Tagged: Travis Ishikawa

September 12, 2009

9/06/09 @ Miller Park

The dreaded day game.

Ballhawk Mike and I were going to the game. I’ve mentioned it before but it bears mentioning again. “Big Mike” is a great guy. To the best of my knowledge, he’s the longest tenured ballhawk in Milwaukee…22 years and counting.

I had to grab my breakfast on the run…

…oops, wrong picture.

Here was my breakfast…

…carbs, baby. A ballhawk’s best friend. Not exactly approved by Dr. Robert Atkins, but, what the hell, right?

As far as BP is concerned, you just never know what you’re going to get when attending day games. Usually, the Brewers take BP on Sundays when they’re playing at home.

On this day, they decided their 66-70 record was good enough. So, the Giants hit instead.
When we ran into the bleachers, the Giants were first starting to show some life.

My 1st baseball on the day came from Giants relief pitcher
MERKIN VALDEZ. After a polite request, he lobbed it up to me. Unfortunately, it was falling short. I had to reach all the way over the railing and risk falling to my death in order to secure the goddamn baseball. Fortunately, I didn’t die (obviously, I wouldn’t be writing this blog if I had). I was able to pin the ball against the concrete facing below the railing. Once the ball was pinned between the wall and my glove, I slowly gained control of it. Voila! One baseball and I didn’t have to make National News or the obituaries.

The things I do for a baseball…I think I may need to have my head examined.

A short time later, Aaron Rowand lifted one high into the air. I was playing Rowand dead-pull. This baseball was WAY to my left. All I could do was put my head down and sprint to the spot I thought it would land. As I was motoring through the bleachers, I looked up to find the baseball. I picked my spot correctly as it appeared to be catchable.
As the baseball made its final descent, I continued to close in on it. Eventually, I would snag that baseball on the short-hop bounce after going down to one knee and leaning over a row of bleachers in a last-ditch effort to snag it on the fly.

For my efforts…

…a bit of a (ballpark) war-wound.

LET ME ASSURE EVERYONE: I’m the only one that sustains injury in my attempts to snag baseballs at major league stadiums.

The action in left soon came to a screeching halt. So, I headed over to right field.
In right field, while bleeding all over myself, I was able to snag a Travis Ishikawa bomb on the fly. Giants pitcher Sergio Romo was beneath me when I snagged it and gave me the shout of approval. That one felt good.

Unfortunately, my knee did not. After BP ended, I headed to the men’s bathroom to wash the damn thing up. (you didn’t think I would do it while BP was still going, did you?)

Before pre-game warmups began, I headed down to the Giants dugout for a tossup baseball.
While I waited for the players to come out, I watched the grounds crew…

…how many people does it take to water the infield?

Don’t get me wrong-I’m not complaining. If it creates jobs for people and prevents them from robbing, stealing and cheating-I’m all for it. Think about it.

Eventually, the Giants players started to surface.
One of the 1st guys out was the Kung Fu ~~Koala~~ Panda, Pablo Sandoval. After he did a few sprints, he walked over to the stands and began to sign autographs. After thinking about it for a minute and wasting precious time, I decided to try to get a baseball signed by him.
As soon as I arrived, he finished signing one last photo and walked into the dugout.
Maybe I should have had some bamboo or eucalyptus leaves with me or something.

I headed back to my dugout spot.

Soon, Ryan Garko and Jesus Guzman emerged from the dugout. They began to throw right in front of the dugout with Ryan Garko directly in front of me. Knowing that Garko is the veteran and would most likely keep the ball, I positioned myself exactly where I started. When they finally finished throwing, Garko tossed the baseball right to me.

Upon further inspection of the baseball…

…it was autographed! Holy hell that’s cool!

After some quick analysis, I deemed the baseball to be autographed by:
San Francisco Giants hitting coach Carney Lansford.

My 1st snagged AND already autographed baseball. How cool.

The baseball “Carney”…

…not to be confused with…

…the circus “carny.”

I would go on to snag only 1 more baseball.

In the top of the 8th inning, Travis Ishikawa lifted one high and deep to center. Brewers CF Jody Gerut camped underneath it on the warning track and squeezed it for the 3rd out of the inning. He was almost directly below me, so, I yelled his name. As he was running in, he turned around to me and fired a seed straight into my glove.

The 3rd out ball…

…and its unique markings on the leather. What could that be from?? Could that be an imprint from the bat’s wood grain?
I would love to hear everyone’s theory.

The game ended up going into extra innings. Around the 10th inning, a young lady (about 8 yrs. old) approached me and offered to buy a baseball. Her offer? Two dollars.
I told her she should keep her money. I would give her one for free. Sweet kid.

The Brewers won in the bottom of the 12th inning on a Prince Fielder walk-off dinger.
Pretty exciting stuff for a team that’s 15 back. At least they gave us something to cheer about.

Sunday’s snags…

…five total with 4 shown (1 was given away).

2009 BALLHAWKING STATS

5 total balls 9/06/09

2 batted baseballs

3 tossup baseballs

ATTENDANCE: 36,590

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
9/04/09 = 5   baseballs
9/06/09 = 5   baseballs
___________________

336 baseballs (54 games)
6.22 average per game

Only 14 away from #1000…

July 1, 2009

6/27/09 @ Miller Park

When I pulled into the parking lot and into my stall, this vehicle was parked next to me…

…a Pilsner Urquell Czech Republic beer truck/van.

Seeing I’m of Czech ancestry, I got to thinking.

Was this a greater power telling me it was about to be a good day??
OR
Was it telling me to just forget ballhawking for the day and have a few cold ones??
OR
Did it mean nothing at all??

My 1st BALL of the day came from an unsuspecting source.

Know this little guy??

That’s Mekhi Cameron. The youngest son of Brewers CF Mike Cameron.

Cam’s two boys can be seen shagging baseballs during BP a few times a week.
This little dude happened to be in the Brewers bullpen collecting the balls that had landed in there. I happened to be standing in the loge bleachers (2nd level) when he was below me. He tried a few times to toss it up before connecting. The 1st toss actually went way over my head and back onto the field. The 2nd toss fell short. The 3rd toss was juuuuust right.
You could tell the little fella was having a blast doing it.

I started to think how cool it would be if I could snag a ball actually hit by Mike Cameron. I wonder how many times a ballhawk has done this??
Getting a ball from both father and son the same day. I’m sure it would be easier to get toss-ups from both father and son, but a toss-up and a batted ball?

I gave it everything I had. It just wasn’t meant to be. Big “Cam” only hit 1 baseball into the bleachers and it was quite a ways from me.

I always say, a ballhawk is only as good as the players hitting or tossing them.
If they don’t hit-there’s no baseballs to snag.
If they don’t toss them up-there’s no baseballs to snag.

The Giants were now on the field.

I moved to right field after watching Pablo Sandoval’s hitting display the night before.

In the process, I snagged BALL #2 off the bat of TRAVIS ISHIKAWA. It was retrieved on the bounce after hitting in the 5th row and bouncing up another 10 rows.

For the record, Sandoval’s bat was quiet during BP.

The Giants are a very light-hitting team. If it wasn’t for their stellar pitching, they would be the most boring team in the league (that distinction goes to the Pirates).

I was growing frustrated with the lack of long balls. By this time, I was back in left field.

A small group of Giants pitchers were horsing around in left field. Among them, was this guy————————————————>
Giants pitcher BRANDON MEDDERS.

I called down to him and he looked up and behind without turning around. He had a ball in his glove and underhanded it backwards high into the air. When it had finally reached it’s highest point and started its descent, it now became a jump ball. BALL #3-chalk it up.

Much to my dislike, BP ended without any further events.

It was time to wander.

I passed this location of the stadium…

…out in left-center field.

It’s the camera platform located just to the left field side of the batter’s eye.
I know it doesn’t look like much, but something told me to take a closer look.

So, I walked up to the gate…

…and opened it up (it’s not locked or restricted).

I pushed the black fabric screen to the side and peered in…

…there was a ball lying in there!

“X” marks the spot where BALL #4 was lying. An easter egg at its very best!

During the game, I once again played the 2nd level below the press box for foul balls.
Once again, I had no luck.

The section where I have season tickets had good luck, though.
Giants stud Pablo Sandoval hit two (2) home runs into the section on this evening.

I need a “Happy” clone so I can be in two places at once.

Final score:
Brewers 7
Giants 6

After the game ended, I tried to get an ump ball from Home Plate Umpire Joe West.
I think I’d have better luck getting a ball that fell from the heavens.

Joe West is a grumpy old man.
I’ll say no more.

2009 BALLHAWKING STATS

4 total balls 6/27/09

2 batted baseballs

2 toss-up baseballs

ATTENDANCE: 42,065

2009 TOTAL BASEBALLS

217 baseballs (34 games)
6.38 average per game

FINALLY,

I would like my readers to meet the MOST diehard and dedicated Brewers fan on this planet.
His name is Robert-but not to you and me.

He’s known around Miller Park as “The Maniac.”

“The Maniac” has been going to games longer than I can remember. His devotion to the Brew Crew is unmatched.

One awesome dude…

…who attends pretty much every single home game.

If you see him, give him a shout-out for me!