Results tagged ‘ Alfredo Aceves ’
10/9/09 Yankees vs. Twins
Playoffs in the Bronx. Would it be insanely crowded, would security be insanely ridiculous, or would the teams be insanely quiet and not notice the fans?
Well when I entered the stadium, there was nothing going on.
But after around fifteen minutes the Yankees started stretching and going out to the foul line to throw. I saw that Damaso Marte was throwing a ball against a wall, but the wall bounce the ball a couple feet over on the ground and Damaso didn’t go to pick it up. One Yankee who remembers me and still tosses me baseballs, Alfredo Aceves, picked up the baseball, looked over the Legends seats (where I was standing), and tossed the ball over my head, but I tracked it down for my 1st ball.
As an added delight the Yankees started batting practice not an hour after the gates opened, but 25 minutes where at least the crowd was small (by Yankee Stadium standards).
But the first round of hitters (Derek Jeter, Johnny Damon, Robinson Cano, etc.) was not hitting many balls out, and the ones they were hitting out weren’t anywhere near me. I had to wait for the second round for things to get going, one that consisted of Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira, and Hideki Matsui. But they weren’t the hitters that provided me with my first batted ball of the postseason, it was Melky Cabrera.
All the spots on the staircase that didn’t have railings were taken up, except at the very back of section. So although it seemed way to far back, it seemed as the best spot available. I leaned on the end of the railing and waited for one to be hit out. Melky Cabrera lifted one right towards me, I mean right towards me. I didn’t have to move at all, I only had to leap at the last second to catch the ball on the fly, my 2nd ball. In the photo below I am holding the baseball in my hand, moments after catching it, at the top of the step.
By this time the large crowd had formed in Right Field for batting practice, so I moved over to Left Field to try for baseballs with Alex Rodriguez being up. But he failed to hit ANY out. I got one of my least favorite Yankees’ autograph, Phil Coke, my 1st autograph.
Why do I dislike him? He recognizes me and won’t give me any baseballs, in fact when I got his autograph he pointed to me and said to some others fans that:
“This guy gets a ball every time I see him.”
Let’s just hope he won’t remember me in 2010.
After that encounter I went over to where the Twins were throwing as it seemed like my best shot for another baseball. It was because when Jesse Crain finished throwing with Bob Keppel Jesse scanned the crowd for a Twins fan. I called out “Jesse” and showed him my vintage Twins shirt and hat and that convince him to toss me my 3rd ball.
I went back into the outfield to try my luck, but I was forced to stay closer to the foul pole. It ended up paying off because hated former Yankee Carl Pavano tossed a ball to some fans in the front row, but they bobbled it, dropping it onto the field. He didn’t go and get it, as another Twin when to go get it. He was looking up into the crowd like he was trying to find a Twins fan. There was one other person than me wearing Twins gear, but he only had a hat; I had a full Twins’ outfit. So the random player took the baseball and flipped it up to me over the first 3 rows, my 4th ball, who is to the left of my glove in the photo below.
That was my last baseball of the day, but not last of the postseason.
Stats:
- 4 MLB Balls Today
- 1 MLB Autograph Today
- 210 MLB Autographs in this Season
- 249 Total Autographs in this Season
- 320 MLB Balls in this Season
- 341 Total Balls in this Season
- 3 Thrown, 1 Hit
- 4 BP
- Attendance: 50,006
- Competition Factor: 200,024
- 6.4 Balls / 1 Game
- 40 Consecutive Games with at least 1 MLB Autograph
9/14/09 Yankees vs. Angels
It’s been about two weeks since the game happened, so I am sorry for the delay. A lot of stuff has been making me busy, so I’ll try to get the next game I went to (9/25) up soon also.
This was one day where I knew that I may not be getting a baseball. But I wasn’t worried. I was excited for this day. Because I would be going on the field for Yankees BP.
It’s a long story, but I’ll shorten it. Since I know some people in the Yankees organization we were able to participate in a “feedback” session where ticket holders would go to give feedback on the New Yankee Stadium. Then for giving feedback, you’d get a prize. The prizes were like: $200 gift card to team store, $200 gift card to Hard Rock Café, watch Batting Practice from the field, and etc. Of course we choose watching BP from the field, and this was date.
But I was going to try for a baseball, and autographs. I had to go to a place at 4:30 to be allowed on the field, so I had 30 minutes to snag. I thought that I wouldn’t get anything, but I was excited and a bit annoyed when I saw the Yankees only stretching at the foul line.
Why, of all days, did they have to stretch when the gates opened? Couldn’t one or two people be hitting? Couldn’t one person be throwing? So anyway right at the time they started throwing I had to report to the entrance. They gave me a field pass, and then they led me down an elevator to underneath the stadium. The only other times I was down hear was when I was in the Legends and on the field for the clinic, but I only saw a fraction of it. So now I saw a bunch more things while we were led to the field. This is a blurry photo of the concourse:
A sign to help out the visiting team:
A sign to help the umpires, photographers, and us:
We walked down the hall which had the umpires room, took a right, and then a left, and I could see light. Pretty soon I saw light, dirt, grass, and baseballs, I was on the field.
I took a look to my left:
Then to my right:
And then walked over to the designated standing area.
I was amazed to be standing on the field, incredibly happy. I was there mainly to get autographs and to finally stand on the field when BP was going on, and not get in trouble (when I was younger I fell on the field at Wrigley, they just made me get back into the seats). But I was nervous about asking players for autographs. They told us that we couldn’t call out to players, but then, how would they know that we were there for autographs? So after calling out quietly for a couple players I finally got Eric Hinske’s attention. He came over to sign for me, because nobody else really knew he was signing (my 1st autograph).
By then it was about the 2nd round of batting practice, so Derek, Johnny, Brett, Melky, etc. were gone. But A-Rod, Mark T, and Matsui were out now. But I saw Jose Molina was done with batting, so I called out to him as he was heading back to the dugout. He came over to the area, stopped, and signed my 2nd autograph.
Remember how I said that A-Rod was out batting? I have had (heard also) of bad experiences with Alex, but this time he went right over to a person on my left and started signing.
So when I saw that it was A-Rod I went over there and tried to get him. It may look like in the photo above that the crowd was intense to get him, but it wasn’t. So I was able to get Alex Rodriguez to sign my 3rd autograph, right under the commemorative logo.
After getting A-Rod, I moved back over to the right edge of the area and waited for other people. But I guess I should’ve stayed over there because Jerry Hairston Jr. started signing. But again, it was easy to go over there and get him for my 4th autograph, and then my brother and I got a photo with him:
I saw a player in the Yankees dugout, Number 47. I looked at a list of numbers of the players that I don’t know. There was no 47.
“It’s Freddie Guzman.” My brother said. Apparently he was just called up, and nobody knew him, so when he heard somebody calling his name, he was more than glad to sign my 5th autograph.
In the photo below you can see two people standing near the designated area, the far one is Francisco Cervelli, and the closer one is Mick Kelleher. I went over to Francisco first and got him to sign my 6th autograph.
Then I went over to Mick. Not wanting to get shut out I was going to ask him for a baseball when batting practice was winding down. He was talking to people, and when I asked him he said:
“I’ll see what I can do.”
But before I could see what he was going to do, Rob Thompson started signing right where Francisco Cervelli was, so I went over there. He was talking to some people (people who seemed to know each and every Yankee) so I had to wait until he was finished. And then when he was I got Rob to sign my 7th autograph.
Then Mick Kelleher showed me what he could do. He came back over to my with a glove full of baseballs. He only handed me one (my 1st baseball) and started walking away, but then he turned back and gave me two more, my 2nd and 3rd baseballs.
“Give some to your friends.”
I was shocked I noticed that they were all Yankee Commemoratives, but I didn’t care. I gave one of them (ball no. 2) to a little kid who was also on the field, and my dad captured me giving it to him.
He kept throwing the ball away, on the ground, so it got dirty, but it was his ball. At one point his dad told me to give him another baseball and watch what he would, so I did. Apparently he didn’t do what his dad thought he was going to do because he kept both ball and refused to give them up. So his dad handed him a camera case and the kid dropped both balls. I gave the second baseball to his dad to hold onto.
I had three baseballs, so at least I knew that my streak of 3 baseballs a game would live to see game 45, so I felt the pressure was off.
The next autograph I got was John Flahrety, who was just wandering around the area behind home plate. I called him over, got his autograph for my 8th autograph, and got an out of focus photo with him.
Oh, I forgot to mention, Batting Practice was close to wrapping up. Some of the batters were coming in, like Ramiro Pena. I got him for my 9th autograph.
By the time I got Ramiro Pena’s autograph, we had been on the field for around 50 minutes, so there’d only be about another 10 minutes left before we had to go. Most of the good batters had done, a lot of the good pitchers were still in the outfield. So I waited for them. One of them was Jon Albaladejo. He came into the dugout and started heading for the clubhouse. I called his name and he looked up. I tossed him the baseballs and he signed them right there in the dugout, my 10th autograph.
And that was my last autograph before BP wrapped up. They let us stand on the field for a couple of minutes of Angels BP, so I had a bit extra time. I noticed that about 4 Yankees were looking at a life-size photo of some sort down at the other side of the dugout. They were looking at it for a couple minutes. “They” were Alfredo Aceves, David Robertson, Phil Coke, and CC Sabathia. We had to start leaving, but I lingered while everyone else left before me. And it paid off. Right before I HAD to leave the pitchers started coming in, one at a time. The first one was Alfredo Aceves. When he got close enough I called out and he motioned for me to toss him the baseball. I tossed it to him and he signed my 11th autograph. After that we had to go, so we left.
