Tagged: snagging

March 12, 2013

Looking Back: 6/21/08 @ Old Yankee Stadium (CIN @ NYY)

I was looking through some old pictures and was thrilled to find some old pictures of me at the old Yankee Stadium, and coincidentally, this was the last “game” I attended at the stadium (I was at the 2008 All-Star Game, but that is an interesting story for another day in a future post). Also, I’m sure you remember Natalie from earlier posts. This was actually one of our first dates, so that’s exciting as well. I’ll have to give her credit for tagging along with me to baseball games from the get go. It was her first (and last) time at Old Yankee. Believe it or not, I actually tried ballhawking at this game (with no glove). Here we go…

We entered at the home plate gate, and I saw this:

So batting practice was a go. Afterwards, we headed to right field…

And hung out there for a little while. I knew that this was probably my last time there, so I tried to savor every moment of it. It was such a historic place, and it was going to be gone forever. I can still remember it now. I took some artistic photos:

… and shortly afterwards I laid eyes on this:

Oh come on. I had to have it! Of all people, Hall-of-Famer Ken Griffey, Jr. was walking over to me. At the the time, I had zero balls snagged in my life. What a name to get your first from, huh? So here he was:

But for some reason, he was too busy worrying about some kids cap who fell, so in the meantime, Gary Majewski ignored me:

… and threw the ball in the other direction.

WELP.

After BP had ended, I headed up to my seats:

Like I said, I was just enjoying it while I could. Here was a view to my right:

And fittingly, the Reds beat Dan Geise (who? I remember. Do you?) and the Yankees 6-0:

…at my last game ever. I discreetly scrounged together some pieces of concrete wall from the outside and some infield dirt before they tore it down, so I’ll always have a piece of the REAL Yankee Stadium forever.

Stats:

0 balls at this game (I was a rookie!)

February 21, 2013

Looking Back: 7/30/2011 at Nationals Park (NYM @ WSH)

I was looking through some old pictures and I couldn’t believe I hadn’t posted about when I went to Nationals Park back in 2011.

I went with Natalie and her brother and sister. You’ve probably seen them before in my entry on 7/28/12. Earlier in the day, we did some tourist-y things around Washington D.C.:

Yes, I took that. Feel free to use it.

Here’s some more:

The reason we look so miserable is that it was around 102 degrees and humid for the day. Tack 5 hours or so of that and you get some cranky people. Onto the ballgame…

I took the Metro to the “Navy Yard” station:

… and when I got off, I was greeted with this:

Sweet. As usual with any new stadium I visit, I walked around the outside and snapped some pictures.

The years listed on the ground are specific milestone years in Washington baseball history. I’ll spare you the history lesson for when you go yourself. Here is one for example:

Here I am in my sweaty, tired glory:

And I walked around to the First Base gate:

And ran into a “Nats-Mobile”:

But finally it was time for snagging. I ran inside and got my bulky Jayson Werth bobblehead and made my way here:

(Note the ridiculous David Wright shirt the Mets coach has on.) The Mets were in their usual un-friendly mood, so I waited for Nats BP to start:

I maneuvered a bit and positioned myself in front of the “Red Porch”:

The sun was beating down on me at this point. I’m not kidding, I don’t know how people down here live like this. Probably the hottest I’ve ever been in my life. But I kept going. I almost caught 2 home runs, and missed a Drew Storen toss-up.

Keep in mind, at least at the time I was here, Nationals Park only opens the left field side of the park for the first 45 minutes or hour or whatever the policy was. So, when it was time to head to right field, I started making my way over. There was already a line of kids ready to make a rush for Easter eggs, so I decided to head upstairs and try my luck there:

Not gonna lie, Nats Park is a pretty looking place. BP continued, and I noticed Livan Hernandez shagging flies in Center. I decided to try the “name trick”, since we both shared the same last name. He thought it was funny, since I told him I had the i.d. to prove it. Which would be ridiculous, since I was in the upper deck… you get the idea. But most importantly, it worked, and he tossed me my first ball of the day. After that, things quieted down, and the Nationals were done. I headed down to the lower deck, which calmed down as well, and hung out here:

One of the Met players (can’t recall who) hit a shot to center field, and it fell between where I was, and the batters eye. I couldn’t reach it, so I asked a groundskeeper:

… and he tossed me my 2nd ball of the day. I then headed over by the Mets dugout, mainly because it was so oppressively hot. I was sunburned, and I needed some shade.

Shortly after, BP was over, and it was time do do some exploring.

Here were our seats for the game:

… and I was completely fine just relaxing. It was a looooong day, and I was pleased with my total of 2. Later, I got to see my first “Presidential Race”:

Poor Teddy still had none (he’s won by now). After a few innings, I decided to walk around and take some pictures and take advantage of the free “cooling station” the Nationals were offering:

See that cup of ice? Heaven. We walked around to the back concourse, full of concessions:

I broke and bought a “Curly W” pretzel, which I thought was cool:

Later, I headed up to the top to take my usual stadium picture:

and a lovely panoramic shot:

…and here I am with Natalie:

How cute. And before I knew it, the game was over. Here I am with my #6 sign, at the time it was the 6th stadium I had visited. Note the high level of tired-ness:

Overall, I like Nationals Park a lot. I give it an A.

Final score:

2 balls at this game

September 26, 2012

9/25/12 at Citi Field (PIT @ NYM)

It was most likely (maybe not) my last game of 2012, and I was spending it here since the Yankees were on the road in Minnesota:

Yay.

I ran to the left field bleachers and positioned myself here:

and here was my field view:

There wasn’t much action to begin with, but there were a few homers. My view to the left was the same as the one to my right in the photo above, so when David Wright hit a home run into the eye black, I ran over to my left, and stood by the edge of the railing. The following picture is an old photo of the eye black, but I’m using it to give you perspective:

So, obviously, I was standing where the arrow says “me”, and the ball was where… well, yea. I asked the guard if I could go get it since the rumor was you were allowed to go down there. He said no, but then he went down and tossed it up to me for #1 on the day. As he tossed it up, a kid in Pirates gear was running around from the other side of the apple. I guess you’re allowed to run on to the eye black as long as you don’t go down the Party City Deck. Whatev.

The Mets ran off the field after a whopping 7 minutes. So I took some time to enjoy my free box of Cracker Jack:

Yay for free food (Even though it was so old the bag inside was stuck to the box).

Then, the Pirates came out:

Lots of homeruns, no action towards me. For some reason, the crowd in BP was immense for a Tuesday night September 25th game between the 75-78 Pirates and the 70-83 Mets. It was just one of those nights. Eventually I was surrounded by kids, then a family of like 24 surrounded me on my left, and I kept barely missing home runs, and I got too fed up. I tried to move myself over here:

Nothing. I moved around the corner:

Annnnnnd nothing. This was quickly becoming a dud.

I headed over by the dugout, when this caught my eye:

I assume this is the Pirates equipment guy, but I’m not sure. But, he was tossing balls to folks in Pirates gear, and wouldn’t you know it……

I had some time to kill after BP, so I took some pics:

Exciting stuff, I know. The Pirates came out to toss pregame, and I was there:

But none of them had any baseballs. Eventually, Pedro Alvarez (who would’ve been a GREAT name to add to my list) had a ball in his hand, autographed it and then threw it to a little kid. Dayyyyyum. I sat here during the game:

…and spent THREE dollars for my ticket on Stub Hub. HA HA, Mets!!!!

I also got this cool picture of Andrew McCutchen:

Later in the game, I got to see some Mets history:

David Wright has really been the only Met I’ve ever liked, so I’m happy for him. I was hoping he’d get up again to break the record, but he didn’t.

I moved over here to try and get a ball from umpire Greg Gibson:

…but he gave them to kids (Which is okay).

The Pirates made their way out:

annnnnd nothing.

Final score:

I had set out earlier this year in April to have a personal goal to snag 50 baseballs this season. To start the season, I had 21 career balls. Now, I have 81. I snagged 60. Some people snag this in a 4 game series. But I’m proud of myself. 2012 has been fun, It’s going to suck big time to wait until 2013. Unless I sneak one more game in this year 😉

2 balls at this game
81 career balls
9 straight games at Citi with a ball
15 straight MLB games with a ball
Mets record when I attend: 2-8 in 2012, 12-17 overall
Pirates record when I attend: 1-0 in 2012, 1-1 overall

September 17, 2012

9/12/12 at Dutchess Stadium (TRI @ HV NY-Penn League Championship Gm 2)

It was Game 2 of the Penn-League Finals, and I was there:
(just noticed the guy doing acrobatics in the background) I was only looking to get one ball to start a new streak, and I was looking forward to just watching the game but trying for a foul ball in case one came near me. The Valley Cats came out to toss –

…and I later got Joe Sclafani (pictured below):

…to toss me my first (and last) ball of the day:

…Cooooooooooooool.

Now, on to the game.

I sat here the whole time. I did not get a foul ball. The Renegades went on to win tonight, and then the next night (I couldn’t make it -___-) they won to become NY-Penn League Champions! Very cool stuff.

I have some things cooking up to close out the season.

1 ball at this game
79 Career balls

September 12, 2012

9/11/12 at Citi Field (WSH @ NYM)

It was a very unlucky, yet lucky day for me at Citi Field, if that makes sense. Let’s get started. I somehow made it to Citi before the gates opened at 5:10. From there, after the gates opened, I subsequently fell going up the stairs and banged my knee. It still hurts as I write this. I then hobbled to left field, and saw the Nationals stretching. The Mets were in right field finishing BP, so I headed over there:

When I got there, here was the view behind me:

It’s hard to get a ball into these seats. But Bryce Harper was getting ready to go into the cage, so I wanted to be there for it. If one was going up there, it was mine. The Mets ran off, and Sean Burnett came out to right field:

Bryce Harper then hit one down the line, Burnett came over, I asked him for a ball, and he rewarded me with this:

… and it was only 5:18. Good pace so far.

I headed to the Center Field seats, and took the following photos:

… I would only wait so long for someone to come out. Nobody did, of course. I headed over to left field. The righties were hitting, so I figured this was the best spot to be in. Now, after reading from Mateo Fischer’s entry from a few weeks ago, the Nationals were for some odd reason using 2008 Shea Stadium Commemorative balls, and 2008 Nationals Park Commemorative balls.

