Results tagged ‘ padres ’
Rockies vs. Padres – 5/5/2010 – 1 BP ball, the Final Out Game Ball & Tulowitski’s batting gloves
First of all I would like to thank that Padres PR department for donating a couple of tickets for the game so that I could raise money for Baseballs 4 MADD.
I went to the game with fellow ballhawk Rob (bbshagger on mygameballs.com)
We got down to San Diego a little before 4pm and went over to Subway to grab a bite to eat. After that we got to the gate just before it opened at 4:30 and we were off to “THE BEACH”
The Padres were already hitting and usually there are a few balls hit to the Beach before the rest of the stadium opens however there were no balls hit on Wednesday. Once the rest of the stadium opened I headed up to right field for Rockies BP. During the first group of Rockies BP there was a ball hit into the first row of seats hit by Carlos Gonzalez and I caught it on the fly!
For the second group I moved to left field and there was only one ball that I really had any shot at and it didn’t even make the seats. So for the 3rd group I went down to “THE BEACH” because Giambi had supposedly hit a few balls there in the previous 2 days according to PadreLeigh. Giambi only hit one ball to the beach and it went in and out of MY glove!! UGH!!
Oh well I was happy with not being shut out for the trip!
For the game Rob sat out in Left field and I sat down the third base line. Through the entire game there were no balls close to either of us. In the top of the 12th inning I was headed out to left field and as I was walking around I heard the call of Ian Stewarts home run. It went right to the area that I was going to sit in. Had I left half an inning earlier I can promise you I would have caught it on the fly!
Oh well, when the game got to the bottom of the 12th and the Rockies had the lead I decided to go down by the Rockies dugout to try to get the final out GAME BALL! Yes it is a game ball! The final out was a fly ball hit by Scott Hairston to the Rockies right fielder Carlos Gonzalez. I watched Gonzalez all the way in and really expected him to give the ball to the pitcher however he high 5′ed guys and kept the ball. As he walked into the dugout I saw that he had the ball in his hand. I whistled and he flipped it over the dugout and right to me! Finally a final out game ball. I have been trying to get one for 2 years in Anaheim and no luck!
Above are pictures of the Final Out Game Ball …… on the right you can see where the bat hit the ball. I am still analyzing the ball to figure out why the odd mark on a hit ball although in my first look at it the ball definitely shows bat markings. I am just trying to find a picture of Hairstons bat from that night.
After that Troy Tulowitski was standing on the stairs talking to a guy and another player reached into his pocket and tossed his batting gloves up. I got one and the other went to my right. He then yelled at the player and asked for them back. He pointed to another pair in the dugout of his gloves and said give them those. So the guy grabbed them and tossed them up and I got both of them!
Here is a picture of everything that I grabbed on Wednesday night!!
Falling behind on entries & donating tickets for BASEBALLS 4 MADD
I have 2 from Dodger stadium over a week ago that I need to get up and then a couple from last week in Anaheim. It’s been tough to keep up, I have a lot going on right now with trying to find a new job and just getting things straightened out in life.
8/31/09 – Nationals vs. Padres at Petco Park – 3 balls
Ok so it has been almost a week since I went to this game and I am finally getting around to posting about it.
I got to the ballpark about half an hour after the gates opened which at Petco doesn’t mean much since you can only be in the centerfield Beach area until 5:30. Once the rest of the stadium opened at 5:30 I went into the left field corner and after a few near misses by balls being hit to places I was just standing I finally got Nats coach Randy Knorr to throw me a ball. BALL#1
With more balls flying over my head and into the 2nd deck I decided to head up there. Ryan Zimmerman and Elijah Dukes were in the group hitting now and just a few minutes after I got up there Zimmerman hit one right at me and I made the catch on the fly. BALL#2
Shortly after that Elijah Dukes stepped in and hit a ball almost to the same spot as the ZImmerman ball. The only problem now is that it looked like it was going to come up a little short. I got to the railing behind the first row of seats and leaned over. There was a guy that might have had the chance to catch the ball but I leaned over and snagged it over his head. BALL#3
A side note on this guy, a ball was hit right at him and he stuck his glove out and it flew right past it. He got lucky though it dropped right to his feet.
