85 per cent of those who watched the video were male.
Men, it seems, better appreciate than do women the sympathetic pain and perverse pleasure of a fellow male copping it in the goolies.
Post-script: Ballantyne has a knack for being hit in the knackers, as the recent report of Collingwood's Heath Shaw for belting him in the groin shows. Sadly that video, with its unforgettable commentary from the victim – "He punched me in the nuts!" – hasn't been such a hit on the internet.
It featured only in The Verdict, the summary of the Match Review Panel's ruminations, and has been seen on the YouTube channel just 2300 times.