While I was in Right Field, someone on the Nationals hit one right at me. I tried to lean over to the Party City Deck to reach for it, and just missed. Then, another home run surprised everyone who was trying to get the first ball, so now there were two. I noticed one of them was the Shea commemorative. I asked the security guard if I could have it, and he looked at both balls, tossed me the regular one, and pocketed the commemorative.

W. T. F. Here’s the scene of the crime:

Now that you have a visual, the ball smacked around the staircase. Last time I checked, the guards aren’t allowed to keep the balls they get, but whatever.

Here was my view to the left:

Two balls were hit into the batters eye, but the security guard gave them to other people. I decided to move further down towards straightaway left. Heres where more bad luck comes in to play. I went to the game with my friend Bryan. He doesn’t do the whole ballhawking thing, so he was just hanging out in left. When I got there, he already snagged a ball from someone he cant remember. Then, a National (I don’t know who) absolutely crushed a homer to the 3rd deck in left. It hit off the top of the scoreboard strip in between the two “We Remember” spots located here:

… and fell down right in our row. There was a scramble, and Bryan was closer then I was, so he got to it before me. And wouldn’t you know it, it was a Nationals commemorative. So I now missed out on each the Mets and Nats balls. Which was, of course, the only reason I went to this game to begin with. Here was the second scene of the crime:

…the ball landed right behind “Seat 14”.

I got a toss up from Gio Gonzalez for ball No. 3, and I even got a “Whoa!” compliment from him as I made the lunging catch. Kinda cool.

I then headed here:

…and proceeded to get nothing as the players were busy trying to launch balls into the upper deck, and the coach, Jose Martinez, was busy trying to get this woman to give him her phone number (I kid you not). I headed to my usual spot:

…and got nothing. I did, however, get Ian Desmond’s autograph. This is where some of the *good* luck came in.

I was still standing in my spot when the groundskeepers were coming out to spraypaint the NY on the mound, and fix the infield. I look over to the tunnel, and one of them looks up at me and flips me Ball No. 4 on the day. Cool.

It was, of course, 9/11. So we took a moment of silence:

… it was a reminder of how each day is a privilege to have freedoms. Here I am complaining about commemoratives, while this went on. I felt selfish.

Moving on…

During the game, I got a good picture of Bryce Harper:

and here was Bryan with his Nats commemorative:

… it was a perfect stamp too. Of course.

It then occurred to me that I could try the bullpen. It was a long shot but I was willing. So I headed over to the Nats bullpen:

… and proceeded to get ignored by the pitchers and the coach Jim Lett. I’m not sure if it was just me, but he purposely ignored me. It was ridiculously quiet out there, and it’s not the first time he’s done that. After 2 innings I gave up and headed back to my seats and looked over at the dugout. Maybe there was a commemorative in the dugout still from BP:

… Edwin Jackson looked over and for the hell of it, I flapped my glove. He came back 15 seconds later with a ball, pump faked, then threw it to me for Ball No. 5 on the day. Another bit of good luck. I already extended my new Citi Field record from 3 to 4, now it was up to 5.

The Nationals hung on to win, 5-3. Later, umpire Rob Drake headed over:

… and gave me this:

… No. 6. Doubled my record! Bittersweet day at the park. I’m not sure when my next MLB game is. I hope this wasn’t the last one of the season. I have a few minor league games left, though.

SIX (SIX!!!) balls at this game
Personal Citi Field record
Personal overall record
78 career balls
8 straight games at Citi with a ball
14 straight MLB games with a ball
Mets record when I attend: 2-7 in 2012 (12-16 overall)
Nationals record when I attend: 3-0 in 2012 (4-2 overall)

September 11, 2012

9/10/12 at Dutchess Stadium (BRK @ HV SemiFinals Game 3)

This will be a quick post… because from a ballhawking standpoint, nothing really happened for me tonight. The day started off with a bad omen here:

It was Game 3 of the Semi-Finals. If the Renegades win, they go to the finals. If Brooklyn wins, they go to the finals. Rich and I had to wait for our tickets to show up to the park, and it was nearing first pitch. As each minute passed, I knew my chances at keeping my streak alive got smaller. I then moved down to here for the start of the game:

… and nothing. I was getting restless. For one, I was ball-less. and two, this was a elimination game. I headed up to the bleachers, and this was why. Heres the view in front of me:

and to my left:

…. Foul. Ball. Heaven. Since it was a school night and 6 p.m.-ish, there was NOBODY there, all things considered for a playoff game. Only problem was, nobody hit any foul balls. At all. You would think maybe one, possibly two, but no. I was still ready in case one sailed over the railing and landed in here:

… that’s where the staff park. To the left though, is a smoking area for fans. Normally, during the summer, a ton of little kids hang out here for foul balls, but again – being a school night, there were tumbleweeds drifting by out back. All I would have to do is quick run back and see what car the ball landed by and it was mine.

Of course though, nothing was hit there. I decided to go and stand on the concourse. After one inning, I asked 1st baseman Jayce Boyd for a third out ball. He looked at me, stared, then walked into the dugout.

Coooool.

While I was waiting, I snagged a free bag of peanuts:

He dropped it on the floor, looked at me and said “Well, I can’t sell these now…” (It’s in plastic, but okay free food) and tossed it to me.