Anyway, it was a decent night and I did catch 3 more Baseballs 4 MADD!
No photos of this trip because my camera batteries were DEAD!
The balls that were caught were Major League Training Balls and the one that Randy Knorr threw was a MLB ball
8/19/09 – Padres vs. Cubs – Petco Park – 1 Ball
Ok so here is the post on Wednesday nights game that I went to at Petco Park.
I had contacted the Padres Director of Media Relations regarding “Baseballs 4 MADD” and to see if it would be possible to get tickets for the game as well as field access for some photos. I actually sent the email the morning of a game about a week ago that I thought I would be attending and did not get a response. Then about a week later I received a reply.
“Is this something that you would like to do during the next homestand?” they wrote. I emailed them back and said that it would work out perfectly if it was against my hometown Cubs. The only downer was the day before the game I emailed asking where I would pick everything up and they were not able to work out the field pass 
When everything was said and done we would have 5 tickets for the family and myself to go to the game at Petco!
I am a big fan of Petco Park. It is a cool place although the areas that you can travel in a straight line after a ball are very limited. The other cool thing is that you get to see bsically ALL of batting practice with the gates opening 2 1/2 hrs before game time.
We got to the park about 2pm on Wednesday and picked up our tickets. The hooked us up with some nice field box seats down the left field line.
From there we had to take the girls to the mall since we had about 2 1/2 hours to kill before the gates opened. We went to an outdoor mall that was about 8 blocks away. The girls shopped for a little while and then we had a late lunch. Around 3:45 we took off and headed over to the ballpark and picked up our parking pass that the MR dept gave us as well. We parked the car and walked back to the park.
I really wish I wouldn’t have left the camera behind otherwise I would have had some more photos to add to this entry.
Anyway, when the gates opened we went down to the “Beach”. About 10 minutes after BP started a lefty launched a ball basically right at me. I was in the right spot to make the grab and then one of the Petco regulars ran over and jumped into me which killed any chance I had of making the catch. I will just say that he is pretty lucky that no other balls were hit out there.
There was one other ball hit to centerfield which proved to be very entertaining. The ball hit and bounced over the wall behind the centerfield fence. It came down right near a garbage can and somehow found its way behind it. There was about 3 kids and one adult going after it. The adult turned out to be another Petco regular and friend of the dick that cut me off earlier.
This guy almost ran over one kid for the ball and then started falling over his own feet. He then grabbed a hold of the garbage can pushing it as he was stumbling around. Meanwhile there is a kid on the other side of the garbage can trying to pick the ball up however he was being pushed by the garbage can as it moved from the guy pushing it.
Finally the guy fell on his face, the garbage can tipped over and the little kid ended up with the ball. The great thing was that the players heard all the noise and by the end of this melee there was about 6 Padres watching the whole thing. Most of them pointing and laughing and telling the guy to quit running over little kids.
Shortly after this the rest of the park opened we headed over towards the left field line and things didn’t get much better there. I did grab BALL # 1 which was slapped foul by a lefthanded hitter, bouncing of a few people and seats and right over to where I was. After that it was all downhill!!
At Petco they have an assinine rule that along the left field line you have to sit in a seat during BP. They say it is for safety however it causes more problems than anything else. The first issue is now you have 4 or 5 people crashing into each other on every ball because they are trying to get in the perfect spot when the ball is hit. The second is as you get up to run to the wall you take your eye off the ball.
On a line drive hit down the line myself and another fan got up and darted out to the same spot on the wall. He missed the ball, it then hit off my arm, past my face and farther into the seats. I went into a short tirade, not on the fan, but on how stupid Petco Parks rule is on fans not being able to stand along the lower left field wall. IT IS JUST F***IN STUPID!!!
Ok so after about 15 minutes of the BS down the line I headed up to the Left Field upper deck. It got even worse there. Alfonso Soriano launched a ball right at me and a jackass with a Cubs jersey on runs into me as I am camped under it to make the catch. About 3 pitches later he hits another one to the same spot and the same MF’er does it again! I didn’t go after him directly but I made sure in talking to TC that everyone heard me when I said if he did it again he would end up in the lower deck! It is one thing if you have position and I am even cool if you make the catch in front of me but if you make contact with me more than once the 3rd time you will pay for it. He was lucky though because he stayed out of the way after that.
