See that white thing in my glove? More on that in a bit.

            When we got into the Legends there were only 2 other people in the seats. One of them was a kid who I recognized from last season and he was always in the secluded area behind home plate (and he recognized me as getting a Derek Jeter Wristband from 2 YEARS AGO), and he ran over to the Twins dugouts. I followed him and when I was there, I saw Francisco Liriano walking over to sign. I got him on two for my 1^st autograph so far. Now as in my last entry, I forgot to upload my small camera pictures to the computer, so not everyone or thing is captured on a camera.

            There was no other action, so I went back over to the Yankees dugouts. What sucks is that you can’t go into the corner of each dugout at ANY POINT unless you have tickets there. So I waited, along with other, as close as we could get.

            There were only Yankees whose autographs I haven’t gotten: Mark Texieria, Francisco Cervelli, and Ramiro Pena. Make it two.

            Ramiro came out of the dugout, talked to some people, and then came over to sign. I was able to get him on two baseballs for my 2^nd autograph.

            I stayed over there until there was some action in front of the Twins dugout, but I did get some more autographs over there. Robinson Cano came over and signed two for me for my 3^rd autograph that day and my 56^th MLB autograph on the season.

            Now after that, at 10:59, Derek Jeter started bunting. B.P. was underway. That B.P. policy wasn’t only the first hour of B.P. It was the entire Yankees B.P. Well I went over to where some Yankees were throwing in hopes of getting a ball. Even though there were maybe 4 balls in play in the Legends area, and my only competition was a father-son team with a pen, I only got one ball. I got rejected twice by some players, but then the always generous, but not the best, Jose Veras came along.

            I asked him for a ball when he finished. He looked at me and wanted to throw it, so I pulled up the netting beneath and stuck out my glove. That convinced him and he tossed me my 1^st ball of the day.

            Now nothing else happened Yankee-wise for me because I was over by the Twins dugout. They were dumping balls into the bucket, and I was looking for some twins commemorative baseballs. I maybe saw a couple of them, but what amazed me was the dozens and dozens of Yankees commemorative. Then two coaches took a ball from the bucket and started throwing. While throwing, I could see something on the ball (it was being held by Steve Liddle), it was a NYY commemorative. Here we go…

Steve is the one with the 9 on his back, right next to the bucket.

Well I must’ve blanked out for a bit because when I snapped back into reality Steve wasn’t holding a baseball, but he was still there.

            “Steve can I have the ball that you were using?” I asked.

            “Where ‘ya from?” he asked me, looking at my Twins hat.

            “I’m from New York,” I said while nodding.

            He then took a ball from the bucket, looked at it, put it back, and then looked at and picked up another one.

            “Take a look at this one,” he said and tossed me my 2^nd ball. When I looked at it,

it was a Yankees Inaugural Baseball. Essentially Flawless. Only 1 small mark. Wow. It was a thing of beauty, but I also wanted a Twins commemorative.

            I asked a nearby coach, Joe Varva, specifically for a Twins commemorative. What does he do? He looks at and takes a ball in the bucket and rolls me my 3^rd ball across the dugout roof. It wasn’t a Twins ball, it was a Yankees ball, my 3^rd one of those this year.

This was the worst I could find on this ball:

Do you see it? It is that barely noticable brown mark.

            The Twins started throwing, so I went over there. Jose Morales came over to sign, so I took out some baseballs and got him to sign my 4^th autograph.

Melky Cabrera then came over to sign, and I got Melky’s autograph for my 5^th autograph. I got him on one inaugural baseball and two of that day’s give-a-way, bats.

            I wasn’t able to get any of the balls being thrown around, so I went back to the dugout. There were a couple people who came and were just standing there trying to get Denard Span’s attention. I got Denard’s attention for them, and they got his autograph, so I tossed Denard a ball also and he signed me my 6^th autograph. That was it for during Twins B.P.

Carlos Gomez is on the right, Denard Span is in the middle, and Jason Kubel is on the right.

            At the end of B.P, when everyone was coming off the field, I got 3 more autographs.

            The First One: Michael Cuddyer was walking in. I got his attention and tossed him a ball and he signed my 7^th autograph. He took some time to write his good signature, and I got antsy because standing close to him were about to be a former M.V.P. and Rookie signing: Justin Morneau and Joe Mauer.

