Category: Aberdeen IronBirds

July 6, 2013

7/2/13 at Dutchess Stadium (ABD @ HV)

I initially wasn’t going to go to this game. I had gotten the tickets for free for starters due to the long rain delay in my last post, plus it was raining all night and day leading up to the game. I decided to go anyway, and headed to the usual spot: Not much action there. Neither the Renegades or IronBirds were taking BP, so it came down to looking for homers in the woods if I wanted to keep my streak alive. I wound up finding 2 baseballs in about 15 minutes (and 100 thorn wounds later), both of which were very water logged: I made sure to keep those separate because I didn’t want them to smell. I went inside and hung out until the IronBirds came out to toss: I joked around with a few of them and later got Trey Mancini to toss me my 3rd ball of the day. This also caught my eye: :::Drools:::

The equipment manager quickly snagged those up, and the game started. During the game, Trey Mancini (the guy who tossed me the ball) hit a homer into the woods in left field. I immediately got up and ran out to the area where he hit it. On the way, a few of the bullpen pitchers for Aberdeen whistled at me and got my attention and said they’d trade me a different ball for his home run, since it was his 1st career dinger. I was extra motivated now to find it. There was this other man who retrieves home runs there for about 7 years now who made his way out there and proceeded to find it in like 2 minutes. He was also a bit arrogant, which I didn’t like. I would’ve had it, but I made the mistake of not watching where the home run landed and just running over there because I was excited. Next time I’m getting the home run.

As we headed in, 2 batters later, Jeff Kemp hit another home run to left field. Without seeing where he hit it (because I couldn’t), I ran back to the woods, and wouldn’t you know it… the same guy got that one too. $$%$&*@#@%$ !

I did however, snag this: … and handed it to the nearest kid. Another sidebar: the first three Renegades games I’ve been to now this season, I’ve befriended one of the “Fun Team” members. These people run the in between inning games and promotions. Every game so far he promised me I’d do the best contest prize wise with a friend. And every time, it’s been cancelled for some reason. He signed me up again today, and wouldn’t you know it… it got cancelled again. They did hook us up with some hats and free tickets though: Towards the end of the game, I headed over here for an umpire/3rd out ball: …but came up short. I almost got a bat, as well, but missed out. Final score:

3 balls at this game (another MLB’er in there again!)
113 career balls
3 straight MiLB games with a ball

August 27, 2012

8/26/12 at Dutchess Stadium (ABD @ HV)

Here were my Sunday plans:

… I was excited to just take in a smaller atmosphere, lately I’ve been chasing commemorative balls, and rushing, etc., so I was looking forward to just going to a ballgame with a small crowd, doing my thing, and just overall enjoying a ballgame. Since I had season tickets for today’s game, you don’t have to wait in line at the main gate and you can enter at the side. There was nobody there, so I was excited to run in and potentially see BP with nobody in the stands and easter eggs for the taking. Instead, here was the view when I got in:

…eh. It wasn’t exactly the end of the world though, because I headed over here –

… and got Felix Gonzalez to toss me my first ball of the day:

Isn’t that gorgeous?

Since I was the only one who was actually asking for a ball, I didn’t want to seem greedy in front of the other fans and headed over to the IronBirds (Orioles A-Affiliate) side to try to get a ball. There were a few guys tossing, but I was only able to head over so far towards left field without a “Picnic Area” ticket. Therefore, a bunch of balls were tossed into the crowd in that area. I was busy getting an autograph (I never usually do autographs, so I don’t know what compelled me to here) from Jose Nivar when 2 more balls were tossed into the crowd. Later, there was one sitting up against the wall, so I asked Jose to give it to me and he kid of playfully said no. I thought he was kidding so I gave him a yes-nod and he threw it to the bullpen catcher.

-___-

After that, I headed to my seats for the game…

… and got Cameron Edman to toss me the 3rd out ball from the bottom of the 2nd inning. It was a grounder to third, which was scooped up at first. Nice.

I was satisfied with my totals for the game, and decided to just hang for the rest of the day. I was walking around the concourse when I ran into a stand ran by the Dutchess County Sports Museum. I was going to keep walking, until this caught my eye:

How awesome is that? It was a glove used by a ballplayer in the 1940s or so. I tried on the glove with one of the balls I caught:

… I could barely get the glove shut around the ball. That alone made me respect old time ballplayers even more. I couldn’t imaging catching a liner down the line or a deep fly ball with this thing. There was plenty of padding, but not a lot of mobility with it. I thought it was really cool.

I tried getting a ball from the home plate umpire after the game:

…but came up empty. They were doing some sort of promotion on the field after the game, so we stayed after (any excuse to get on a ball field is a good one to me). Here was the crowd: