7/28/12 at Yankee Stadium (BOS @ NYY)

July 29, 2012

This is how I spent my Saturday:

I wouldn’t normally have gone to a game like this, being that its Boston vs.the Yankees, it’s a weekend, and it would be crowded. But, it was a birthday gift for my girlfriend Natalie’s sister, Jenna. She is a Sox fan, so we decided it would be fun to take her to Yankee Stadium for the first time. Here is Jenna on the right, and her brother Eric:

And of course, here is Natalie and I:

The next part of the day was a little frustrating. The 4 train took longer than it usually does, plus since it was Sox/Yankees and not 100 degrees out, the lines were ridiculous. We headed over to Gate 8 in Center Field and entered around 10 minutes after the gates opened. I didn’t know if the Yankees would be hitting being this was a day game after a night game, but they were in fact hitting. I’m a sucker for trying to get toss-ups and figured today there are just too many people so I would try and snag just home runs (even though I’ve done this a total of zero times). Here is where I positioned myself:

Look at all that space. Glorious.

Eric spread out and went to the section next to mine. The arrow is pointed at him:

So what happened next? Raul Ibañez hit about 4 balls in Eric’s direction into the big crowd by him, and then Nick Swisher hit one relatively close to me that ricocheted off the railing and into the hat of the man 2 rows in front of me. Not good.

See the streaks of rain in the last picture, well after Swisher was hitting, it started to rain and the Yankees came off the field. I was only here 5 friggin’ minutes! The Red Sox were already out tossing, so some of them stayed outside. I knew since BP was over, the ushers wouldn’t let me down by the Red Sox side. Here’s how quick the section cleared out:

(That’s Natalie in the picture)

I figured I’d hang in the area because there were a few balls (not pictured, against the wall) here:

Shortly thereafter, a Yankee Stadium security guard came over, tossed me a ball that smacked into the protective netting, then tried again and got it into my glove for my first (and probably last) ball of the day.

Since it was Jenna’s first time in the new stadium and the action on the field was dead (Vicente Padilla was tossing but was being a total douche, more on him later), we walked around the park. I took some interesting photos such as this:

This got a rousing reaction from the 3,000 Yankee fans in the Great Hall at the time, but we thought it was funny.

And then there’s this –

Sox hat and a Yankee jersey? Get it together kid. Baseball gods are having a heart attack over here.

Then, the storm clouds rolled in and unloaded pouring rain for 2 hours to the tune of this:

Cool picture, but not so cool at the time.

I was excited to see this around 5:30:

Only to see 5 minutes of groundskeeping, then this at 5:35:

Then this at 5:40:

What the hell was going on today? Make up your minds! I need to go to Baltimore, or Arizona. Somewhere good.

Natalie seemed to enjoy herself, while I was still puzzled/pissed about the rain situation:

Finally, the field was coming into shape, so I was in position to try the “Mike Harkey” trick. For those of you who don’t know, he is the bullpen coach for the Yankees, and comes out before every home game and throws about 6 or 7 balls into the crowd, one of them which usually goes up to the “Batters Eye Restaurant”, which is where I was. Here is Harkey:

He tossed a ball twice to one lady wayyyyy back on the concourse who dropped it. Both times. I have a glove Mike, make it happen someday. I came up empty here so we headed up to our seats, here:

And I was thrilled to see this guy hitting for the good guys:

I love Ichiro Suzuki. Almost as much as I love Hideki Matsui.

Remember Padilla? Well, he and Mark Teixeira have a troubled past, so to say, and tonight was just another chapter in their dramatic relationship. In the late innings, he was facing Teixeira and lobbed in a 51 mph eephus pitch to try and make him look stupid. The very next pitch, Teixeira rocketed the 96 (how about that 45 mph difference!) mph fastball into the seats. It was truly epic, you had to be there. The Yankees wound up losing the game, 8-6, but at the end I made my way to the Red Sox bullpen and asked  the bullpen catcher  if I could have a ball. He reached into the bag and pulled out a OH MY GOD COMMEMORATIVE BALL! So he tosses it over the protective bullpen fence-thing, and someone tips the ball away from my glove. Holy hell, was I pissed. I thanked the guy too by the way. Now I have to go up to Boston if I want one of these things. I tried getting his attention again, but he was already towards the infield area. I then asked this groundskeeper if he could toss me one of the 3 balls left by the Red Sox in the bullpen, hoping it was commemorative:

(Just a note – this groundskeeper is really cool. Just be polite and patient, he’ll most likely hook you up) He said “Sure, just wait like 5 minutes, I really gotta get this done”. So I said “Sure man, no problem”. Two seconds later, he reached over, grabbed the ball, tossed it over to me, and thanks me for actually being patient. I guess usually everyone just demands a ball, instead of asking. What a concept. I was now on two balls (none commemorative… -__- )for the night. We took one last photo for the night:

And then we headed home. I’ll be back at Yankee Monday night vs. Baltimore.

• 2 balls at this game
• 52 total balls
• 4 straight games at Yankee Stadium with a ball
• Yankees record this season when I attend: 6-2 Overall: 32-20
• Red Sox record when I attend: 5-1

Written by ch1088 Posted in Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, Yankee Stadium Tagged with baseball, Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, snagging, Yankee Stadium