Nothing more really happened snagging wise, and eventually I screamed like crazy when this happened:

The Renegades won 2-0 on a combined 1-hitter, and will face the Tri-City Valley Cats for the NY-Penn League Championship. Since the Renegades had the best record in the league, Game 1 is in Tri-City tomorrow night, but I am going to Game 2 at the Dutch Thursday night. I am also most likely going to the Nationals-Mets game tomorrow night. Stay tuned!

ZERO balls at this game. (DSMFGNLDSFXZ.UGhFDZJSKB!!!!!!)
Overall streak snapped, MLB streak still intact.

September 8, 2012

9/7/12 @ MCU Park (HV @ BRK)

It was a long day on the subways to start:

… (from left to right) I drove down from my house to the Bronx to 242nd Street, caught the A at 168th Street, got the L at 14th Street, got off at Lorimer Street (to meet some friends), got back on the G at Greenpoint Ave, and caught the D to Coney Island and finally wound up here:

I went down to Coney Island to see the Hudson Valley Renegades (my local team) take on the Brooklyn Cyclones in Game 1 of the NY Penn-League Playoffs. It was a last minute decision, but hey… you gotta support the team. If you’ve never been to Coney Island before, it’s actually a lot nicer than it used to be. When you walk in the park, you can look out past left field and see the amusement park:

… and past right field you have the famous Parachute Jump, which overlooks the Atlantic Ocean.

You get a nice sea breeze the whole game. Enough of that though, on to the snagging.

I had my eye on this:

…. I knew that they’d be stingy with the balls, mainly because the season already ended and they would be low. Then the players started loosening up –

Here was my view to the left and right in case a throw sailed over a player into the seats:

… yep. One of the players told me he’d give me a game ball. Fair enough. I didn’t want to be annoying since I was the only person down by the team, so I figured I’d take the patient route. The game finally began:

(Interesting sidebar: See the roof in the picture above? How its a wavy line? It’s a tribute to the old Brooklyn Dodgers, who now play in Los Angeles and use the same style roof at Dodger Stadium. Cool, no?)

A few innings passed, and the player who told me he would throw me a ball, quickly threw one up from the dugout as I was checking the Yankees score on my phone. I looked down for about 5 seconds, and that’s all it took for the guy next to me to get it instead of me. It was the same guy who stole a ball from me the last time I was at MCU back in July.

-_____-

I wouldn’t stay mad long though, as someone on the Cyclones hit a foul toards the Renegades dugout, and I got Taylor Guerreri (#17) to toss me it:

Streak alive. It was also cool to get a ball from Guerreri, who had a 1.04 ERA in 52 innings pitched this season. Hopefully he makes it up to the Rays someday.

Later, I wandered over by the Cyclones bullpen, mainly because of this:

If a home run was hit there, it would be mine. Literally zero people in the bleachers (I later found out nobody was allowed out there). Then I looked in the bullpen and saw this:

Since you cant see it, the sign says “Toss a quarter in the cup, get a free baseball”. So naturally I tried it. 50 cents poorer, I headed back to right field in hopes of a foul/toss up from the right fielder:

… I didn’t see any action, and then the game ended. Renegades 0, Cyclones 4. Not good. I then took the long, loooong subway commute back home and stared at this for the next 2 hours:

Curse you, MTA. Back at it later today for Game 2 at Dutchess Stadium, Rain/Tornadoes or shine.

*UPDATE* They just called the game. It will be Sunday instead.

1 ball at this game
72 career balls

August 30, 2012

8/29/12 at Yankee Stadium (TOR @ NYY)

It was a bit unexpected and last minute, but I was here early Wednesday morning:

… I was about to board the Metro North with my dad to go to Yankee Stadium for the 2nd time in 2 nights.He hasn’t been to a game all season, plus he was off from work, so what the heck. I don’t normally take the train to the game, but when I got off, I never realized the awesome view of Yankee Stadium you get when you make your way out:

… nice. I knew I wasn’t going to see much of anything on the field, being this was a day game after a night game, but when I entered the park, I was surprised to see the cage was out:

… Turns out a few guys were hitting grounders to Alex Rodriguez. If there was to be batting practice for the Jays after, It was going to be another toughie. Here’s how it looked in the left field seats:

… it was only going to get more crowded. After about 20 solid minutes of Jays tossing, I played the patient waiting game, spotted out Ricky Romero, called his name, and got him to toss me ball No. 1 for the day:

(Romero is the one throwing in the photo.) My dad has never been to a game yet with me where I was ballhawking, so he was amazed at how I managed to get that ball. To my credit, I was the only one who recognized any of the players and actually asked for one. What a concept. Here is the ball in all its beauty:

Sweet. Streak alive. There were other Jays tossing:

… but I didn’t bother. They were ignoring everyone, and Romero, the awesome guy that he is, gave away 4 balls to kids and then stopped for some of these:

… I couldn’t manage my way in there, or else I’d have him sign my ticket. I was then bored and took an artistic photo:

Feel free to use that. I hung out with my dad for a bit, we got some grub, then I took him upstairs to show him “The Harkey”. Just look at all the space I had:

What a view. I mean honestly, he could absolutely sail one to the left, and I could run over uncontested and grab it. I couldn’t believe for a day game crowd how empty this area was, but I wasn’t complaining. Here was my view down to the bullpen to give you perspective on height and distance, keep it in mind:

Now. Harkey came over, did his usual 4 or 5, then looked up at me. I waved my glove a few times, (I mean really, who else could he look at) and we made eye contact and he chucked it up. It was falling short, and quick. I decided to make a move. I took my right hand, grabbed as much of the stone wall as I could, and lunged over the wall. I would have to estimate that I was at least hanging over the wall up to my kneecaps. I almost over-judged the ball, as it smacked into the heel of my glove. I couldn’t believe it. To date, it was the sickest snag I’ve made. My dad couldn’t believe it. The bleacher section below shown in the photo above gave me a round of applause and cheers. People were high-fiving me, even cops were telling me how nice the grab was. It was a pretty surreal moment.

As quick as that escalated, that’s how quick it died down. So we headed up to our seats. On the way, I noticed the Yankees museum had NO line to get in. I’ve been wanting to check that place out for 3 years now, so we went in quick. Here are a few photos:

Okay. Thanks for getting through that. Of those pictures, we have:

1) the 2009 World Series ring the Yankees received

2) a signed Rickey Henderson ball. The Yankees have almost every signature they could get from the superstars to the mop-up relievers, one on each ball inside a glass case. I picked Rickey’s because he was just an awesome player.

3) A collection of rings the Yankees earned from 1977-2009

4) The model of Yankee Stadium that the Steinbrenners proposed to the city of New York

5) Thurman Munson’s old locker from the Old Yankee Stadium

Here were our seats:

It was nice to just hang for a few innings. I was bored so attempted a panorama picture:

But you know me, I was thinking of snagging opportunities. I took myself down here:

… and got denied a few times. The seats were pretty empty (it was pretty hot out), but nothing was hit my way. The game ended. Jays 8, Yanks 5. Since it was getaway day, the Jays hi-tailed it out of there. However, I spotted one of these bad boys on the wall:

I asked the groundskeeper if I could have it, and he looked at me nasty. Here’s how the situation panned out:

Groundskeeper: “I just gave you one yesterday.”

Chris: “No, you didn’t. That was Zack.” (Sidebar- I was standing next to Zack Hample when he got the lineup card the night before, as you can see here. See? I was there.)

G: “Yes, you did. Why do you gotta lie to me?”

C: “I swear to you, it wasn’t me! I was there, but you gave it to Zack.”

G: “You don’t gotta lie, man, I’m gonna give it to you anyway, but don’t lie to me man.”

…… what the heck?

I wasn’t going to let that ruin my day though. I snagged more balls today with no BP than the night before. And I got a lineup card. Here it is in all it’s glory:

Sweeeeet. I love the highlighting and the abbreviations and the sharpie editing, it’s all great.

2 balls at this game
71 career balls
9 straight games at Yankee Stadium with a ball
13 straight MLB games with a ball
Yankees record when I attend: 35-22 (9-4 in 2012)
Blue Jays record when I attend: 2-7 (1-2 in 2012)

I’m thinking of going Friday vs. the Orioles, but I’m not sure just yet.

August 30, 2012

8/28/12 at Yankee Stadium (TOR @ NYY)

Another day, another ballgame…

As ridiculous as the Gate 6 lines looked, I headed over to Gate 8 behind center field, and waited about 5 or 10 minutes until I grabbed my “Old School Yankee Pennant” and headed out to left field, which was pleasantly surprising:

That was it for my section. Here was my view to the right:

Look at all that space. I had so much room to run, but… I just needed someone to hit a ball to me. Chris Stewart came up for what seemed like 20 minutes, and then the Yankees vanished. The Blue Jays came out, and hit nothing that really came my way. I saw a few balls get hit in the section to my left, and some were hit into the bleachers above me. After that, it got really crowded. I’ll save you the time. Kids got toss ups (don’t get me wrong, that’s great – as long as my streak is alive), and nothing was hit towards me. The Jays started hitting towards right field. Until of course, the ushers started kicking people out:

Now that’s more like it. Look. At. Those. Aisles.

Of course, nothing was hit there. Eventually, bullpen catcher Alex Andreopolous walked towards the warning track with several balls in his catcher’s mitt:

In case you still can’t figure out which guy is Andreopolous, He’s the guy on the left wearing #61.

I got him to toss me up a ball. It felt good to be on the board and keep the streak going:

Sweet. Eventually, that was it for BP. I decided to head up to this area:

And made my way to the center field cafe area to try and work my magic for “The Harkey”. If you don’t know what this is, refer to my other Yankee Stadium posts, it’s explained there. Here was my spot:

I had ample space to move around in case he sailed one. But instead, he half-assed the throw off the wall and it ricocheted down to the bleachers and almost hit an old man in the head. Hmph.

I decided to chill for a bit during the game, and managed to notice this –

If someone could explain to me how Curtis Granderson has 133 home runs with the bases empty but 134 RBIs, that’d be great. Maybe it’s a typo.

Later, Adeiny Heccevarria hit his 1st career homer to right field. And the guy that caught it? …. He gave it back to Right Fielder Moises Sierra in a trade for what was probably a crappy BP ball. For shame. If it was me, I would’ve told Moises that I simply wanted to hand it to him myself.

Moving on… I headed down to here after about the 7th inning:

It was crowded, but I had one good aisle to run in in case somebody gave one a ride:

But nobody hit one out. Yankees won the game, 2-1 in a very quick game for two AL East foes. After the game, I met up with the famous Zack Hample, and talked for a good 15 minutes. We talked a bit before the game during BP, both expressing our hate for Yankee Stadium. He managed to snag the bullpen lineup card and was immediately stoked:

… as was I. Even though I got only 1 ball,my streak was alive and it was a fun night at the ballpark (That’s what it’s all about, right? Right?).

1 ball at this game
69 career balls
8 straight games at Yankee Stadium with a ball
12 straight MLB games with a ball
Yankees record when I attend: 35-21 (9-3 in 2012)
Blue Jays record when I attend: 1-7 (0-2 in 2012)

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:

…and here we are (I’m on the right, obviously) in center field:

My next game is probably Tuesday (Jays @ Yankees).

2 balls at this game
68 career balls

August 26, 2012

8/25/12 at Citi Field (HOU @ NYM)

I was here on Saturday:

… it was the last game of Rich and I’s ticket plan, and it was Mike Piazza bobblehead day. So I knew there would be somewhat of a crowd for this game between the 40-87 Houston Astros and the 58-69 New York Mets… a game with huge implications.

Huge implications on my snagging record, that is. I needed one Astros 50th Anniversary Commemorative ball to complete the 6-ball set this year (Boston, Baltimore, LA Dodgers, Miami, NY Mets, Houston). I knew it would be tough to get, being a day game after a night game, plus an ominous comment from Mateo Fischer :

Nice.

I was, however, excited to see this:

Yay for BP!

Looking around, I was the only one around wearing Astros gear. If there was a commemorative to have, I was confident I’d get it. I headed over here:

…and got Wilton Lopez (player to the right of the coach in the shorts) to throw me my first ball of the day. I almost didn’t get it. He threw it short, and it tipped off my glove. He was cool about it and threw me another ball on target and I even got a wave after (Neither ball was a commemorative). I then saw a ball here in front of the tarp:

…but didn’t bother going for it once I saw it was a regular ball. I switched it up to try and get a home run up here:

…but long story short, most of the Astros were attempting to be cool and didn’t really throw anything up, and the Astros only hit about 4 total homers into the crowd. I did come close to one though.

I decided to try my luck over by the Astros dugout:

…Interim manager Tony DeFrancesco walked over and I asked him for an anniversary ball. He told me he didn’t have any with him, and hadn’t seen one in a while.

Hmm.

Later, Jose Altuve came out to pose for a baseball card:

…and he later told me the same thing. I tried again with Fernando Martinez and Brandon Barnes:…and they said that they don’t bring the Astros balls with them on the road.

Hold up.

I knew this wasn’t true, because I have seen Zack Hample get one in Philadelphia earlier this season. So based off of this info, I refused to accept it.

I did, however, snag some of this from Lucas Harrell:

… I didn’t ask for the gum, he was throwing bags of seeds and gum up for everyone. It was pretty cool.

I then got denied by ten… count ’em, TEN Astros after the national anthem:

…I then got bluntly kicked out of the section. I did our usual hang out in center field-thing we usually do, occasionally heading down to the Astros bullpen to see if anything was up. I got the attention of bullpen catcher Javier Bracamonte who actually took the time to look through the ball bag for a commemorative, but only sifted through about 4 or 5 until saying sorry and heading back to the bench. I went down again later, and found Rhiner Cruz stretching:

… I asked him to come over and look for me, and he did try and look, but said they didn’t have any.But he did toss me this:

… I’m not going to complain.

Manny Acosta came out back by the fence and I said hi. I wasn’t about to bother him or ask him for a ball. It was weird just sitting there with him for about an inning:

Later the Astros bullpen coach Craig Bjornsen told me he didn’t have any anniversary balls because the team doesn’t travel with them.

Lame.

What am I supposed to do, travel to Houston now? Go back to Citi tomorrow in hopes that this isn’t true? For sure not. So much for completing the set.

I set my sights on an umpires ball so I sat here behind two Met fans with clear taste for great pitching:

oof.

Here was my actual view:

… Frank Francisco pitched a 1-2-3 9th, and then home plate umpire Chad Fairchild walked past everyone into the locker rooms. Goodbye Citi Field.

