Tagged: lastings milledge

March 30, 2010

Spring Training – Day 2

I was here for my first spring training game ever. And I arrived 3 and a half hours before the game started. I had done some research on the stadiums; not a heck of a lot though. I knew that there were two gates, and the first gate seemed way too crowded.

I mean I know this was a game between two professional baseball teams, but it was more than 3 hours before game time and it was spring training. I knew there was a second gate, so after asking some ushers and a bit of walking I found the gate with no line.

There was still another 30 minutes before the gates opened, so I had to spend by watching the Phillies use up all their good batters who hit home runs while the ushers picked up all the balls. After waiting the time I ran out to the outfield. The berm was drool-inducing; it was basically in both the righties and the lefties power alleys. But my first ball wasn’t a hit one, it was a thrown ball from Antonio Bastardo. A ball rolled to the wall, I called out, and he tossed me my 1^st ball. In the photo below, Antonio is to the left of my glove.

Basically, like I said earlier, the Phillies had used up all their power hitters. There was only three home runs hit into the berms, while there were many hit into the bullpen which took up a big portion. I could’ve easily gotten three or four balls…with the glove trick, but I didn’t have my string on me.

So I had to settle with going to the Pirates foul line for the pitcher’s warm up. There was really nothing happening with the pitchers tossing stuff up, but towards the end I noticed Evan Meek was walking towards a loose ball, so I called out to him and he tossed me my 2^nd ball, which I didn’t get a photo of.

Being that it’s spring training and I was in no mood to be shoved on the very crowded berms, I choose to just sit behind the dugouts and eat some of the food. I grabbed some chicken and found a seat behind the dugouts, and took out some baseballs in case good players started signing. And a good player did start signing down the foul line, and it was Andy LaRoche. He started heading into the tunnel, but I still got him on the ball solo for my 1^st autograph.

Then a couple minutes later Lastings Milledge started signing in the exact same spot as Andy, so I took a couple minutes in getting over there because I was keeping an eye on Ronny Cedeno’s broken bat that was leaning on the fence (which I didn’t get).

When I finally got over there he was still signing, so I got him for my 2^nd autograph.

BP wrapped up with nothing being given to me, so I just decided to wait until game time…well the rain came and the game didn’t get played. They called it off before they could throw the first pitch, so I ended the day with 2 balls and 2 autographs. I got my first spring training…batting practice? I don’t know, but hopefully my first spring training game will be tomorrow.

August 30, 2009

8/23/09 Pirates vs. Reds

I wasn’t sure whether there’d be batting practice considering it was a day game after a night game. From the Roberto Clemente Bridge I could see that the nets weren’t set up. It wouldn’t matter if there was no BP when the gates opened, I would only be allowed on the Riverwalk for the first 30 minutes, or as I have heard on Sunday for the first hour. I believe that the Left Field Bleacher area is the only outfield section opened for the first hour, so I waited outside the area that connects the Riverwalk to Left Field. I was standing right above the Pirates bullpen where some pitchers were throwing.

And from that area I could see that BP cages and nets were being put into place:

The first person to throw there was Charlie Morton. He finished his bullpen session and started walking in. I asked for the ball and he tossed it over the fence which was about 2 feet taller than me. But I reached up with my glove (which extended beyond the fence) and grabbed my 1^st ball. It took me a bit to realize that it was my 250th baseball of the season, so when I did I posed for a photo:

That was about 10 minutes after I got there. Another pitcher threw in the bullpen, but Ballhawk Nick from yesterday got that ball. Then Erik showed up a bit later and got a ball from Ross Ohlendorf who came into the bullpen. Every ballhawk had gotten a ball, and a little bit before the gates opened Jeff Karstens finished up his session with Herberto Andrade. I called his name and he tossed the ball over, which bounced off Erik’s head and landed on the ground, which I picked up for my 2^nd ball.

By the time the gates opened BP wasn’t going on. But the Pirates pitchers were throwing at the foul line.

There were about 10 people in the stadium when it opened (as apposed to the about 2,000 people in New Yankee Stadium when it opens). So there was basically no competition where the Pirates were throwing. It was basically a guaranteed ball. There were maybe 5 in use, but I got distracted by watching other players finishing up first. So I got distracted when the pair I was focusing on, Steven Jackson and Chris Bootcheck, finished up. Chris Bootcheck was the player further from me and he ended up with the ball. There was no noise, so I called out and got Chris to throw me the ball from 100 feet or so away. I leaned down, scrapped my ankle, and caught my 3^rd ball.

That was the only ball I got from the Pirates pitchers. A little bit later the Pirates fielders started throwing. I caught up on some notes and then started walking over there. I had taken a couple steps pass the pair of Jason Jaramillo and Brandon Moss when I saw Brandon throw a ball low. The ball hit of the warning track and had an extremely high bounce into the air. It ended up skipping over Erik (who was positioned directly behind them, a bit to the left of the trashcan in the photo below) and landed past the handicap seating and it landed in about 6^th row up.

I was the only one near it so I went over, found the ball and picked it up for my 4^th ball.

After I got that ball the Pirates started taking some cuts, so I went over to the Left Field Bleachers.

And it was dead. There were few balls hit out there during BP. The other Ballhawks pretty much had the area covered, except over by the foul pole, so I played closer to there. Pretty soon a ball was hit over there and I made a nice play on the ball.

Well I guess it was more luck. That ball was hit by Lastings Milledge and it was hooking towards the foul pole. The ball hit off a bench before I got there (I was about 10 feet away) and then it took a bounce towards me, well right towards me. In fact it was heading exactly for my glove. The ball hit off the bench so fast that I barely moved my glove at all and the ball was wedged in my glove. That ball was my 5^th ball and unfortunately that was my last ball from BP, or BP wrap-up. It was incredibly sucky. There was a round of all lefties, so I went over to Right Field, but I couldn’t get anything up there. It is extremely hard to get baseball up there. I went back over to Left Field after that round was finished and along the way I stopped at Manny’s grill and got him to sign a ticket for my 1^st autograph.

Now while I was stuck in the dead bleachers my brother was over at the Reds foul line (where they were throwing) and he got some autographs for me, Daniel Ray Herrera (who is the first major leaguer that I am as tall as), Justin Lehr, and Kip Wells for my 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th autographs respectively. That was it until about 10 minutes before the game started, autographs or baseballs.

At the dugout Kevin Barker started signing, so I got his autograph for my 5^th autograph.

And about as soon after he signed that autograph for me Jonny Gomez started signing over by the foul line, so I ran over and got him for my 6^th autograph of the day.

From the spot that I got Jonny’s autograph I could see that Paul Janish had a ball that he was going to bring out to play catch. I asked him for the ball when he was done and he said “Sure”.

He kept his promise and he tossed me my 6^th ball. I turned around and saw a little kid that I almost bumped into. He had a glove and couldn’t have been more than 6, so even though I got the ball tossed to me I gave him the ball thinking I would get another baseball during the game, it would give me 80 for the trip, a number that I was shooting for.

But just my luck I didn’t get another ball during the game or after the game. I did get three more autographs where they were stretching: Scott Rolen’s signed my 7^th autograph.

Paul Janish signed my 8^th autograph. And Brandon Philips signed my 9^th autograph.

I was mad, mostly at myself for giving away the last ball that I got on this trip. But at least I got the line-up cards from Dusty Baker after the game…

Stats:

6 MLB Balls Today
9 MLB Autographs Today
185 MLB Autographs in this Season
224 Total Autographs in this Season
255 MLB Balls in this Season
276 Total Balls in this Season
5 Thrown, 1 Hit
5 BP, 1 Pre-Game
Attendance: 21,209 People
Competition Factor: 127,254
6.375 Balls / 1 Game
40 Consecutive Games with at least 3 MLB Baseballs
30 Consecutive Games with at least 1 MLB Autograph
25 Consecutive Games with at least 4 MLB Baseballs