Results tagged ‘ Mets ’
10/4/09 Mets vs. Astros
Final day of the regular season, and I spent it at Citi Field. We arrived early and since there was time to waste before I though anyone would arrive I went to the players entrance. Joe, from yesterday’s game, was there and he started waving for me to come over fast. I ran over there and saw that a player (Josh Thole) was calmly signing for everyone. I waited on a line and then he signed my 1st autograph.
Joe and I talked for a bit, waiting for another player to come. He was Brian Stokes, he signed my 2nd autograph, and took a photo with me:
Out next stop was the Jackie Robinson Rotunda. We put our bags down and noticed a big guy coming from the subway, walking in our direction. We both thought it was a player, and after thinking for a bit we realized that it was Jeff Fulchino, who signed my 3rd autograph.
That was my final autograph before the game. When we entered the stadium there was no action, and it remained that way for more than an hour. Since there was a lot of time to waste I was able to hang out with a bunch of other ballhawks who were there:
From Left to Right: Connor, Joe, Me, Zack, another Alex, Ross, and Clif.
The first players to come out were 6 Mets players (plus 2 trainers).
I got nothing.
The first Astros to come out were Samuel Gervacio and a random worker.
I got nothing.
So I was seriously worrying at game time. It was crowded as hell by the dugouts, this was even worse than that one game at Detroit by now; at least I had a baseball by this point. My second baseball in Detroit was from pre-game throwing, and that is what I waited for, hoping that I would get a baseball there. That hope went away and turned into relief when Jeff Keppinger tossed me my 1st ball, (I’m in the bottom left corner of the photo, Jeff is on the right jogging towards the dugout):
The game started and I had one ball. I wasn’t leaving with just one, I could deal with two, but not one. So I tried for 3rd out balls and warm-up balls. The Citi Field ushers must’ve said: “Ah, screw it,” because there was an insane amount of competition behind the dugout during the game, and by the time Take Me Out to the Ballgame was played, I still only had one baseball. But one inning later I got my 2nd ball, a pre-inning warm-up ball, from Jose Cruz.
That was the final ball. I didn’t get any game-used stuff myself after the game (the main reason I came), but Clif gave me a batting glove that he got.
Joe, Clif, and I exited and went over to the Astros exit. After waiting for a while, Joe and I (Clif had left) got a random guy to take our hats and baseballs and get them signed by Miguel Tejada, my 4th autograph.
Stats:
2 MLB Balls Today
4 MLB Autographs Today
209 MLB Autographs in this Season
248 Total Autographs in this Season
316 MLB Balls in this Season
337 Total Balls in this Season
2 Thrown
1 Pre-Game, 1 During
Attendance: 38,135
Competition Factor: 76,270
6.45 Balls / 1 Game
39 Consecutive Games with at least 1 MLB Autograph
10/3/09 Mets vs. Astros
It’s been a long time, I know.
I arrived at the second to final game of the regular season and had time to waste before I would meet my friend Joe ( http://baseballexperiences.mlblogs.com ), so I decided to head to the player’s entrance. Before I could get there I saw that the people were crowded near the fence, so that meant somebody was signing.
I ran over there and saw that it was Anderson Hernandez, and he signed my 1st autograph.
Soon after I met up with Joe. We decided to wait for one more player and then we’d go to the Rotunda. That player was Sean Green, and he signed my 2nd autograph.
Apparently the Astros had a different entrance because as we were walking to the Rotunda we noticed a player who looked oddly familiar and he was heading to the first base VIP gate, it was Hunter Pence! He signed my 3rd autograph.
After playing catch for a bit we got on line and went inside.
The cages were up, but nobody was on the field.
So Joe and I passed the time in the Sterling Club. A little bit later the Astros came out and started throwing. I got a spot on the railing next to the foul line and got Brad Moehler to throw me a random baseball lying on the field, my 1st ball.
Only one pair was left throwing, well trio. They were Samuel Gervacio, Jose Valverde, and Wilton Lopez. I was in the empty Left Field Bleachers, so it was easy to get Samuel Gervacio to throw me my 2nd ball when they were done.
I started playing for home runs after that, so I noticed that a ball landed on the batters’ eye in Center Field. I ran over considering to use the glove trick, but I choose not to when I saw that an usher was coming to get it.
I asked for the ball, and being that there were no other fans asking for it I got my 3rd ball tossed to me easily.