It was an once-in-a-lifetime experience, so I was incredibly happy afterwards. I didn’t care that I got shutout for Angels BP or for the rest of the game. I was satisfied with the 3 balls, 11 autographs, and with standing on the field a few feet from some of the best players in the game.
Stats:
- 3 MLB Balls Today
- 11 MLB Autographs Today
- 200 MLB Autographs in this Season
- 239 Total Autographs in this Season
- 288 MLB Balls in this Season
- 309 Total Balls in this Season
- 3 Hand-To-Hand
- 3 BP
- Attendance: 44,701 People
- Competition Factor: 134,103
- 6.4 Balls / 1 Game
- 45 Consecutive Games with at least 3 MLB Baseballs
- 35 Consecutive Games with at least 1 MLB Autograph
9/8/09 Yankees vs. Rays
I haven’t been caught up my blogging lately, I have been busy with school. But I have had some great days recently. And this was one of them.
You know how I got 10 baseballs at Citi Field on September 4? One of the things that makes Citi Field easier than Yankee stadium is that BP is usually started when you enter. This day Yankee Stadium was like Citi Field for a bit.
There was the crowd at the Great Hall:
There was early BP!
The first thing I did was look for easter eggs. I entered the furthest section in RF from home plate and then looked to my left. I saw a baseball lying in a row, just sitting. An usher was walking towards it so I just said:
“I got it.” He stepped back and let me pick up my 1st ball, and also my first easter egg at NYS.
And then I went on a snagging rampage.
I got 4 more batted balls in the span of 9 minutes. It was so quick that I forgot how I got each baseball. None of them were caught on the fly, but I do know that at least for 2 baseballs were ground-ruled doubles and the others were baseballs that landed in the seats and I got them. There were only 2 hitters in early BP; Robinson Cano and Melky Cabrera, but I don’t know who hit each one. All I know is that my 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th balls were batted balls not caught on the fly. I would’ve had more had another ballhawk named Steve not been there, and he would have had more balls had I not been there. We each snagged around the same amount of baseballs. In the photo below he is the person standing to the left of me, talking on the phone:
And here are the baseballs, numbers 2-5 (Top Left: Ball #2, Top Right: Ball #3, Bottom Left: Ball #4, Bottom Right: Ball #5):
That was all I got in Right Field because after 10 minutes they switched to righty batters. So I moved over to LF.
And also I know the source of my next ball.
I was standing Left Field trying for home runs. One was hit to my right, un-getable, but I followed its path hoping for a lucky bounce. I didn’t get the bounce, but on the pitch after that one, the batter, Melky Cabrera, lifted a high one that was going to land in the section I was in. But it was going a couple rows over my head. I ran up the steps, and it landed in a seat in the second to last row, a bomb, maybe 410 feet. I went over to the seat and looked in.
It landed in a seat and with its force it went out the bottom and it stayed on the ground. I picked up my 6th ball and checked out the ball to see if it had any unique markings.
It did, and the marking was most likely caused by going through the seat with it’s force:
Early BP ended soon after. The coaches/players/ballboys picked up the balls lying around, and I saw the big Mike Harkey pick up two balls in shallow CF. I called out to him and he tossed me the ball, but it fell short. I leaned way out and down. He gave me another throw, but it was the exact same result as the previous attempt (FYI I am in the corner spot, reaching very low down).
There were no more balls around me, so he walked towards me and picked up another balls. The next throw was high. I had to step back and leap, but I still caught my 7th ball, pointed to by the red arrow below.
Early BP ended had already ended and there were no more baseballs to be snagged, so I posed with my haul:
After early BP it was Old New Yankee Stadium all over again. I got no more balls until around 45 minutes later.
Some Tampa Bay Rays came out to the row while the Yankees were hitting. And only a couple Rays, not the whole pitching staff. One of the pairs of players was Lance Cormier and Randy Choate. I positioned myself above a ball that I could’ve gotten with the glove trick, hoping that when they finished they would pick it up. I didn’t get that ball, but I called out to Lance when he was done. Surprisingly instead of tossing the ball to foul territory he tossed it to me in fair territory. My 8th ball.
I was thinking double digits. It was very likely. But my record of 15? It was possible, unlikely, but I had to try.
By then I figured out that the Rays would not be hitting, only the Yankees. So my record of 15 was more unlikely.
I went back to deep Left Field hoping for a homer from regular BP. I waited and waited and waited until they started kicking people out. It got a bit emptier, good. And pretty soon a fly ball was lifted in my direction. I took a couple steps down and got ready for the ball. I timed my jump and reached out for the ball. There were a couple of people going for it, but somehow I was able to catch my 9th ball on the fly in the tip of my glove.
