August 2009

8/23/09 Pirates vs. Reds

I wasn’t sure whether there’d be batting practice considering it was a day game after a night game. From the Roberto Clemente Bridge I could see that the nets weren’t set up. It wouldn’t matter if there was no BP when the gates opened, I would only be allowed on the Riverwalk for the first 30 minutes, or as I have heard on Sunday for the first hour. I believe that the Left Field Bleacher area is the only outfield section opened for the first hour, so I waited outside the area that connects the Riverwalk to Left Field. I was standing right above the Pirates bullpen where some pitchers were throwing.

And from that area I could see that BP cages and nets were being put into place:

The first person to throw there was Charlie Morton. He finished his bullpen session and started walking in. I asked for the ball and he tossed it over the fence which was about 2 feet taller than me. But I reached up with my glove (which extended beyond the fence) and grabbed my 1^st ball. It took me a bit to realize that it was my 250th baseball of the season, so when I did I posed for a photo:

That was about 10 minutes after I got there. Another pitcher threw in the bullpen, but Ballhawk Nick from yesterday got that ball. Then Erik showed up a bit later and got a ball from Ross Ohlendorf who came into the bullpen. Every ballhawk had gotten a ball, and a little bit before the gates opened Jeff Karstens finished up his session with Herberto Andrade. I called his name and he tossed the ball over, which bounced off Erik’s head and landed on the ground, which I picked up for my 2^nd ball.

By the time the gates opened BP wasn’t going on. But the Pirates pitchers were throwing at the foul line.

There were about 10 people in the stadium when it opened (as apposed to the about 2,000 people in New Yankee Stadium when it opens). So there was basically no competition where the Pirates were throwing. It was basically a guaranteed ball. There were maybe 5 in use, but I got distracted by watching other players finishing up first. So I got distracted when the pair I was focusing on, Steven Jackson and Chris Bootcheck, finished up. Chris Bootcheck was the player further from me and he ended up with the ball. There was no noise, so I called out and got Chris to throw me the ball from 100 feet or so away. I leaned down, scrapped my ankle, and caught my 3^rd ball.

That was the only ball I got from the Pirates pitchers. A little bit later the Pirates fielders started throwing. I caught up on some notes and then started walking over there. I had taken a couple steps pass the pair of Jason Jaramillo and Brandon Moss when I saw Brandon throw a ball low. The ball hit of the warning track and had an extremely high bounce into the air. It ended up skipping over Erik (who was positioned directly behind them, a bit to the left of the trashcan in the photo below) and landed past the handicap seating and it landed in about 6^th row up.

I was the only one near it so I went over, found the ball and picked it up for my 4^th ball.

After I got that ball the Pirates started taking some cuts, so I went over to the Left Field Bleachers.

And it was dead. There were few balls hit out there during BP. The other Ballhawks pretty much had the area covered, except over by the foul pole, so I played closer to there. Pretty soon a ball was hit over there and I made a nice play on the ball.

Well I guess it was more luck. That ball was hit by Lastings Milledge and it was hooking towards the foul pole. The ball hit off a bench before I got there (I was about 10 feet away) and then it took a bounce towards me, well right towards me. In fact it was heading exactly for my glove. The ball hit off the bench so fast that I barely moved my glove at all and the ball was wedged in my glove. That ball was my 5^th ball and unfortunately that was my last ball from BP, or BP wrap-up. It was incredibly sucky. There was a round of all lefties, so I went over to Right Field, but I couldn’t get anything up there. It is extremely hard to get baseball up there. I went back over to Left Field after that round was finished and along the way I stopped at Manny’s grill and got him to sign a ticket for my 1^st autograph.

Now while I was stuck in the dead bleachers my brother was over at the Reds foul line (where they were throwing) and he got some autographs for me, Daniel Ray Herrera (who is the first major leaguer that I am as tall as), Justin Lehr, and Kip Wells for my 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th autographs respectively. That was it until about 10 minutes before the game started, autographs or baseballs.

At the dugout Kevin Barker started signing, so I got his autograph for my 5^th autograph.

And about as soon after he signed that autograph for me Jonny Gomez started signing over by the foul line, so I ran over and got him for my 6^th autograph of the day.

From the spot that I got Jonny’s autograph I could see that Paul Janish had a ball that he was going to bring out to play catch. I asked him for the ball when he was done and he said “Sure”.

He kept his promise and he tossed me my 6^th ball. I turned around and saw a little kid that I almost bumped into. He had a glove and couldn’t have been more than 6, so even though I got the ball tossed to me I gave him the ball thinking I would get another baseball during the game, it would give me 80 for the trip, a number that I was shooting for.

But just my luck I didn’t get another ball during the game or after the game. I did get three more autographs where they were stretching: Scott Rolen’s signed my 7^th autograph.

Paul Janish signed my 8^th autograph. And Brandon Philips signed my 9^th autograph.

I was mad, mostly at myself for giving away the last ball that I got on this trip. But at least I got the line-up cards from Dusty Baker after the game…

Stats:

6 MLB Balls Today
9 MLB Autographs Today
185 MLB Autographs in this Season
224 Total Autographs in this Season
255 MLB Balls in this Season
276 Total Balls in this Season
5 Thrown, 1 Hit
5 BP, 1 Pre-Game
Attendance: 21,209 People
Competition Factor: 127,254
6.375 Balls / 1 Game
40 Consecutive Games with at least 3 MLB Baseballs
30 Consecutive Games with at least 1 MLB Autograph
25 Consecutive Games with at least 4 MLB Baseballs

Posted on August 30, 2009 at 9:05 pm
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Filed in: Dailies
Tags: Brandon Philips, Bullpen, Charlie Morton, Chris Bootcheck, Daniel Ray Herrera, Given Away, Herbie Andrade, Jonny Gomez, Justin Lehr, Kevin Barker, Kip Wells, lastings milledge, Lucky Bounce, Manny Sanguillen, Overthrow, Paul Janish, pirates, Reds, Scott Rolen, Steven Jackson

8/22/09 Pirates vs. Reds

This was just an amazing day all around. I could tell you just the highlights right now, but I think that it is better to start from the beginning.

My first stop for this game wasn’t inside PNC Park, it was the walkway outside the stadium. Some balls land there, maybe 5 or 6 during the entire batting practice, and most of them land in the Allegheny River. The walkway is in front of the river, then there is a grass hill, then a part of the stadium known as the “Riverwalk”, and then the seats. There were 3 other Ballhawks out there, Erik, Nick, and Bryan (Nick is a member of the Ballhawk League and Erik is the founder).

Nothing came over so with 10 minutes to spare we went to the gate.

I was the 6^th one inside and all the ballhawks had either the foul line or the Lower Bleachers covered, so I decided to go into the Upper Bleachers. And lo and behold in the first row was an Easter Egg, which I took a photo of it before I picked it up:

And then I picked up the very scuffed ball for my 1^st ball.

Then I went down to the un-crowded Lower Bleachers. If you ever want a sure fire ball then a scenario would be:

A) The seats are fairly empty

B) It’s still early.

C) A ball is caught right in front of you on the warning track.

D) You know the (unknown) guy’s name.

That was about the scenario for when Joel Hanrahan caught a ball in front of me. There might be another person who would know the guy’s name, so then you have to hope Joel picks you out. Another kid asked for it also, and Joel turned to throw it to him, but then he turned back to me and tossed me my 2^nd ball.

Two balls landed on the warning track, and I could’ve done the glove trick on them, but Denny Bautista retrieved them. I said to Denny:

“Leave it there, I can get it!” But he didn’t. He started walking back towards the bucket, so I thought that all hope was lost, but then he randomly turned around, looked at me, and threw me my 3^rd ball, which had an incredibly off-center practice stamp.

I guess part of this “amazing day” was due to the fact that I could get anywhere in the stadium for all of BP, while on other days I would be confined to Left Field. I used that to my advantage when I noticed a ball lying on the dirt at the third base foul line (which I neglected to take a photo of because I was in a rush).

I thought that I could glove trick it, so I ran out of the left field bleachers, up the escalator, down some steps, into a cross-aisle and then down some stairs into the handicap seating area. I took out some string from my glove and tossed it out, but I realized that it was too little string. So I pulled my glove back and threw it out again. It landed beyond the ball, so I pulled the ball closer a bit. I pulled the glove back once more and this time I got it right behind the ball and pulled it back as hard as I could. The ball rolled right to the wall and I reached down and grabbed my 4^th ball.

Now I wanted to maximize my total baseballs for the two games at PNC because I wanted to get 80 for the trip, so I gave my brother baseballs to get autographs when I couldn’t. And he did, he got me three Reds: Jared Burton, Carlos Fisher, and Drew Stubbs for my 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd autographs respectively. And I will say this every time he gets me an autograph to avoid complaints; an autograph is different from a baseball.

There was no other action on the foul line, and the other ballhawks pretty much had the outfield covered, so I moved down to the dugout. What I saw was about 9 balls lying within 15 feet from the dugout’s top step. Here’s a bit to the right, 5 are on the tarp:

Here’s to the left, 3 baseballs are RIGHT there:

This is a time where I wish I was at the Metrodome, the seats were on top of the dugout. Some players picked them up, like Tony Beasley. He picked up a ball at one end of the dugout and I was at the other end of the dugout. I called out his name and he tossed me the ball, my 5^th ball. It had an odd black mark going from one section to another, and it’s speckled a bit. I had gotten other balls similar to this, but it was a solid, darking black line, so I have no idea what gave the ball this.

I forgot how long this happened after Ball No. 5, but I saw one guy walk a couple rows back and look in the seats for something. I also saw Ballhawk Nick running towards my area. I asked the guy what happened and he said:

“A ball was hit into the seats.” He looked for about 10 seconds and then he gave up, but I looked until I found the ball, which was resting on the ground about 2 sections over. I went over and picked up the ball, my 6^th ball, an unexpected baseball acquisition.

No here is one of the weirdest baseballs that I have ever gotten. I asked Brandon Moss (who was batting) for a ball that he was near. He picked it up and tossed it to me, which I easily caught for my 7^th ball. Now this is where it gets weird, I didn’t noticed this until later that it had a commemorative logo. A very faint and scuffed up logo, not from this year.

But before I tell you, how often is it that you get a ball from a year ago? Maybe it common at Citi Field, but not so in other places. How about a ball from two years ago? Maybe once in every thousand or so balls given out. Five years? Maybe in every 20,000 balls given out this year. What about 7 years ago? I’d say that is extremely unlikely. The ball I got was from 2002. And this is where it gets weirder, the ball wasn’t even used by this team, or any team that the Pirates or Reds ever played. It wasn’t even used by any Major League Baseball team, Minor League Team, or Independent League Team. Heck, it wasn’t even used on this continent, or any piece of land connected to North America (I.E. South America and Central America). The only way you could get to this island is by air or sea. Know what ball it is yet?