Towards the end of BP I couldn’t catch a break. If I went high the balls went to where I was low and vice versa. Just a horrible night!
I had hopes of getting 5-8 balls between Tuesdays game at Dodger Stadium and Weds tilt at Petco and somehow I think I was lucky to walk away with 1.
I guess that is just the way it is sometimes! The better part of this is that I am off work this entire week and I will be hitting at least 5 games! So stay tuned!!
6/13/09 – Angels vs. Padres – 2 Balls
Ok so this was a day that I honestly did not even intend on going out to the ballpark. The wife was in Vegas with her sister and I was just going to relax at home but at the last minute i decided to head out to the game.
I got to the park just as the gates opened and had to wait in line for a ticket. I was frustrated when after a 10 minute wait I finally got my ticket and got in. When I got down to my usual spot in right field there was already someone there. I did manage to get into my spot after about 5 minutes but through the last 15 minutes of Angels BP there was nothing. I decided to head out to the right field pavilion to catch a few balls instead of my usual scooping them up down the line.
I got out there and saw TC and PadreLeigh already running after baseballs. TC made a couple of nice catches and had about 7 balls that were close enough for him to get. Anyway, I got out to right field just as the Angels were about to head off the field. There was a ball in centerfield and I yelled at one of the Angels players, “How bout’ one for the big kids?” He turned and made the absolute WORST toss up attempt that I have ever seen. He wasn’t trying to miss me or toss it short on purpose he genuinely missed the target by 15 feet. The bad thing was he was only 25 feet away from me! The ball fell into the centerfield gap and the usher from the LF pavilion came around and tossed it up to me. BALL #1
The Padres stepped in to take BP and it was pretty uneventful. Adrian Gonzalez hit the only other ball that I grabbed. I was over a section and a half away when he hit it but I had a completely unobstructed run to the last section in right center field. I ran over and picked it up! BALL #2
These two balls make my season total 36 MLB balls caught and got me to 50 overall with Minor League balls and WBC balls!
Now the bad news, because of my “real” job I will be working the next 11 days straight and will not be able to get to any games unless I hit the Dodgers / Angels game tomorrow night. Although I guess if the wife is really ambitious we could go to San Diego since I think they are in town.
Anyway, I will be fixing up my website and trying some new things on here as well! It should be an interesting week or two so check back and see what’s new after JULY 1!
I will also be updating my BASEBALLS 4 MADD charity work! Check it out on my website www.mlballhawk.com
ROAD TRIP!!!! Giants vs. Padres – Petco Park – 5/21/09 – 3 Balls
I ended up going on a little road trip on Thursday. I headed down to Petco Park in San Diego. This would be my first regular season game at Petco. The only other time I was there was for the World Baseball Classic workout day back in March.
Petco opens the gates to the “Park” 2 1/2 hours before game time. This allows you to go into the centerfield bleachers, park area and down by “The Beach”. I am told that almost everyday Adrian Gonzalez comes up in BP and blasts at least 1 ball to “The Beach”. Gonzalez stepped into the cage and it was myself and one other guy standing in the sand.
Gonzalez lauched a high flyball towards dead center and I made my way towards it. Just as it cleared the centerfield wall I stuck out my glove and it flew right inside. I almost broke my neck on this one. Where the concrete meets the sand there is a small lip/step or whatever you want to call it. I almost tripped over it. The photo shows the area where I caught the ball. BALL #1
For some reason this crazy security lady felt it was necessary to put the kids toys out during BP!!
As I caught my first ball of the day I noticed long time San Diego Ballhawk TC giving me the thumbs up. Then at a little before 5 another Petco regular and commenter on my MLBlog , Padre Leigh showed up.
Shortly after a Giants player launched a ball toward dead center field. The ball hit on the warning track and bounced over the fence hitting just about the garbage cans in the picture above and bouncing right to me. Ball #2
At 5:30 the rest of Petco opens up and it was time to head up to the right field stands. Actually we went back and fourth from left to right. In the one group for the Giants was Pablo Sandoval. I had watched Sandoval in a few games last season with the San Jose Giants and knew that he could crush the ball. So I was up in the right field stands just above the lower box seats. Pablo launches a ball to my left (the area in the picture below) and I ran towards it. I got there just in time to make a running catch in the spot where the guy is going through his bag. Ball #3
That was pretty much it for BP. Now it was time to find a seat for the game. For some reason I decided that I was going to see if I could get a foul ball or two. The following pictures show my view and then a view of the area around me. There was definitely a chance for a foul ball with this crowd. This was the first game I had been to in a LOOOOOONG time that had attendance of less than 30,000!
In the 2nd inning of the game a Padres left hit a ball that ricocheted off some seats 2 sections away and ended up 3 rows behind mine towards the aisle at the end of the picture. Unfortunately a few more people had shown up at that point and I did not get it.
A little later in the game I headed out to the outfield. I stood above the aisle that comes down over the 2 R’s in Correia’s name. See the guy in the old school Padres jersey? Well I hung out there thinking that a Giants player might hit his 1st home run out there. So I waited and when he made the out I knew that Linceum was coming up and I walked around to right field. DUMB DUMB DUMB!!! Aaron Rowand came up after Lincecum and lifted a shot right to the aisle. The guy in the Padres gear blew it and a kid in the front row came up with it. IT WOULD HAVE BEEN AN EASY CATCH FOR ME!!! UGH!!!!!!!! It was disappointing but hey I know that #100 is coming….. soon ….. I HOPE!!!
As the game got into the 8th inning it was tied at 1. It was a great game for sure! In the 9th the Giants scored a run in the top and then the Padres won it with a walk off single from Sam Hairston after a single, two walks , a hit batter to tie the game and then his single.
So 3 balls all that were hit with 2 being caught on the fly.
I am not just 6 balls away from 4,900 baseballs caught at professional baseball games in 33 years!! I WILL make 5,000 this season!!!
Don’t forget to make your pledge to help raise money for MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving)
Padres vs. Dodgers – 5/2/2009 – 1 ball , 1 autograph
Alright …….. here we go ……… this is the short “cliff” notes version of my day at Dodger Stadium on Saturday.
I got on the train and headed towards LA around 1:30. The train pulled into Union Station around 2 and I hung out at the train station for a few minutes contemplating what I was going to do. I decided that I would walk to the stadium. I got to the stadium around 3 and decided to walk around to the gate where I would be going in. After a a nice 50 minute walk around the outer edges of the parking lots I decided to go up to the advance ticket window which is in front of the Top Deck. Once I bought my ticket I decided to walk inside since the doors were open.
There I had a great view of the field which already had a few Dodgers players on it. Some of the pitchers and a couple of position players were taking bunting practice. After about 30 minutes or so all of the players were out on the field to warm up just before BP. I got in the park around 4 and stayed until about 5 minutes to 5. At that point the group with MANNY was hitting so I ran down the 5 staircases towards the outfield on the right field side. As I got closer to centerfield I noticed that the gates to Autograph alley were open and there was a guy standing there watching BP. So I walked over and hung out.
About 4 minutes before the gates were due to open Manny lifted a shot to centerfield just over a temporary white fence that holds the fans back. The Dodgers let fans stand in the opening of where the centerfield gate is during BP. The ball hit a crack or some raised piece of concrete and shot right to me. That was BALL #1 my first last and ONLY ball of the day.
Dodgers BP was horrible and the Padres were even worse. I would bet at most there were only 15-20 balls hit into the seats combined between left & right field. Players weren’t even throwing balls up. While the Padres were taking BP I saw Jake Peavy along the fence. For those of you that don’t know I had Jake in my clubhouse in 2002 in Mobile. I was the clubhouse manager for the team there. I yelled at him and asked him to sign the ball that I had caught earlier. He asked how I was and how the family was and then signed the ball.
Once the game got underway I figured I would just hang out and try to get a warm up ball from Andre Ethier. I had gotten a warm up ball from him last year towards the end of the season and thought I might have a chance again. NO SHOT!! Ethier threw every ball to my left, to my right or over my head. Oh well, I happily cut the night short since I had to make a train at 10:10 to go back home.
A pretty uneventful and very boring night at the stadium!!
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