Tagged: ballhawk

September 4, 2009

8/29/09 @ Miller Park

In case you missed it, I had the best ballhawking day of my life the day prior (8/28/09).
I’ve had *better* days…days where I snagged two game home runs in the same day. But, in terms of total baseballs snagged, Friday the 28th of August 2009 was second to none.

Would my luck carry over to Saturday?

When I entered Friday’s Bullpen Patio, this greeted me…

…an easy glove-trick.

Okay…ball #1 in the 1st minute upon entering. That was easy. Unfortunately, it was all downhill from there.

Allow me to prove my point.

Ballhawks:
Have you ever imagined what it would be like to have one of the game’s greatest power hitters up at the plate (during BP) with you as the only fan in the stands? Just you, the slugger and a whole bunch of open space…!

Well, that was the scenario. The slugger was Prince Fielder and I was the only fan (okay, there were 2 other kids standing in the front row) in the entire right field loge bleachers. His homer haven, I might add.

To my left…

…and to my right…

…holy hell!!

Can you believe the *********** didn’t hit one ************’ homerun to the pissing section the entire time!!?!! I had the equivalent of 4 country acres all to myself and Prince decides not to pull the ball deep. Go figure.

Yeah, my luck changed today. I’m not mad-just sayin’.

The Pirates BP you ask?? Total garbage. They hit and tossed me too many balls the day prior. I think they had to conserve a few for Sunday.

One ball snagged in the very 1st minute inside the park. The next 75 minutes? Nada.

A few pre-game photos of the Pirates pen…

…Jason Jaramillo (catcher) and Kevin Hart (pitcher).

In the two pictures of Jaramillo, do you see the little target they have set up for Hart? The piching rubber over home plate? Neat stuff.

It didn’t help…Brewers won 7-3.

After the game, Home Plate Umpire Tony Randazzo doubled my day’s snags with a simple gift by the umpire tunnel.

Two balls. Woohoo…

…more like boohoo.

2009 BALLHAWKING STATS

2 total balls 8/29/09

0 batted baseballs

1 tossup baseball

1 device baseball

ATTENDANCE: 41,773

2009 TOTAL BASEBALLS

4/7/09   = 5   baseballs
4/8/09 = 10 baseballs
4/9/09   = 10 baseballs
4/10/09 = 3   baseballs
4/11/09 = 5   baseballs
4/12/09 = 5   baseballs
4/13/09 = 11 baseballs
4/14/09 = 6   baseballs
4/21/09 = 5   baseballs
4/27/09 = 15 baseballs
4/28/09 = 9   baseballs
4/30/09 = 4   baseballs
5/01/09 = 7   baseballs
5/02/09 = 4   baseballs
5/08/09 = 11 baseballs
5/09/09 = 1   lousy ball
5/12/09 = 14 baseballs
5/13/09 = 12 baseballs
5/19/09 = 8   baseballs
5/22/09 = 3   baseballs
5/23/09 = 2   baseballs
5/26/09 = 3   baseballs
5/29/09 = 6   baseballs
5/30/09 = 5   baseballs
6/01/09 = 1   baseball
6/02/09 = 9   baseballs
6/09/09 = 4   baseballs
6/10/09 = 0   baseballs
6/11/09 = 2   baseballs
6/12/09 = 9   baseballs
6/23/09 = 6   baseballs
6/24/09 = 9   baseballs
6/26/09 = 9   baseballs
6/27/09 = 4   baseballs
6/29/09 = 3   baseballs
6/30/09 = 5   baseballs
7/07/09 = 6   baseballs
7/10/09 = 3   baseballs
7/20/09 = 7   baseballs
7/24/09 = 6   baseballs
7/27/09 = 8   baseballs
7/29/09 = 3   baseballs
8/04/09 = 4   baseballs
8/11/09 = 7   baseballs
8/12/09 = 6   baseballs
8/15/09 = 4   baseballs
8/16/09 = 3   baseballs
8/17/09 = 10 baseballs
8/25/09 = 10 baseballs
8/26/09 = 4   baseballs
8/28/09 = 18 baseballs (new Milwaukee record)
8/29/09 = 2   baseballs
___________________

326 baseballs (52 games)
6.27 average per game

Career ball #1000 is quickly approaching…

August 30, 2009

8/26/09 @ Miller Park

My wife was running late from work, therefore, I was now running late to the ballpark. I did not get to the ballpark until 5:55 pm. There was nothing I could do to avoid it, so, I had to suck it up and make the best of it. Batting Practice usually ends around 6:20/6:25 pm. That gave me 25-30 minutes.