It was a baseball from the 2002 All-Star Series, held in Japan! Ohmygod. I didn’t even know that these even existed, let alone were still around. This is like getting a ball from the All-Star Game in 2002, wait it’s even rarer than that. It’s like getting a ball from the 1996 All-Star Game. The commemorative logo says: “All Star Series {MLB Hologram} 02″ in case you can’t read it in the photo above. In the photo below I can barely read it:

“*Official Ball*

2002 Japan {something} Series

{Somebody’s unknown signature}”.

Can anybody get me a photo of this ball that you read what I can’t? And have you ever gotten a ball this random? I was clueless when I first read it. I thought it was a promotion for a video game, and then I thought it was for the All-Star Game, and then I knew it was from Japan. So crazy stuff, back to BP.

I got one more ball at the dugout before the end of BP, it was from Gary Varsho. It was too easy. There was not a single other person asking for baseballs. I called out for it, and he tossed me my 8^th ball.

I did catch one more thing at the dugout before the Reds started hitting, when the Pirates were coming in. Don’t blame me because it hit the dugout before I could get it. Jason Jaramillo came in, made the “are you ready to catch it” symbol by faking a toss, and then he tossed it to me. It hit the dugout roof because I wasn’t prepared, but I still got my 1^st game used item of the day, his bat.

Jason Jaramillo BP Bat. This was one part of the amazing day, and the most amazing part of it! I was expecting not to get a ball this year, the first year since 2004. It was luck, and so is most of the bats I got. Remember how I wrote that bat entry earlier? 4 of the times I didn’t ask for a bat, and one time I knew he was giving it to me. But on the other 3, the best tips I can give you are to:

1) Be at the dugout, especially the visiting team’s dugout.

2) Remember who breaks their bat.

3) Use past experiences. Who have you heard stories of being incredibly nice?

4) Focus on getting one late in the season when they no longer need as many bats, and a few broken ones may be lying around.

At first I couldn’t figure out why he would give me the bat. There were no obvious signs of disrepair, but after a little while I saw that one piece of the bat splintered a bit.

It was his BP bat, he could’ve just taped it up, and I mean it was a small break. But I guess he did want to risk injuring anyone in batting practice. So here are some photos of the bat, a “C271″ bat:

Apparently it is the 125th Anniversary of Louisville Slugger:

And apparently this bat became the property of Jason on March 26 of this year:

I got my bat and then set my sights on double digits, but I didn’t care if I got that because it was amazing to get a bat. But when the Pirates came in a couple started signing, so I got there autographs. The first person I got was Brian Bixler. He started signing towards the home plate edge of the dugout, so I waited until he pointed to me and he signed my 4^th autograph. Then Princeton graduate Ross Ohlendorf started signing down the foul line where some players and coaches go in through a tunnel. I got over there and had him sign my 5^th autograph.

And then Joe Kerrigan was called over and he started signing. I got him while he was standing in the tunnel for my 6^th autograph. Here are the three Pirates’ autographs:

Top Left: Brian Bixler. Bottom Left: Ross Ohlendorf. Bottom Right: Joe Kerrigan.

I headed back towards the outfield and gave my brother back the baseballs and then got an amazing bounce on a ball hit out there. I was standing in the middle of a row when a ball was hit to my left. I knew it was going out, so I ran to my left through the row that now has a kid walking with a red shirt and jacket on his shoulder:

The ball was going into the bullpen, specifically a part of the bullpen that forms a triangle.

I was about 1 ½ sections from where the ball landed, and by the time it land I was ½ a section from where it landed. Most of the people had given up because they saw it land in the bullpen, but I was running full speed still and I kept running. The ball bounced off the floor, off the back wall and back into the seats. (“Never has a ball bounced out of the bullpen,” Ballhawk Nick said). It landed right where I was, and I caught it on the move and on the fly for my 9^th ball of the day.

I wouldn’t have gotten the ball had I not had the empty row to run through (which in the photo below has a kid walking through it):

That ball was my last of BP. I failed to make it to the dugout for the end of BP, but I was in RF and saw some Reds signing at the foul line, so I ran over there.

As I got there I got a couple autographs:

Jay Bruce signed my 8^th autograph at the line (I neglected to get a photo of him)

Laynce Nix signed my 9^th autograph closer to the dugout (I got a photo of him):

Chris Dickerson signed my 10^th autograph in the camera pit (another photo):

And Finally Adam Rosales signed my 11^th autograph a bit to my right (I got a photo of him):

There was nothing to do, so I waited until there was some pre-game action. I had seats at the dugout because I didn’t know how crabby or strict security would be (they were). But that allowed me to get the autograph of one of my favorite pitchers who was signing at the dugout: Micah Owings. I got him for my 12^th autograph of the night, but it wasn’t my last.

I went over to the foul line and got Wladimir Balentein to sign my 13^th autograph when he came over to sign for some college girls.

I also got a baseball tossed to me.

Paul Janish brought out a baseball to play catch with Adam Rosales at the foul line. I have been noticing recently that sometimes the baseballs used to play catch with belong to the player it was brought out with. But that didn’t happen. Adam was farther away from me and he ended up with the ball. But that didn’t stop me from getting it as I easily got him to toss me my 10^th baseball, the one that broke double digits for the night! The 5^th time this season.

Remember how I said security was extremely strict? I had seats in the middle of the row on the wrong end of the dugout, so I couldn’t go for baseballs over there, and the competition was intense as it seemed that about 15 little kids had aisle or first row seats. So yeah it was extremely difficult. I was shut out or the first third of the night. The kids at the other end of the dugout ended up with the balls. Then I was shut out for the second third of the night. Billy Hatcher ended up giving up about 12 balls through the night, but I didn’t get a ball from him. And then the final third of the night came. What did I get? A ball!

Jared Burton struck out Garret Jones (strike out a meaner person next time) and then Craig Tatum walked in with the ball. He pointed at me, flipped the ball in the air to his other hand and threw me a strike for my 11^th ball.

That was my last baseball. I was hoping to get another, but it wasn’t meant to be. 7 of the 11 baseaballs had a practice stamp on the sweetspot.

I did get enjoy KC & The Sunshine Band for longer than an hour.

So the night ended with a little music at a baseball stadium, the second time this year for me.

Stats:

11 MLB Balls Today
13 MLB Autographs Today
1 Game Used Item Today
176 MLB Autographs in this Season
215 Total Autographs in this Season
249 MLB Balls in this Season
270 Total Balls in this Season
7 Thrown, 2 Hit, 1 Found, 1 Glove Trick
9 BP, 1 Pre-Game, 1 During
Attendance: 32,570
Competition Factor: 358,270
6.39 Balls / 1 Game
39 Consecutive Games with at least 3 MLB Baseballs
29 Consecutive Games with at least 1 MLB Autograph
24 Consecutive Games with at least 4 MLB Baseballs

Posted on August 26, 2009 at 5:47 pm
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Filed in: Dailies
Tags: Adam Rosales, All-Star Series 2002, Allegheny River, ballhawks, Batted Balls, Brandon Moss, Brian Bixler, Bullpen, Carlos FIsher, Chris Dickerson, Craig Tatum, Denny Bautista, Double Digits, Drew Stubbs, Easter Eggs, Erik, Game Used Bat, Gary Varsho, Half-Glove Trick, Japan, Jarod Burton, Jason Jaramillo, Jay Bruce, Jimi Hendrix, Joe Kerrigan, Joel Hanrahan, KC & The Sunshine Band, Laynce Nix, Lucky Bounce, Micah Owings, Nick, Paul Janish, pirates, PNC Park, Roberto Clemente Bridge, Ross Ohlendorf, Scuffs, Tony Beasley, Warning Track, Wladimir Balentein

8/20/09 Tigers vs. Mariners

No batting practice here is worse than no batting practice at Yankee Stadium. Shocking right? At Comerica Park you have 90 minutes of time before the game starts, not so strict security, and dugout and bullpen areas accessible. At New Yankee Stadium you have 3 hours of time before the game starts, semi-to-strict security, and the dugouts aren’t accessible, but the bullpens are. At Yankee Stadium the extra 90 minutes gives much more times to get baseballs and the strict security keeps out the not-so-skilled people. At Comerica Park it’s only 90 minutes and security lets people move freely. So there are much more crowds and much less opportunities at Comerica.

Because of the way Comerica is run I only got two balls before the game, and it took a while to get both of them.

My 1^st baseball started off soon after the gates opened. After the gates opened I ran inside and saw that the tarp was on the field, but I also saw that two Tigers were running along the foul line. Not good. The people (Armando Gallaraga and a trainer) hadn’t thrown yet because they needed to get loose first (running) so by the time they would start throwing a crowd would have formed.

That was exactly what happened. They started throwing a while later, during which some more players came out to throw also in front of a large crowd with many kids.

Those players were Ryan Perry and a Translator for Tainwanese pitcher Fu-Te Ni, who was throwing with Zach Miner. A loose ball ended up getting away from the Translator, and it rolled to the wall, but somebody scooped the ball from over the wall. And then they finished first and tossed the ball to somebody else. Fu-Te Ni and Zach Miner finished soon after, and since I positioned myself right behind them, they tossed me the ball before they went in (1^st ball).

I went over to the Mariners side where some pitchers were throwing, but I picked the wrong place every time. Although after David Aardsma threw I got his autograph for my 1^st autograph.

Then when King Felix Hernandez (who suddenly became nice this season) started signing a bit further down the foul line a bit later I got him to sign my 2^nd autograph.

There was only one pair left throwing over by the Mariners, but the Tigers had a couple, so I went over there. But before I got to where the people were throwing lets get to some players signing. From the other side of the stadium I could see that Fu-Te Ni, Ryan Perry and Zach Miner were signing on the foul line for an incredibly long time. But by the time that I got over there Zach Miner was no longer signing and Ryan and Fu-Te were in close proximity. I tried getting Fu-Te, but it seemed as though he was only signing for people who had a spot on the wall, so I got Ryan Perry first for my 3^rd autograph.

Then I moved about 15 feet to the right of Fu-Te and grabbed a spot on the wall. I was right and he signed for me, my 4^th autograph.

Then I moved down to where the pitchers were throwing, but no baseballs were to be had, only an autograph, Fernando Rodney. I don’t get why ALL the kids were calling him “Rodney”. Not “Fernando”, not “Mr. Rodney”, just “Rodney”. Well anyway I got “Fernando Rodney” for my 5^th autograph after waiting for a bit.