There was a new usher who was telling me that I could catch a ball. When I caught the ball he congratulated me, asked where I was sitting and made me over to foul territory. He is indicated by the blue arrow in the photo below.
Some Rays were still throwing at the foul line, and a couple baseballs were lying against the wall. I figured that when they were done they would toss the baseballs up, so I put my Rays’ cap on and waited for them to finish. But one of my favorite Yankees was nearby also, Alfredo Aceves. He was talking to someone, so when he finished he walked over to pick up the baseballs. I took off my Rays’ cap and asked him for the baseball in Spanish. Even though I think he has recognized me, and he has seen me get multiple baseballs throughout the course of the year, he still tossed me the baseball, my 10th ball, which broke double digits for the day.
BP was ending and I didn’t have an autograph because not really anyone signed. But I saw a Ray sitting on the wall down the foul line, right next to the corner spot. I ran over there and took out a baseball. I saw that he was number 38, so after looking at my roster I saw that it was Fernando Perez. So I went up to him and got him to sign my 1st autograph, and took a photo with him.
I entered the game with no more autographs and baseballs. I had never gotten 10 baseballs during BP alone at New Yankee Stadium, so I figured that I would be able to get at least one more baseball. So I tried at the dugout, and got nothing. When it was getting late in the game I headed out to the bullpen to try for a baseball. I saw Bobby Ramos, who I had gotten a ball from each time I was at New Yankee Stadium. I shouted his name and asked for a baseball, but he disappeared. I sat down, and then saw a baseball being tossed up and down in the air, almost to tease the fans. But it was too close to the wall. Was it Bobby Ramos trying to give me a baseball? I don’t know, but I tried reaching out and grabbing the baseball. I was unsuccessful, but eventually the ball landed on top of the billboard, so I just reached out and grabbed it, my 11th baseball.
And then people started chanting throw it back. Really? A baseball that I got in the bullpen that I was asking for? Whether or not they were being serious it turned into a big thing, with about 75 people chanting “Throw it back!” and another 50 people chanting “Keep the ball!” I did the obvious and kept the baseball, photographed it, and then went away.
And that would be my last baseball of the night. 11 baseballs set my record at the New Yankee Stadium, but I heard that another person, most likely Steve, got 12 baseballs today. So does anyone know if anybody has gotten more than 12 baseballs at New Yankee Stadium? Who else has gotten double digits at New Yankee Stadium?
Stats:
- 11 MLB Balls Today
- 1 MLB Autograph Today
- 188 MLB Autographs in this Season
- 227 Total Autographs in this Season
- 279 MLB Balls in this Season
- 300 Total Balls in this Season
- 6 Hit, 4 Thrown, 1 Found
- 10 BP, 1 During
- Attendance: 45,350 People
- Competition Factor: 498,850
- 43 Consecutive Games with at least 3 MLB Baseballs
- 33 Consecutive Games with at least 1 MLB Autograph
7/1/09 Yankees vs. Mariners
Summer. School’s out, camp’s on. I had to leave camp early to get to the gates before the open, and it was worth it.
Whenever I get to the game with some time to spare, I take a long route along the stadium. The path starts at Gate 8, passes all the other gates, and stops at Gate 2. Well I saw Zack at the Great Hall Entrance, so I got in line with him and I went in there.
So the first thing I saw was a couple Mariners in the outfield, and B.P. was set up. But nothing was happening at the cages, so I went over to the Mariners. When I got there one guy was starting to walk away, so I asked him to sign, and he walked over to me.
“Sorry, I just got here. I don’t have the baseballs out.”
So when I got them out, he signed two for my 1st autograph of the day. Another guy started to walk away, and I was about to ask him to sign, but he was too far along for me to ask him. It’s a good thing I didn’t; the guy who signed it on the Sweet Spot had the #34:
After that the Yankees started appearing from the dugout, so I moved from the foul line to over there. The clouds appeared dark, the grounds crew went to the tarp, and some B.P. screens were rolled off.
But pretty soon light appeared, a bucket of balls appeared,
and the screens were rolled back into place.
Tony Pena (the coach on the left side of the bucket and 4 Time Gold Glove Winner) took a ball from the bucket and walked to the dugout. I got his attention and asked for a ball. He responded by tossing a ball over the Legends.
I thought that it was falling short, but I reached out and caught my 1st baseball.
Lucky right? I realized that Tony tossed that ball to me in front of the entire Yankees pitching staff.
Three Yankee ball boys started throwing along the foul line.
I didn’t get that ball. The entire Yankees pitchers started throwing. I didn’t get anything their either. Alfredo Aceves recognized me and tossed me a ball, but a dad reached out and caught it. He insisted I have it, I said no, but after he kept asking me I took the ball from him and handed it to his son.
