Results tagged ‘ Citi Field ’
9/4/09 Mets vs. Cubs
Back at a more generous New York ballpark: Citi Field.
I spent the time outside playing catch with Joe, Gary, Clif and his mom, people I knew from Zack Hample’s blog.
I ran all the way to LF when the gates opened and quickly checked for Easter Eggs. After finding none I saw a player, who looked like Pedro Feliciano, field a ball in CF, about 125 feet from me. Thinking it was Pedro I called out loud “Pedro” and he looked over at me. I opened my glove and he threw me my 1st ball.
But now that I think of it the player was Angel Pagan. Joe thought it was him, so then I looked at him as he got closer and it did look like him. This photo is from far away, but he is the player all the way on the right:
Another ball was hit over to the wall in Left Field, and settled right there, about 2 feet out. I noticed it was an All-Star ball, and since I already had one that I got from a batboy I let Joe go for it and moved over to a regular ball about 20 feet to his left. So soon after a player walked over to my ball to retrieve it, but I didn’t know who it was. But as he bent down to pick it up I noticed that he was Pat Misch.
“Pat, could I have that ball?” I called out. He tossed the ball up to me, but it was short. He gave me another throw,
which this time I got for my 2nd ball.
Then a couple minutes later a homerun was hit. It was to my right, and even thought the seat were still fairly empty, I had some competition; Gary and Joe were there. We all started looking for the ball, which bounced of the ground in a row and skipped into the air, landing in the seats. But none of us knew which row, or seat it was in. We looked everywhere for a couple second, and I saw it. It wasn’t on the ground, or wedged in a seat. It was wedged in the arm rest, as this recreation shows:
There it was. I saw it had multi-colored seams, and I grabbed it, my 3rd ball.
This was my second All-Star Ball from 2008 that I had ever gotten, the first was from a ballboy along the foul line. Getting this ball also made me feel guilty considering that Joe got ignored on the previous All-Star Ball he saw on the warning track. But don’t feel bad for him, Joe got two special balls courtesy of the source of my next ball: Nelson Figueroa.
Nelson and Elmer Dessens were shagging balls and Elmer tossed one to a fan which caused other fans to ask for a ball. Elmer put his finer to his lips to shush the people, so I said:
“Okay everyone has to be quiet now.”
That caused both of them to turn around, smile and then Elmer said:
“Yeah, whoever is quiet for the longest gets a ball.”
So that’s what I did, be quiet. Well at least with my mouth. I slammed my fist into the palm of my mitt and waved my arms to get their attention. It worked, and on the second ball that Nelson fielded after being quiet with my mouth was the one that he tossed to me, my 4th ball. AND it was another All-Star Baseball from last year.
This ball seemed different than the other All-Star Ball. It seemed more out of shape than the other. One logo was bigger than the other and one stamp was mis-stamped on the ball above:
And just for the heck of it here is a photo of Nelson shagging baseballs in Left Field.
Even though Citi Field is much less crowded than New Yankee Stadium I got shutout for Cubs BP. I tried to get some more baseballs, and had a few close calls, but it just that it was I picked the wrong places at the wrong time. I saw a ball on the batters’ eye, and stood there next to it, but then I went over to the bullpen and saw three balls there, so I stayed over there, and then I saw that the ball on the batters’ eye was gone. So it just wasn’t my day.
It was 6:08 and I saw a few people signing near the dugout, so I decided that I should head over there. It turns out that the players were Mets. One of them was Lance Broadway, who I got for my 1st autograph.
I didn’t get the player because I wanted to get to the dugout for the end of BP. I had a lot of time it turned out.
I was able to see a ball about 15 feet out from the dugout, so I asked Cubs’ Coach Matt Sinatro for the ball, but he said “One Minute,” and went to talk to some people. But then a random guy appeared out of the dugout, took the ball and placed it in a random player’s glove. What?
That player turned out to be Mike Fontenot. When he came in he took his glove and noticed something inside of it.
“Mike could I have that ball in your glove?”