It was getting right before game time and I only had one ball. It was one of the worst beginnings I’ve had. I had to recuperate and snag a few more baseballs, so when I looked at the crowds on each side I picked the visiting team’s side. It was a good choice; I would’ve had no chance over by the Tigers side, but by the Mariners side? I was the only person there, so I was the only Mariners fan. It was too easy, so when Michael Saunders and Jack Hannahan started throwing where the players stretch the ball was as good as mine. Michael ended up with it, saw my Mariners stuff, and flung me the ball as I ran forward and made the back-handed grab for my 2^nd ball.

There were no more pre-game throwing except at the dugout, where Jose Lopez threw with someone I couldn’t remember. But he didn’t give the ball out. So I was trying to think of how to salvage my day. Should I try for third out balls first before the competition gets too intense? What about pre-inning warm-up balls? Should I go for foul balls? I looked at the area behind home plate and noticed that there were no second, third, fourth, etc. deck seats where foul balls would land, so they would bounce down to field level (or land in little openings). And also there was also a cross-aisle running right through the seats all through the seats. It seemed perfect so I had to go for it. It was a good decision. This was my view for lefties:

And my view for Righties:

And my view to my left:

It was in the Top of the 1^st Inning, the third batter of the inning. Jose Lopez was batting against Jarrod Washburn, who isn’t exactly a flame thrower. Jarrod Washburn was pitching. He loaded the count with a sinker down in the zone and then two back-to-back change-ups in basically the same spot. Apparently Jose wasn’t given the red light because he swung at the next pitch, a sinker on the outside part of the plate and fouled it off, but not back. But on the next pitch, a fastball up and in, a ball, he did. He basically fouled it straight back. It was going in a high arc to my left, so I ran over there. It landed in the second row of the Tigers’ Den (look at the first photo above) right next to a guy sitting down in a red shirt. But luckily it rolled down in the first row. It came into view underneath a seat and it started rolling towards me, so I stuck my arm through some metal bars and tried grabbing the ball. I pulled my arm out and in it was my 3^rd baseball of the day and 2^nd lifetime game ball! I didn’t know what to do, so I just held up the ball for a second and then went back to work. I scrapped my arm a bit from the metal bars, and the ball was a little scrapped from hitting the concrete, but I had the ball. Like I said it was scrapped a bit from the concrete underneath the MLB Player Silhouette and the Rawlings text had a bat mark on it, smudging it.

Even though I got that foul ball 3 baseballs wasn’t enough, but I wanted another foul ball. So I would go for foul balls for the first two outs, and when the second out was made I would head to the dugout of the team that would be coming off the field. I didn’t get any baseballs until the game was official. I ran down to the front row when the out was made for the bottom of the 5^th. Russell Branyan of the Mariners started jogging in with the ball he used to make the out and looked into the crowd. He looked into the crowd, flipped a ball up in the air, caught it back in his hand, and then tossed it to me, my 4^th ball.

There was a light drizzle about a inning later, but soon that light drizzle turned into rain. Rain hard enough to stop the rain and make me wet, but I realized that there would be a baseball that I could get from the Home Plate Umpire coming off the field. The baseballs would be ruined from the game, so he would want to get rid of them, right? But instead of going in through the umpire’s tunnel he went through the home dugout. But he must’ve not been allowed there because he, and another ump, soon came out and headed for the tunnel. I was at the top of the steps at that point, so I ran back down into the seats. He looked up and saw me coming down the steps, pulled a ball out of his pocket and flipped me my 5^th baseball and then went in the tunnel.

The Home Plate Umpire turned out to be Dan Iassonga.

Dan Iassonga.jpg

Even though I had used up the dugouts I still got higher than my average. You see there are these things called bullpens that usually use up a lot of baseballs during the game. In the 8^th Inning I went to one of them, the Tigers’ bullpen. Bobby Seay and Fernando Rodney were warming up in the bullpen.

Bobby was the one to go into the game, but instead of immediately giving the baseball out he put it on the pitchers mound where it laid untouched until I asked bullpen coach Jeff Jones for the ball. He walked over, picked up the ball and tossed it to me, my 6^th ball.

And then I moved over to the bullpen to my left, the Mariners’ bullpen. David Aardsma was warming up there. When they were done I asked the bullpen catcher, Jason Philips,

For the ball, but he said hold on a second and gave the ball to John Wetteland, and then he grabbed a ball from the bag and flipped it to me, my 7^th ball, the last one of the day.

Long story short, never, EVER go to Comerica Park if there is the slightest chance of no batting practice. It’s horrible, not worth you time. New Yankee Stadium is starting to look very good to me.

Stats:

7 MLB Balls Today
5 MLB Autographs Today
163 MLB Autographs in this Season
202 Total Autographs in this Season
238 MLB Balls in this Season
259 Total Balls in this Season
6 Thrown, 1 Hit
1 BP, 1 Pre-Game, 5 During
Attendance: 31,167 People
Competition Factor: 218,169
6.26 Balls / 1 Game
38 Consecutive Games with at least 3 MLB Baseballs
28 Consecutive Games with at least 1 MLB Autograph
23 Consecutive Games with at least 4 MLB Baseballs

Posted on August 25, 2009 at 2:26 pm
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Tags: Bobby Seay, Dan Iassonga, David Aardsma, Felix Hernandez, Fernando Rodney, Foul Ball, Fu-Te Ni, Game Ball, Jarrod Washburn, Jason Philips, Jeff Jones, Jose Lopez, Mariners, Michael Saunders, No BP, Rain Delay, Russell Branyan, tigers, Zach Miner

8/18/09 White Sox vs. Royals

There were no Easter Eggs or glove trick baseballs at “The Cell”. That meant that I’d have to ask the player shagging in left Field for the balls that rolled to the wall. That player would be the so-far-nice Josh Anderson. I asked him for the first ball that rolled to the Left Field wall when I was there, and he tossed me the ball, my 1^st ball.

The first group was predominantly lefties, so I moved over to Right Field. They were hitting some bombs, maybe twenty rows back into the furthest section. I have no clue who the hitters were, but they sure were good.

One bomb was about 12 rows over my head and 15 feet to my right (I was standing in row 6 on the aisle) when the seats were still fairly empty. As soon as the ball was hit I knew that it was a bomb, so I ran up the steps and saw the ball land in an empty row. It stayed put and didn’t trickle down any rows, so I ran into the row that it landed in and grabbed my 2^nd ball.

Then the same batter blasted another ball in a different round of swings. This time the ball landed in the section closest to the batters’ eye, a section 8 seats wide and one section to my right. I saw the ball land, so I ran to that row and saw the ball trickle down a row, and then another, and then another, and then another, where it stopped because it hit a seat’s support beam and it laid dead in the tow. I ran over and grabbed my 3^rd ball, which wouldn’t have been mine had it rolled one row further.

And then the photo below shows where the ball landed (red arrow) and where I picked it up (yellow arrow):

Joakim Soria, one of the last players on the Royals that I hadn’t gotten went over to the foul line to pick up some balls, and then he started signing.

So I got my ball and had him sign my 1^st autograph, put the ball back, and then immediately ran back into fair territory.

My 3^rd Ball would be my last ball in Right Field. I was over in Right Field when I saw a ball gets tossed to the first row, but it was knocked into the moat. When I saw that I immediately sprinted over to Left Field. When I got there I knew I needed to work fast because the only usher with an issue with using the glove trick patrols the moat and Left Field Bullpen. So I looked into the moat, but I saw nothing.

I asked the people around me and they pointed to a spot where they thought the ball had gone. It turns out it went underneath the overhang, so I wasn’t sure where it was or how far back it was. But eventually, after looking for a bit I saw it. It was about 1 foot underneath the overhang; you could only see it if you were directly on top of it. So I let out some string, swung the glove underneath the overhang and knocked the ball closer on the first try. I reeled up my glove, put the rubber band around the tip and the sharpie in the middle, and I reeled up my 4^th ball with ease.

Then about 3 little kids without gloves came running up to me asking for the ball. I politely said no because I:

A) Don’t give balls away to people who ask

B) Don’t feel I is right to give one ball to one kid in front of other kids of the same age.

But little did I know that these little kids would help me get a couple of baseballs.

I stayed over in Left Field for the rest of BP.

Joakim Soria fielded a ball in front of those little kids, and then another ball in the same spot.

Joakim Soria Headshot

He wanted to give them baseballs, but since they were about 3 or so and there were no adults in the front row I told Joakim that I would get a baseball and give it to a random kid there. He tossed me the baseball, which I then gave to an aforementioned random kid there. Since it wasn’t intended for anyone and I had the right to decide who to give it to I count it as my 5^th ball. Then he took the other baseball and tossed it to me, and this time he told me to give it to a specific kid. I pointed to the kid and said: “Him?” just to be safe, and when he nodded I gave it to that kid. That ball I didn’t count because I had to give it to that kid, it was intended for a specific person, and I caught it for them because they couldn’t. So then Joakim asked Bruce Chen, also in Left Field, for a baseball that he just retrieved. This time Joakim pointed to me and mouthed:

“You keep it.” So it was unlike a similar accident yesterday where I was standing on a chair, Joakim tossed me a ball, I caught it and then I fell backwards. This time I was standing on a chair in the second row and Joakim tossed me a ball, but I caught it without injury this time for my 6^th ball of the day, and last one for batting practice.

I tried to make it to the dugouts in time for the end of BP, but I was unsuccessful and got no balls there and like last time I got one autograph, Roman Colon (my 2^nd autograph).

I didn’t get anything at pre-game throwing because of the incredible competition.

A little Royals fan. Can’t compete with that.

Skip ahead to the game and in the Top of the 1^st inning Mike Jacobs flew out to Gordon Beckham who ran back to grab it, and then Gordon tossed the ball into the seats along the foul line. I was over 100 feet away from where he tossed it, but I still got a ball tossed to me by someone coming off the field.

Paul Konerko is ~~one of~~ the only First Basemen that I have seen toss the pre-inning warm-up ball into the crowd after each time that the inning ends. He catches it from the dugout, looks into the crowd and tosses it to someone. Well in the first inning he looked into the crowd and tossed it to me for my 7^th ball so far.

Since I had gotten a ball at the White Sox dugout so early I figured that I would sit at the Royals dugout as close as I could.

Well I noticed that in the Royals dugout that not only Bob McClure had a ball in his hands, but there was a ball sitting on the fence in front of Miguel Olivo who was a few feet to Bob’s left.

I think it was the Top of the 2^nd when I got there, but at the end of the 2^nd I asked Miguel Olivo for the baseball, and pointed to it. He looked in front of himself, saw the baseball, grabbed it, turned back toward me and tossed me my 8^th ball.