I’ll describe how I snagged Ball #1 with a few pictures…

…the black wall is approx. 5′ feet high and separates my row of seats from the Toyota Tundra Territory seats. The yellow smiley face depicts where I was standing when DREW SUTTON was taking his cuts. Soon, Sutton would lift one in my direction.

Unfortunately, it would carry over my head and bounce in the front row of the Tundra Territory where it came to a rest.

In my overly zealous state, the following picture shows the route I took to obtain the ball…

…you guessed it. Straight over the top of that wall. I did it from a standing position without a running start and without falling.

I had to or one of these two would have…

…Casey and Matt. Two young ballhawks with similar enthusiasm.

Who says white men can’t jump??

I’ll tell you who-
the usher in my section.

He immediately came marching over and demanded that I throw the ball back on the field. I cocked my arm back to throw it onto the field and then I paused, wondering if he was for real?? He then snatched the ball out of my hand and threw the ball back onto the field himself!! Wow. Take it easy.
I understand he has a job to do, but, c’mon…don’t take it so personal.

I would go on to snag three more baseballs (all on the fly).
Ball #2 was off the bat of LAYNCE NIX (easy grab).
Balls #3 & #4 were off the bat of JOEY VOTTO. The cool thing? They were on consecutive pitches. That rarely ever happens.

BP ended I somehow managed to snag four (4) baseballs in 25 minutes without asking a single player for a ball. Some days I just don’t feel like begging for a baseball. I rarely ever feel comfortable doing it. But, this season I’m doing it for the sake of the Ballhawk League.

During the game, I hung out a bit with two of my favorite Brewers fans…

…”Big Joe” and his cute little niece Madison.

The game went into extra innings for the 2nd consecutive day.
Brewers lost in ten…4-3.

I did not try for any warmup balls. I did not try for any tossups, foul balls, ump balls, etc.
As is usually the case, I only focused on game home runs.

Blahblahblah…the Brewers season has been a major disappointment.

One of the cooler things of the day…

…analyzing the marks on this baseball.

Three staggered green marks across one of the side panels?!

How do you think that got there??

Day’s snags…

only three (3) are shown because one crazy usher tossed one of them back onto the field.

Okay, he’s not crazy, but, he was pretty **********…

2009 BALLHAWKING STATS

4 total balls 8/26/09

4 batted baseballs

ATTENDANCE: 35,084

2009 TOTAL BASEBALLS

306 baseballs (50 games)
6.12 average per game

…400 baseballs snagged this season is within reach…

“Happy”

August 26, 2009

8/25/09 @ Miller Park

Wanna know how early I arrived at the ballpark?

So early,…
…that this guy was still on the clock.

Seeing that is a first.

So was the way I snagged Ball #1. It came via tossup from one of the fine EMT’s (employed by Bell Ambulance) working the game. He and his partner walked into the bullpen and started to pick up the 3 or 4 strays that were lying in the Brewers pen. One of which, found its way into my glove.

Speaking of finding a way into my glove, the big boy pictured to the right has contributed many baseballs to my collection.

To date, I have snagged 3 of his 147 career dingers.
Hopefully, many more to come…I’m due for another one of his.

Balls #2 (on fly) and #3 (on bounce) were both hit by Prince.

I love watching that guy hit. PRINCE FIELDER

When the rest of the stadium opened @ 5:30 pm, I ran up to the left field loge bleachers (2nd deck) in hopes of snagging a Casey McGehee homer.
Turns out, I snagged two McGehee homers…both on the bounce.

That was it for the Brewers portion of BP.
The time was 5:35 pm…time to change into Reds gear.

I stayed in left field for the first Reds group of hitters.
Below me, these four (4) guys were shagging BP…

…including WLADIMIR BALENTIEN.

For the longest time, I could not figure out who he was. For whatever reason, his name eluded me. Nobody seemed to know who he was. But, it didn’t seem to matter much, as Mr. Balentien soon lobbed a baseball backwards like a hook shot toward another fellow ballhawk named Casey (you can read his blog by clicking here). The ball ended up short and fell back to the field. Balentien tried a 2nd time with the same result. By this time, I had grabbed a spot on the railing where this was taking place. When Balentien tried the backwards hook a 3rd time, I reached way over the railing and managed to pin the ball between my glove and the concrete facade below. I slowly gained control of it and had #6 on the day.

