We said thanks, and he grabbed a ball and tossed it up to us. (If you aren't familiar, players don't do much fan interaction while the game is going on.) A minute later we asked if he would care to sign the ball to him, and he said he would. So we tossed the ball back and Ryan asked our son's name. He then said "is he a Reds fan?" to which we said "of course!"
Ryan finished signing the ball and tossed it up. It read "To Jackson, Go Reds! - Ryan Madson."
We were really impressed and thought that was such a cool gesture. We have had the ball on Jackson's shelf since, and you can imagine how excited I was that the Reds have decided to sign Madson as their closer for 2012. That story just got upgraded from cool to amazing.