Results tagged ‘ snaggin baseballs ’
Could this be the end of the 2008 season in LA??
With tonight most likely being the last baseball game in Los Angeles for the 2008 season it seems that last weeks ALDS games were the last for me in 2008. I was hoping to make it to at least one NLCS game but things just haven’t allowed that. What is even worse is the fact that there have been great seats available at FACE VALUE for each game in LA!
As I heard all the time growing up in Chicago ….. THERE”S ALWAYS NEXT YEAR!!
I just hope that the Angels sign Teixeira and the Dodgers sign Manny since that will make “Ballhawking” much more fun in 2009!!!
The beginning of the year was slow for me because again I was working for a minor league baseball team. Finally in July I was able to get out to a few more games! I am definitely looking forward to next year because I think it will be a great year!
Right now I am working on my first book! I can’t let the details out right now but it is about 65% complete. I just need to add a few things and then shop it around. It should be pretty easy to get it picked up by a publisher as there have only been a few books of it’s kind ever published! So look for that to come out sometime after the first of the year!
It has been a tough year for me and everyone for that matter with all of the financial mess that the country is in thanks to former Rangers owner GEORGE W. BUSH. I don’t want to make this a political blog but THANK GOD he is on his way out!
During the winter I plan on Blogging a lot more here on MLBlogs and I will be going to the Winter meetings in Las Vegas and will be taking a lot of pictures and letting you know what goes on down there!
So keep coming back! I will definitely have a lot to say during the World Series and the Off Season!
Major League Ballhawk
JW
ALDS Game 2 Red Sox vs. Angels with “Ballhawking 101″ client David Y.
This is going to be short since the Angels are out of the playoffs and I am still frustrated that Aybar couldn’t get the damn bunt down!
Game 1 – ALDS – Red Sox vs. Angels @ Angel Stadium with “Ballhawking 101″ client David Y.
On the Monday before the start of the ALDS I received an email from a baseball fan from Northern California. David contacted me because he wanted to go to the 2 ALDS games in Anaheim since he was going to be attending a conference down here.
We met up on Tuesday night to discuss the details of the week and to also head over to the Red Sox team hotel for a shot at getting autographs. While David had been to several Giants games he really had not chased autographs or baseballs. From what he told me his son had acquired a few autographs and baseballs but he was looking for a few more tips.
We spent about an hour and a half at the hotel and mall and we saw a handful of players however only a couple signed and they only signed one or two autographs. David did learn a few things that you should not do such as yelling foul and abusive names at a player just because he doesn’t sign and running after players like a crazed maniac. This is what a few of the autograph seekers did and it only hurts the chances of getting autographs.
Wednesday morning about 8:15 I arrived at the ballpark to get us tickets. I expected to be far back in the ticket line however when I got to the ticket line there was only 1 person ahead of me! WHAT??? The ALDS against Boston and only 1 person in line for Day of Game tickets? That is CRAZY!! Oh well it worked out very good because we ended up with SUITE tickets. YES A SUITE!! It seems the Angels sales staff had not sold 2 Party Suites so they decided to make one avaialbe to individual ticket buyers.
On Wednesday night David had to be at the conference until 6pm. I was on my own for batting practice and and it was pretty bad. The Angels who usually hit a few balls down the right field line in the last 2 groups hit only 2 and they were not anywhere near me. The Red Sox came up and I was lucky enough to make a play on a slow roller hit down the line by J.D. Drew.
As BP ended David called and said that he was outside the main gate. I walked over there and we met up and headed up to the Suite. Once we got to the Suite we were suprised to see food inside. I was told that there would only be food at an extra charge if we wanted it. Obviously before we started to eat anything we double checked to make sure it was complimentary and it was! HOW COOL!
We had Pizza, Hot Dogs, Popcorn, Cracker Jacks, peanuts and other cool things however there were no drinks 
The game was a pitchers duel until Jason Bay broke it open with a Home Run. After that is was just boring simply because the Angels could not do anything to get anymore runs across the plate.
In the 8th inning we headed down to the Field level to get behind the Sox dugout to try to get a ball after the game. Here are a few pics from the inning and a half we waited down there:
If you look at the enlarged image of this photo the ball is just under the Umpire’s feet. It is hard to tell but I can assure you that is where it is!
This is a picture of Paplebon coming in to Save the game for the Red Sox. At the end of the game he walked in with the final out ball in his glove and tossed it to the guy right next to me!
UGH!! I hate when that happens! Oh well tomorrow is another day!
On the way out we saw former Angels and Yankee pitcher Jim Abbott. Abbott signed some autographs, posed for a few pictures and then took off. Shortly after that we did the same!