I continued to move around, eventually, snagging tossups from these two dudes…
…I gave this ball to one of my favorite ushers to give to a kid.
MICAH OWINGS

NICK MASSET

The Masset tossup was my 300th baseball snagged on the season.

A quick pose with # 300…

Unfortunately, that was it for BP.

During the game, Reds pitcher Arthur Rhodes spotted these four girls…

…standing behind the bullpen.

He tried to toss one of the girls (red arrow) a baseball. I was talking to a few people and standing nearby when someone said, “hey, there’s a baseball.” When I turned around, a baseball was rolling underneath an empty seat. Surprised as hell, I walked over to it and picked it up. I looked down into the bullpen and saw Arthur Rhodes pointing to one of the girls. So, I pointed to the one with the blue tank-top and he nodded. So, I gave it to her.
That’s when I yelled, “Arthur!” When he looked up at me I gave him the thumbs up.
(No, the ball didn’t have a hotel room # written on it anywhere)

The game ended up going into extra innings.

Check out where all the die-hard Brewers fans went…

…someone forgot to tell those “diehards” that when the game is tied after 9 innings, the teams play extra frames.

The Brewers ended up blowing it…what else is new?
This season has been a disaster.

After the game, I decided I had to go for double-digits. When the final out was recorded, I darted down the staircase for an ump ball.

The man hooked me up.

He kept trying to find a worthier recipient than me. After scanning the crowd about 5 or 6 times, he half-heartedly underhanded me one.

Thanks Jimbo.

Double-digits, baby.

JIM JOYCE

Eight (8) of the ten (10) baseballs snagged…

…two (2) were given away.

2009 BALLHAWKING STATS

10 total balls 8/25/09

4 batted baseballs

6 tossup baseballs

ATTENDANCE: 29,481

2009 TOTAL BASEBALLS

302 baseballs (49 games)
6.16 average per game

August 20, 2009

8/17/09 @ US Cellular Field

Remember the Carlos Quentin home run hit back on 8/04/09 that bounced off the metal roof and landed on top of the shrubs at U.S. Cellular Field??

Does this refresh your memory (photos taken August 4th, 2009)…

…???

How about this…

…???
(check out the links above for a quick refresher)

More on this later…

Radar showed a massive green blob of rain heading straight toward Chicago. After monitoring the green blob for around 7 hours (with no change), I left work at 1pm and headed to Miller Park.
At Miller Park, I was going to meet up with two good young ballhawks named Casey & Matt. They’re regulars at Miller Park and they’re both cool dudes. Casey has his very own ballhawking blog that you can check out by clicking here. From there, we were all going to pile in my truck and head down to the Waukegan train station.

After approx. a 1hr. drive, we arrived at the train station. Unfortunately, we missed the 2:10 train because the drive-thru at White Castle took WAY too long. Oh well…we would catch the 3:10 train.

There was about an hour to kill…

…so, we played some catch.

Followed by…

…more catch.

If there was an errant throw or an overthrow into the high grass…

…no worries. I brought a few extra.

Finally, we were on the train to Chicago…

After a quick ride on the Red Line subway, we arrived at US Cellular Field.
We wasted no time before grabbing our spot in line…

That’s when a young man approached me and said, “Nick?”

I turned around and quickly realized it was Alex from the Ballhawk League.
Alex is 13 yrs. old and has a great ballhawking future ahead of him.
Check out Alex’s blog by clicking here. He’s one cool kid.

The aforementioned future ballhawk star…

…and I.

When the gates to the stadium opened at 5:30 pm, all four of us sprinted up the long concourse, flashed our 100 level tickets to security and entered the seating area.

Would there be BP??

YES!! The BP GODS have spoken!

When I saw the field was occupied by numerous Sox players, I discovered that I had an extra gear. I ran all the way down the 1st baseline, around the rightfield foul pole, behind the batter’s eye and eventually, made it to the left field bleachers.

The 1st thing I did was to scan the moat for any glove-trick opportunities. I spotted one out in left-center. After about 10 seconds, I reeled up Ball #1. As I was reeling it up, an unknown Sox player hit one directly
to me. My glove was dangling in the moat at the time, so, all I could do was stick out my barehand. It ended up bouncing off the warning track and then bouncing off my barehand…ending up back on the field. Luckily, White Sox reliever Randy Williams took notice of my effort and rewarded me with the baseball via toss-up for #2.