He opened the glove, took the ball, and tossed me my 5th ball. You can see me getting the ball at the bottom of the photo, I am inbetween a guy wearing a black shirt and a kid wearing an orange shirt. The acutal ball is two photos down.
Notice the strange purple marking on the ball:
The end of the dugout I was at barely had any players come in it, they all went in the outfield end. Matt Sinatro was still talking to the people. I also noticed that a bucket of baseballs was out. Hmmm…
I position myself behind the bucket (along with Joe and Gary). When Matt Sinatro was finished I got his attention and pointed to the bucket. He walked over, took 2 baseballs out, tossed one to me (my 6th ball) and tossed the other to a little girl, in pink in the photo below.
I moved to the left side of the tunnel to be prepared in case the players throw where they stretch. I noticed Sam Fuld brought his glove to the foul line, indicating he was going to throw there, so when he started signing I asked if I could have his pre-game throwing ball. He said yes, but there was some other people before him.
A translator for who I assume Kosuke Fukudome started throwing with Jeff Baker. When they were done I started asking for the ball, but they tossed it to Aramis Ramirez. Bad, no wait, that meant Aramis would be throwing! Sure enough he did, also with the translator. And when they finished I waved my arms and got the translator to toss me my 7th ball.
Luckily I noticed that when I got that ball Sam Fuld was not looking, so when he finished throwing a couple minutes later I got him to toss me my 8th ball. Two more balls until double digits.
I had gone to only 4 games prior to this one at Citi Field without double digits, but I got double digits at my 2nd regular season game ever at New Yankee Stadium (well 4th game overall), and New Yankee Stadium is much harder to get baseballs at, so I figured that it was due time for it to happen at Citi Field.
And I got some help in the bottom of the third. Third out baseballs usually have a bunch of competition, but the pre-inning warm-up ball barely has any, if there is competition at all. So that was the case in the third. Alan Trammel got the ball tossed to him from Micah Hoffpauir. I called out for it and he tossed me the ball in a hook shot, which I caught for my 9th ball. One more ball…
Clif and Gary had the outfield end of the Cubs’ dugout, and the infield end of the dugout was used up because Alan Trammel thought Joe was me, and Geovany Soto (who gave Joe a ball) thought that I was Joe. So Joe and I decided to head over to the Mets dugout.
We got there in time for the 7th Inning. We both went for the pre-inning warm-up ball, but Luis Alicea ended up tossing it to a college girl in the front row. So for the third out ball, we worked out a plan. Joe would run down to the front row and try for it, and I would stand back and try to stand out to see if he would toss it to me.
Bobby Parnell picked the ball, which was rocketed back to him, and then he 
jogged over to first base and tossed to the ball to Daniel Murphy. By the time he started jogging over Joe and I were in place. I was standing on a chair in the partially-empty third row and started waving my arms to get his attention. I could see Daniel Murphy was looking around to find someone to toss the ball to. He saw me, with nobody near me. There were some adults in the row in front of me, but he didn’t care. He tossed the ball to me. The ball cleared the people in front of me (who were also trying) by about 1 foot and then kept heading towards me. I reach out and started slipping off the chair. I got the ball in my glove, but then I started falling. I fell to the ground, momentarily losing my balance, and the ball was no longer tucked inside my glove. Would it pop out? Nope, it was resting barely in my glove, my 10th baseball.
Stats:
- 10 MLB Balls Today
- 1 MLB Autograph Today
- 187 MLB Autographs in this Season
- 226 Total Autographs in this Season
- 268 MLB Balls in this Season
- 289 Total Balls in this Season
- 9 Thrown, 1 Hit
- 4 BP, 4 Pre-Game, 2 During
- Attendance: 37,953 People
- Competition Factor: 379,530
- 42 Consecutive Games with at least 3 MLB Baseballs
- 32 Consecutive Games with at least 1 MLB Autograph
8/1/09 Mets vs. Diamondbacks
No long detailed-entry needed for this day with a horrible start…
My 1st Autograph:
I ran into the stadium. I had seats by dugout so I headed over there first. I saw Pedro Feliciano signing over on the foul line, so I went over there. I was able to get a big signature with a black sharpie he was using. It’ll start bleeding soon.