            The Second One: Justin Morneau was just about to go in, but I tossed him only one ball. He signed my 8^th autograph and then went inside. I then ran over to get the last Twin signing, Joe Mauer.

            The Third One: Joe Mauer was gladly taking his time, but he was about to go in. Luckily he saw my Twins hat and signed two for my 9^th autograph so far.

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            After they left, I went over to the bucket. I asked for a ball from the guy emptying it, but I got nada. I recognized coach Jerry White and I asked him for a ball. He looked up and tossed me a Yankees Commemorative ball for my 4^th ball. Every ball, except the first one, has been a Yankees commemorative, and all the further ones I get will be so also.

            And now I break double digits in autographs. I went over to where the Twins were stretching. I asked Matt Tolbert to sign after he was done. He walked over and signed me my 10^th autograph of the day, and then continued to sign for a couple more people. I have now broken double digits in both balls and autographs at the New Yankee Stadium.

            Since I thought the Twins side should be reserved for third out balls, I spent the pre-game throwing at the Yankees Dugout’s inner corner. A-Rod came out to throw and I knew who was going to end up with it… Well when A-Rod came in he tossed me his pre-game warm-up ball, and my 5^th ball, a NYY commemorative.

Game Time!

            I decided to try for a 3^rd out ball from each side, on the outer corner first. I got a commemorative ball on the Yankees side, but it wasn’t a third out ball, it was most likely a foul ball.

            While at the Yankees side, Mark Texieria ended up with the ball, a groundout. He tossed that to someone else, but I noticed a guy beneath me in the dugouts had a ball. I asked him for it, and after pondering it for a bit, he flipped the ball to me, my 6^th ball and 73^rd on the season.

            Since it was commemorative, rubbed, and had a big black mark on it, I assumed it was most likely a foul ball rolled towards the dugout. So since I had gotten a ball at both sides of the Yankees dugout, I went over to the Twins dugout.

            Time: End of the Bottom of the 4^th.

            Location: Outer Aisle of Minnesota Twins Dugout

            Person Holding Subject: Justin Morneau.

            Subject: A Commemorative Third-Out Groundout Ball Retrieved by Justin Morneau.

            When Justin Morneau ended up with the ball I rushed down to the front row. It was easy. Justin spotted me and tossed me my 7^th ball, and my final ball of the day.

            Yes final.

            I got nothing afterwards because of the unexpected, but enjoyable, walk-off home run by Johnny Damon. He is one the nicest players in baseball, so I am glad he hit it, and not a jerk.

Here is my final haul from inside the stadium:

                                   Inside

            But wait! Don’t go! There’s more! Since we had nothing to do, and it was a day game, we stayed after for autographs. After waiting for a while, Paul O’Neil came out. He went to the other side of the barricade almost immediately, but he still signs. I rushed over there and got him for my 11^th autograph of the day.

            Then we saw Blyleven. Since I didn’t have the balls out, and the ones that I did weren’t related to him at all, I got Bert on two tickets for my 12^th autograph that day.

            “Pull my finger,” he said, finger as in the pen cap.

            After waiting a bit more, some Twins players come out. They are Carlos Gomez, Jose Morales, and someone whose name in on the tip of my tongue. After Carlos skipped me (intentionally?) a couple of times, he finally signs me my 13^th autograph. That player whose name I couldn’t remember, I looked it up and it turns out it was Luis Ayala, so I asked, and got him, to sign my 14^th autograph so far.

            A lot of people have left, but others, my family included, are waiting for somebody: David Wells. You see, May 17^th, 2009 is the 11 year anniversary of his perfect game. So when people started running off somewhere, it was to David Wells (and Cone).

            I got David Wells on the bat for my 15^th autograph and then I got David Cone on the baseballs for my 16^th autograph so far.

            That was it for the day. My next game will be a Baltimore Game.

Stats:

• 7 MLB Balls Today
• 74 MLB Balls in this Season
• 16 MLB Autographs Today
• 69 MLB Autographs in this Season
• 72 Total Autographs in this Season
• 90 Total Baseballs in this Season
• 3 BP, 2 Pre-Game, 2 During
• 7 Thrown
• Attendence: 44,804 people
• Competition Factor: 313,628
• 6.2 Balls/ 1 Game
• 12 Consecutive Games with at least 3 MLB Baseballs