When I removed the baseball I had just glove-tricked, things took a turn for the worse.
The rubber band was dangling from one side of the glove…it had snapped. Oh no!!

As luck would have it, the White Sox were finishing up with BP and were running off the field. I knew I would have about 2-3 minutes before the balls would be flying once again.

Quickly, I removed the old rubber band and grabbed a new one from my backpack. I bit it to make one long rubber string (I have to do this so I can string the rubber band through and around the stringing in my glove) and tied it through. After a 3-4 minute delay, I was back in business.

Things started to happen really fast from here on out.

Ball #3 was snagged on the bounce off the bat of Miguel Olivo.
Ball #4 was then glove-tricked out of the moat.

Here’s a blurry shot of me reeling in #4…

A few minutes later, a ball was hit out to deep center. Royals coach Rusty Kuntz (cool name, huh?) waddled out to retrieve it.

I said, “coach, any chance I could get that or do I have to earn it?”
Rusty responded, “you have to earn it!”

Just when I let my guard down for a second and looked away, I saw the Rusty ball descending down toward me. In a defensive reaction, the ball clanked off my glove and fell into the moat. Dammit!!! I looked a little foolish missing that ball. Whatever, I would glove-trick it. Or so I thought. Out of nowhere, came two brothers with a glove-trick of their own. They were quicker than me to get their glove-trick lowered, so, I let them go for it. After they fumbled with it for 4-5 minutes, I told them I would take care of it. After about 30 seconds, I reeled up Ball #5.

Ball #6 came off the bat of
BILLY BUTLER.

When it was hit, I hurdled three rows of bleachers, ran over about 5 feet and put my glove up as high as I could reach.

Smack…on the fly.

A new group was taking the cage. So, I scanned all the moats…nothing. I had a weird feeling about the gap behind the centerfield fence. Nobody was paying any attention to that area.
When I peered over the railing, this is what I saw…
…mwahaha!!
Ball #7 took about 7 seconds to reel up.

When I was putting #7 in the backpack, the dude pictured to the right lifted one high into the air. I ran through a few aisles, jumped over a few rows of bleachers and made the grab on the fly.

I was locked in.

JOHN BUCK

A bunch of lefties were now hitting for the Royals, so, I moved to right field. It was crowded.

That’s where I met a really cool guy named Ben.
Ben asked if I was “The Happy Youngster.” I told him I was and we began to chat like we knew each other for years. Ben was wearing this really slick Dan Quisenberry Royals jersey. Oh yeah, Ben has a collection of jerseys that would blow your mind. According to “jerseyboy” (his handle on the mlblogs network), he has over 1500 jerseys!! Holy crap! I told Ben I would catch up with him after BP (picture to follow).

After about 6-7 minutes, MIKE JACOBS launched one in my direction. I scrambled through the aisle like my *** was on fire. I found my spot and made the snag on the fly.

Booyah…#9.
As an added bonus, it was an HHH Metrodome commemorative baseball.
Woohoo!

I *needed* to get to double-digits to break the Coghlan curse.
(if you don’t know by now, don’t ask)

Unfortunately, BP soon ended.

As BP ended, the rain began to fall.
There truly is a BP God…I swear.

As the majority of the stadium attendees sought refuge, I relished in it.
I’ve mentioned before – roofs are overrated. I enjoy an occasional rain delay.

A rain delay is what I got…

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During the delay, we wandered around the stadium.

That’s when I saw *it*

SweetMotherofGod…

!!! (these pictures above were taken August 17th, 2009)

Do you see it? Holy ****!!

The Carlos Quentin home run hit on August 4th was still lying out on the batter’s eye two weeks later! Same spot…same ball. EXACTLY the same ball.

I had to get that ball for the following reasons:

it would make a cool story
it would give me double-digits for the 1st time since 5/13/09
it would give me 52 career game home run balls snagged

I just *had* to figure out a way to get that ball.

After about an hour rain-delay, the weather began to clear.
That’s when a rainbow appeared above US Cellular Field…

In the top of the 2nd inning, Yuniesky Betancourt hit a home run into the White Sox bullpen. Would it be glove-trickable?? Alex (who was sitting next to me in the 2nd row above the Royals dugout) and I were about to find out. So, we raced out to left field to take a look.