I made my goal for the night to be double digits after I got that ball. So I headed over to the bullpen to try for a ball. I saw that Roman Colon had a ball in his pocket, so I asked for it, but he lied and said he didn’t. And then not one Royal gave out a ball from the bullpen the entire night. In the Top of the 8^th when I saw that Roman had a ball I asked him again for it.

He gave it half his might and it fell short, and then even though it was his fault he kicked the ball into the bullpen and didn’t give me another try.

So no baseballs came my way during the game. At the end of the game I ran down to the dugout and got a spot in the corner and saw that Rusty Kuntz had a baseball that he was putting in his pocket and I asked him for it. He saw my Royals hat, walked closer and flipped me an extremely beaten up baseball for my 9^th ball of the night.

I put it away quickly so I could focus again on the dugout. I thought that that would be the last ball that I got. All the players had left an only a few remained, and they were being interviewed. I hoped that I a ballboy would find a baseball among the benches and give it to me, but that didn’t happen. I saw that Josh Anderson had a baseball, and I asked him for it, but then he started looking in the crowd for someone. He stood for a minute or two, looking, but he didn’t find the person, so he tossed it to the crowd to my left, but they bobbled it. So then he took the ball again and flipped it again into the crowd, and this time I caught it, but a kid next to me took it out of my glove, stood there for a moment and then walked off. I didn’t know what happened. He seemed extremely desperate to get a ball. But now I wasn’t sure whether to count it or not. I had it in my glove, and then he took it out of it. So did it count or not? I was flip-flopping on the decision when I remembered of an encounter that Ballhawk League Creator Erik Jabs had where a fan ripped a ball out of his glove and then tossed it back to him. He decided to count it, so I figured why shouldn’t I? So then I counted it, my 10^th ball of the night. Double Digits…

Stats:

10 MLB Balls Today
2 MLB Autographs Today
154 MLB Autographs in this Season
193 Total Autographs in this Season
231 MLB Balls in this Season
252 Total Balls in this Season
7 Thrown, 2 Hit, 1 Glove-Trick
6 BP, 2 During, 2 After
Attendance: 28,812 People
Competition Factor: 288,120
37 Consecutive Games with at least 3 MLB Baseballs
27 Consecutive Games with at least 1 MLB Autograph
22 Consecutive Games with at least 4 MLB Baseballs

Posted on August 24, 2009 at 2:20 pm
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Filed in: Dailies
Tags: After Game, Batted Balls, Given Away, Glove Trick, Joakim Soria, Josh Anderson, Miguel Olivo, Moat, Paul Konerko, Pre-Inning Warm-Up Balls, Roman Colon, Royals, Rusty Kuntz, Scuffed, Taken Balls, White Sox

8/17/09 White Sox vs. Royals

My fourth Royals game this vacation, this time at US Cellular Field.

I arrived to the game 20 minutes before the gates opened. I went to the gate closest to right field and saw “The Happy Youngster” Nick Yohanek at that gate.

I stopped to talk with him and he let me go in with him. My goal for the day was 10. We decided that we should try for 20+ combined. But that didn’t happen.

After running up the ramps and showing my ticket to the guard in the 100 level, I ran into the seats. I saw Bob McClure in the bullpen with a non-rubbed up baseball, so I assumed he picked it off the ground. I asked him for it and he tossed me my 1^st ball.

After not finding any Easter Eggs in right field, I went to left field and checked the moat.

There were two balls there. Nick went for one and I went for the other. The ball was a bit under the overhang, so I had to knock it out from underneath. When I finally knocked it out from underneath, I lowered my glove over it and reeled up my 2^nd ball.

Batted balls were flying all around as I rolled up my string. I saw Nick catch some on the fly, and then one was coming right to me. I moved maybe 2 steps or so to make sure that the ball wouldn’t hit me because it was coming exactly to me, and the ball clanged off a metal bench above me. I didn’t have my glove on, so I waited for the ball to take a lucky bounce. It didn’t bounce, it rolled. It rolled down the steps to me. To prevent it from rolling past me, I stuck my foot out. My foot stopped the ball in its tracks and then I reached down and picked up my 3^rd ball. As you can see from the photo below it got scuffed up from smacking the ground:

I tried moving around in the outfield to catch fly balls, but it was crowded. Not New Yankee Stadium crowded, just enough to block off a lot of rows. I was going to look at the bullpen for balls, but before that I asked Luke Hochevar for a ball in the left-center corner while standing on a seat. He saw my Royals gear and threw me my 4^th ball.

I got a ball like that later, but more painful, but before that I went to the bullpen to see if any balls were to be glove-tricked.

There were a couple balls, but just as I got there, Rusty Kuntz came into pick up balls that were there.

There was one ball that could be mine in a couple seconds, so I told Rusty:

“Leave it there. I can get it.”

So he stood there and watched, kicked it closer when it needed to be, and laughed as I reeled up my 5^th ball.

Now here’s a story. Since the front row had become crowded, I stood on a seat in the second row and waved my arms and John Bale tossed me a ball, but a kid in front of me deflected it into the moat.

No problem, right?

Wrong.

Just as I lowered my glove down to get it, another kid with a glove trick came over and lowered his glove. I asked him if I could try to get it and he raised his trick up, but when I raised mine up to loosen the band a bit he lowered his.

I told him I wasn’t done, but he wouldn’t listen. I tried knocking the ball away from him, but our strings got tangled.

So I raised the glove to try and untangle it. The kid was calling his brother over to get the ball with his device. Not so fast. I gave Nick permission to get it, so he did, and then graciously helped untangle the string for a couple minutes. It probably cost me and Nick a ball or two, and we weren’t too happy. Because of that incident, left field became dead. But there was some action at the dugout. Mitch Maier came in and started signing, and since I was focused on ballhawking at that moment and it was too far away (it would take my minutes to get there and get his autograph) my brother took the baseball and got Mitch Maier to sign it for me, my 1^st autograph. Remember, an autograph is not the same as a baseball and has different rules. But now let’s get back to the Ballhawking.

So Nick and I moved to right field. Remember about that painful ball that I mentioned earlier? I was standing on a seat (again) and calling to Joakim (Waa-keem) Soria for a ball that rolled to the center field wall. He saw my Royals shirt and threw me the ball. But it was high. I wanted that ball.

So I jumped off the seat.

I reached up high.

I grabbed the ball out of the air, but then I fell back.

I was heading for the seat, then Nick, who was behind me, slowed me down, and I barely hit the seats. I wasn’t sure if I still had the baseball because my glove felt right, so I opened it up and saw that the ball was tucked in the very tip of the glove, not going anywhere. So there it was, I had my 6^th baseball. I stood up and showed Joakim that I had the ball, and he gave me a thumbs up.

That was my last ball of BP. I made it late to the dugout. So I got no balls and only Alex Gordon’s autograph (my 2^nd autograph.).

There’s another story from the game.

In the first inning, a Royal hit a home run into the White Sox bullpen. As soon as it landed, I was off. I got there and the ball was in the front of the bullpen.

Two people that I recognized were already there though, Todd and his son Tim. They write a blog with the URL http://cookandsonbats.mlblogs.com and they were standing in the concourse when they saw the home run land, so they ran down to look at it. A little bit later, Nick came also and we grabbed two seats on the aisle about 8 rows back. Since the seats were wet, I was wiping them down when another home run was hit. Nick and I ran down, but the home run landed in the bullpen, a couple feet from Nick’s glove. Guess what happened? Juan Nieves, the bullpen coach, grabbed the White Sox home run and threw it into the crowd. Guess where it landed? IN the seat I was in before I ran down to the bullpen. And then a security guard grabbed the other home run and gave it to a kid who didn’t know what was happening and wasn’t even asking for it.

First Braun’s homer, then this. And the competition was intense at the dugouts. I only got one more ball, my 7^th ball. It was from an unknown Royals pitcher after the game, it was also my last ball of the day.

Stats:

7 MLB Balls Today
2 MLB Autographs Today
152 MLB Autographs in this Season
191 Total Autographs in this Season
221 MLB Balls in this Season
242 Total Balls in this Season
4 Thrown, 2 Glove Trick, 1 Hit
6 BP, 1 After
Attendance: 36,703 People
Competition Factor: 256,921
6.14 Balls / 1 Game
36 Consecutive Games with at least 3 MLB Baseballs
26 Consecutive Games with at least 1 MLB Autograph
21 Consecutive Games with at least 4 MLB Baseballs

Oh, and two more cool photos:

Posted on August 21, 2009 at 12:46 pm
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Filed in: Dailies
Tags: Alex Gordon, Baseball, Batted Balls, Bob McClure, BP, Bullpens, Falling, Glove Trick, Injury, Joakim Soria, Mitch Maier, Moat, Nick Yohanek, rain, Rainbow, Royals, Rusty Kuntz, The Happy Youngster, US Cellular Field, White Sox

8/16/09 Cubs vs. Pirates

I almost didn’t want to go to the Pirates hotel this day even though it was on the same block and around the corner (the hotel is the Westin. EVERY baseball (and I believe sports) team in Chicago stays at that hotel, except two: The Yankees and The Cardinals because one of their pitchers, Darryl Kile, died in that hotel). I wanted to stay in MY hotel and just sleep. But that would’ve been a horrible mistake.

The first people to come out where three players. I approached one of them randomly and got him to sign, and he signed he stupid autograph on the sweetspot for my 1^st autograph and then I went over to the next player who after looking at some person’s cards was Charlie Morton. I got him to sign my 2^nd autograph.

The first player after some confusion was Steven Jackson. Then I saw a very tall player about to come out through the main entrance. He was Donald Veal and I got him to sign my 3^rd autograph.

Since it was the final game of the series all the players would have to check out before they leave for the game. I saw one player sign out, carry some luggage, and he just looked like a *star*. So one of the other collectors told me that he was Ramon Vasquez, and he signed my 4^th autograph. And while getting Vasquez another player sneaked past everyone and was walking along the sidewalk. But since I saw that most of the players were tall, and this guy was, I ran over to get the guy (Kevin Hart) for my 5^th autograph.

Matt Capps had been taunting everyone by just sitting inside for an extremely long period of time. Some people were getting impatient, but I knew that he was waiting for someone. That someone was Joel Hanrahan. They both came out together and I got Matt Capps first for my 6^th autograph and Joel second for my 7^th autograph.

. A guy that I recognized as Denny Bautista came out and I got him for my 8^th autograph. I noticed his Colorado Rockies ring and said “Nice ring.”

All of the people at that point had exited through the main door but after a while two people exited for the door to get on the bus. Those two people were Brandon Moss and Zach Duke, who signed my 9^th and 10^th autographs respectively.

Then two more players went to get on the bus: Luis Cruz and Delwyn Young. I went for Cruz first and got my 11^th autograph and was worried that I would miss Delwyn, but I didn’t, and he signed my 12^th autograph.

Jesse Chavez came out after getting a Starbucks and signed for everyone (my 13^th autograph) and then he got on the bus and Ryan Doumit and Jeff Karstens came out in quick succession, not together and I got both of them for my 14^th and 15^th autographs respectively.

All of this had happened so fast that I needed to stop for a moment to take notes, but it was hard to get a break on that. When I started taken notes Jason Jaramillo came out and started signing and I was unprepared and only got him on one for my 16^th autograph. So I tried to catch up on about the previous 5 or so people, but I only got 3 done because Paul Maholm came out and I got him for my 17^th autograph. Since most of the players had already left there finally was time for a break to take notes on what had happened. After I finished with the notes I noticed that Garret Jones, who had been talking to people inside for a while had stood up and started making his way for the door. He came, was incredibly nice, and signed my 18^th autograph.

The next person was my last person, and everyone else’s at the hotel (Milledge and McCutchen wouldn’t sign). He was Andy Laroche. He came out and signed for everyone even though he was in a rush. He signed one ball for my 19^th autograph because I accidentally called him the wrong name.

He got on the bus and as soon as he got on the bus left for Wrigley Field and so did I.

I went outside onto Sheffield Avenue before the gates opened to try and snag some baseballs.

None came to me, or over onto Sheffield. The game time was 1:20pm which confused me a lot in that I wasn’t really sure about the schedule. After the Bleacher Season Ticket Holders got in early they let everyone else in, including the about 15 people on line for the Bleacher Box. I rushed over to the Left Field, general admission bleachers for the first while. It got crowded quickly because people wanna get a good seat since it’s general admission.

The wind was intense, really intense. At one point my Cubs hat got blown onto Waveland Street (I got it back) and it was so crazy there also. One guy pulled down my backpack, forcing me to fall, while going for a home run ball and I lost my Cubs picture roster. Luckily before I lost it I was able to identify some unknown players like #36 Randy Wells. Since I thought that nobody knew his name I asked Randy for a ball when it rolled to him. He tossed me my 1^st ball in the insanely crowded Left Field, which got even more crowded and forced me to move to Right Field.

I knew another unknown player’s number and name who was shagging over there, Justin Berg, and when a ball rolled to the wall I got him to toss it to me, but it fell short and hit of the railing. It was his fault, he retrieved the ball, and tossed it to me again, which this time it made it on the mark for my 2^nd ball and people actually applauded. I don’t know why. I got the ball tossed to me once, it fell short (his fault), he picked up the ball again and tossed it to me a second time, and I caught it as one of the easiest catches ever, and people applauded. Was there something that I didn’t get???

But then I retreated after that to the foul line where the Pirates were throwing.

I didn’t see the Pirates give out any balls; they just threw them back to the bucket. So then I retreated to my Bleacher Box section which surprisingly had about 15 people including 6 or so kids. The Pirates hit no home runs into the bleacher box section except one. It was coming about 3 seats wide to my left and about 3 rows up. It was hit on a line so the ball traveled farther faster. I ran up the steps to get in position, turned around, and the ball clanged off the seat right next to me and ricocheted back onto the field. I was mad about that, I should’ve been more prepared. I did ask Chris Bootcheck for a ball that rolled to the ivy and he flipped up my 3^rd ball.

Then another ball rolled to the wall, but this time the Hispanic Denny Bautista retrieved it. I asked him “Da me la bola por favor?” And he flipped up my 4^th ball.

Even though just about every kid had gotten a ball in the Bleacher Box AND they continued to ask for more I could hear some people start to grumble, so I gave the ball to a little girl with a glove who hadn’t gotten a ball (the one in the the pink to the right of me with a glove).

And finally I got one more ball during batting practice. Bullpen Catcher Herberto “Herbie” Andrade retrieved a ball that rolled to the wall. I called out “Herbie, Herbie, Herbie!” And when he looked up I opened and closed the flap of my glove and said: “Da me la bola por favor?” And Herberto tossed up my 5^th ball.

I decided at that moment to head over to the dugout to get ready for the end of BP when I saw Andrew McCutchen signing. At Wrigley they only let you down to some sections if someone is signing. Since someone was signing the ushers let me down with no hassle whatsoever and he signed my 1^st autograph.

Then I made my way over to the dugout. Remember how it was a 1:20 game? Well BP went on for another 20 minutes, but I saw that I wouldn’t have gotten any balls out there, so I waited for everyone to come in. And as I was sitting there a miracle happened right before BP ended: It rained. Not hard enough to force all the players to run in immediately, but hard enough that most of the people in the field level seats ran for cover. BP continued as normal and when they started coming in only 10 people were in the seats beneath me.

I was looking at the players coming in to see if anybody was carrying a baseball. Jason Jaramillo who was batting picked up a loose baseball that was lying near the cage and he started walking in. I waved my arms and yelled his name to get him to throw me the baseball. He took the ball and threw it to me, but it fell two rows short and rolled into an empty row. I climbed over the rows to get to the ball and grabbed my 6^th ball and climbed back into the cross-aisle. Then I saw a player (possibly Paul Maholm) walking in from the outfield with a baseball and I got him to toss me my 7^th ball (clean catch).

And then I saw Jeff Karstens (who is easily recognizable) walking in with about three baseballs. I called him out and waved my arms and he tossed me the ball. It was falling short, so I leaned over the back row of seats and reached way out. I put my other hand on a seat to prevent me from falling and I reached out and caught my 8^th ball in the tip of my glove. That was when a security guy remarked:

“Three is enough.”

Everyone other Pirates pitcher had gone in, so all I could do was wait for the game to start. But the game didn’t start. It rained all the way through and just when it started becoming extremely light and clear a guy from the Cubs dugout came out and made the “It’s Off!” sign with his hands. I was sitting in the third row right next to the dugout. All the Pirates players in it started walking off, but Garret Jones lingered a bit. I saw that he had a wristband, so I asked him for it. He walked over and tossed me my 1^st game used item of the day! And then he ended up tossing the guy next to me his batting gloves. I went back up to put some stuff away and they had cut all the ushers off their jobs so I was able to walk freely down to the dugout again. I saw a guy coming from the Pirates dugout with 4 baseballs in his hand. I asked him for one and then he tossed me my 9^th baseball, the final one at Wrigley for this year.

My Next Destination? Chicago. More specifically: US Cellular Field.

Stats:

20 MLB Autographs Today
9 MLB Balls Today
150 MLB Autographs in this Season
189 Total Autographs in this Season
214 MLB Balls in this Season
235 Total Balls in this Season
9 Thrown
5 BP, 3 Pre-Game, 1 After
Attendance: Rainout (1)
Competition Factor: Rainout (1)
6.11 Balls / 1 Game
35 Consecutive Games with at least 3 MLB Baseballs
25 Consecutive Games with at least 1 MLB Autograph
20 Consecutive Games with at least 4 MLB Baseballs

Not Pictured: Steven Jackson on the sweetspot.

Posted on August 18, 2009 at 1:41 pm
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Filed in: Dailies
Tags: Andrew McCutchen, Bleacher Box, BP Wrap-Up, Chris Bootcheck, Cubs, Denny Bautista, Employees, Garret Jones, Herbie Andrade, Hotels, Jason Jaramillo, Jeff Karstens, Justin Berg, Paul Maholm, pirates, Randy Wells, Team Ball, Westin Hotel, Wrigley Field

8/14/09 Brewers vs. Astros

Next Destination: Miller Park. The gates would be opening at 5:30, but I got into the stadium at 4:15. How?

There’s a Friday’s restaurant in Miller Park. You enter by the Friday’s sign on the third base side, have your ticket scanned on game days and take a table.

There are two patios with a view of the field that you can snag baseballs from: the inner patio and the bullpen patio (outer). I choose the latter and looked for balls in the bullpen to get via glove trick.

There was one ball in the bullpen.

There’s a net extending 3 feet out of so to prevent stuff from falling from the tables into the bullpen. I made it a bit difficult to reel in balls, but I was able to knock it closer a bit.

After about 10 minutes and 3 dropped sharpies I had my 1^st ball reeled up.

Since there were no balls left in the bullpen I went to check the moat in front of the inner patio. There was also one ball in the moat.

I asked someone if I could try to get it and they moved a bit. I lowered my glove, dropped it over the ball, and had the balls easily, but as I was reeling it up the ball dropped!

I lowered it over the ball again, but now it was too loose. So after reeling my glove up, tightening the band just a bit, and lowering it again I went back to work. I lowered my glove over the ball, jiggled it to make sure it was in, and reeled up my 2^nd ball.

Another ball landed in the bullpen and I threw my glove out to knock it closer,

But Brewers’ Bullpen Catcher Marcus Hanel told me to stop. I read off an encounter Ballhawk League Founder Erik Jabs had with Marcus that Marcus considered the glove trick stealing. So I rolled up my string and waited for a home run.

Mike Cameron yanked a big one out to the furthest table to center in Friday’s. The guy situated at that table caught it on the fly with his bare hands.

Then a swing or two later he launched one to the same spot. The guy didn’t try to catch it this time and he let it bounce out of Friday’s. It clanged off a stand or something and went high in the ait. I hopped over an annoying railing and grabbed my 3^rd ball as it came back down to earth.

That was my last ballat Friday’s When all the gates opened I bolted inside to where the Astros were throwing. I got nothing quickly, but then I saw that the person throwing with Darin Erstad (the player I now believe is Michael Bourn) threw a ball that tipped off Darin’s glove and rolled to the wall. He had another one, so he didn’t walk over to get it, so I moved over to where I though it was.

Nobody noticed the ball or picked it up, so I leaned over the wall, knocked it closer with my glove and grabbed my 4^th ball of the day and No. 200 Lifetime. Not exactly the way I’d like to snag #200, but a ball is a ball.

After I got that ball I got no other ones from the Astros when they were throwing. I went back to Friday’s to see if I could get any balls in the moat. There was one ball there that I was trying to knock closer. It was able 1 foot out from the back wall, but there was also a metal beam that jutted out about 8 inches. I had to keep tossing my glove out, trying to land it on the ball, and then immediately pull back, but it wasn’t working. At one point two groundscrew members came in and I asked them for the ball, but they just ignored me and kept walking into the bullpen, and when they came out of the bullpen I asked again, but they ignored me again! Finally a police officer came in to the moat and I asked him for the ball. He picked it up and tossed it to me, but it was too far out and it fell back in the moat. I said that he could just put it in the glove, so he did, very firmly, and while doing so he knocked the sharpie out of the glove. He took up the sharpie and started scribbling on the ball.