Before I arrived I checked the starters for the game. They were Jarrod Washburn and Andy Pettitte, both Lefties, so a majority of the hitters would be Righties in B.P So with that said I moved over to Left Field.
Quickly after I arrived I got two balls. One ball was hit off the wall and a translator got it. I thought that they were told by the teams to only give balls away to people who dropped them on the track. But this guy was different and he looked up into the stands and tossed me my 2nd ball, which I originally thought was tossed to a girl in pink.
The next ball was a hit ball. It took a bounce of the track, then off a metal pole supporting the net that protects the bleacher, and then went into my glove; my 3rd ball.
Towards the end of Yankees B.P. Brian Bruney fielded a ball. He tossed it to me, but it hit off a metal pole perpendicular to the previously mentioned pole and landed in the bullpen. That was the last thing from the Yankees, nothing more from them. But I got one more ball during the Yankees’ B.P. How?
A ball was hit near Section 129, but it was too far out to reach over and get, and it laid on the grass. I don’t know why, but all the Mariners started running from the dugout to the wall. I asked one of the only Mariners I recognize by sight for the ball, David Aardsma. At first he ignored it and ran to the wall, but then he came back a second time. There were two teenagers next to me who looked like a threat and could reach out. But luckily a ball landed in the Legends and they were distracted by it right when Aardsma returned. He took the ball and threw it a good 40 MPH at my glove, and I caught my 4th ball, while one teenager almost interfered.
That photo is off Brandon Morrow’s glove. He came over to talk to someone and I asked to see his glove. He was nonchalant about it and let me hold it and try it on. I was surprised when I saw that MY glove was bigger than his (12 ½ inches to 12 inches).
By the time Morrow came over the Mariners started hitting and throwing. There was one Righty wearing glasses who kept pulling the ball, and one ball landed in the glove of #12 on the Mariners, right in front of me. I didn’t ask for it because I didn’t know his name (it is Ryan Langerhans, recently acquired Mariner. I learned it from Wikipedia, but not from the Mariners’ web site. Way to go Mariners, Wikipedia knows more about your team than you do), but he still tossed me my 5th ball, without my asking whatsoever.
I tried scooping up grounders, but a cop kept blocking them, so I didn’t get anything else as B.P. ended. I wandered with Zack to show him the bleachers, and as a result, missed pre-game activities.
I had to wait until the game started. And also, while wandering I round a spot great for asking for bullpen balls from the visitors. It provides a view of each pitcher warming up and doesn’t block anyone’s view.
Miguel Batista warmed-up in the 7th, and when he went to go in I asked John Wetteland for a ball. He gave ma a throw, but it was somehow 10 feet from my glove.
He took another ball and walked into the other end of the bullpen and looked at someone in the crowd to get their attention, but he couldn’t. He walked back to me and gave me another throw, in which I caught my 6th ball.
At the end of the game I asked John Wetteland again for something, this time the bullpen line-up card. He seemed to have no clue what it was, said “no”, and looked at me like I was from outer space. A typical day at the New Yankee Stadium.
Stats:
- 6 MLB Balls Today
- 1 MLB Autograph Today
- 85 MLB Autographs in this Season
- 90 Total Autographs in this Season
- 130 MLB Balls in this Season
- 146 Total Balls in this Season
- 5 BP, 1 During
- 5 Thrown, 1 Hit
- Attendance: 45,285 People
- Competition Factor: 271,710
- 12 Consecutive Games with at least 1 MLB Autograph
- 22 Consecutive Games with at least 3 MLB Baseballs
- 7 Consecutive Games with at least 4 MLB Baseballs
6/27/09 Mets vs. Yankees
Subway Series, Part 3. Part 1 ended with 5 Baseballs, one of which was My 100th MLB Baseball of the Season. Part 2 ended with another 5 Baseballs, 3 Special Citi Field Baseballs and a bruise on my knee. How would Part 3 end?
Apparently the Jackie Robinson Rotunda isn’t the first gate to open. The Left Field gate opens at the same time. I learned that when I approached Left Field. But First I entered through the JRR, and ran towards left field. I snuck a peek at the field and saw B.P. was on (FINALLY!) But I also saw a baseball lying inches from the wall.
First when I arrived in Left I scanned for Easter Eggs (none), and then I went to work. I lowered my glove, but the way I bundled up my string made the glove not work so well. I lowered it right to the bottom and tried picking it up. But it was too tight. Then Fernando Nieve made an appearance. He took the ball and placed it where my hand goes. Odd, but I’ll take the help. I rose up my 1st ball (And just to tell you, it’s a device ball because he didn’t toss it up to me, he put it in a place that I could only get with a device,) and stuck it in my pocket to wait for some action.