On Thursday I spend a few hours at the stadium trying to get some more autographs for David and was lucky enough to get a few. Mark Kotsay, Justin Masterson, Gil Valasquz and one other autograph.
I will be posting my entry for Game 2 of the ALDS shortly! Keep watching!
IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN TAKING PART IN MY “BALLHAWKING 101″ day at the Ballpark which INCLUDES TICKETS to an NLCS GAME check out the post below or go to http://mlballhawk.com and check out the link for “LET’S GO TO A NLCS GAME!”
Major League Ballhawk on MYSPACE
I am now on MYSPACE at http://www.myspace.com/majorleagueballhawk
For all of you that read my MLBlog please feel free to add me if you also have a MYSPACE account!!
I am new to MYSPACE so be patient with me as I am learning all the in’s and out’s as I go along! I will approve friend requests and comments as fast as I can!
Thanks
John
Mariners / Angels – Angels Stadium – 9/11/08 – 5 balls
Another great night out at the BIG “A” for me!
- 3 consecutive games with 4 or more baseballs
Fans Selling Milestone Home Run Balls Instead of Returning Them – What did I have to do with this?
Recently I was asked about selling home run balls. Actually the reporter, who is working on a story, asked me if I felt responsible for the boom in fans selling home run balls for cash and not returning them to the players that hit them.
For a minute or two I looked at him like he was crazy. How can he ask me if I was responsible for this? He then pointed out that when I caught Sosa’s 61st Home Run on September 13th, 1998 is pretty much when the recent boom in selling Milestone Homers’ began. I though he was crazy and then I looked back as he told me about other milestone HR’s before I got Sosa’s 61st.
Tim Forneris, St. Louis Groundscrew member, got McGwire’s 62nd home run ball in 1998 he returned it. Deni Allen caught McGwire’s 60th home run that year and he also returned it. Allen did get to take BP with the Cardinals but still no cash.
A few of Sosa’s early home run balls were also returned for memorabilia or tickets or just the chance to meet him.
Then came September 13th, 2008 when Sammy Sosa hit his 61st and 62nd Home Runs. I will save the story about getting the ball etc for early September as the 10th anniversary of getting the ball is coming up. Anyway, Sosa hits #61 in the 5th inning off of Bronswell Patrick and it literally rolls right to my feet. I pick it up and the Chicago Ballhawks shove me into Moe Mullins’ van for safety.
Shortly thereafter a local sports memorabilia dealer tells me that another sports collector wants to buy the ball for $10,000. Are you kidding me?? So I head up to the firehouse to the payphone and I call him. As I am talking to him there are a couple of reporters right there listening in on the conversation. In the newspapers the next day there it was …… Sosa’s 61st HR sells for $10,000.
The only problem was Sosa hit #62 later in the game and the guy that bought 61 from me had a message on his answering machine from the guy that ripped it out of Moe’s hands. He wants to sell it!! So now they don’t know what it might be worth. There wasn’t really any hesitation on my part to sell the ball even when they offered me $7,500 because I had gone to the game with only $8 in my pocket. Better than that I didn’t have to pay for a ticket of for parking!
A couple days later I was in St. Louis when McGwire hit #63. When John Grass ended up with the ball he immediately proclaimed that he was going to sell it to the highest bidder! We all know that there was a bounty of $1,000,000 dollars on the last home run he hit but would someone give the ball up for that? Obviously they did when it sold for over $3,000,000.
Yes, there was a bounty of 1 MILLION DOLLARS put out on the LAST home run that would be hit in 1998 long before it happened. However I was the basically the first person to sell a home run ball that season for a sizeable amount. After me almost every fan that caught another milestone home run ball has tried to make some money off of it.
To me it was just funny to be contacted about this just after Griffey hit his 500th and essentially being told that I was partially to blame for fans becoming greedy when they catch a milestone home run ball.
The obvious arguments will come up on this one, I would love to hear everyones thoughts on this!
FIRE AWAY!
News and Notes – Closing in on 3,000 MLB balls, 5,000 total baseballs and that 100th Game HR
So my birthday was pretty much uneventful, no game, no ballhawking and not much else. So we are coming up on the end of the Minor League season and it looks like I might make 1 or 2 more games. Most likely Independant Golden Baseball League games but they are still professional baseball games so the balls count.
I am just 187 balls away from 3000. That could come next season as I have made the choice to NOT work in baseball in 2009. Ok so that may change and with the right job I might work in baseball but as of right now I intend on getting a job where I will be able to “Ballhawk” on a regular basis and reach 3000!
I am 83 balls away from 1000 at spring training games. That could be reached in just a week of spring training games. We will have to see if there is a trip to spring training next year.
I don’t really have any MiLB milestones coming up so I am working on figuring out the number of game home runs I have collected at Minor League Games. I do know that it is around 80 or so. I just have to check an old website where I kept track of all of that up to 2005. I have the totals from 2005 on. That number should be up in the next week or so!
I am just 148 baseballs away from 5,000 in my 31 years of Ballhawking! That is another one that should come next season. To me that is the biggest milestone to hit next year!
Last but not least there is the ever elusive 100th game home run. I got close on August 13th at Dodger Stadium so hopefully that is a sign that it is going to happen soon!
As of today here are my career totals
Career Totals
MLB Balls (RS) 2,813
MLB Balls (ST) 917
MLB Total 3,730
MiLB Balls 1,122
31 year total – 4,852
MLB Game HR balls *99
Happy Birthday to ME – At 39 I am still a Kid at Heart!
So today is my 39th Birthday, nothing to get really excited about for sure. It just means that I am 1 away from the 40! Yes I know some of you might think it is a little crazy for a grown man to chase baseballs but it’s always good to keep that “KID at HEART” alive inside of us.
The great thing is that now I truly appreciate the smile on a kids face when you give him a baseball. That is a big reason that I still run around getting baseballs!
It’s funny to think that it was almost 32 years ago that I caught my first baseball at Old Comiskey Park in Chicago. Maybe this will be the week I catch game home run #100.
It’s got to happen sometime …… doesn’t it?
It would be nice to get it soon, who knows maybe I can retire … AGAIN?
Welcome to the NEW HOME of Major League Ballhawk – John Witt
I am in the process switching my entries over from my OLD MLBlogs at http://Majorleagueballhawk.mlblogs.com to my new MLBlog here at http://ballhawk.mlblogs.com
It will be a couple weeks or so until I get all of my 2008 Ballhawking posts moved from the OLD to the NEW. I am only going to move the game summaries for now. All of my writing will be about everything I do that is baseball realated. There will be game summaries and other stories from the past and today!!
Until I get all of my posts move I will most likely update both MLBlogs with the same posts. This will also the same for my websites, http://mlballhawk.com and http://majorleagueballhawk.com . I will be re-working these websites over the off-season will have much more baseball and ballhawking information!
Let me know what you think of the NEW Major League Ballhawk LOGO too!!
8/13/08 Dodger Stadium – 5 balls and a lot of fun!
It looked as if I was not going to make any game at all on Wednesday night. Both the Angels and Dodgers were in town. At the last minute the decision was made to go to the Dodgers game and to sit in the ALL YOU CAN EAT PAVILION in Right Field.
We pulled into the parking lot at 5:30 which was alread 20 minutes after the gates opened. We walked into Autograph Alley (centerfield) as we got up to the stadium because the gates for RF do not open until 5:40. Jimmy Campanis was signing autographs and you can also walk out onto the warning track in Center Field during BP.
5:40 hit and we headed off to the AYCEP and up to the seats. I was standing on the aisle right off of Section 308. After having a few balls sail over my head hit by Chase Utley and another Phillie, possibly Greg Dobbs, Ryan Howard stepped in the cage. Howard then hits a towering drive right towards me. I step back a row and made the catch.(ball #1)
I have to admit I was nervous about this because I am back to using my $12 Wal-Mart special glove. The Wilson A200, yes A200, not A2000! My glove is the cheap plastic version of that but ya know what, IT WORKS!!
Shortly after that Geoff Jenkins was shagging out in right field and tossed a ball up into the stands. It bounced off of about 5 sets of hands and hit the first row where I was waiting for it and picked it up! (ball #2)
Shortly after I grab this one some out of shape overweight wannabe softball player comes over and stands right next to me telling me that I have gotten enough and that I should give the balls to kids etc. Ok so I am not in the greatest shape and I too am/was a wannabe softball player but at least I bring a glove to the game so I can catch a ball!
Chase Utley stepped in for his last couple of swings and hits one right at me and Mr. Softball. He is just to my left as we stand in the stairwell. Thankfully the ball was hit just to my right and far enough to where I could reach for it and he was not going to have a chance at it unless he grabbed my arm or something crazy like that. As the ball came down he stuck his hand in front of my face and across my body. I stuck out my Wal-Mart special and the ball went past his bare hand and right into my glove. (Ball #3) If Mr. Softball had a glove with him he might have actually been able to make the catch.
#1 rule of Ballhawking: ALWAYS BRING A GLOVE!!
