Hample has written two books. The first, How to Snag Major League Baseballs, was published by Simon & Schuster in 1999 when he was a junior at Guilford College. The second, Watching Baseball Smarter, was published by Random House in 2007 and was the 8th best selling American sports book that year. Hample wrote part-time for minorleaguebaseball.com from 2005 to 2007 and contributed the foreword for Major League Baseball: An Interactive Guide to the World of Sports in 2008. His third book, The Baseball: Stunts, Scandals and Secrets Beneath the Stitches, will be published by Random House in March 2011.

As of September 18, 2010, Hample has collected 4,626 baseballs from 48 different Major League stadiums. He acquired his first ball from a Mets reliever at Shea Stadium on June 20, 1990, snagged his 3,000th ball by using his famous baseball glove trick at Yankee Stadium on May 7, 2007, and set a personal, one-game record with 32 baseballs at Kauffman Stadium on June 18, 2009. Hample caught Barry Bonds' 724th career home run at PETCO Park on August 16, 2006 and caught the first home run of the 2007 Home Run Derby, hit by Justin Morneau at AT&T Park.

During the final week ever at the old Yankee Stadium, Hample gained worldwide recognition by catching home run balls on consecutive nights. On September 16, 2008, he made a leaping catch on a Jason Giambi home run and immediately celebrated with a goofy dance that was captured by the TV cameras. The following night, in nearly the exact same spot in the right field bleachers, Hample reached far over a railing to make a backhanded catch on a Johnny Damon home run and celebrated with the same dance. The Yankees' announcers quickly recognized him from the previous game, and within the next 24 hours the story was covered by ESPN, CBS, NBC, FOX, CNN International, and many other media outlets. Yahoo! Sports initially acknowledged Hample's baseball-snagging skills, but did not know that it was him who made the catches.

On September 28, 2008, Hample caught the last home run ever hit by a Mets player at Shea Stadium, this one off the bat of Carlos Beltran. On October 8, 2008, Hample made an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. 'I think you're the worst man in America'Prior to his three notable home run catches of 2008, he had been featured on The Rosie O'Donnell Show, the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, and on an episode of the John O'Hurley version of the game show To Tell The Truth, during which he managed to trick the audience and two of the four celebrities.

Hample, a competitive video game player, appeared briefly in the 2007 documentary A Fistful of Quarters. According to Twin Galaxies, he holds official world records on half a dozen classic video games including Breakout (896 points) and Arkanoid (1,658,110 points).