But I would have to wait a bit. A ball rolled right near the wall. I took out the string and was about to lower it, but Mike Pelfrey went to pick it up. It’s quite a drop so I couldn’t lower it before he got there.
15 feet in fact.
“Leave it there! I can get it!”
“What?” He asked a bit confused a tossed me the ball, but it was short and fell back down. Being it was his fault he gave me another throw, and I caught it, my 2nd ball. Oh, it was a Shea Commemorative baseball also.
Even though the Yankees haven’t started to hit yet, the crowd arrived early, and they concentrated into Left Field. Yay! So what I did was I ran to Center Field.
There were only about 15 people there, and this would explain why: It was 415ft from Home Plate.
Yeah, not many balls were going to be hit out here, but I saw that Right Field was also not that crowded, so I went over there. But nothing happened over there, while I saw a couple balls near the wall in Center, so I trudged back over there. But then I saw some balls in the black in center closer to left field, so I went over there, but as soon as I arrived a guard came to pick them up. So I moved back to Center again as a pit stop to re-fuel. Then I ran back over to Right. And all that movement took about 15 minutes.
All of the outfield is bad for snagging. Left Field gets too crowded. Center Field is 415ft from home plate. And Right Field is 18 feet from the ground and blocked by the second deck. I had to wait until Dave Racaniello made an appearance until I got my next ball.
While in Right I made a request to Dave: “Could I have the next ball you get?” He just shrugged his shoulders, but when a ball smacked off the wall in front of me and landed 5 feet in front of me, 20 or so feet down, I called out his name, and he took the ball and tossed me my 3rd ball.
It was far up.
And here are two things to note that happened in Right:
1) I asked Nieve for a ball, but he shook his head after remembering me from left
2) I saw a guard pocketing a ball that landed in the bullpen. I told the guard above in the seats and he just laughed.
So sensing that Right was dead I move back to Center. But needing a batter to hit a ball about 420ft to reach me, no home runs were hit. But there was one batter who was blasting balls towards Center, but just not IN Center. One was hit close enough to the wall that the player who was shagging balls, Bobby Parnell, couldn’t ignore the people asking him, including me. Well he turned around and threw me my 4th ball of the day.
Bobby Parnell is the player just to the right of the top of my glove.
I moved back over to Left Field because I saw two glove trickable (yes, trickable) balls in the black. I didn’t get those, but I did notice that the Mets jogged off the field before the Yankees were even throwing.
Odd… So I had nothing to do with the dugouts being blocked off. I just waited for the Yankees to start hitting. When they did, I had to wait a bit for some action. A BUNCH of balls were hit to the wall, and only Dave Eiland was picking them up, slowly, one by one. But I waited for the pitchers to start, but as they came to the foul line, the fans did also. But that made Left Field a bit less crowded (they moved over to the foul line, as you can see here).
So I ran out to Left Field again.
Nothing came my way for a bit. There were some balls that were hit to the wall towards my Left and Brett Gardner went to retrieve them, so I ran over there to ask him. But when I was close enough to ask him I noticed a guy taking his hat off and jostling for position. So I looked up and what did I see? A ball about .75 seconds away from landing. So when it landed it happened to land right in my row, so all I did was I turned and bare-handed my 5th ball. It was a New Yankee Stadium Commemorative ball with an odd, but cool black mark.
Pretty soon a ball landed inches from the wall by the foul pole. I moved over there and asked the people huddled above it:
“Could I try to get that ball?”
After about 30 seconds my glove was trying to knock the ball closer. I moved it about 2 feet closer; I rose my glove back up, placed a sharpie in it, and lowered my glove again. But when I placed my glove on top of the ball, something happened: the rubber band wouldn’t stretch around the ball. It was too tight, so I was forced to raise it back up and loosen it a bit I was getting nervous and my knees were quaking, literally. The previous attempt had taken around 4 minutes or so. There was a guard nearby, who could clearly see it. I lowered my glove once again after loosening it, after landing on the ball and telling that it was trapped in my glove, I raised my glove up, but now the band was too loose. I was really worried now. I raised my glove back up.
“Don’t give up now kid!” Some guy yelled.
A person behind me asked if he could try to get it if I couldn’t.
“One more try.”
I tightened the band maybe about 1 cm and lowered my glove again. This whole attempt had taken about 10 minutes or so already. I was worried. I remembered reading on Donnie’s blog that security at Citi Field was getting stricter on ball-retrieving devices. My glove was a ball-retrieving device. They took away two other people’s device already prior to this day. Would they confiscate just my string? Or would they be jerks and confiscate my glove? Would they rip up my ticket and saw that was a warning? Or would they eject me? Ok, that last one was too extreme, but this was definitely my last chance, whether I would like it or not. So I lowered it over the ball. The glove touched the ground. The rubber band stretched around the ball. Now would it hold? I raised my glove up and I felt the pleasure of my glove being heavier than normal. So slowly I raised it up, slowly, slowly, slowly, and then pretty soon, my 6th ball was in my hand. People cheered and clapped.