When we made it to left, we grabbed a couple seats in about the 7th row. When the time was right, we made it down to the railing of the Sox bullpen.

Here was my view…

…see the home run ball?

If that would have stayed at the rear of the bullpen, it would have been glove-tricked.
No doubt about it.

Alex and I stayed in the 7th row behind the bullpen. When the Sox 1/2 of the 2nd rolled around, JAYSON NIX launched one straight in our direction. I started to dart down the staircase. A fat guy in the 5th row acted like it was coming straight at his head. He just froze in the aisle and put his arms out. After I maneuvered around Fat-Man, I made it down to the front row. As I extended my glove-hand all the way out over the railing, the home run ball bounced off the bottom of the rear wall of the bullpen and bounced back toward the front of the pen, coming to a rest about 1 foot away from the Betancourt home run. I had just come about 6 feet from a game home run. Damn.
Immediately, Sox Coach Juan Nieves ran out and grabbed the Nix home run. In the process, he kicked the Royals home run and made a gesture with his hand, pinching his nose as if something stunk. Alex and I were both in the front row waiting for the toss-up. Nieves launched it over our heads.
Where did it land, you ask?? Directly in the seat Alex vacated in the 7th row.
Double-damn…the kid took it hard but I told him he made the right decision by getting to the front row. There’s just no way of knowing that ball would have been tossed 7 rows up.

After more on-again/off-again rain…

…the White Sox defeated the Royals 8-7.

After the game, I tried for an ump ball from Chad Fairchild…with no luck.

I wandered over to the Royals dugout for a toss-up ball…with no luck.

That’s when I met back up with Ben (aka-jerseyboy).
Here’s Ben and I after the game by the visitor’s dugout…

…Ben, I hope we cross paths again soon. It was a pleasure meeting you.

I said my goodbyes to Alex (and his Dad) and told my friends I was determined to end the Coghlan curse.

BEGIN MISSION CARLOS QUENTIN HOME RUN BALL:

For various reasons (that should be obvious to most), I cannot provide exact details.

I can say this:

I was alone and unassisted.
I did obtain the home run ball directly.
It was, without a doubt, the home run ball hit on 8/04/09 by Carlos Quentin.
It was partially waterlogged.
I was the 1st fan t
o obtain possession of it.
While unorthodox, it counts toward my career home run stats.
I did have a few witnesses (from afar) for the majority of the ball’s retrieval.

If you see me, ask me about it.

Here I am with Career Game Home Run Ball #52…

An injury incurred along the way…

As for the ball…

…it was starting to deteriorate and had a few brown spots on it.

But, at least the sweet-spot was clean…
…I’ve gone completely nuts.

The ten (10) baseballs snagged…

…with the game home run ball in the front.

What a day…

2009 BALLHAWKING STATS

10 total balls 8/17/09

5 batted baseballs (including 1 game home run hit by Carlos Quentin on 8/04/09)

1 tossup baseball

4 device baseballs

ATTENDANCE: 36,703

2009 TOTAL BASEBALLS

292 baseballs (48 games)
6.08 average per game

August 20, 2009

8/16/09 @ Miller Park

It was Sunday. I was anxious.
A day game you say?
Just this once.

Without further ado…my 1st home day game of the 2009 season.
(Opening Day doesn’t count)…

I walked up to the stadium and noticed the roof was closed…

…roofs are overrated.

I did not have a ticket for the game. So, I utilized an extremely cheap ticket option…

…it’s called “The Uecker Line.”

On the day of each and every home game, exactly 108 tickets are sold to the first 108 people who stand in line at Window 12. Each ticket can be had for the modest price of $1.
Yeah, just a buck. The seat location?? Named after beloved Brewers radio announcer Bob Uecker, the seats are located on the terrace level (top deck) behind home plate.
The catch?? Of course there’s a catch…the seats are obstructed view seats that are located behind two gigantic green support pillars. But hey, it gets you in the stadium. Hardly anyone who buys “Uecker seats” actually sit in those seats, anyway. So, who really cares, right??

Be advised: If you want to purchase four (4) Uecker tickets, all four people in your group need to be in line or standing close-by. If you want to purchase six (6) tickets, all six people need to be in line, etc, etc. Also, tickets don’t go on sale until the gates to the stadium open. Which, as you all know, is bad for ballhawking. Who wants to be standing in line for tickets when others are already snagging baseballs??