My 1st Baseball:
I didn’t bring my glove trick to this game, so when a ball landed on the batters’ eye I was helpless. I ran over to where the guards who get balls that land on the batters’ eye are (in Center Field). I waited patiently until they were done talking and then asked them to get a ball that landed on the batters’ eye. One went to get it and the remaining usher started joking about my Diamondbacks’ hat. I saw the usher who went to get it toss a ball into the stands so I thought he gave the ball away. But turns out that there were two balls there and he flipped me the other ball when he came back (No. 172 on the season).
My 2nd Baseball:
I was trying to get a ball Emersling Vasquez out in Left-Center when a ball landed right beneath me on the dirt. Emersling didn’t retrieve it, Clay Zavada and his cool mustache got it. I called out his name and I was able to get Clay to throw the ball 18 feet high right into my glove (No. 173 on the season).
My 3rd Baseball:
I moved over to Right Field because the group batting was all lefties. Of course baseballs were being hit to the deck that overhangs the seats, but I didn’t feel like going up there so I stayed on field level. It paid off because one of the people shagging in right field, Chip Hale (the other was Lorenzo Bundy who I kept calling “Luis Dorante”), threw me a ball that landed nearby (No. 174 on the season).
My 2nd Autograph:
Angel Berroa started signing at the dugout where I already was, so I took two baseballs and stood patiently behind the dugout. I didn’t get Angel’s autograph, but while he was signing a random Gatorade cup appeared from underneath the dugout. He landed on the edge of the dugout and I could see that it was signed. Everyone else wasn’t paying attention to it, so I sprawled out on the dugout and grabbed the cup, which I later saw was signed by Jeff Francoeur.
Game Time.
My 4th Baseball:
I had just gotten Fried Dough out in Right Field and I was heading back to my seats. I showed my ticket to the usher and since the Mets were on the field warming up for the inning I moved down to the front row. There were two kids there also, but I was focusing on getting the warm-up ball from Luis Alicea. Right as Daniel Murphy threw the ball at Luis Alicea the kids turned their heads. I yelled “Luis!” and he peeked he head out from the dugout and threw me the ball with my fried dough in my none glove hand (No. 175 on the season).
My 5th Baseball:
I was at the Diamondbacks dugout at the end of the game. I was trying to get something from the Diamondbacks, as usually you could get one thing from the visiting team. I got nothing from the players in the dugout at the end of the game. But there were players coming in from the bullpen. One of the players (I don’t know who) had a ball and flipped it towards the foul line, but I thought that at least one more person would have a ball. I saw one player who I recognized had a ball. At first I didn’t know his name, but after thinking about it I realized it was former Met and current Diamondback Scott Schoenweis. I called Scott repeatedly as he approached the dugout. I got the ball thrown to me easily and immediately handed it to a cute 4-Year-Old who I had been sitting next to and it was his first game ever, so I couldn’t not give him a ball. Here is a blurry shot of me getting the ball (the ball is circled in red, I am circled in blue, and my glove is circled in green):
Stats:
- 5 MLB Balls Today
- 2 MLB Autographs Today
- 107 MLB Autographs in this Season
- 146 Total Autographs in this Season
- 176 MLB Balls in this Season
- 197 Total Balls in this Seasno
- 3 BP, 1 During, 1 After
- 5 Thrown
- Attendance: 39,574 People
- Competition Factor: 197,870
- 5.87 Balls / 1 Game
- 30 Consecutive Games with at least 3 MLB Baseballs
- 20 Consecutive Games with at least 1 MLB Autograph
- 15 Consecutive Games with at least 4 MLB Baseballs
My next games will be over 1,100 miles away…
7/21/09 Paul McCartney
It’s weird to arrive at a ballpark after the gates open with only a camera and a phone. That was this day, the Paul McCartney concert at Citi Field.
Well, the camera wasn’t even allowed.
So we arrived a while before the concert even started. First they had a warm-up band:
I don’t remember their name. Then after 1 hour or so Sir Paul McCartney came.
It was a great show over all. I saw him once before at the Garden, but this was way better. Here are some photos from it:
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…
6/20/09 Mets vs. Rays
I arrived at Citi Field and wanted to do one thing: Go to Home Plate. Not Home Plate of Citi Field, the Home Plate of Shea Stadium. Remember that place? As I got out of the car I asked a nearby worker where the bases were.
“Over by where those people are standing.” I saw the people and went over there. When I got over there I saw home plate:
Here is a view from home plate:
So everytime a batter stepped into the box, he would see this stadium off in the distance.
I ran to First Base:
Then I went to Second Base:
Then I went to Third Base:
And Then I went to the Pitcher’s Mound Plate?
And then I went to the Jackie Robinson Rotunda. Then gates opened late, and while waiting for the gates to open I had the joy of listening to an announcer say maybe 6 or 7 announcements over the speaker. So after I entered the Jackie Robinson Rotunda, where I got a Mets Cap, I ran out to take a look of the field…and I saw nothing. But far out in the outfield I saw two players having a catch. They were Jeff Niemann and Andy Sonnastine.
When they finished they came over to sign some autographs, and Jeff Niemann tucked the ball in his back pocket. I asked Jeff Niemann if he wanted to play catch:
“It’s too late for that. But do you want a ball?” I nodded and he flipped me my 1st ball.
But after he finished signing I asked him again. He took out his glove and stood back a bit and held open his mitt. I threw the ball to him,
and he threw it back:
See that guy holding the blue umbrella? Now do you see that guy underneath the blue umbrella pointing a camera at me? That is an AP Photographer. And here is the same moment captured by the AP Photographer, but from a different angle:
We had another 20 throws or so, and this was my first catch with a MLB Player, and it felt good. After the 20 throws he motioned for me to keep it and he walked in. I waited for some more people to come out.
After waiting a bit more, Scott Cursi came out to throw with Winston Abreu (who apparently was signed by Atlanta when he was 16). When they finished Winston flipped the ball to a kid in the first row, but when they were throwing I noticed Scott had a ball tucked in his back pocket. So when they finished I said:
“Scott could I have that ball in your back pocket?” He responded by walking over slowly and asking me a question:
“Who has the most hits as a Yankee?” This was SO simple, but my mind froze up.
“You have 5 guesses”
“Lou Gehrig?” I tried. He said no. But I realized something…
“Derek Jeter?” He nodded and took the ball out of his pocket.
“Final Season, Yankee Stadium.” And handed me my 2nd ball, which was a commemorative ball from the final season at the Ol’ Yankee Stadium.
And here is the man who gave it to me:
Although guess what? He was wrong! Both played their entire careers as a Yankee; Lou Gehrig had 2,721 Career Hits, and Derek has 2,619. HA! (Look HERE.)
. I then rushed over to the dugout to try and get Winston’s autograph. He signed my 1st auto, but while he was signing Scott came over with him. He looked at me, and then at the ball Winston was signing and grew confused because it wasn’t the ball he just gave me.
“I brought that ball.” Winston laughed and tossed me the ball back and the two went in.
Now, my dad was nice enough to buy a ticket for the Sterling Club for the day because we had three people coming and we needed an extra ticket, so he decided to buy an near half-face value ticket for the sterling club and printed them out from Stub Hub! You wanna know something that I have realized? Here is a trick for anyone who wants to try something…
Do you have a game that you want to go to with a couple other people, let’s say 3 others, but you want to get a good ticket? Buy a ticket in that section. One ticket. Then buy tickets for the other people in the grandstand or bleachers. Now here is the trick…Print out 4 tickets. When you get to the stadium only scan the good ticket once. But when you are inside, give everyone a copy of the ticket and then make your way down to the seats at different points. The good ticket costs I don’t know, $100, but the other tickets cost $15 each. You end up sitting behind the dugout or so for an average of around $37 a ticket. Not a bad deal…But back to the game.
Well actually back to the Sterling Club. So here is a little photo tour of the area…
Now here is something I noticed. First look at the price of the Black Angus Hamburger in the resturant:
$17. Ok now look at the price of another Black Angus Burger in the same Club, just around the corner:
Come on, baseball fans aren’t idiots. The only difference is $7 French Fries.
I got all of my stuff in the first 30 minutes of the gates being open, but I then proceeded to get shut out for the next 2+ hours. My next item came via Luis Alicea…
I noticed that since the field was especially wet from the rain, they would give out the balls from each inning’s warm-up because they would be too soaked. So I went over to the Mets dugout for a bit. First I got some Pumpkin, or Sunflower seeds from Wilson Valdez,
then I asked Luis Alicea for the warm-up ball next inning. He pointed at me and got ready to catch it. So after the ball was tossed around by Daniel Murphy, Luis Castillo (DROP IT), Alex Cora, and David Wright, it went to Luis Alicea,
and he tossed me my 3rd ball.
When he tossed it to me, I noticed it was unusual. The Logo I mean. It was too big to be a Citi Logo, too circular to be Yankee logo, and this IS New York, so that means that it must be…
A Shea Stadium commemorative ball! I got one of these before, but it was odd. A security guard took it out of a plastic wrapper and handed it to me after a game. So I wouldn’t consider it an actual baseball from a game…
After the game I went over to where the umpires exit was. I wanted a Citi Field commemorative baseball, and I figured an umpire ball would be a absolutely perfect one, so after the game I waited for Home Plate Umpire Tom Hallion. He took his time to walk over, but I was patient. When he got close I started yelling his name. He heard me, took a ball out of his pocket, and handed me a perfect Citi Field commemorative baseball for my 4th ball.
I rushed over to the dugout for something, but nada happened.
I haven’t heard of someone who has gotten three different commemorative baseballs in the same game. Maybe Zack, but I am not sure. Have you heard of anyone who has done that before?
Stats:
- 4 MLB Balls Today
- 1 MLB Autograph Today
- 115 MLB Balls in this Season
- 131 Total Balls in this Season
- 82 MLB Autographs in this Season
- 87 Total Autographs in this Season
- 2 BP, 1 During, 1 After
- 4 Thrown
- Attendance: 37,992 People
- Competition Factor: 151,968
- 10 Consecutive Games with at least 1 MLB Autograph
- 20 Consecutive Games with at least 3 MLB Baseballs
And in other news, I am finally caught up for all of my game entries! I looked back and saw that the last time I had no entries to do was APRIL 16! I am celebrating this little event by including links in this entry. And I’ll be going to the NYY @ NYM Games this Saturday.
4/25/09 Mets vs. Nationals
Today is my first official game at Shea Stadium Citi Field. So we arrive 30 minutes early. I head over towards the Jackie Robinson Rotunda to make sure it is the earliest gate.
It is and I look for my ticket. I look for it in my pockets, but it isn’t there! I look everywhere around me. Oh crap, where is my ticket. If I don’t have it, we printed out another copy, but someone could pick up the dropped ticket and somehow get ahead of me. This isn’t good. But way off in the distance, I see an object.
It is near the light post in the center of the parking lot. It seems too big, but I went RIGHT through that area. I walk/run over there. I pick it up and it is the size of a ticket. I open it up and whwala! It is the ticket for section 123. It’s not there anymore, but it was just in front of the pole in the parking lot.
After I scan it, I run up the escalators. When I get a look at the field, there is nobody there. There are B.P. cages, but the only action is a Met running around the outfield warning track. I put on my Mets cap and go over there. I think it is John Maine, a quite little farm boy.
I am not sure, so I do what I did with Aaron Laffey back at Yankee Stadium. I just hold up my pen, and he makes a throw it to me motion. I don’t ever have the baseballs out, so I take one out and toss it to him. He gladly signs it for my 1st autograph today.
Since there are B.P. cages I ask a nearby guard what is happening with B.P. today:
“Only the Nationals are taking B.P. today.”
I wait happily in the empty outfield seats for the Nationals to start.
But after some coaches come out and go to the bullpen, the entire Nationals roster comes out of the dugout. I can see Adam Dunn, Austin Kearns, Manny Acta, Marquis Grissom, Ryan Zimmerman, all of them.
There is also a bucket of balls there.
Austin Kearns is right there so I ask him for one and he gladly walks over, picks one up, and tosses me my 1st ball of the day. Not that hard considering that I am the only person behind the dugout.
That’s him with his hands in his pockets.
Then I get some competition, an 8-year-old kid or so and his dad. He gets one ball easily and gets some more later on (you’ll see).
Soon two coaches start throwing. One of them is Marquis Grissom, a former Expo, and another coach I don’t know. I plop a seat in the first row and wait for them to finish. Marquis Grissom ends up with the ball so I don’t even ask, not to attract attention to myself. We make eye contact, I open and close my glove, and he winds-up and throws the ball straight to me, my 2nd ball so far.
Look at this cool wipe:
Then a random player walked over to the bucket. The dad and his kid ask him for a ball and he starts to walk away.
“Wait, can I have a ball also?” He sees my Nationals hat and Inaugural Season Nationals shirt, smiles, and walks over and gladly tosses me my 3rd ball. According to a coach, it was Ryan Zimmerman (you’ll see again).
You can see on this ball the *Official* Training Ball print and the ‘Practice’ print. The Nationals were only using these balls.
All the players go out to the line to start throwing, but Marquis and Manny remain. The dad asks for Manny’s autograph, and gets it, so I ask him for an autograph also. I toss him both baseballs, and he returns them to me, signed, for my 2nd autograph today.
Jim Riggleman kept taking balls from the bucket, now on the mound, and hitting them towards the players, for warm-up balls. They pile up, so I head over there. The closest person over there is Pat Listach:
“Could I have that ball?” I ask him.
“How many you got?”
“What?” I am not sure what he said since he is about 50 feet away.
“How many do you got?” (The got sounded like want).
I think he was joking around when I thought I heard him say ‘want’.
“Oh, one,” thinking that he said want.
“Your lying to me.”
“What?”
“I saw you at the dugout. I say you get multiple balls from the players. You lied to me and you got that uh, uh Nationals hat.” He said the last part while pointing to me hat.
“Sorry, I didn’t know what you meant.”
“You got like 6.”
“No, I did not get 6 baseballs.” I replied.
“I saw you get some from players and also one from Ryan Zimmerman.”
“Ryan Zimmerman didn’t toss me a ball, I saw him without his jacket.”
“Well it was him,” he said and then he starts signing. I figure what the heck and ask him. “You want me to sign all 6?” He joked. I just have him sign one baseball not to push it for my 3rd autograph today.
I then go over and see Randy St. Claire with some baseballs.
“Balls are for pitchers,” he says after I ask him for a ball.
A bit after he said that, a ball is hit on the line to Shairon Martis. I happen to be right there, and he is recognizable, so I ask him for the ball. He inspects the ball and tosses me my 4th ball today. Did I mention that all the balls I have gotten so far have been training balls? I need one more for my 50th ball on the season…
After the pitchers finish, I go to the outfield for home runs. There is a ball that is hit to the wall. It is about 5 feet out. Glove trick anyone?
The wall is much bigger than I thought. I lower my glove about 10 feet, a little more than halfway down, when bullpen coach Randy Knorr comes to pick it up. I shout leave it there, but he flips it high up. I’m still holding my glove trick in my left hand, and sort of sitting down, so I jump up and lean over and bare hand it with my right hand. That was a good way to get my 5th ball today and my….50th on the season! This is a very clean ball for sitting on dirt and at this pace; I’ll get 300 by the seasons end.
Then it becomes dead. No balls are hit into the seats. There are too many people. There is too high a wall to lower the glove trick in time. About 15 players are out in left field, so they pick up every ball. It’s too hot. I just give up. I go over to the dugout. I ask the players as they walk in for something. They all say no. Finally when the whole team comes in, I get an autograph. Kip Wells comes in, so I call out his name. He looks up, I hold out my pen, and I toss him both the baseballs and my pen, both of which he signs and returns for my 4th autograph today.