But I risked the trick once more by trying it on a ball (the red circle) that was a few feet out from the wall.
The labels will come in handy, just read on. I arrived over there and asked if I could get it. A kid (the orange circle on the wall) next to me said things repeatedly to me. It annoyed me so much. I took out my string.
“That’s my cousin’s ball; it was tossed to him twice.”
“You’re not gonna get that!”
My string was tangled so I raised it back up and released the tangles so it could go to the bottom. It successfully made it to the bottom, but my sharpie fell out.
“Oh, he’s gonna get it!”
“No wait, it’s too far out.”
“Only a cup trick works.”
I started swinging in a circular motion to knock it closer.
“It’s still too far out.”
I knocked it closer.
“No wait he’s gonna get it! He is!”
SHUT UP!
But before I could pick the ball up, Alfredo Aceves (the orange circle on the field) walked over. He looked at my contraption. He took the sharpie that had fallen to the ground. He took the ball that I was trying to get. So what he did next I didn’t ask for. He signed the ball. I couldn’t do anything. I didn’t want THAT ball signed, but he did it. What was I supposed to say? “DON’T SIGN IT; JUST GIVE ME THE BALL AND SHARPIE???” So he signed it and did what Fernando Nieve did. I raised my glove up and looked at the signed ball. It was my 1st autograph then my 7th ball.
He signed it before I had it, so yeah. But anyway security finally cracked down on me.
An usher told me to come over there after I raised my glove up.
“I’m sorry, but you’re gonna have to stop doing that.”
“Oh O.K. Sorry. I didn’t know.”
“Yeah people high up, they saw you, and they were talking to me on the walkie-talkie.”
“Oh, it’s just that at other parks they allowed it, like at Shea.”
“Yeah there was this one guy who came here a lot. Kamble?”
“Zack Hample?”
“Yeah him, he has like 3,000 baseballs.”
“Actually 4,100 baseballs.”
So that was it. Nothing taken away. Nothing to make me worried. It’s just that I won’t be using the trick at Left Field anymore there. So the glove trick is officially banned in both New York Stadiums. That was the last stuff to happen to me during B.P.
But after B.P. I was talking to a couple when they said the “Knicks Italian Basketball player is here. He’s wearing a red hat.”
See him?
They told me where the player, Danilo Gallinari, was, and I went over there. I approached him, got a photo with him, and got him to sign two tickets stubs for my 2nd autograph so far.
I stayed over near the dugout in hopes of a third out ball, but on the inner corner because a strikeout pitcher was pitching (A.J. Burnett).
In the First: Strikeout, but Jorge rolls the ball back to the mound.
In the Second: Groundout, Tex takes the ball to the other end of the dugout.
Before the Third: I get the infield’s warm-up ball for my 8th ball of the day, courtesy of Mike Kelleher.
A very beaten up New Yankee Stadium Commemorative baseball posed on the ’4′ in the ’42′ dedicated to Jackie Robinson.
At the 7th I moved over to the Mets dugout. I wanted a game used, rubbed up, Citi Field Commemorative ball. So when Sheffield got the inning ending ball, I ran to the First Row. When he came in, he flipped the crowd a ball, which I got, my 9th ball. The type of ball that I wanted.
Stats:
- 9 MLB Balls Today
- 1 MLB Autograph Today
- 1 Basketball Autograph Today
- 2 Total Autographs Today
- 124 MLB Balls in this Season
- 140 Total Balls in this Season
- 83 MLB Autographs in this Season
- 88 Total Autographs in this Season
- 7 BP, 2 During
- 5 Thrown, 3 Glove Trick, 1 Hit
- Attendance: 41,302 People
- Competition Factor: 371,718
- 11 Consecutive Games with at least 1 MLB Autograph
- 21 Consecutive Games with at least 3 MLB Baseballs
- 6 Consecutive Games with at least 4 MLB Baseballs
- 5.9 Balls / 1 Game
Subway Series Part 3: 9 Baseballs and some odd stories to tell…
5/20/09 Yankees vs. Orioles
I wanted to leave and get there before the gates open. Barely missed it. I got to the gates no later than 2 minutes after it opened.
“You leave school early to get here,” One senior citizen said.
“Nope, but I tried to leave as soon as it ended.
This was my first day with the new B.P. rules. Everyone is allowed anywhere in the outfield for the first hour and 40 minutes. After sitting in the seats for about 20 minutes of nothingness, some players came out. I looked at their numbers and saw that they were pitchers. Well after 5 minutes of confusive thought, B.P. started.
Well that’s not it actually started, it’s a bit before.
Right field got crowded early and some other people (Gary, Donnie, Greg) were there, so I went over to left field. Also to show that evil usher that I can walk through his precious section.
