9/25/09 Yankees vs. Red Sox
I arrived a couple minutes late to this game. I don't think I should've arrived late because when I entered the stadium there was early batting practice going on.
This was a good thing because I didn't want to get shut out this day. Not only were the Red Sox in town, but I injured my leg and it required stitches, I'll spare you the details, so I wasn't going to be able to move that well.
But I moved a lot. I started out on the Right Field side because that is usually the place to be, but it turned out that Left Field was the place to be, so I hobbled over there.
I noticed that Mick Kelleher had a ball in his hand and a bat in the other, so I called out and asked for a fungo. He wouldn't give me one, I couldn't understand what he was saying, but it was something along the lines of:
"I don't need to hit you one, they will." Pointing to the batters in the cage. But I didn't get them to hit me one; I got a translator who had tossed me a ball earlier in the season to toss me another ball, my 1st ball, who is to the left of the ball in the photo below.
The Yankees pitchers started throwing, so I considered that that was my way to get another baseball. I went back over to the outfield and made my way along the seats in case a ball was hit. I stood above the Legends seats and positioned myself in line with
Nobody else knew who they were, but it would be a difficult challenge to get a ball. I was hoping that the closer person, Josh, would end up with the ball, but Mark ended up with it. He was more than 100ft from me, but I still called out. Mark tossed the ball and gave me a shot, and he threw a perfect throw which I caught for my 2nd ball.
Normal BP was underway by that point so I moved back out to Right Field. There was only one lefty hitter, Hideki Matsui, so there was no real point to focus except when he was up. He seemed to hit a home run in my direction each time he was up, and one time it deflected off of my wrist. The other time he hit it a little bit to my right. I drifted with it and got in line with it, and a 'hefty' man in front of me reached out to grab it, you can see in this photo from afar the I am the yellow arrow and he is the red arrow, the ball is in his hand.
He deflected it, causing it to land in his row. I tried reaching for it, but it was just out of my reach. He was going to get it so I did the only thing I could've, I just climbed onto the seats and almost fell into the row. I reached down and barely got it, my 3rd ball.
I got the ball, and only my chest got scrapped up, my leg was fine (well, as fine as it already was). A-Rod and some more righties were in the same round, so I decided to head over to Left Field for him. After taking a minute or two to get there I walked through the tunnel that lead to the aisle in between the bullpen and the seats. And I am telling you; as SOON as I got there a ball was hit that was coming directly to the seats near me. The ball was coming, and this section was fairly empty, and it hit a seat on the end of the 3rd row. I was thinking, how cool would it be if the ball went directly to me? Well that is exactly what happened, it bounced off the seat and went right to me. I just reached out and grabbed the ball, my 4th ball.
It was perfect timing. Had I not had my injured leg I may have not gotten that ball. It was weird thinking that an injury got me a ball, only happened once before. And while I was thinking about my luck, I heard a thud behind me, so I turned around. What I saw behind me was another baseball.
The batter (Nick Swisher) hit home runs to the same aisle on back-to-back pitches. There was nobody around so I walked up the steps and grabbed the ball, my 5th ball.
That was my last ball for Yankees BP, Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira failed to hit home runs. I had to wait for the Red Sox to come out. I got an autograph from a Red Sox...I don't have any clue who he is. Here is the body:
And here is the autograph:
Who could he be? He didn't say he was employee or something, so he was a coach? I don't know who he was, but he was my 1st autograph.
The Red Sox didn't have much going in their batting practice. There were a few home runs hit on the Right Field side, but they were near the foul pole. There was one home run hit into the bullpen,
So I stood by the bullpen waiting for someone to get it. I noticed that bullpen coach Gary Tuck was walking towards the bullpen so I waited until he got in. When he went inside I asked him for the baseball. He held up his finger to indicate "one second" and then he went over to put some stuff down. He went back, picked up the ball, and gave me a toss, which fell short and hit the netting. He then just handed the ball to me through a small opening, my 6th ball, but since the ball was just a bit too small to go through a police officer tossed it over to me.
Remember how I said the Red Sox were dead during BP? The hit a few balls to the wall, none really out. But some of those balls stayed at the wall when BP ended. I positioned myself about the one that was closest to the wall. I noticed that a groundscrew member was walking right towards the ball, and when he got there he reached down and picked it up. He looked right up, and my glove helped me be the longest one to reach down, so he put the ball right in my glove, my 7th ball, and last one, of the day.
Stats:
- 7 MLB Balls Today
- 1 MLB Autograph Today
- 201 MLB Autographs in this Season
- 240 Total Autographs in this Season
- 295 MLB Balls in this Season
- 316 Total Balls in this Season
- 2 Thrown, 3 Hit, 2 Hand-To-Hand
- 7 BP
- Attendance: 48,449
- Competition Factor: 339,143
- 6.41 Balls / 1 Game
- 46 Consecutive Games with at least 3 MLB Baseballs
- 36 Consecutive Games with at least 1 MLB Autograph
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