“No! Don’t do that!” I yelled and he stopped. I reeled up my 5^th ball and he went over and pocketed another ball that landed there for himself.

I made my way up to the LF Bleachers above Friday’s expecting to get a ball or two, but no. The Astros weren’t hitting them to me, and the players down below weren’t being too generous, so I got nothing up there and I left to go to the Astros Dugout for the end of BP. It ended up being a terrible decision. The Astros kept pelting the seats with homers that I was just in and I didn’t get any balls at the Astros dugout because I couldn’t identify any of them, even with my picture roster. Doug Brocali *did* sign my 1^st autograph, but that was it!

So I headed back to Friday’s to see if I could get anything. There was nothing in the moat, but there were three balls in the bullpen. One was too far out, the other two balls I could’ve gotten. I tried knocking them closer, but some bullpen workers appeared before I could get them close enough.

I asked them for one of the balls, but he ignored me and started setting up the bullpen for the players. Luckily when he was done he took one of the balls, one that I had wanted because of a marking on the sweetspot, and tossed me my 6^th ball.

I moved over to where the Astros would be stretching in hopes of getting something. Kazuo Matsui and his trainer started throwing on the foul line and I asked the trainer for the ball in Japanese, but he didn’t give it to me. I did learn how to ask for the ball in a proper Japanese accent from a Japanese cameraman. My favorite Astro Hunter Pence started walking in so I called out “Hunter! Hunter!” in hopes that he would come over to sign. I wouldn’t be telling you this had I not gotten it, so yes I got Hunter Pence to sign my 2^nd autograph.

Here are the only two autographs from the game:

I barely missed out on Michael Bourn’s signing. I was the next person for him to sign for before he left.

All the players went in, so I went into a great foul ball in Miller Park, the cross-aisle right in front of the press box. But since I didn’t have a ticket there, I got kicked out of that. I then moved to a foul ball spot along the right field line, but I kicked out in about 10 seconds. And then I came close to Ryan Braun’s 1^st Inning Home Run even though I was about 400 feet away from where it landed. It landed in a closed off box next to the Center Field Ivy.

Another kid and I waited out there and someone retrieved it, but he gave it to the other kid. I was so P-O’d from everything that happened in the first inning that I just wanted to sit in one place and watch the game. Even though I was incredibly p*ssed I still ran down to the first row when Jason Bourgeois (pronounced Boo-jwaa) grounded to Geoff Blum who threw the ball to Lance Berkman to make the third out. I ran down to the front row and realized that I was at the wrong end of the dugout. So I cut though the first row to some empty seats there and got Lance Berkman to toss me my 7^th ball.

I made my mission to get 10 balls on the night so I kept switching dugouts. At one point I asked First Base Coach for the Brewers for the next inning warm-up ball. When that time came he disappeared into the dugout with the ball, but I stayed there just in case he came out randomly. He didn’t come out randomly, but he did flip the ball over the dugout about 10 feet to my left. The people in those seats didn’t see the ball pop out of the dugout, so I was overjoyed when the body rolled off the dugout, bounced off one of them and plopped down on the ground where I picked up my 8^th baseball of the night, and hit my lip.

That was my last ball during the game. At the end of the game I tried to get an ump ball, but about 5 littler kids rushed the area and got balls. I tried to get a ball from the pitchers walking in from the bullpen, but to no avail. So how did I get my final baseball of the night? I peeked into the dugout to see if by any chance that there was a baseball was lying around. I stuck my camera out a bit to take a photo of the parts of the dugout I couldn’t see. I didn’t see any baseball, but I stuck down there for a bit longer. There was a guy in the dugout cleaning things up when all of a sudden I saw him get on his knees and look underneath the bench. He reached down, underneath the bench and pulled out a baseball. I asked him for the baseball and as he approached me he flipped me my 9^th baseball and my final one of the night, but I did get Geoff Blum and Jason Michaels’ autographs for my 3^rd and 4^th autographs respectively. The End.

The Practice Balls:

The “H” and “—-” Balls:

And The One Normal Game Rubbed Ball:

Next Game: Wrigley.

Stats:

9 MLB Balls Today
4 MLB Autographs Today
130 MLB Autographs in this Season
169 Total Autographs in this Season
205 MLB Balls in this Season
226 Total balls in this Season
5 BP, 1 Pre-Game, 2 During, 1 After
3 Glove Trick, 1 Hit, 5 Thrown
Attendance: 37,715
Competition Factor: 339,435
6.03 Balls / 1 Game
34 Consecutive Games with at least 3 MLB Baseballs
24 Consecutive Games with at least 1 MLB Autograph
19 Consecutive Games with at least 4 MLB Baseballs

Posted on August 16, 2009 at 11:31 pm
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Filed in: Dailies
Tags: After Game, Astros, Ball No. 200, Brewers, Doug Brocali, Ed Sedar, Foul Balls, Friday's, Friday's Front Row Restaurant, Game Ball, Geoff Blum, Glove Trick, H Ball, Hunter Pence, Jason Michaels, Lance Berkman, Line Ball, Michael Bourn, Mike Cameron, Miller Park, Moat, Overthrow, Policeman, Practice Ball, Ryan Braun, Warm-Up Ball

8/13/09 Twins vs. Royals

Arrived 40 minutes before the gates open to my last game at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. I knew there wouldn’t be BP, but I still wanted to be first on line for this game. Although I wasn’t first on line I was the first one through the ~~gates~~ revolving door.

When I ran in I was correct in that there wasn’t any BP. But a couple Twins were throwing along the foul line, so I moved over there.

Matt Guerrier was throwing with Brian Duesing (pair on left) and Nick Dammann (the Bullpen Catcher) was throwing with Scott Baker (player in follow through on right). I originally positioned myself behind Matt and Brian, but then I saw the Scott and Nick were finishing up first, so I moved two sections over. Since Nick was the Bullpen Catcher Scott was throwing some pitches to Nick while Nick was crouching down, so I had to wait a bit until they were actually done. When they were done I called out to Scott and asked for the ball. He tossed me my 1^st baseball.

I was the only one who called. I was the only one who reached for it. Metrodome logo ball. So I decided not to try and get a ball from Matt or Brian, I instead tried for an autograph from (very) recent call-up Jeff Manship.

He and Jose Mijares started signing (Jeff is #49, Jose is talking to Jeff in the photo below).

I was able to get Jeff on one for my 1^st autograph of the day, but when I tried to get Jose the kid right before me was the last one to get an autograph from him. Matt and Brian were no longer throwing, two guys with pullovers were, so I had no chance to get a ball from them.

I started moving along to get over to the Kansas City side when all of a sudden I saw a ball rolling towards home plate (marked by an X in the photo below). I realized that it was a passed ball thrown by Kyle Davies.

A Twins Employee started walking over to pick up the ball. I asked him for the ball and he pointed to an open space in the protective netting. I moved over there and waited and he tossed me my 2^nd baseball so far.

So after that point I moved over to the Right Field Corner. Some Royals started throwing (John Bale with Luke Hochevar, Robinson Tejada with a Trainer, etc.),

And when Tejada finished the Trainer walked over and kicked out a loose ball that had been lying against the wall.

I asked him for the ball in a generic request and he tossed me the ball, but it fell short, into the gap! I am not sure how many throws have landed into the gap, but there’s another. Luckily since he had two balls he took the other one that he had and tossed me my 3^rd baseball.

1^st Round Pick Luke Hochevar finished up and I walked over to where he was going to try and get him to sign. Luke walked over to the people at the foul line and started signing. He signed my 2^nd autograph so far, and the team ball was getting pretty full.

That was my last autograph of the day. I didn’t get any autographs where the Royals stretched. Willie Bloomquist ended up with the ball where the Royals stretch after he threw and he tossed me one the previous day in the same spot. Billy Butler ended up with a ball over by where they stretched and he was going to use it for the before inning infield warm-up ball. One of my goals for the day was to get a foul ball during the game, but before I headed over there I went over to the Twins dugout to try and get a Pre-Game warm-up ball. Orlando Cabrera came out to throw with Nick Punto, and since Cabrera is more experienced he’d end up with the ball. I was right and when they were done he ended up with it and Orlando showed the ball to the crowd and then he tossed it to the people. I just half-heartedly stuck my glove out and my 4^th baseball went into my glove. It was a Metrodome ball (yes).

After that I went into my foul ball spot. This photo shows the location of it:

It was a great spot. To my left was about 4 empty seats and then a cross-aisle right in front of some seats embedded into the wall that was about 20 feet long.

To my right was a cross aisle about 50 feet long with some handicap seats.

And directly in front of me was just a plain old aisle.

So I pretty much had about 85 feet of space to run back and forth between. But at times the aisle to my right got really crowded.

If a foul ball was shot back over the screen then it would either:

1) Go into the Upper Deck.

2) Fly straight into the seats without striking anything.

3) Bounce of the rim just below the Upper Deck and ricochet 4 Rows from the back or

4) Bounce of the back wall and land in the cross-aisle.

The problem was that the two starters, Gil Meche and Carl Pavano, weren’t, but if so, BARELY hitting 90. In other words, there wouldn’t be many foul balls. And that was exactly what happened. One foul ball did what #3 above was, and it was in the first third of the game. That was the only foul ball during that point that came anywhere close to me. I had already decided that in the 8^th I would go over to the Royals dugout to try and find a seat for the end of the game since they were winning. So there were 4 innings for foul balls to land near me, and even then there wasn’t that good of a chance of me getting one. The majority of batters were left-handers though, and I stood up for them. Whenever they hit a foul ball I would flinch. But one time I had to flinch.

Top of the 4^th. First batter of the inning. The Left-Handed Mark Teahen steps up to bat. Carl Pavano delivers one pitch to Mark Teahen. On the outside wall, borderline call, it is called a ball. 1-0. Carl Pavano throws the second pitch of the at-bat. It is outside, a ball, but Mark swings at it anyway. He fouls it off, back. It goes over the netting about 15 feet to my right. As soon as he makes contact I was off. I had a few seconds to get there. I bolt over to my right, the ball flies over the heads of the people sitting in the handicap seats. It bounces off the wall, specifically a banner, specifically a giant Twins symbol right in the center of said banner. I bounces off the wall heading back towards the seats, but I get there in time and I am able to get my 5^th baseball and my 1^st lifetime game ball. Wow.

It was awesome. The ball felt slick, it left a mark on the banner and the banner left a mark on it.

The bat left a nice smudge on the ball.

I sat back down and that was the second (and last) ball to reach that area the entire night. So it was my last foul ball of the night. And my last ball of the night. I tried to get something from the Royals, but to no avail.