Well guess what happened? I stood there for a bit, and then HE came over.
“You gotta stay over here or over there,” HE said in a Caribbean accent thick enough that I could barely understand him.
You have to be kidding me.
Really.
Jokes over.
When are you gonna start acting nice to me and let me sit there with you during the game.
When.
He said that I would bump into, and hurt, little kids because I move so much. I said that I’d be careful and run through empty rows. He wouldn’t budge.
“It’s O.K. with me, but he’s crazy,” said another usher.
So I went back over to the crowded right field. I positioned myself in the first row. A couple balls were hit over there while the Yankees were warming up. I asked Dave Eiland for a ball, but he just nodded. Later when he picked up some balls, Dave tossed me my 1st ball, avoiding an incident like the one of Camden Yards.
Oh and that was my 75th ball this year.
I then moved over to near the bullpen. The Yankees relievers were doing sprints and then catching balls thrown by a trainer, sort of like football. When they were close to finished I asked Jon for his ball when he was done. He nodded. So when he was done he tossed it to me, but a guy reached out, the ball hit his hand, and dropped onto the field. When Alfredo Aceves walked over to pick it up a girl next to me, no wait, a couple feet for me lied; “That ball was tossed to me!!!” Too bad for her though as Aceves can pick out liars, or maybe he decided to toss it to me, but I got my 2nd ball.
I saw someone walking into the bullpen, where a couple ball were hit. I ran over and asked the guy, Ronnie Deck, for one of those baseballs. He has always been stingy, and how many people know his name? Well I asked Rick Kravitz, after Ronnie rejected me, for a ball. He told me to move back and then he tossed it to me, almost missing, for my 3rd ball today.
As you see, there were also two more balls in the bullpen.
So after that I went over to where the Orioles were throwing. I didn’t get anything from them, but one guy had a ball. I was thinking: “Who is that?!” I looked at my roster. Not Guthrie, Not Hendrickson, Not Uehara, Oh Wait!
“Jim!” I repeated a couple times. “Could I have that ball?” He nodded and tossed me my 4th ball.
I also needed an autograph. Chris Ray started running. I asked him to sign when he was done. He nodded and he did sign two for me for my 1st autograph.
The O’s started hitting so everyone was kicked out of field level. But not me. I had the whole left field foul line to myself. Maybe only a couple of other people with gloves. Mostly they were using their hats. I started my no competition by going to the corner spot and asking George Sherill for a nearby ball. He tossed it to me, but it was high and it tipped of my glove. Damn. I was right in the spot that the guy with the Rivera jersey was in.
I moved because he was nice enough to say:
“If I caught that ball I would’ve given it to you because it was thrown right to you.” Wow that was nice. I was decked out in Orioles gear, he was wearing a Yankees jersey.
By then I was playing for fouls. One missed my glove by inches. Another was on the money. It was perfect. I even thought from the start “this is the one.” I leaned over and tried to scoop it up. The ball stopped right beneath me, so I just picked up my 5th ball, and my first hit ball in a while.
Since the wall was crowded except by the pole, I went over there. I thought that some balls would become ground rule doubles. I saw a ball bounce on the warning track in right. It didn’t bounce. Uh-oh.
Well I got a ball. A ball that didn’t bounce. A ball stopped in front of the auxiliary scoreboard in left. Adam Eaton picked it up and scanned the crowd for an O’s fan. He wasn’t listening to the requests. He was looking for orange. Well he saw my bright bird shirt and my O’s hat, and he tossed the ball in my direction. I didn’t know if it was for me, or the woman next to me.
Well the guy next to me bobbled it and it plopped down on the track. I wasn’t sure who he was tossing it to, but when he walked over to pick it up, made eye contact with me, and tossed me my 6th ball. I know that it was intended for me.
So nothing else happened since B.P. ended soon after. I got some stubs for sections 126, 123, and 203. I got scolded at twice at the Yankees bullpen for trying to get a better view, and I didn’t get anything at the dugouts at any point.
I have been extremely over worked as of late. I have so many school homework and projects coming up that I haven’t had time to post. I am sorry for the delay. And just to show you how delayed I am, I transferred this to my computer on June 1st. When will it be posted?!?!
Stats:
- 6 MLB Balls Today
- 1 MLB Autograph Today
- 80 MLB Balls in this Season
- 96 Total Balls in this Season
- 70 MLB Autographs in this Season
- 73 Total Autographs in this Season
- 6 BP
- 5 Thrown, 1 Hit
- Attendance: 43,903 people
- Competition Factor: 263,418
- 6.2 Balls / 1 Game
- 13 Consecutive Games with at least 3 MLB Baseballs.
I have decided to leave you with a little picture show…
mlblogsriveravenue
Recent Comments