Right after I caught my 3rd ball of the day he proclaimed that I would not get another ball and then he proceeded to stand almost right in the middle of the aisle blocking the staircase. The best part of it was that the last group of the Phillies were all right handed and there wasn’t a ball hit out to RF. However I knew that there was going to be at least one more chance for a baseball.
Phillies coach Gregg Legg (great name) was another person that was patrolling right field during BP. There was a group of people that kept yelling at him for a ball. Even I jumped into yelling, “Hey Legg let’s see that Arm!!” Ok so that really wasn’t as funny as I thought. Anyway, a ball was hit towards Legg and I was 99% sure that he would throw it up to the group of people just to my left. The only problem, MR. SOFTBALL, was right in the way of the open row to get to it. No problem though, I saw the group of people and figured that most likely it was going to bounce off of their hands and fall to the concourse below. So I went around MR. Softball and down the stairs as if I was going to the bathroom. Just as I got down the stairs the ball fell from above and right into my glove.(ball #4) OH was Mr. Softball mad, if he was only as smart as a Ballhawk!!
Shortly after that Batting practice was I headed off to the concessions area for the ALL YOU CAN EAT BUFFET!!
It is simply a great deal, especially when you get a promotion code that reduces the tickets from $40 plus ticketmaster fees all the way down to $25.25 which includes the TM fees. On the menu in the AYCEP was Dodger Dogs, Peanuts, Popcorn, Nachos, Soda and Water. It may not seem like a lot but it is still well worth the price.
So now I have had my first and even a second fill of food and I am ready for the game. As the Dodgers come out to take the field in the first inning I head down towards the same spot that I was during batting practice. Every half inning the Dodger outfielders throw up the balls after they are done warming up. Andre Either in RF and Matt Kemp in CF will switch off during the game taking turns tossing the ball up. Andre Eithier was first and there I was standing right in the aisle with my glove in the air. Eithier looked right at me and launched the ball in my direction. As it got closer I realized that it was going to be a little bit high. I ended up having to jump for, yes I actually got off the ground, and made the catch.(ball #5)
And now onto the game, in the first inning the Phillies Ryan Howard homered to left field and the Gregg Dobbs homered to right. In fact the Dobbs home run went to the gap between the wall and the seats. If we had not moved up to the big aisle and stayed in the front row where we were the entire time during BP most likely I would have retrieved Dobbs’ home run.
The games goes into the 3rd inning and up comes Manny. I head down underneath the Pavilion seats to a place where I think Manny could hit an opposite field HR. The picture here shows the view of the gap between the seats and the wall. It also shows where I was and were Manny’s home run hit.
As the ball went up I thought I might be in pretty good shape. As you see on the replay and in the other picture as the ball comes down my head pops up as I climb over the railing to go after the ball. If the ball stays in the gap between the stairs and the wall it’s mine, I am positive of that as I was the first person there. Way back in 1987 at my first Dodger game I was in the Left Field pavilion and picked up a Mike Schmidt HR that someone misplayed. It fell in the gap right in front of me.
Anyway back to Manny’s home run, as I hop the railing I see the ball bounce off the railing going up the stairs, hit the concrete walkway and go right back out onto the field. As I go up the next staircase to try and get it as they toss it into the stands I see it go towards the staircase it hit off of. A lady about to go up the stairs carrying 3 or 4 beers got a great surprise in her tray as the ball landed right in it.
Yes it was a little frustrating knowing that I was so close to my 100th career game home run and a little ironic that in a past post I mention how it would be cool for that HR to be hit by Manny.
At least I know that I am still pretty good at figuring out where some of these guys can hit home runs. There really is a little more than luck when it comes to getting baseballs!
The game was pretty exciting, the Phillies were up 6-1 at one point and the Dodgers chipped away capping it off with a Nomar Garciaparra home run in the 9th. After the game we went out to see if we could get some Phillies autographs. We saw a few of the players come out however none of them were really in the mood to sign seeing as how they blew 2 games in 2 nights in the 9th inning. The one person that did stop to talk and sign was Phillies broadcaster Harry Kalas. Here is a picture that I had taken of myself with Mr. Kalas. The really cool thing, he is from Chicago too!
It was definitely a great night at Dodgers Stadium and good to finally have a night where I felt like I was back in form. I am pretty sure that game home run #100 is going to happen soon!
Tonights Totals:
5 Balls
4 Nachos
7 Cokes
2 Bags of Popcorn
1 Bottle of Water
1 Harry Kalas photo & autograph
Remember you can always email me at MLBallhawk@gmail.com
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