But I’m not complaining. Many people have said that the Metrodome is a tough, really tough place to ballhawk. I was somehow was able to milk the Metrodome for all that I was worth. Maybe it was the low attendance due to the Royals. Maybe it was luck. I had gotten 20 balls in 3 games, and I’m not really sure how it all worked. I guess it may’ve been because I didn’t focus on staying in left field to catch home runs, I wandered all over the place throughout the games. But whatever it was, it was just a good time.

Stats:

5 MLB Balls Today
2 MLB Autographs Today
126 MLB Autographs in this Season
165 Total Autographs in this Season
196 MLB Balls in this Season
217 Total Balls in this Season
3 BP, 1 Pre-Game, 1 During
4 Thrown, 1 Hit
Attendance: 32,373
Competition Factor: 161,865
5.94 Balls / 1 Game
33 Consecutive Games with at least 3 MLB Baseballs
23 Consecutive Games with at least 1 MLB Autograph
18 Consecutive Games with at least 4 MLB Baseballs

Posted on August 15, 2009 at 6:30 pm
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Filed in: Dailies
Tags: 40 Min. Prior, Banner, Carl Pavano, Commemorative Metrodome Baseball, Employees, First Lifetime Game Ball, Foul Ball, Foul Ball Spot, Jeff Manship, Jose Mijares, Lefties, Luke Hochevar, Mark Teahen, Metrodome, Nick Dammann, Orlando Cabrera, Scott Baker, Trainer, Upper Deck, Workers

8/12/09 Twins vs. Royals

I got to the hotel around 3 today and the bus was already outside. I thought I had missed a bunch of people, but it turns out not many of them signed. Soon after I got there Kyle Davies came out with his iPod. He signed for everyone including me, my 1^st autograph, and instead of getting on the bus he got in a cab. Soon after David DeJesus, Willie Bloomquist, and John Buck came out to (again) go in a cab. David wouldn’t sign, and I approached John Buck who signed my 2^nd autograph. I tried to get Willie, but he got in a cab before I could get him.

One of the guys I (and about everyone else) wanted was Zack Grienke. Everyone was keeping an eye on where he would be. They saw Zack go into a mall, so the collectors went into the mall to try and get him. He said no and went into a smoothie place. I saw two other players in the smoothie place and they came out to where we were. One was Jamey Wright (who I have) and the other was Ron Mahay. I got Ron Mahay for my 3^rd autograph and then went outside. By that point a lot of the players had already left, so then the 9 or so collectors turned in 1. I was waiting until the bus left and while waiting I saw Frank White in the lobby. I got out a new baseball out and approached him as he got out (as did the other collector and my brother).

“Ya’ guys nervous, ain’t cha?” I was a bit. But he signed my baseball on the sweetspot for my 4^th autograph. Nobody else came out to get on the bus so we left for the ballpark.

I entered the Metrodome this day hoping for a day like the 11^th. The Royals were taking BP again, instead of the Twins. There was one guy that I had befriended last game, he gave ms some tips on the Metrodome. But when an unknown Royal fielded a ball and I asked for it he said:

“He was wearing a Twins hat a minute ago.”

But the Royal still tossed me my 1^st baseball.

My brother told me that Yuniesky Betancourt was signing and I tried to get over there in time, but I couldn’t. I gave my brother the baseball since he would be focusing on autographs, and he was closer to Betancourt and he was able to get an autograph for me my 5^th autograph. Some people may not count that, but as a kid I couldn’t make my way to the front of crowds when someone was signing and I ended up handing someone closer the ball and they would get it signed for me, and I counted those as a kid. What I do is if I count something once (I.E. a ball from the Home Run Derby), I always continue to count balls from the type of event. And besides, an autograph is different from a baseball. My autograph collection is very complicated while my baseballs from games collection is different. Well let us get back to batting practice.

I made my way over to the Left Field foul line because I saw a baseball lying against the wall that could be gotten with the glove trick.

I didn’t expect to find was a baseball lying in the front row. I immediately picked up the Easter Egg for my 2^nd baseball and then once I had it I put it back down to take a photo of it.

Not only was it unexpected, but it was a Metrodome baseball.

I miss Easter Eggs. I get in a Yankee Stadium 3 hours before the gates open, and the ushers are carefull, so there are no easter eggs.

I was nervous about using the glove trick because of the usher from yesterday, so I made my way back to the RF Corner where I got that ball from John Bale.

John Bale was again running around the outfield warning track and two balls just so happened to find their way to him. John Bale looked at the about 4 other kids leaning on the wall calling for the ball. He tossed the ball towards us, but it fell short and landed in one of the BP nets beneath us. He tossed the other ball to us, but that again fell short, tipped off the very end of my glove and landed in a BP net. He walked into the gap where both balls had fallen, picked one up and tossed it up. I let a kid next to me get that one and then John Bale took the other ball and threw me my 3^rd ball.

That was it for the end of BP. The Royals ended 10 minutes early again, and I wasn’t at the dugout so I missed out on getting any balls there. I decided to head to the gap in CF to see if any balls were able to be gotten via the glove trick. There was one ball that was about 6 inches out from the wall; I didn’t have to move it all.

I wanted to use it so bad, but the usher who told me to stop last time was watching me, so I couldn’t use it.

I moved over to where the Royals were stretching to try and get some autographs from them. There was a lot of time and I had down all my wandering the day before so I sat down and waited. I saw that John Mizerock, the Bullpen Coach, had tossed a ball to a kid in the crowd so I moved over there to try and get a ball. John ended up tossing a ball to a lady (seen below standing up and asking for the ball) in the front row that he and the catcher had been rolling back and forth from Center Field to the Bullpen Bench.

I said:

“John!” He shrugged his shoulders. I then pointed to my Royals hat and he took a ball from the bag and tossed it to me, my 4^th ball.

Some of the players came out to stretch and two of them, Willie Bloomquist and Mark Teahen threw.

I waited until they were done and called out Willie Blolomquist’s name. He looked at me and threw me my 5^th ball.

Alex Gordon was the only player that I needed to sign that was left stretching, but he left and didn’t sign. Everyone left stretching I had already gotten so I headed over to the dugout to try and get a pre-game warm-up ball tossed to me. Alberto Callaspo came out to throw with Yuniesky Betancourt and I noticed the Callaspo brought the ball out, so he’d end up with it. It was also the less-crowded end of the dugout, so I moved over there. While Alberto and Yuniesky were throwing I noticed that a ball had rolled over to Alberto feet from the outfield. I could see that it was a Metrodome ball and Alberto picked it up. He looked at the ball and then continued throwing without giving balls. He would alternate between the original ball and the new ball while throwing. When they finished Alberto ended up with both of the baseballs he tossed me on of them, my 6^th ball,

and then tossed the other one to a little girl on my right. Luckily the ball he tossed me was the Metrodome ball.

The game started and I just wandered around a bit not wanting to go for third out balls. I forget what inning it was or who hit it, but a Ground-Rule Double was hit into the gap where the seats start to disappear into the batters’ eye. I went over there a bit later and I saw the ball a bit under the overhang, but able to get with the glove trick.

I wasn’t going to use it during the game, so I waited until after. But I wasn’t able to get there in time and a security guard tossed it to someone else.

But before the end of the game I was able to get another ball. I headed to the dugout in the 6^th inning and a bit later grabbed a seat in the third row. In the top of the 8^th a batter hit two grounds balls back to back into the same spot in the Royals dugout. Yuniesky Betancourt grabbed one of them and Alberto Callaspo grabbed the other. I asked Yuniesky for the ball and he tossed it to me, but even though I was 5 feet above him he tossed it short. He got up, took the ball, and basically slam dunked it into my glove for my 7^th ball.

So that was the last thing I got in the stadium. Alberto gave his batting gloves to a different kid.

I went to the hotel after the game to try and get autographs as they came back from the game. No collectors were there, so I assumed it would be easy to get them to sign. I was able to get two people.

Miguel Olivo came back by a big white car with Alberto Callaspo and I asked him to sign. He signed my 6^th autograph at the door before he entered and then he went in. Then the team bus came. I was only able to get one player, Willie Bloomquist. I was reserving my requests for Zack Greinke, Billy Butler, or Alex Gordon. Of course I didn’t see any of them and Willie was one of the last people of the bus. So I got him to sign my 7^th autograph and last autograph of the day.

Stats:

7 MLB Balls Today
7 MLB Autographs Today
124 MLB Autographs in this Season
163 Total Autographs in this Season
191 MLB Balls in this Season
212 Total Balls in this Season
3 BP, 3 Pre-Game, 1 During
6 Thrown, 1 Found
Attendance: 30,105 People
Competition Factor: 210,735
5.97 Balls / 1 Game
32 Consecutive Games with at least 3 MLB Baseballs
22 Consecutive Games with at least 1 MLB Autograph
17 Consecutive Games with at least 4 MLB Baseballs

Posted on August 14, 2009 at 12:25 am
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Filed in: Dailies
Tags: 7 Baseballs, Alberto Callaspo, BP, CF Gap, Comemorative Metrodome Baseball, Easter Egg, Final Season, Frank White, Glove Trick, John Buck, John Mizerock, Kyle Davies, Mark Teahen, Metrodome, Miguel Olivo, Ron Mahay, Royals, Twins, Unknown Royals Player, Willie Bloomquist, Yuniesky Betancourt, Zack Greinke

8/11/09 Twins vs. Royals

I woke up and wanted to check the weather for the game, but then I realized that it wouldn’t matter. But before that let us talk about the site of Metropolitan Stadium, Mall of America.

The Mall of America is HUGE. I went in a few stores, but walking around there were more stores than I thought. There was a mirror room:

A water massage place:

An Amusement Park:

And the exact seat where the longest home run (hit by Harmon Killebrew) landed in the old stadium:

Oh, and yes, a huge amusement park. Even though it was designed for kids there were some rides that I could see in Six Flags or such. I even won a huge banana.

Our next stop wasn’t the Metrodome, it was the Royals’ Hotel. I wanted to work on a Royals’ Team Ball because I would be seeing them for 5 games, so I decided to stop at the hotel until we leave for the game.

The first player appeared soon after I got there. He was Mark Teahen and I was able to get him on one for my 1^st autograph. I didn’t know who the next player was, but he came out with security and while they had their backs turned I got him for my 2^nd autograph. The player was Jamey Wright. So there were also some collectors there (surprisingly) for the Royals. They identified the next player to come out as Gil Meche, who signed for everyone (my 3^rd autograph).

A while after that David DeJesus came out with his iPod. I didn’t expect him to sign, but he did (my 4^th autograph). Most of the players had left, but a few hadn’t (one guy was marking down who had left and who hadn’t). I waited until the team bus came. Robinson Tejada came out talking on his phone. I tried asking him in Spanish to sign (I rarely need to). Well he came over and signed my 5^th and last autograph at the hotel before the game.