But, as I already mentioned, it was Sunday. I knew BP would not start until 11:30ish.
The gates were opening at 11:00am, so, I had time.
You see, on Sundays at Miller Park, only one team takes BP. Of course, the home team Brewers get first chance at it. If they decline, they offer it to the other team.

Here’s my buck…

…and…

…here’s my ticket…

…!!

Not a bad deal, eh??

Okay, so, technically speaking…I could attend every home game at Miller Park for the grand sum of $81!!

That’s if I had a ton of extra time to stand in line to buy a ticket for every single game.
A good option for many…just not me.
(Remember, these tickets are not sold in advance)

When I FINALLY got my ticket (on game day, window 12 is *usually* just used for the sale of Uecker tickets-but not this time. I swear two guys were applying for jobs at the window it took so long), I entered the stadium and observed a BP prepared field. The only problem was that there were no players. No problem, I thought. Soon enough.

In the meantime, I noticed Astros pitcher WANDY RODRIGUEZ was signing autographs down by the Houston dugout.

So, I joined the crowd and eventually, I handed him my ticket stub. Wandy was signing a baseball card with a blue sharpie at the time he grabbed my ticket.

When he was finished signing the card, I said, “You can sign with the same marker if you would like.”

What does he do?? He hands the kid his signed card and the marker and grabs another fans’ baseball and ballpoint pen. He signs the ball and then signs my ticket stub with the same pen. That’s great. Just great.

Here’s the stub…

…oh well, no big deal.

I’m used to it by now.

When BP finally got rolling, I was up in the left field loge bleachers.
I ended up snagging a Mike Rivera bomb on the bounce for Ball #1.
I was relieved that I was on the board.

When Brewers slugger Prince Fielder started to hit, I exited the left field bleachers and found myself standing right in big Prince’s home run alley in right field.

I wanted to snag a Prince Fielder BP homer for the little lady pictured below…

…seated in the middle.

Her name is Lexi and she’s pictured above with her sister (left) and friend (right).
Lexi was celebrating her 11th birthday with her family at the ballpark (no better place to be).

As you can see by the picture, I DID manage to snag her a Prince Fielder ball.
Happy B-Day Lexi!

My 3rd and final ball on the day came via a tossup from Brewers 3B Casey McGehee.
Casey is one cool dude. If you see him, be good to him…he’s one of the good guys.

Near the end of BP, check out who stopped by…

…that’s Todd (Pops) and Tim (son) Cook.
They are easily one of the coolest Father/Son duos I have ever met in my entire life.
I met Todd & Tim for the very 1st time back on 6/10/09 at Camden Yards in Baltimore.
I just can’t find enough good things to say about those two…they rock!

After we chatted it up for awhile, we parted ways. We would be seeing each other the following day down at US Cellular Field in Chicago. Yay!

I had made an agreement with my wife that I would leave after the 3rd inning to take care of a prior commitment. No questions asked…no problemo.

Baseball Is Life…for sure. But, sometimes there’s other things, ya’ know?

Two (2) of the three (3) baseballs snagged…

…one (1) was given to Lexi.

2009 BALLHAWKING STATS

3 total balls 8/16/09

2 batted baseballs

1 tossup baseball

ATTENDANCE: 41,863

2009 TOTAL BASEBALLS

282 baseballs (47 games)
6.00 average per game

August 18, 2009

8/15/09 @ Miller Park

We had a family get-together planned, so, I decided I would attend BP and then leave to go to the party. I rarely ever *just* attend BP, but it made sense on this day.
That’s exactly what I did.

The gates at Miller Park open 2 hrs. prior to gametime on Saturday and Sunday games that fall between Memorial Day and Labor Day. So, at 4:05 pm, the gates opened their arms to the waiting guests.

After watching 15 minutes of bunts and singles, my favorite Brewers player, Ryan Braun, launched one high into the air. I could tell it was a bomb, so, I turned my back to the ball and started to sprint up one of the staircases located in the left field loge bleachers. When I reached around the 12th row, I turned around to find the ball. A second or two later, it landed a couple rows deeper. That’s where I gloved it on a bounce for my 1st ball on the day.
Yay for Braun…he’s the real deal.

When the Astros came out to hit, ‘Stros’ bullpen catcher Strech Suba was trying to get into the visitor’s bullpen. For whatever reason, the gate to the bullpen was locked from the inside…with nobody around! He struggled with the door for about 1 minute or so when I spoke up.