That is pretty much it. The bucket of baseballs is being emptied, but guess who is doing that? Pat Listach!
So I wait for the pre-game warm up balls. Nick Johnson, who looks like any guy that accidentally jumped onto the field wearing a Nationals uniform, is the first one to start and finish. When he ends up with the ball, I call his name. He doesn’t look up. He just keeps walking until he is on the first step. Only then does he finally look up and toss me his pre-game warm up ball for my 6th ball today.
See the ball? There was absolutely no competition. I just laid back and nobody tried to get it. Citi Field seems laid back.
Now I want a commemorative baseball. All the baseballs the Nationals have used, besides Nick Johnson’s, have been training balls. UGH! I try for third out balls on the Nationals side. Finally, after the third, I stop. Why?
A ball was hit to #16, who catches it for the third out. He walks towards the dugout and stops at the very top to put on his shin guards or something. I see that the player is Josh Willingham after waiting for a long time. Finally, he looks up, smiles and finally tosses me the ball, my 7th ball. While getting the ball, an adult lunges for it, and lands on me, but by which time the ball is in my glove. I fell O.K. and it was worth it for a commemorative baseball.
At around the 6th inning, I go over to the inner aisle of the Nationals dugout. I see Manny Acta at the top step of the dugout during the half-inning. I ask Manny Acta for something at the end of the game, to which he will give me at the end of the game.
At the end of the game, by which time I am in the front row, I say “Manny”. He turns around, sees me, and gets ready to toss it to me. I nod to show that I am ready. He tosses me it, and I catch it easily. I take the pen off that is clipping them together and look at the line-up cards for today’s game, signed by both Manny Acta and Jerry Manuel.
Jerry Manuel signed by him. Notice Sheffield on it? Nice and printed.
Manny Acta signed by him. Everything hand-written. I don’t know why the star is next to Kip Wells’ name.
I am not counting these in my autograph collection because it would make things a little difficult. They are signed by the managers, but in what order? I have also gotten one or two previous line-up cards, which I don’t think I counted, so since it would screw some stuff up, I don’t count them. Now bought autographs, I count. I know you may say that that is cheating, but I had already bought a bunch of autographs, I’d say around 400 of my collection. Now that significantly takes away from my lifetime total, but it is still 1,500 MLB Autographs. Now, I am still counting them in my lifetime total, but I have a thing where I enter each autograph I get and information about it, so I can look back and see which autographs I bought and which I got from now on. Remember, I still have gotten about 1,500 MLB Autographs on my own, and plus I usually get two for my brother. I know some people may call that cheating, but it would be too difficult. I went through my collection and counted each and everysingle autograph and the year before that I wrote the names of players on little slips and put them underneath the balls in holders. It would be a huge pain to resort through each autograph and find out which is bought and which isn’t, but if you pick out a ball from my collection I can tell you which it is.
Well back to the game. The two players on base, one at-bat, and one on-deck come into the dugout. Nothing from Johnson. Nothing from Dunn. Nothing from Zimmerman. Then Anderson Hernandez comes in. I ask his for his batting gloves by making the hand symbol (un-strapping your wrists). He takes off his wristband and throws it to me, easily, my 1st G-U item of the day, and the MLB season.
Now all the bullpen pitchers come in from the bullpen. When they get close, I see two baseballs on Knorr’s bag. I ask him for them, but nothing. After they disappear two baseballs are thrown from underneath. I reach out and get the first one for my 8th baseball today. A wristband, a ball, and the line-up cards? That is why you stay after the game, or for the Kids Run the Bases.
The next game that I will be going to will be May 2nd at Yankee Stadium and the next games after that will be May 5th and 7th. Most likely a sell-out on the 5th, but I don’t care.
Stats:
4 MLB Autographs Today
8 MLB Balls Today
46 MLB Autographs in This Season
49 Total Autographs in This Season
53 MLB Balls in This Season
69 Total Balls in This Season
5 BP, 1 Pre-Game, 1 During, 1 After
8 Thrown
Attendence: 39,960 people
Competition Factor: 319,680
6.625 balls / 1 game
8 Consecutive games with 1 MLB Autograph
8 Consecutive games with 3 MLB Baseballs
3 Consecutive games with 5 MLB Baseballs
I’ll leave you with some pictures of Citi Field:
3/29/09 St. Johns vs. Georgetown at Citi Field
Ahhhhhh the first game of the season. The winter months are over, bring on the baseball. This is something I looked foward to for all of winter. We just wanted to be prepared and not worry, so we got 9 tickets. I wanted to be there early so I can be there right when the gates open, so we arrive there at about 10:10. Citi Field has changed in just a couple of months, and the area around it. People who don’t want to see what Shea used to look like (after a tornado), don’t look at the following photos.
After
Before
After
Anyway, at the Jackie Robinson Rotunda, we see Zack Hample and some other people from his blog. The gates opened at about 10:50 and I ran inside to see the field.
It was cool seeing this ballpark for the first time, even with the tarp on. This was my 3rd game ballhawking so I wanted to see how well I could do. I saw two players warming up, one of them was Danny Benedetti. I learned from someone that he was one of the good players on the team that I should look for. He tossed one ball into the crowd, but then he oddly started throwing again. So I positioned myself near him, called out for a ball when he was done, and he gave it to me. My first ball of the year, and 2nd one thrown to a fan inside Citi Field, nice.
How did I know him? I used a cheet sheet, which I used later to get a ball from #15 Scott Ferrara. He threw it to me, about 6 feet over my head, and I had to scramble up a couple of rows to get it. It has a nice little gash.
And players are still throwing so I try to get some more, like Bruce Kern who gave me my 3rd ball. So far all the balls have been from St. Johns, where is Georgetown, why aren’t the soaking up all the Citi Rain? Still St. Johns players are throwing, so since Georgetown isn’t out, oh why not a fourth? I look at my sheet, see Matt Wessinger, and ask him for a ball, which he gives me. And he walks over and talks to people, so I figure why not get a college baseball autograph, so I get my first College Baseball Autograph ever, and that is my 2,302 autograph overall, and yes it is 2,302 and I’m not lying. In some later entries I’ll post photos of my collection, but now this is a game.
Now all the St. Johns players have gone, and Georgetown is out, so I walk over to see the new team. I just sit, relax, and watch them run and stretch. This is relaxed, unlike on 4/13 where they are going to need the S.W.A.T. team. St. Johns is back out so I decide to walk over there, where I get my 5th ball from Jason Chesterman, which breaks my high from Game 4 of the 2008 World Series, and my 6th ball from Kevin Kilpatrick, whose dad was right next to me when I caught it. That is it for Batting Practice, so then I decided to take a tour of Citi Field with my camera. Here are some photos.
Caesar’s Club
Club Level
The Junkyard outside of Citi (look at the roofs)
A row of seating, with a cane.
Highest row in the Upper Deck, all the way to the side.
And finally the stunning Jackie Robinson Rotunda.
In about the 7th inning I went to the bullpen to try to see if I could get something, and I felt sorry for the players because they were being called by their numbers (although they are college), they were being cursed by rival colleges, and one statement that was annoying was a kid yelling “NUMBER 44 YOU ARE MY FAVORITE PLAYER ON GEORGETOWN!!” I left at about the 8th 1/2 inning and went back to the dugout to see if I could get anything after the game. After the game (which Georgetown won) I was able to get my 7th(!) ball from Dan Capeless, and a pair of batting gloves (signed) from Erick Fernandez, both from Georgetown. It was a good day meeting other ballhawks, getting some baseballs and memorabilia, and seeing the first game in the history of Citi Field. 7 balls, 2 autographs, and 1 pair of batting gloves, bring on the Ballhawk League.
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7 College Baseballs (6 Big East Logo)
- 2 Autographs
- 1 Pair of Batting Gloves
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