I moved to the seats in Right-Center field because Left Field was getting slightly crowded. It turned out to be a mistake. There were a couple home runs hit in Left Field, while where I was there were none. I *did* get Edwin Maysonet to throw me a ball he picked up in shallow Center Field (100ft away or so), my 4th ball. Here is the distance (he is pointed to using the black arrow):
And here is the ball:
That was the last of baseballs for me during BP. I met Todd and Tim ( http://cookandsonbats.mlblogs.com ), who I had met in Chicago on August 17th. I spent the remaining time with them and Joe before the game started. We started off by the foul pole (where in the photo below Tim is showing off his new baseball):
And then we worked our way to the Astros’ dugout. We stood there for the end of BP, and while Joe and Todd got baseballs thrown to them, I got none. We decided to head over to the play area for Tim, and after he took some cuts I said goodbye to them for the time being and headed to the dugout because pre-game throwing was about to start.
But I got no baseballs at the pre-game throwing, Joe did though. He went into the Sterling club as I recall and I waited for the first inning to try for a third out ball behind the Astros dugout. To pass the time I was sitting next to Todd and Tim, who were sitting in a section directly behind the dugout. I sat to their left because most third out balls end up being tossed to the outfield side. But Lance Berkman is un-predictable. When the third out was recorded, I realized that Lance was going in the home plate end of the dugout. I had to cut across Todd and Tim and run down. The problem was that they were in the 20th or so row, so I could only run down to around the 8th row, but Lance is un-predictable. He ended up tossing the ball right to me, right as I got there. Since it was the first inning, I was able to catch my 5th ball before the other people realized that baseballs do get given away.
While walking back up to Tim and Todd, Todd took a photo of me:
And then I examined the spekled dirt pattern on the baseball:
I spent the next while standing behind the plate going for foul balls with Joe, but it was empty. It was raining, and for some reason that I now forget, I went over to the Astros dugout before the rain delay. When the rain delay came, it was POURING. But then I remembered and got an idea.
I bolted to the umpire tunnel, dodging people to get their in time. This pouring rain would make the baseballs the home plate umpire had be waterlogged. When I got there, Joe followed behind me and we both got baseballs from Damien Beal, my 6th ball.
Being soaking wet we ran into the Sterling Club to dry off. Everything was fine, except for being wet. After drying off we headed in the Jackie Robinson Rotunda and saw Todd holding a crying Tim. We tried cheering him up, but then found out that he was faking it. After Tim was done fake crying, we were able to sneak them into the Sterling club, which is where we spent the next while, drinking free milkshakes and playing catch in the fancy seats, which we were able to do for a couple minutes. We then wandered around, waiting for the game to start. When they finally started taking the tarp off, we went back behind the dugout to look at the middle-game throwing, during which I got nothing:
Joe and I went back behind home plate to try for foul balls, and it was empty. There couldn’t have been more than 20 people behind home plate, but not a single foul ball was hit into the Sterling Club. There was one foul ball that sailed directly over my head into the next tier, and that was all the action I got (Joe was luckier). Eventually I went over to the umpire’s tunnel to try for one more Citi Field baseball. What happened next was odd.
Damien Beal came in and took the baseballs out of his pouch. He handed one to Todd and Tim (also there), a couple other kids, Joe (also there), but not me. Apparently he had one last baseball in his pouch because he stopped, turned around, and tossed the ball in my direction. The ball fell into the tunnel, just beyond my glove. But then a second or two later my glove wasn’t on my hand. One of the other umpires, Adrian Johnson, took my glove off of my hand when I wasn’t looking. He took a couple steps in, and then turned around and grinned. This was the chance to get the ball! I pointed to the ball lying in the tunnel, and he turned around, placed the ball in my glove, and handed it back to me. And I had my 7th ball.
Stats:
-
7 MLB Balls Today
- 3 MLB Autographs Today
- 205 MLB Autographs in this Season
- 244 Total Autographs in this Season
- 314 MLB Balls in this Season
- 335 Total Balls in this Season
- 5 Thrown, 2 Hand-To-Hand
- 4 BP, 2 During, 1 After
- Attendance: 37,578 People
- Competition Factor: 263,046
- 6.54 Balls / 1 Game
- 48 Consecutive Games with at least 3 MLB Baseballs
- 38 Consecutive Games with at least 1 MLB Autograph
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…
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.