I said, “Hey Strech, it’s locked from the inside.”

He said, “Is anyone in there?”

I responded, “Nobody.”

After about 10 more minutes, two (2) groundskeepers came walking through the bleacher seats behind me. They walked up to the front row and then jumped down into the bullpen to unlock the bullpen door. First time I had ever seen that.

Strech thanked them and entered the bullpen. By that time, the Astros had hit 4 or 5 baseballs into the bullpen (oddly enough, there were only about 8 home runs hit during the entire Astros BP – 4 or 5 of which landed in the right field bullpen).
BTW, I absolutely hate the Miller Park bullpens…but, that topic needs an entry of its own.

Strech started to pick them up when I said, “At least we know the bullpen is secure.”

Laughing, he responded, “Yeah, no kidding.”

When he picked up a baseball that was lying nearby, I asked him if there was any chance to get it from him. Without hesitation, he tossed it up to me. About 3 seconds later, another guy about my age asked for a ball. Strech told him he was too old.
Ha! Pays to ~~kissass~~ be nice.

Lance Berkman and Carlos Lee were hitting in the same group. I had a decision to make. Should I stay in right field with less competition or move to left and compete against everyone and their mother?? I decided to bank with Berkman and less competition.

It did not pay off.

Baby-face Berkman did not hit a single home run to the 2nd deck!
Carlos Lee, you ask?
He launched about 6 shots to deep left-center field. Ahhh!!

For that, Lance gets the clown treatment.

BP was winding down, the Astros were sucking and I only had 2 baseballs.

Quickly, I spotted this young pitcher shagging in left-center field…

…BUD NORRIS.

When he fielded one nearby, I politely asked for it to be tossed up. He turned around and lobbed it right to me for #3. He was totally cool about it and even gave me a wave and a grin.

I’ll be rooting for him.

My 4th and final ball on the day came via the glove-trick out of the Brewers bullpen. There was only one and I was able to knock it closer (something I rarely waste my time doing because of strict rules) and reel it up.

Four (4) balls and BP was over. Time to head back to the party.

2009 BALLHAWKING STATS

4 total balls 8/15/09

1 batted baseball

2 tossup baseballs

1 device baseball

ATTENDANCE: 42,952

The infamous Houston Astros “H” can be seen in full-force above.

How lame is that?

2009 TOTAL BASEBALLS

279 baseballs (46 games)
6.07 average per game

PLEASE ALLOW ME TO RANT:

Take a look at the following photos…when I saw this, I wanted to throw up. Luckily, the “prized” possessions were tucked safely behind display glass.

MAT GAMEL GAME USED BAT: $1200

BILL HALL GAME USED HELMET: $800

AUTHENTIC MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL: $25

Are you kidding me??

Mat Gamel was just sent down to the minors and Billy Hall was just released!!
What are the Brewers trying to pull?? Who are they trying to fool??

I know the team needs money for starting pitching and all, but this is ridiculous.

Let’s review:
I catch a home run ball that I cherish and ask for two (2) bats in trade. Team says no.
Team charges out the wazoo for game used items of scrubs. I say no and so should everyone. Craziness…absolute craziness.

Does anyone else hear the rift between teams and fans widening??
I sure as hell do.

Insane…whaddya think?

July 28, 2009

7/24/09 @ Miller Park

I had two (2) objectives:

Snag as many baseballs as possible (like always)
AND
Give them all away.

I’ve always given away baseballs to deserving kids, but I’ve never given a whole day’s snagging away. It seems I’ve always returned home with one.

I wanted to mix things up a bit.
Let the snagging tales begin…

4:30 pm – Arrived at Miller Park.

4:40 pm – Grabbed a bullpen patio table at Friday’s Front Row Bar & Grill.

5:10 pm – Spotted this…

…nestled tightly against the rolled-up tarp. Hmm.

5:10-5:22 pm – Plotted how I would snag said ball.

5:25 – Relocated to barricaded area down the left field concourse.

5:30 pm – Stadium seating bowl open.

5:30 pm – Sprinted like hell to tarp.

5:31 pm – hand-picked BALL #1 off field! Yay!

5:47 pm – glove-tricked BALL #2 out of Brewers bullpen.

5:48 pm – glove-tricked BALL #3 out of Brewers bullpen (while I had been reeling up ball #2, ball #3 bounced into the pen in nearly the same spot).

5:55 pm – Snagged a MATT DIAZ BP homer off the railing (it ricocheted off the front railing and spun straight toward me in the 3rd row at a million miles per hour…landing safely in my glove without touching the ground).

6:05 pm – Snagged GARRETT ANDERSON BP homer on fly.

6:06-6:22 pm – twiddled my thumbs while hoping for homers as BP came to a bitter end.

6:30 pm – glove-tricked BALL #6 out of visitor’s bullpen.
Immediately handed it to a nearby youngster.

6:45-7:02 pm – gave the remaining five (5) baseballs away to deserving youngsters.

7:07 pm – 1st pitch.

8:25 pm – left the stadium (missed my wife and kids…needed some family time).

2009 BALLHAWKING STATS

6 total balls 7/24/09

3 batted baseballs

3 device

ATTENDANCE: 41,941

2009 TOTAL BASEBALLS

247 baseballs (40 games)
6.18 average per game

July 10, 2009

Wall Street Journal article

A few months back, David Biderman from the Wall Street Journal e-mailed me about doing a ballhawk-related article.

Here it is…

I thought it was a bit sneaky to quote Chris Coghlan, “he told me he goes around a lot and catches these balls and holds them for ransom” only to leave out the last (and most important) part of that original quote. “While he didn’t say that he does, it seems that way.”

The piece made all ballhawks look like greedy bloodsuckers. Not true.
But, I have to admit: being in the WSJ is still pretty cool.

Zack Hample (in red shade) and a few other ballhawks got mentions as well.

Photos courtesy of Zack Hample.

July 9, 2009

7/07/09 @ Miller Park

Do you remember when I went to Toronto during Opening Week of the season and the Detroit Tigers were using International League baseballs?

6/29/09 @ Miller Park

A Mets team without the likes of these guys…

…Beltran, Delgado and Reyes.

How exciting can this blog possibly be?
I feel cheated by the injury Gods of Major League Baseball.

All lefties-all with power. Do I need to remind you that I sit in right field?
A perfect spot to snag baseballs from players like these.

What did I get instead?

These sluggers…

Daniel Murphy, Argenis Reyes and Alex Cora.

Wow.
Better pay attention during Batting Practice with those future Hall of Famers at the plate.

BALL #1 came from Mets catcher OMIR SANTOS.
He was shagging BP out in deep centerfield. I noticed there was a commemorative ball lying on the warning track. The logo looked too big to be a Citi Field commemorative, but it was worth a shot. I asked Santos for the ball but he tossed it in. After he threw it in, he looked up to me. I told him I was looking for a commemorative ball with the logo. He almost acted like he didn’t know what I was talking about. ?? Just in case, I went into further detail about what I was looking for.

After our discussion, every ball that came his way was further inspected. If there wasn’t a logo on the ball, he would toss it in.

Finally, after about 5 minutes, he fielded one. I could see a commemorative logo where the MLB logo was supposed to be. He looked up to me and tossed it up.

Turns out, it was a Shea Stadium commemorative from last season.
No biggie. The effort he displayed was appreciated.

QUESTION: How many big leaguers would do what Omir Santos did?
ANSWER: Not many.

I think I have a new favorite Mets player.

BALL #2 came via tossup from BOBBY PARNELL.
Bobby tossed it a bit short. While it was in the air, I heard Bobby say, “you got it??!!” As I leaned out over the fence and made the grab.

BALL #3 came from Mets pitcher TIM REDDING.
I wasn’t sure if he had seen me get a ball from either Santos or Parnell. But, I asked him for a baseball anyway. He turned around and said, “how many do you have?”

I answered him and he still tossed it up to me.

That was it.
3 baseballs.

The Mets absolutely put everyone to sleep. It was one of the worst displays of BP power I had ever seen. I can only imagine the possibilities if the three big guns weren’t on the disabled list.

I pride myself on snagging batted baseballs. It wasn’t possible on this day.

2009 BALLHAWKING STATS

3 total balls 6/29/09

3 toss-up baseballs

ATTENDANCE: 39,872

2009 TOTAL BASEBALLS

220 baseballs (35 games)
6.29 average per game

BASEBALLS SNAGGED BY MONTH:

APRIL: 88 baseballs in 12 games (1 game home run ball)
MAY: 76 baseballs in 12 games (2 game home run balls)