Results tagged ‘ Rusty Kuntz ’
9/30/09 Yankees vs. Royals
There was some blue peeking through the clouds above both Yankee Stadiums.
This was the final regular season home game at NYS, and I had a $0 ticket in the Legends, so I knew it was going to be a good day. That day was helped out when BP started a couple minutes after the gates opened.
There was going to be a lot of BP; I knew I would get at least 3 balls during the day, so when a ball was hit to the wall and I noticed a kid was asking for it a bit to softly, I spoke up and asked the coach to give the ball to that kid instead of me. It worked out because soon after another ball was hit to the wall and the same guy retrieved it. I asked for the ball, and he gave it to me because I “gave the last one away”. It was my 1st ball.
I guess it was a good thing that I let the kid have that first baseball because during the early part of batting practice the batter, Shelly Duncan, hit a home run that was going to land in the 4th row or so. I got in line with the ball and the home run ended up tipping off the kid’s glove and landing in my row. I simply bent down and picked up my 2nd ball.
The early BP, which consisted of Shelly Duncan, Francisco Cervelli, Freddie Guzman, and a couple other people ended and the Yankees came out to throw, so I went over to there.
I stood in the Legends seats, which had about 3 other people in them, and stood right behind Alex Rodriguez. He was long tossing with someone and there was an extra ball lying on the ground.
At one point he took the extra ball and looked at me like he wanted to give it to me. I took a step back and he tossed it over the large net, so I reached up and it sailed straight to my glove, my 3rd ball.
Thinking that all the other players had seen me I headed back into the outfield to try for balls during BP. It was tough in Right Field, mainly because I and two other ballhawks (Rich and Tony) were standing on the same aisle, in about a total of 4 rows. So I had to think differently. Like while standing in the outfield I noticed that a ball was hit down the line. They now have nets there, so the ball bounced off the net and settled near the wall. I grabbed my sweatshirt and headed over there. When I was heading over there, another ball hit off the net and settled closer to the wall, and when it turned out I could only get the latest hit ball. I looped my sweatshirt through my glove and threw it out, knocking the ball closer. When it got close, I leaned over the wall, but my fingertips just touched the ball, so a person put me over a bit more and I picked up the ball, my 4th ball, which will count as a device ball because I couldn’t have gotten it without the device (glove on sweatshirt). It was a very beaten up commemorative baseball.
And that was my 299th ball. My next ball would be number 300, so I paid close attention to who would be the source of that ball. I didn’t know the source.
I hadn’t gotten my 300th ball and the Yankees were coming off the field to let the Royals take BP. I raced over to the dugout and got their in time to see that there was one person who had a ball, but I didn’t know him. I just asked him for the ball and he rolled it to me across the dugout roof, not the way that I wanted to get it, but a ball is a ball, well that one was my 5th ball and No. 300. And there it was.
The Royals were now taking their cuts, so I started heading back to the outfield, but I saw a person signing in the Legends. He looked oddly familiar, like he looked like Jim Leritz, but shouldn’t he be in jail? Apparently not, as it was Jim Leritz. I don’t know what he was doing there, but I got his autograph for my 1st autograph and continued heading to the outfield.
But nothing came out of it. I got shut out (mainly because I brought my LA Dodgers clothing, not Royals), and had to wait for the Royals to wrap up on BP and then I started heading to the dugout. I noticed that John Bale was walking to two baseballs lying on the foul line, so I turned my cap around and ran over. I got there in time and asked John Bale to toss me a ball. He picked up one of the baseballs and tossed it to me over the netting, my 6th ball, which I later gave away.
Then I made my way over to the dugout, but before I could get there they started heading off the field, so I started running there (not a good idea with my stitches). I ran and got there in time, but I didn’t get any baseballs from the players coming off the field. I saw that the manager Trey Hillman had 3 baseballs in his hand, so I asked him for one, and he tossed me my 7th ball, and then walked off.
Here is the baseball:
I don’t know why but as they were coming off the field some baseballs fell down and were lying against the dugout fence, and none of the Royals players bothered to pick them up.
It happened to be that one of the people I know in the Yankees, Tony, picked them up, so I got him to toss one of the baseballs to me, my 8th ball.