The team bus came and of the people who were left, nobody signed.

Off to the Metrodome I went.

When I got to the Metrodome I had two thoughts:

A) Oh my god I’m finally here.

B) The outside is the same

That was my thought when I wandered around the Metrodome. Bland outside design. It isn’t really unique at all.

Well I guess it is unique for not allowing guns:

It has gray wall with red support beams holding up the roof. That’s it. The outside (and the inside) are the most simplistic stadium designs I have ever seen. (Well I do have to admit that I am a bit spoiled with the $1,000,000,000+ New Yankee Stadium as my home park, but still I have been to 16 different stadiums in my life. The only stadium that probably would come close to this would be Olympic Stadium, and I don’t remember much of it.)

So I got on line and a line started forming at around 40 minutes before the gates open (for anyone who wants to know). And I ran in. I’ve only been in 1 truly domed stadium for a game (Olympic Stadium) so when I ran in I paused to take it all in. The sound of the bat made an echoing noise throughout the whole stadium. The Royals (not the Twins) were batting. There was nobody in the seats when I got in, so it was the first time when I had the whole stadium to myself for batting practice, so I immediately got underway.

I ran down the steep steps and almost tripped a couple times. When I got to the third row I started looking for Easter Eggs. A bunch of baseballs were in the hands of an usher who was walking towards me, so I gave up. I shouldn’t have. I saw a couple guys pick up about 5 baseballs one section to my right. I was p*ssed but I had to keep going.

There was one Royal in Left Field shagging baseballs when I got in. He was wearing a pullover so, and since all Royals look the same I couldn’t identify him. But when a ball was fielded I just asked him for a ball and held open my glove. He surprisingly tossed me my 1^st baseball,

when there was still only about 20 people.

. I was wearing a Twins shirt and a Twins hat when I entered because according to a normal BP schedule the Twins would be batting for about 20 minutes. But the Royals started and ended early. So a little bit after I got that ball a wave of fans started pouring into the seats (probably from other gates?). That didn’t stop me.

I moved over to left-center field to try for baseballs. Bruce Chen had now come out to Left Field to shag, and since he was to the left of the previous Royal who tossed me a ball, he would be getting all the balls hit to Left-Center. I was right and when Bruce Chen fielded a ball and I called out Bruce as he slowly walked over to field it. He tossed me my 2^nd baseball, probably due to the fact of my Royals shirt and hat.

Then Mike Jacobs signed my 6^th autograph. I was in such a rush because of all that happened that I didn’t know the details. I can barely remember the details of the balls I previously snagged because I was in such a rush to head over to the gap in Center Field. I wanted to do the glove trick at least once (at most 4 times) here at the Metrodome. The gap was perfect. And sure enough there were about 7 balls that with a lot of effort I could get. I had read and heard previously that the glove trick was incredibly easy to do at the Metrodome. At the Gate that I went in there was a season ticket holder who had a device that he used to retrieve home runs that landed in the gap. He told me that security would have a problem with my device, that they would take the string, and even my glove to teach me a lesson. But I had to go for it. I am doing the trick at least once in every park (except Wrigley) on my trip. I was going for it.

One ball was too easy to snag by using the trick. Here is a (very) blurry shot of the ball (I was in a rush):

Right underneath me, hidden from view of the usher on the Lower Deck (they have two decks, Upper and Lower. An Upper Deck ticket won’t get you to the Lower Deck, but a Lower Deck ticket would get you into both decks), about 2 feet out from the wall. Problem was that it was about a 30 foot drop. I lowered the glove that incredible distance. It hit the floor. I moved it over to the ball, it was on the ball, but the ball fell out. I knocked the ball closer, and by doing that it got stuck on a towel or something on the ground. I wasn’t sure whether to be happy that it wouldn’t be moving or sad that it wouldn’t be moving, but I went for it. Sure enough I was able to get to ball inside the glove. Then I pulled the glove slowly up to make sure the ball didn’t fall out. Pretty soon I had gotten my 3^rd ball using the glove trick. And an usher in the Upper Deck cheered when I got it.

I was thinking that nobody would have a problem with it so I used to glove trick to get a ball on a platform one section down. I had to knock it off the platform closer to me. I threw my glove out to try and pull it back. Not the first time. The second time it moved back a little. Before I could do it a third time and usher on the Lower Deck got my attention and said “No way” while giving me a glare. He proceeded to stare me down while I rolled up my string.

While rolling up my string a couple balls landed on the track. Joakim Soria retrieved one of them. I called out “Joakim!” and pointed to the kids beneath me because I wasn’t ready. But Joakim looked at my Royals stuff and threw me the ball over everyone’s head (my 4^th baseball). Since I wanted to have one of the kids beneath me get a ball I immediately picked one out and tossed him the ball.

After that I knew that Left Field was used up, so I moved over into the Right Field corner to try and get a ball. My spot is circled in red in the photo below:

There was a guy there who was running poles and a ball rolled to him. He picked the ball up and I was able to catch a glimpse of his last name, Bale. I didn’t know his first name so I just said “Bale” to try and get his attention. He turned around, saw me, and threw me my 5^th baseball from a good distance.

I decided that since the Royals were finishing up I should move over to the Royals dugout to try and get baseballs when they are coming in.

When I got there I saw another kid in the Ballhawk League Aaron, aka District Boy. We talked for a bit and when they came in I moved to the spot in the front row with my brother and watched for anyone who had a ball. I spotted John Buck with a baseball in his hand and when he crossed the foul line I started calling his name. He looked up, saw me, took a few more steps and tossed me my 6^th baseball.

I was only aiming for 6. I knew the Metrodome was incredibly hard so I decided to aim for 15 for the three games there. That was still my goal though.

There were a couple people still over at the Right Field foul line so we moved over there. John Bale (Ball No. 5) was still there so I moved over to him while he was signing. I waited for him to make his way over to me, and when he did I got him sign my 7^th autograph. Then I saw Bob McClure (who I recognized by his mustache) and called his name. He walked over and signed my 8^th autograph. Then Manager Trey Hillman was talking to some people a bit over to my right and when he finished talking he started signing along the foul line. I was able to get him for my 9^th autograph. Wow.

Remember how I said that there were about 7 baseballs out in Center Field? The Royals hit more there, so I just decided to see how many there were. When I got out there I saw a rubbed up baseballs on top of a seat (most likely a game home run ball) and a guy picking up all baseballs within reach.

He was putting them in a bag (either to be sold or re-used) and I asked him for a baseball. He shook his head without even looking up. So he looked the whole area for any visible baseballs and when he was finished he started walking off. He missed one baseball and when I asked him again for a baseball he shook his head. Then I told him he missed one. He looked up at me and said where. I told him that it was wedged in a seat on a platform. After a puzzled look on his face he got on the platform and looked for the ball. After he looked a bit he found the ball

And instead of keeping it he tossed me my 7^th baseball.

I wanted to wander around the stadium after that and I did. After talking to my parents I made my way out to where I got the ball from John Bale.

And photographed the batting cage:

Then I walked through the concourse from Right Field to Left-Center.

Photographed the view from Center to my Right:

The usher in red leaning on the wall is the one who made me stop using the glove trick. Watch out for him if you plan on using it.

I didn’t have time to make it to the Upper Deck because the players were already stretching.

I moved down to the foul line and sat down in the first row waiting for a player to sign. Josh Anderson finished running and started making his way in when we called his name and he walked over. He signed for everyone who wanted an autograph and including us for my 10^th autograph.

I tried for pre-game throwing, but I picked the wrong end of the dugout and Billy Butler kept his baseball. I kept switching dugouts because I wanted a nice game-used Metrodome baseball. In the top of the third inning I got my wish. Billy Butler grounded a ball to Alexi Casilla who threw the ball to Justin Morneau to get the 3^rd Out. I ran down to the bottom of the aisle and waited for Justin Morneau to come in. He caught the third out ball, looked up and tossed me my 8^th baseball, and perfect Metrodome ball with a scuffed up surface.

After getting that ball I decided to head to the Upper Deck. The Metrodome is so simple. The architects must’ve just said “We need some entrances/exits, a lower concourse, a Lower Deck, an upper concourse, and an Upper Deck” and built on that motto because the Metrodome is only that. But the upper deck has big patches of empty seats, which I visited, hear are some photos from the Upper Deck.

The Upper Deck’s concourse:

The view from behind the big banners of former Twins:

The view of the seats behind the banners:

The view from the furthest seat out in Center Field with a view of the field:

After the game I went to the Royals dugout to try and get something, but the guy who got the final ball, Alberto Callapso, tossed it to a guy wearing Royals gear who caught in one hand with his other hand holding a baby wearing Royals gear. Couldn’t compete with that. I may have exhausted all of my resources, but I am not sure. I’ll see today…

Stats:

8 MLB Balls Today
10 MLB Autographs Today
117 MLB Autographs in this Season
156 Total Autographs in this Season
184 MLB Balls in this Season
205 Total Balls in this Season
5 BP, 2 Pre-Game, 1 During
7 Thrown, 1 Glove-Trick
Attendance: 32,121
Competition Factor: 256,968
5.94 Balls / 1 Game
31 Consecutive Games with at least 3 MLB Baseballs
21 Consecutive Games with at least 1 MLB Autograph
16 Consecutive Games with at least 4 MLB Baseballs

Posted on August 12, 2009 at 1:51 pm
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Filed in: Dailies
Tags: Banners, Bland Design, Bob McClure, BP, Bruce Chen, CF Gap, David DeJesus, Employees, Empty Seats, Final Season, Gil Meche, Glove Trick, Happy Day, Jamey Wright, Joakim Soria, John Bale, John Buck, Josh Anderson, Justin Morneau, Lower Deck, Mark Teahen, Metrodome, Mike Jacobs, No Glove Trick, Robinson Tejada, Royals, Simple Design, Trey Hillman, Twins, Tyra Banks, Upper Deck, Vacation

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Everything Baseball

A look at a kid in NYC collecting everything from baseballs to autographs to game used stuff, and adding to his numerous autographs and 329 MLB Baseballs. Don't believe him? Read about his collecting life to see him prove it. ViewMy Stats

August 2009

8/23/09 Pirates vs. Reds

8/22/09 Pirates vs. Reds

8/20/09 Tigers vs. Mariners

8/18/09 White Sox vs. Royals

8/17/09 White Sox vs. Royals

8/16/09 Cubs vs. Pirates

8/14/09 Brewers vs. Astros

8/13/09 Twins vs. Royals

8/12/09 Twins vs. Royals

8/11/09 Twins vs. Royals

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