6/13/09 Yankees vs. Mets
I don’t have much time, so I am just going to type the story, with only a few pictures at the end. Sorry.
I’m optimistic when it comes to baseball. Maybe too optimistic. It had bean raining when I was outside, then it was almost pouring Well when I got in, the tarp was on. I learned from some ushers that minutes ago the B.P. cages were set up. I haven’t had a full B.P. since Texas, and that day was absolutely dreadful.
But out of the corner of my eye, I saw something. I white object. A moving white object. And then I heard the *pop* of a glove. A baseball. It was in the bullpen, so I ran over there. When I got there I saw Mike Pelfrey was throwing to Dave Racaniello, with Dan Warthen watching. I saw John Maine cowering from the rain in the bullpen, and I also noticed that the white moving object was special. It was a Citi Field commemorative baseball.
There were at least 4 balls lying around, and I saw why they were just lying there, in the same spot. When Mike Pelfrey would bounce a ball in the dirt, it would be unusable and muddy, so Dave would toss it aside. Well soon later Mike bounced a ball, but instead of tossing it to the side, Dave made eye contact with me, and from a crouch, he tossed me a baseball. But it was inexcusably errant. It sailed over my head and to the right and landed in the wet seats. I looked for it, and while climbing over a row of seats while looking for it, I banged my knee well on a seat. I still have a bruise from it. Well nobody else got it, because no one else was there. I then saw the ball trickling down a row, so I ran over and grabbed my 1st ball, a Citi Field commemorative baseball, with a really nice logo.
By the end of the bullpen session a little crowd had formed, so when Mike Pelfrey finished, he ended up with the ball instead of Dave or Dan. Unusual, but good because Mike Pelfrey randomly flipped the ball up, and having about 6 feet of reach with my glove, I was able to get my 2nd ball, also commemorative.
I then decided to go over to the Yankees dugout next.
David Robertson started signing in the Legends area, so I asked him for an autograph. He told me to come down into the Legends, I said I couldn’t, and he just shrugged his shoulders. He went out to throw with Phil Hughes and Brett Tomko, and when they got in; I got David’s attention by yelling Phil’s name. David pointed me out to Phil and Phil flipped me my 3rd ball over the Legends (my 103rd of the season).
Nothing else happened for a while as it continued to pour, so I just sat behind the dugout and enjoyed the view. I was kicked out of there at 2:40, so I went back over to 130 and to wait for the Mets to come out. When they came out, I positioned myself by the people who started throwing first, Tim Redding and Sand Alomar Jr. But they took the ball in with them for Tim’s bullpen session. I moved over to the next closest pair of pitchers throwing.
The pitchers, I can’t remember who, bounced a ball in the muddy dirt, so they flipped it to coach Dan Warthen who scanned the crowd for someone to give it. After scanning the crowd for a bit he decided, “what the heck” and flipped it randomly, right to me, and I caught my 4th ball.
The next action was Bobby Parnell. He was running, and after he finished, he came over to sign. After having to move down the line a bit, I got my 1st autograph.
I treid to get into the Delta Sky Club before the game, loosing a view balls as a result. I started in section 232a and worked my way over, but an usher approached me.
I left the main level angry.
Skip to the end of the game…
I asked an usher, the one closest to the visitors bullpen, if I could go down at the end of the game.
“Nah man, you know the rules, I’d get in trouble.”
The usher on the staircase over let me down at the end. So I went over to the bullpen after the game and got a ball tossed by Dave Racaniello, my 5th ball. It was commemorative.
Most Ushers: Good
Some Usher: Bad
But I stayed after this day and tried to get some autographs. I got one, Fernando Martinez, my 2nd auto.
I also got some pictures with people…
Kimberly Jones
Susan Waldman
And John Sterling. In case your wondering, John was turning towards me at the moment the picture was taken.
Stats:
- 5 MLB Balls Today
- 2 MLB Autographs Today
- 105 MLB Balls in this Season
- 121 Total Balls in this Season
- 78 MLB Autographs in this Season
- 82 Total Autographs in this Season
- 4 BP, 1 After
- 5 Thrown
- Attendance: 48,056 People
- Competition Factor: 240,280
- 5.8 Balls / 1 Game
- 8 Consecutive Games with at least 1 MLB Autograph
- 18 Consecutive Games with at least 3 MLB Baseballs
6/12/09 Yankees vs. Mets
I had one goal for today: Get my 100th MLB ball this season. I would go to all limits to achieve, whether it be ballhawking at the bullpens non-stop, or getting 3rd out balls.
But back to the game (I would like to point out though, that I saw a cop talking on his cell while driving on the way to the stadium.) I could only carry my small camera. And I arrived probably a couple minutes late. When I got in, I saw Wang throwing near the auxilary scoreboard,
but Gary Kowal had that, so I sat down for a bit. After that “bit” I moved over to the Yankees dugout, along with a kid following me, and my exact path. Well the kid stayed in a spot at one end of the dugout, I stayed at another end. I moved over to where Rob Thompson and Xavier Nady (who were throwing) would go in (who are in the photo also.)
I easily got Rob’ attention. The music was down; nobody was near me, ah nice and easy. I got him to toss me my 1st ball over the partition.
I then decided to help the 7 or 8 year old kid get a ball. I got Tony Pena’s attention and point to the kid. He asked me to catch it to be safe. Well guess what? He tossed it short, it bounced off my glove, and right to the kid who grabbed. It was commemorative. The kid was Gary’s brother. And after I missed it Tony commented:
“What, you eat with those hands?”
I went back over to Wang, now in the bullpen, saw the crowd, and moved to the bleachers.
I didn’t get that ball so I moved back over to the dugout.
Robinson Cano, Melky Cabrera, and A-Rod had been doing drills with balls with a trainer when they came in. I got Cano’s attention and asked for a ball (this is A-Rod and Melky going in at the same spot as Robinson Cano.)
He kept looking at me, and then some kids off to the right, to me, then the kids, to me, then the kids, but before he went in he tossed me my 2nd ball.
I was then that I realized that the Yankees weren’t having B.P. So I went over to the Mets’ dugout. It was extremely crowded at the dugout, I got nothing. I moved over to the foul line when the Mets did, and the crowd followed. But then I heard something pleasant to me, but bad to others:
“Alright its 5:40, have your tickets out!”
Yes! The Mets had finished throwing, and the crowd had started to dissipate. I got Ken Takahashi’s attention easily and he tossed me my 3rd ball.
In the photo above Ken Takahashi is the player in mid stride going towards the State Farm sign above the auxilary scoreboard.
Now for a little fun…
All the pitchers had gone to the outfield, and it was Sheffield‘s round of batting, so I stood a couple rows back with him being a known pull hitter. I saw a high, definitely foul ball, not hit by Sheffield. I ran towards it, but then it came smack dab down. It landed right in the seat and got wedged there. Had it been the Old YS it would’ve bounced out, but the shock resistant, noise absorbing pads prevented it from leaving and I picked it up for my 4th ball.
This is the seat…
And this is the ball. Notice the blue mark from when it landed in the seat.
After looking closely I think it was hit by Fernando Martinez. Oh and one more ball until my 100th ball this season. I moved into one of my favorite spots:
The Corner Spot.
There was only one ball that came there while I was in that spot. It was now or never. It was a bit too far out. I had to time my jump perfectly or I would miss it. When I jumped I held myself back with one hand on the wall. One usher thought that I was going to fall over and he held my leg just in case. So when I reached out, I heard a pop. I looked into my glove,
and saw my 5th ball in the pocket with room to spare. And it was also my 100th ball of my life (since I started counting) and my 100th ball of 2009.
So the game went by fast. I was very amused at the last part. I downright loved it. I made my way over to where some guys where pointing cell phones down into the legends. Who was it? It was “Doc” Gooden. So after the game we ran out to the Legends exit and waited for him. Eventually he came out and he signed my 1st autograph.
Shutout averted. But I also someone else I recognized. I found out it was Steve Schirripa. I got his autograph for my 2nd autograph. He’s a celebrity. He counts.
Stats:
- 5 MLB Balls Today
- 1 MLB Autograph Today
- 1 Total Autograph Today
- 100 MLB Balls in this Season
- 116 Total Balls in this Season
- 76 MLB Autographs in this Season
- 80 Total Autographs in this Season
- 5 BP
- 3 Thrown, 2 Hit
- 47,967 People
- Competition Factor: 239,835
- 5.9 Balls / 1 Game
- 7 Consecutive Games with at least 1 MLB Autograph
- 17 Consecutive Games with at least 3 MLB Baseballs
(P.S. I have created an account at My Game Balls if anyone is interested…)
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