There was nothing to do before the game started. I didn’t bother going to try for the Royals’ Pre-Game throwing baseballs because I was going to try and get Derek Jeter’s, and I had a pretty good chance. I knew that before I even got it. Why?
I have noticed that some Yankees always throw their baseballs to certain spots. Alex Rodriguez throws it to a spot behind the inner corner of the dugout, and Derek Jeter always throws it beyond the Legends, to the seats above the partition, a corner spot right next to the staircase that leads into the Legends. When Derek Jeter came out to throw, I went to the spot and observed the competition. One big guy on the steps behind me, not paying attention. That was it. I stood down and watched Jeter slowly. He was throwing the ball, too long it seemed. I was getting impatient. But then all of a sudden he finished. He started coming in. And looked into the crowd, right at me. He threw the ball to me. In this (extremely) blurry photo you can see the ball in mid-air, pointed to by the red arrow. My glove is pointed to by the yellow arrow:
It started sailing to me, but my only competition suddenly saw the people. He reached down for the ball, elbowing me in the face. But I reached out, and kept the ball in my mitt, my 9th ball. It’s great when you try for something, and you get it.
I knew that I would make double digits, trying for a third out ball, pre-inning warm-up ball, or umpire ball. But it took me a while, around the 7th inning to be exact. I noticed earlier that Francisco Cervelli caught a ball that was no longer to be used in the game, and kept it. I didn’t think any of it until I went down for the pre-inning warm-up ball that inning and he looked at me. I waved at him, and he tossed me the commemorative baseball that I assume he got earlier, my 10th ball.
Then my Yankee Stadium record of 11 came into the photo, gotten on 9/8/09. That was the NYS record, I heard of another kid who got 12 on the same day. So maybe I could tie or break that. I would have to try, but when I got to the 9th inning and I still had 10 balls, I wasn’t sure if I could get it. But I got lucky when Rusty Kuntz let the ball sail into the dugout. There were 3 kids trying for the ball, including me. But I was the only one who could see into the dugout, so I was able to get Rusty to toss me the ball, my 11th ball.
I tried for a ball from the people coming off the field, but I came up empty. I thought all hope was lost for a ball, when I forgot, the bullpen! I saw the players coming in from the bullpen, so I looked carefully to see if any of them had any baseballs. I looked and saw that a Hispanic player, with his first number being 5, was pulling a baseball out of his jacket. I saw and started calling out to him, and when he came in, he tossed me my 12th ball, tying the record.
Stats:
- 12 MLB Balls Today
- 1 MLB Autograph Today
- 202 MLB Autographs in this Season
- 241 Total Autographs in this Season
- 307 MLB Balls in this Season
- 328 Total Balls in this Season
- 10 Thrown, 1 Hit, 1 Glove Trick
- 6 BP, 3 Pre-Game, 2 During, 1 After
- Attendance: 46,956
- Competition Factor: 563,472
- 6.53 Balls / 1 Game
- 47 Consecutive Games with at least 3 MLB Baseballs
- 37 Consecutive Games with at least 1 MLB Autograph
8/18/09 White Sox vs. Royals
There were no Easter Eggs or glove trick baseballs at “The Cell”. That meant that I’d have to ask the player shagging in left Field for the balls that rolled to the wall. That player would be the so-far-nice Josh Anderson. I asked him for the first ball that rolled to the Left Field wall when I was there, and he tossed me the ball, my 1st ball.
The first group was predominantly lefties, so I moved over to Right Field. They were hitting some bombs, maybe twenty rows back into the furthest section. I have no clue who the hitters were, but they sure were good.
One bomb was about 12 rows over my head and 15 feet to my right (I was standing in row 6 on the aisle) when the seats were still fairly empty. As soon as the ball was hit I knew that it was a bomb, so I ran up the steps and saw the ball land in an empty row. It stayed put and didn’t trickle down any rows, so I ran into the row that it landed in and grabbed my 2nd ball.
Then the same batter blasted another ball in a different round of swings. This time the ball landed in the section closest to the batters’ eye, a section 8 seats wide and one section to my right. I saw the ball land, so I ran to that row and saw the ball trickle down a row, and then another, and then another, and then another, where it stopped because it hit a seat’s support beam and it laid dead in the tow. I ran over and grabbed my 3rd ball, which wouldn’t have been mine had it rolled one row further.
And then the photo below shows where the ball landed (red arrow) and where I picked it up (yellow arrow):
Joakim Soria, one of the last players on the Royals that I hadn’t gotten went over to the foul line to pick up some balls, and then he started signing.
So I got my ball and had him sign my 1st autograph, put the ball back, and then immediately ran back into fair territory.
My 3rd Ball would be my last ball in Right Field. I was over in Right Field when I saw a ball gets tossed to the first row, but it was knocked into the moat. When I saw that I immediately sprinted over to Left Field. When I got there I knew I needed to work fast because the only usher with an issue with using the glove trick patrols the moat and Left Field Bullpen. So I looked into the moat, but I saw nothing.
I asked the people around me and they pointed to a spot where they thought the ball had gone. It turns out it went underneath the overhang, so I wasn’t sure where it was or how far back it was. But eventually, after looking for a bit I saw it. It was about 1 foot underneath the overhang; you could only see it if you were directly on top of it. So I let out some string, swung the glove underneath the overhang and knocked the ball closer on the first try. I reeled up my glove, put the rubber band around the tip and the sharpie in the middle, and I reeled up my 4th ball with ease.
Then about 3 little kids without gloves came running up to me asking for the ball. I politely said no because I:
A) Don’t give balls away to people who ask
B) Don’t feel I is right to give one ball to one kid in front of other kids of the same age.
But little did I know that these little kids would help me get a couple of baseballs.
I stayed over in Left Field for the rest of BP.
Joakim Soria fielded a ball in front of those little kids, and then another ball in the same spot.
He wanted to give them baseballs, but since they were about 3 or so and there were no adults in the front row I told Joakim that I would get a baseball and give it to a random kid there. He tossed me the baseball, which I then gave to an aforementioned random kid there. Since it wasn’t intended for anyone and I had the right to decide who to give it to I count it as my 5th ball. Then he took the other baseball and tossed it to me, and this time he told me to give it to a specific kid. I pointed to the kid and said: “Him?” just to be safe, and when he nodded I gave it to that kid. That ball I didn’t count because I had to give it to that kid, it was intended for a specific person, and I caught it for them because they couldn’t. So then Joakim asked Bruce Chen, also in Left Field, for a baseball that he just retrieved. This time Joakim pointed to me and mouthed:
“You keep it.” So it was unlike a similar accident yesterday where I was standing on a chair, Joakim tossed me a ball, I caught it and then I fell backwards. This time I was standing on a chair in the second row and Joakim tossed me a ball, but I caught it without injury this time for my 6th ball of the day, and last one for batting practice.
I tried to make it to the dugouts in time for the end of BP, but I was unsuccessful and got no balls there and like last time I got one autograph, Roman Colon (my 2nd autograph).
I didn’t get anything at pre-game throwing because of the incredible competition.
A little Royals fan. Can’t compete with that.
Skip ahead to the game and in the Top of the 1st inning Mike Jacobs flew out to Gordon Beckham who ran back to grab it, and then Gordon tossed the ball into the seats along the foul line. I was over 100 feet away from where he tossed it, but I still got a ball tossed to me by someone coming off the field.
Paul Konerko is one of the only First Basemen that I have seen toss the pre-inning warm-up ball into the crowd after each time that the inning ends. He catches it from the dugout, looks into the crowd and tosses it to someone. Well in the first inning he looked into the crowd and tossed it to me for my 7th ball so far.
Since I had gotten a ball at the White Sox dugout so early I figured that I would sit at the Royals dugout as close as I could.
Well I noticed that in the Royals dugout that not only Bob McClure had a ball in his hands, but there was a ball sitting on the fence in front of Miguel Olivo who was a few feet to Bob’s left.
I think it was the Top of the 2nd when I got there, but at the end of the 2nd I asked Miguel Olivo for the baseball, and pointed to it. He looked in front of himself, saw the baseball, grabbed it, turned back toward me and tossed me my 8th ball.