2 balls at this game
66 career balls
7 straight games at Citi with a ball
11 straight games at an MLB game with a ball
Mets record when I attend this season: 2-6 (12-15 overall)
Astros record when I attend this season: 0-1 (0-2 overall)

August 18, 2012

8/17/12 at Yankee Stadium (BOS @ NYY)

I got a ticket for this game for 1 reason and 1 reason only:

I wanted a Fenway commemorative ball. Correction: I NEEDED one. I did not feel like going up to Boston just for one ball. I had some previous obligations to take care of earlier in the day, so I was already in the city. I was actually able to make it to the stadium very early for once, and it felt good. Thus, my journey starts here on 51st Street and Lexington Ave:

I then grabbed the 4 at 59th street, and a few cramped, crowded, sweaty, woman next to yous sweaty armpits minutes later I was here:

I love being there when nobody else is. I normally go inside Gate 6 (Right Field), but since I had the time, I decided to go inside Gate 2 (Left Field). The line was huge, look where I had to stand:

That folks, is why you leave early. I hadn’t eaten all day, so here is some shameless advertising:

I never eat McDonald’s. Today was an exception. I was going to be running plenty to burn that off. Around 4:45 (gates open at 5), this guy behind me all of the sudden decides to cut me. It was the weirdest thing ever. The lady next to me offered to say something but the guy was old, and honestly, did not look like he would be ballhawking. I would get in eventually just like everyone else. I found it funny though because no matter WHAT I do, I am never the first on line. Anyway, I got my bag checked and ran in to left field. Here was my spectacular view to my right:

… and my gorgeous back/left view:

THIS IS WHY YOU GO TO GAMES EARLY PEOPLE!!!

When I was checking for easter eggs, I could see that a usher had a ball in his hands. I wasn’t going to ask him for it. The next moment, Andruw Jones blasted a home run that hit off the logo next to the “State Farm” to the right in the above picture. I ran over a few rows, and before I knew it, 2 minutes in I had this:

It was the first home run that I snagged that was hit into the seats that wound up into my glove. Very cool. 15 seconds later, Andruw smacked one into the walkway tunnel for the section to my right, so I ran up and snagged it before someone running behind me could get it:

… and just like that, 3 minutes in I had 2 balls, both of them hit into the stands and retrieved by me, something I have never done before. Very awesome. They didn’t have Fenway commemorative logos on them, so there was more work to be done. I knew it wouldn’t be this easy for much longer, as the crowd was filing in:

I think it’s funny how everyone swarms to the front row. I’m guilty of this myself sometimes, but you usually have better luck standing back further. I usually do this when I get caught up in trying to get Hiroki Kuroda to toss me a ball. Which he will successfully, someday. 5 minutes later, the Yankees were done. The Sox still were stretching, so I ran over to here:

Where I later got my third ball of the day from Ryan Lavarnway, who was tossing with Cody Ross. I quickly looked at the ball, and there was no logo on it. I moved closer to the cage where Dustin Pedroia was hitting:

I was trying to get his attention because it was his birthday. If he heard me, he might hook me up. But he didn’t.

I avoided trying to go to the field and get a toss up because it looked like this:

So I stayed back, just in case. It wasn’t much better back where I had started:

I looked over in the bullpen and saw this:

Eh. But look closer:

Needed to be mine.

But, bullpen coach Gary Tuck was being a jerk the whole night and put them back in his bag. I tried asking Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Ryan Lavarnway for theirs:

Nothing.

I did take this cool picture of Franklin Morales warming up:

I’ll save you the reading. I did a lot of begging but came up short. The game started, and the rain came:

Here was my view to my right:

… and my immediate right:

Blurf. I was commemorative-less, I was soaked, sweaty, and I flat out stunk from sweating for 15 hours. I wasn’t too happy:

Later, Derek Jeter apparently “crushed” his 250th home run.

And no, I didn’t catch it. It came close, and then I started dreaming of what I would do if I caught it, as he would want it. Maybe I’d ask for a Fenway commemorative.

I tried every half inning for a toss up, and would not quit. I got Alfredo Aceves to acknowledge me:

in the top of the 9th and he said he’d get me. So I waited. And the game ended. Gary Tuck -___- took the bag with him, so that was that. So I headed down to the bullpen gate, in hopes of asking the groundskeeper for a ball and hoping it was a commemorative. 5 anguish-filled minutes later….

SA-WEEEEET! (One E for each commemorative) I now had FIVE commemorative balls out of the SIX this year, and I have ONE and only one chance to get it next Saturday when the Astros play the Mets. It was smudged, but hell, I’ll take it. Ironically, a short minute later, Aceves actually came through and threw me a commemorative ball, but it fell short hitting the fence. I was busy high-tailing out of there to catch my Metro-North train, and headed home after a LOOONG day in NYC. Following pic taken on the train:

4 balls at this game (Ties personal MLB record!)
64 career balls
7 games in a row at Yankee with a ball (new record!)
10 straight MLB games with a ball (new record!)
Yankees record when I attend: 34-21 (8-3 in 2012)
Red Sox record when I attend: 5-2 (1-1 in 2012)

Next game: Possibly mid-week Rockies/Mets, otherwise Astros/Mets 8/25 to try and complete the Commemorative Set!

August 14, 2012

8/13/12 at Yankee Stadium (TEX @ NYY)

For some reason, it was ridiculously crowded at Yankee Stadium today. Gate 6 was a swarm, so I headed over to Gate 8 (CF Bleachers) and it wasn’t as bad. Have a look:

Once I got in, I decided (for some reason) to try my luck with Hiroki Kuroda again…

… and once again he was misunderstanding me. Finally, he was over by the warning track, so I asked him in Japanese. He chuckled, and half-heartedly tossed it in my direction… and sailed it completely. I then tried to get a ball from new Yankee Derek Lowe and Phil Hughes…

…but to no avail. There was a decent amount of balls in the bullpen, and realized that would probably be my only chance at getting a ball and extending my streak:

Next, Texas came out. They ignored most of the fans. There was a translator talking to Kuroda and Yu Darvish, so I thought I’d be witty and ask him in Japanese. He must have taken offense to it since he said “I guess thats for me?” and chucked it back to the bucket. Whatever. Since the time came where the lovely security kicked everyone out of the seats, I headed up here:

But a security guard went into the bullpen and threw away all the balls. Meanwhile, Josh Hamilton was busy reaching the third deck with relative ease. He’s such a great hitter. I later saw on twitter this interesting stat:

Moving on, there were a few home runs that came close to me, but nothing crazy. I decided to try my luck over in the left field bullpen area, where there were eleven balls to be had:

I got a groundskeeper to toss one up to me. I then headed up to the center field area to try the “Harkey”:

But came up empty.

During the game, I stayed in Center Field. I saw this amazing stat:

Considering he had some down time this season, thats some freakin’ great stats.

Also, someone managed to snag this:

It was a grand slam. And no, I didn’t catch it. Later, I checked out Lowe warming up for the first time as a Yankee:

At the end of the game, I found myself here:

Looking at this:

…and got ignored by everyone. Yankee Stadium sucks sometimes. Lowe pitched a 4 inning save, Yankees 8 Texas 2. Back at it Friday vs. Boston in my hunt for a commemorative. Stay tuned!

1 ball at this game.
60 career balls
6 games in a row at Yankee with a ball
9 straight MLB games with a ball
Yankees record when I attend – 33-21 (7-3 this season)
Texas record when I attend – 0-2 (0-1 this season)

August 13, 2012

8/11/12 at Citi Field (ATL @ NYM)

Here I was Saturday (with long entry lines):

I went to this game with my two friends, Brian and Rich. They elected to stay in the parking lot and drink. I myself, was having BP withdrawal so I headed in. I ran up the stairs of the Jackie Robinson Rotunda, around the 3rd base concourse, and wound up here:

Surprisingly, the stadium wasn’t that packed yet. The fact that the Mets have been playing so poorly might’ve helped. Anyway, here was my view to my right:

The Party City deck was empty, so balls that landed there would either ricochet towards me, or go back on the field. And the seats were empty so I could run around freely to get anything I missed. Of course, the Mets didn’t hit anything noteworthy in my direction. Someone hit a ball towards me that banged off the wall, and then I took this picture:

…Pictured walking back towards all the other players is Mets pitcher Josh Edgin, who threw me this:

…sweet. (Look at those marks on the ball, pretty, no?)

A few minutes later that was it for the Mets portion of BP as the Braves came out:

A few minutes later Paul Janish (who was hitting BOMBS) lined one into the gap, and Reed Johnson (pictured, #11) tossed me my second ball of the day.

I decided to move over to the left field corner:

… and came up empty. For the record, 2 homers landed right where I had moved from. Sigh. (Still looking for that in-the-air catch…)

I moved over to the foul side of left field to try and get toss-ups. First my view to the right –

And behind me:

No competition at all! However, Luis Avilan and Chrishtian Martinez were set on ignoring everyone. Also, here is Ben Sheets:

See the ball clearly in his pocket? I asked him if he wanted to have a catch with me (Keep in mind I’m in Braves gear) and he made a motion as to say “I don’t have a ball”. When he did. And then took it out five minutes later and threw it to a Met fan. S*** list for you now, Benjamin. I didn’t even want the ball, I wanted to have a catch. Whatevs.

I headed over to my usual spot for pregame warmups and here was the scene:

As busy as things looked, it wasn’t very busy. A lot of stretching, and nobody loosened up by throwing. The trainer took the 3 balls they had out there and brought them back to the dugout with him. It was dead for a bit, so security guards asked a Braves fan if he wanted to take a picture in the visiting dugout. That was fair. Then for the next 10 minutes, this was the most exciting thing going on:

….yeah. Then they walked off and that was it for pregame. I headed up to Center Field to meet my friends where we watched the game. The Braves jumped out to score 7 runs in the 2nd inning for a 9-0 lead, so in the middle of the game I took a walk and headed here:

If you haven’t been to Citi Field yet, if you get the chance, the bullpens are located right near a picnic area where you can interact with the players (if they don’t ignore you). I was sort of zoning out leaning up against the fence watching Avilan warm up. I still had my Braves gear on, and as Avilan was getting called into the game, Bullpen Coach Eddie Perez looked at me, and nodded upwards, so I moved back a bit, and he tossed me this (I didn’t even ask!):

Nice. On the way back, a random kid came up to me and asked me how old I was. I told him, and then he offered me one of his beers. I took it to be nice, but I didn’t drink it (it’s NYC, you never know).

I made my way down here towards the end of the game:

…but when the game ended, it was dead. As for the game, well..

..yep. the Mets suck.

I took one last photo with my friends:

… and then we headed to McFaddens/home. Rangers/Yankees Monday. Cool fact: After this game, I have only 1 more team to physically see in person (St. Louis).

3 balls at this game (personal Citi Field record!)
59 career balls
6 straight games at Citi with a ball
8 straight MLB games with a ball
Mets record when I attend: 10-15 (1-6 this season)
Braves record when I attend: 1-0

July 29, 2012

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

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: