Results tagged ‘ White Sox ’
8/30/09 Yankees vs. White Sox
I went inside the stadium 3 hours before gametime, waited 53 minutes for BP to start, and then 15 minutes later when Phil Coke was looking to toss a ball into the crowd I asked him for it.
“You get a ball everytime I see you.”
True, but dissapointing. I had finally been recongized by a Yankee in a bad way. Alfredo Aceves recongized me from the Glove Trick when the Yankees were at Citi Field, and he tried tossing me a ball soon after at Yankee Stadium, but another guy snatched it. David Robertson recongized me one month after he tossed me a ball, but he still gave me another.
This day was just horrible. Because Right Field was dead I headed over to Left Field. That was also dead. I got nothing for Yankees BP. White Sox BP was just as dead.
I squeezed my way into the corner spot in Left Field next to the bullpen and I got John Danks to throw me a ball that he retrieved, my 1st ball. Shutout averted, now to try and salvage the day.
When the White Sox came out to throw I tried getting the attention of BP Coach Juan Nieves so he could toss me a ball. I failed over there, but back in Left Field I had some luck. He had just finished throwing with a White Sox pitcher so I called out his name and he tossed me the ball from 50 feet away. I was in another corner spot next to a camera well, so I only had people to my left, but they didn’t even see the ball coming. So there I had my 2nd ball.
That was it for BP. 2 Balls, the last time I had a BP this bad was Texas. In fact this day was basically June 2nd all over again. But I guess this was worse because I got no autographs at any point while I was inside the stadium. The day was basically just unlucky. One time a ball was coming at me, so I moved down two steps, but the ball ended up sailing 5 rows over my head. I stayed behind the dugout to try for third out balls, but I ended up leaving around the 4th inning. Guess where next inning’s warm-up ball was tossed? Right where I was.
I moved into the bleachers to try for a warm-up ball from Mark Salas, the bullpen catcher, the one in the photo below:
I went to an area right in line with Mark Salas, took some abuse from other fans because I was wearing White Sox gear, and then in the 7th Inning or so got a ball from Mark Salas, my 3rd ball.
Game ended. Nothing more. I had one streak end already (25 Consecutive Games with at least 4 Baseballs), but I didn’t want another to end (30 Consecutive Games with at least 1 MLB Autograph). So I stayed after the game and headed to Gate 2 to try for autographs, just one. And I got one. Ron Darling came out and I approached him and he signed two for my 1st autograph. Nobody else knew who he was, and with that I left Yankee Stadium.
Stats:
- 3 MLB Balls Today
- 1 MLB Autograph Today
- 186 MLB Autographs in this Season
- 225 Total Autographs in this Season
- 258 MLB Balls in this Season
- 279 Total Balls in this Season
- 3 Thrown
- 2 BP, 1 During
- Attendance: 46,664 People
- Competition Factor: 139,992
- 6.29 Balls / 1 Game
- 41 Consecutive Games with at least 3 MLB Baseballs
- 31 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:
Bats
The next event that I will be attending will be in 3 days and the next post being about 5 days away, I want to give you something to read, so here it goes… Over the course of my life I have collected numerous items other than autographs and baseballs. Some of those items include 8 Bats personally collected by me. Let me take you through each one…
Jody Gerut
My first game used bat ever gotten by me. I got it in 2003 at the Old Yankee Stadium, when he was on the Indians. Back then I was all autographs, and I realized by then that they come out to stretch before the game at a certain time. So I snuck over to that area in hopes of autographs. Well Jody Gerut walked out with a bat, and just walked right over to me and handed it to me! It was already signed and the back of the bat was splintered, rendered unable to be used in games or BP.
Mike Lowell
I remember this time one. Two years had past since the last bat, and I have realized that you can get stuff after games by that point at the dugout. I was in Boston for a Blue Jays game in this month of April 2005, and I went over to the Red Sox dugout. I was at the inside corner of the dugout easily because the Red Sox are so loose on letting you go anywhere. So while there I got a bat from Mike Lowell. I forogt if I asked for it, or if he just handed it to me, but whatever, I got it (along with a pair of batting gloves from Mark Loretta, which I hope to post later). It has a HUGE crack along it.
Willie Harris
I was in Chicago for the annual August vacation (which I will be having again this August, stay tuned). For Willie Harris, I wasn’t even trying to get his bat. Nor was anyone else. US Cellular field is like Fenway, except you are allowed at the corner of the dugout at ANY time. So I was there for BP, and Willie Harris walked out with a lot of bats, maybe 15. What did he do? He started handing each and every one out. I was lucky enough to get one of the bats. Boy o’ boy, was it cool. It wasn’t even broken, he could’ve used it for 20 more BP’s or 30 more games. It was in great condition, and I later got him to sign the bat while he was signing at the dugout.
Brian Anderson
The Old Yankee Stadium had something similar to the current Legends’ Seats, a two row barrier behind home plate from dugout to dugout. Well after one game in 2006, I hopped it. I made sure the ushers weren’t looking, and in the comotion of a Yankees win, I blended in with the crowd and ran to the visiting team’s dugout. I was all by myself, yelling at the Chicago White Sox, when I asked Brian Anderson for his batting gloves. He gave me his bat instead, which I originally thought was un-broken, but later I saw a small crack. And then an usher approached me after I got it and when nobody was left and asked me:
“Are you supposed to be sitting here?” Nope, pay more attention next time pal.
David Ortiz
My second favorite bat considering the circumstances. This has a story behind it. The year is 2007. In August, during my annual trip to Chicago, I saw the Red Sox play the White Sox. This was the make-up date of a game that was rained out the previous day, so there was NOBODY there. In fact, we were able to sit behind Home Plate because of the lack of people. And there was a kid who asked David Ortiz for his bat at the end of the game. What happened? He got the bat. That was the last game I would see in Chicago, but I would be going to Baltimore on August 31, September 1, and 2. Well the first day I didn’t have a chance to ask Ortiz, so I didn’t try to get it. But the second day, when he first went to bat, I asked him. He nodded. But I apparently couldn’t get the corner of the dugout because the first two rows, and that section was blocked off. So I went one section over and walked down to the third row when the game ended. The players went on the field to celebrate Clay Bucholz no-hitter. I went to the seat closest to the dugout and climbed down into the second row, then the first row. It was now or never. I had to wait for Ortiz to come in, but he may’ve forgot in the moment of celebration. With my luck, he went to the bat rack and stood there for a while, and I was right above him yelling at the top of my lungs “PAPI!” He couldn’t here me because of the noise (it sounded like the noise after Castillo dropped it), but at the last moment he looked up and handed me a perfect, not broken gamer.
Orlando Guevara or Brett Myers?
I had another trip in August 2008 this year. We went up to Toronto, and we also saw a Minor League game: the IronPigs at the Bisons. It was so relaxed there that I sat in a seat 3 rows back from the on deck circle, right next to the dugout. If I wanted to, I could’ve sat two more rows down, but it was too hot. At the end of the game I got a pair of batting gloves from a former major league player, and I asked Orlando Guevara, the catcher for the IronPigs, for something. He said he had nothing, but he went into the clubhouse, and came back with a bat. Guess who’s it was? Brett Myers! The Phillies pitcher who was apparently an IronPig for a bit.
Johnny Damon
My favorite bat, hands down. Better story than Ortiz. This actually started on September 20, 2008. I knew someone high up in the organization and he let me stand about 30 feet closer to where the players enter than normal people. Some people actually came over to sign, like Reggie Jackson and Johnny Damon. When he came over to sign my mom said:
“You have always been nice to us, no matter where we are.” Johnny appreaciated it and asked if we would be going to Toronto to see the Yankees. We weren’t, but I didn’t get the bat on the 20th; I got it on the 21st.
The Final Day at the Old Yankee Stadium… It was a great day. I arrived at Gate 6, and I was one of the first people in. I saw a couple Yankees coming off the field and going to the clubhouse (through the concourse) and I got Wilson Betemit and another Yankee. I forget how, but I was able to get to the Yankees dugout, and I found an aisle seat which NOBODY was sitting in. The person who was supposed to be sitting there was a dad who left early with his son, and the wife was on my right. She was incredibly nice and she let me sit there the whole game AND she even let me borrow her ticket stub to go get some food and use the bathroom. Well since the Yankees were going to win, at the top of the 9th I took off to a better spot along the dugout. And at the end of the game, I ran down and found a spot on the dugout. Some people came to sign, and one of them was Johnny Damon. The guy he was signing for didn’t have his sharpie, so I let Johnny borrow mine. Well after he signed it, he disappeared into the dugout, with the sharpie. I started to look for him because you don’t forget you have a pen in your hand. Well soon enough Johnny popped out, tossed me the pen, said “Enjoy” and slide me a signed game used bat. It was one of the best moments in my life, and it was even captured on video.
Michel Hernandez
Ahhhhhhh, this bat. The date? Game 4 of the 2008 World Series. Not only did I get the Final Ball used in this game, but I also got a bat. During BP, I stayed by dugout. My position was right next to a hardcore Tampa Bay fan. I’m talking that this guy had seats 3 rows behind the dugout for this game, was at Games 1,2, and 3 of this World Series, and was a season ticket holder for the Rays. He was also decked out in Rays gear, and had already gotten a bat from Jason Bartlett. He was also incredibly nice and he let me borrow his hat for BP and throughout the night. So I was thinking about getting a bat also, and I specifically focused on Michel Hernandez because he was spanish. So the Rays fan looked up how to ask for a bat in spanish on his iPhone, and when Michel came in I called out for him and the bat in spanish, and then he smacked the handle on the top of the dugout and slid it across to me. Success (a Pirates bat?)!
Here is the link to a photo taken by a camera guy from that game.
What are YOUR stories about getting stuff? Post it as a comment below.
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