I made my goal for the night to be double digits after I got that ball. So I headed over to the bullpen to try for a ball. I saw that Roman Colon had a ball in his pocket, so I asked for it, but he lied and said he didn’t. And then not one Royal gave out a ball from the bullpen the entire night. In the Top of the 8th when I saw that Roman had a ball I asked him again for it.
He gave it half his might and it fell short, and then even though it was his fault he kicked the ball into the bullpen and didn’t give me another try.
So no baseballs came my way during the game. At the end of the game I ran down to the dugout and got a spot in the corner and saw that Rusty Kuntz had a baseball that he was putting in his pocket and I asked him for it. He saw my Royals hat, walked closer and flipped me an extremely beaten up baseball for my 9th ball of the night.
I put it away quickly so I could focus again on the dugout. I thought that that would be the last ball that I got. All the players had left an only a few remained, and they were being interviewed. I hoped that I a ballboy would find a baseball among the benches and give it to me, but that didn’t happen. I saw that Josh Anderson had a baseball, and I asked him for it, but then he started looking in the crowd for someone. He stood for a minute or two, looking, but he didn’t find the person, so he tossed it to the crowd to my left, but they bobbled it. So then he took the ball again and flipped it again into the crowd, and this time I caught it, but a kid next to me took it out of my glove, stood there for a moment and then walked off. I didn’t know what happened. He seemed extremely desperate to get a ball. But now I wasn’t sure whether to count it or not. I had it in my glove, and then he took it out of it. So did it count or not? I was flip-flopping on the decision when I remembered of an encounter that Ballhawk League Creator Erik Jabs had where a fan ripped a ball out of his glove and then tossed it back to him. He decided to count it, so I figured why shouldn’t I? So then I counted it, my 10th ball of the night. Double Digits…
Stats:
- 10 MLB Balls Today
- 2 MLB Autographs Today
- 154 MLB Autographs in this Season
- 193 Total Autographs in this Season
- 231 MLB Balls in this Season
- 252 Total Balls in this Season
- 7 Thrown, 2 Hit, 1 Glove-Trick
- 6 BP, 2 During, 2 After
- Attendance: 28,812 People
- Competition Factor: 288,120
- 37 Consecutive Games with at least 3 MLB Baseballs
- 27 Consecutive Games with at least 1 MLB Autograph
- 22 Consecutive Games with at least 4 MLB Baseballs
8/17/09 White Sox vs. Royals
My fourth Royals game this vacation, this time at US Cellular Field.
I arrived to the game 20 minutes before the gates opened. I went to the gate closest to right field and saw “The Happy Youngster” Nick Yohanek at that gate.
I stopped to talk with him and he let me go in with him. My goal for the day was 10. We decided that we should try for 20+ combined. But that didn’t happen.
After running up the ramps and showing my ticket to the guard in the 100 level, I ran into the seats. I saw Bob McClure in the bullpen with a non-rubbed up baseball, so I assumed he picked it off the ground. I asked him for it and he tossed me my 1st ball.
After not finding any Easter Eggs in right field, I went to left field and checked the moat.
There were two balls there. Nick went for one and I went for the other. The ball was a bit under the overhang, so I had to knock it out from underneath. When I finally knocked it out from underneath, I lowered my glove over it and reeled up my 2nd ball.
Batted balls were flying all around as I rolled up my string. I saw Nick catch some on the fly, and then one was coming right to me. I moved maybe 2 steps or so to make sure that the ball wouldn’t hit me because it was coming exactly to me, and the ball clanged off a metal bench above me. I didn’t have my glove on, so I waited for the ball to take a lucky bounce. It didn’t bounce, it rolled. It rolled down the steps to me. To prevent it from rolling past me, I stuck my foot out. My foot stopped the ball in its tracks and then I reached down and picked up my 3rd ball. As you can see from the photo below it got scuffed up from smacking the ground:
I tried moving around in the outfield to catch fly balls, but it was crowded. Not New Yankee Stadium crowded, just enough to block off a lot of rows. I was going to look at the bullpen for balls, but before that I asked Luke Hochevar for a ball in the left-center corner while standing on a seat. He saw my Royals gear and threw me my 4th ball.
I got a ball like that later, but more painful, but before that I went to the bullpen to see if any balls were to be glove-tricked.
There were a couple balls, but just as I got there, Rusty Kuntz came into pick up balls that were there.
There was one ball that could be mine in a couple seconds, so I told Rusty:
“Leave it there. I can get it.”
So he stood there and watched, kicked it closer when it needed to be, and laughed as I reeled up my 5th ball.
Now here’s a story. Since the front row had become crowded, I stood on a seat in the second row and waved my arms and John Bale tossed me a ball, but a kid in front of me deflected it into the moat.
No problem, right?
Wrong.
Just as I lowered my glove down to get it, another kid with a glove trick came over and lowered his glove. I asked him if I could try to get it and he raised his trick up, but when I raised mine up to loosen the band a bit he lowered his.
I told him I wasn’t done, but he wouldn’t listen. I tried knocking the ball away from him, but our strings got tangled.
So I raised the glove to try and untangle it. The kid was calling his brother over to get the ball with his device. Not so fast. I gave Nick permission to get it, so he did, and then graciously helped untangle the string for a couple minutes. It probably cost me and Nick a ball or two, and we weren’t too happy. Because of that incident, left field became dead. But there was some action at the dugout. Mitch Maier came in and started signing, and since I was focused on ballhawking at that moment and it was too far away (it would take my minutes to get there and get his autograph) my brother took the baseball and got Mitch Maier to sign it for me, my 1st autograph. Remember, an autograph is not the same as a baseball and has different rules. But now let’s get back to the Ballhawking.
So Nick and I moved to right field. Remember about that painful ball that I mentioned earlier? I was standing on a seat (again) and calling to Joakim (Waa-keem) Soria for a ball that rolled to the center field wall. He saw my Royals shirt and threw me the ball. But it was high. I wanted that ball.
So I jumped off the seat.
I reached up high.
I grabbed the ball out of the air, but then I fell back.
I was heading for the seat, then Nick, who was behind me, slowed me down, and I barely hit the seats. I wasn’t sure if I still had the baseball because my glove felt right, so I opened it up and saw that the ball was tucked in the very tip of the glove, not going anywhere. So there it was, I had my 6th baseball. I stood up and showed Joakim that I had the ball, and he gave me a thumbs up.
That was my last ball of BP. I made it late to the dugout. So I got no balls and only Alex Gordon’s autograph (my 2nd autograph.).
There’s another story from the game.
In the first inning, a Royal hit a home run into the White Sox bullpen. As soon as it landed, I was off. I got there and the ball was in the front of the bullpen.
Two people that I recognized were already there though, Todd and his son Tim. They write a blog with the URL http://cookandsonbats.mlblogs.com and they were standing in the concourse when they saw the home run land, so they ran down to look at it. A little bit later, Nick came also and we grabbed two seats on the aisle about 8 rows back. Since the seats were wet, I was wiping them down when another home run was hit. Nick and I ran down, but the home run landed in the bullpen, a couple feet from Nick’s glove. Guess what happened? Juan Nieves, the bullpen coach, grabbed the White Sox home run and threw it into the crowd. Guess where it landed? IN the seat I was in before I ran down to the bullpen. And then a security guard grabbed the other home run and gave it to a kid who didn’t know what was happening and wasn’t even asking for it.
First Braun’s homer, then this. And the competition was intense at the dugouts. I only got one more ball, my 7th ball. It was from an unknown Royals pitcher after the game, it was also my last ball of the day.
Stats:
- 7 MLB Balls Today
- 2 MLB Autographs Today
- 152 MLB Autographs in this Season
- 191 Total Autographs in this Season
- 221 MLB Balls in this Season
- 242 Total Balls in this Season
- 4 Thrown, 2 Glove Trick, 1 Hit
- 6 BP, 1 After
- Attendance: 36,703 People
- Competition Factor: 256,921
- 6.14 Balls / 1 Game
- 36 Consecutive Games with at least 3 MLB Baseballs
- 26 Consecutive Games with at least 1 MLB Autograph
- 21 Consecutive Games with at least 4 MLB Baseballs
Oh, and two more cool photos:
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