9/21/09- Citi Field (Last trip of 2009)

    So i figured i should go to one last Met game this year for 2 reasons. 1) I havent been there in over a month and the tickets are EXTREMELY cheap now because of the Met’s demise. 2) I wanted to attend a game alone so i can focus on snagging as many ball’s as i can without any interuptions from friends/family. No offense to them, i love going to ballgames and enjoying them with my friends and family but i need at least one game to myself where i can just sit back and relax and enjoy my own company. I know it sounds lame but i have my wacky reasons. Anyway lets go to a ballgame but first… i had to go to work.

I work in a pizzeria in Seaford, Long Island and today i was working from 11:00am- 4:00pm. Leaving at 4pm anit exactly what time i wanted to leave but i didn’t have much of a choice. So the 6 hours i spent at work i thought about what i wanted to accomplish at tonights game. I had 3 goals tonight. 

1) snag at least 10 total balls. 

2) Grab at least (1) 3rd out ball from the Braves. 

3) Catch a foul ball and/or homerun ball. 

    1 and 2 were very reachable but my 3rd goal was somthing i wasn’t expecting. But i kept them in mind and soon enough it was 4pm and i was on my w… stuck at work. My coverage was running late and they arrived around 4:20. Perfect. So Citi Field gates open at 4:40pm and i was leaving at 4:20pm and from Seaford it takes about 40 minutes to Citi Field which gives us an approximate arrival time of 5pm (and that’s with no traffic). So i hopped in the Camry and i was off.

Doing speeds that should not be mentioned i arrived at Citi Field around 5:05pm and i rushed into the stadium and into left field. I ran into Greg and we said wats up.He said he had 2 already so i figured there was more to come… or at least i thought. I also notcied Brian was there and we talked for a little bit. About 10 minutes later i got my 1st ball of the day thrown to me by Elmer Dessens. i’m pretty sure he chucked it to me because i asked him for the ball in Spanish. After that…NOTHING! The Mets were hitting no homeruns and most of the toss-ups were to kids. I had to make some moves to fulfill my goal of 10 balls and i did. 

I noticed a couple of Braves players were throwing behind their dugout so i made my move. I quickly changed into my Braves gear and raced to the seats behind the dugout. I Noticed a couple of other Met fans watching them warm up but i knew they had no intentions of snagging a ball since no one had a glove. Shortly after i got Boone Logan to toss me up his warm-up ball. The fans looked at me stunned like they’ve never seen that happen before. About 10 minutes after that the Mets finished a horrible display of BP and the Braves were getting ready to take the field. I noticed Clint Sammons had a ball with him and he began walking out to the outfield. I quickly yelled out his name and he turned around after the 2nd time i called for him. I waved my hands in the air and he threw the ball he was holding from deep shortstop. Unfortunatly, the ball was a little bit out of my reach and it tipped of thge top of my glove and trickled into the row behind me. I quickly made a mad dash for it but realized that no one was even trying to get it. So i took my time and scopped the ball up for #3 on the day. I then went back into left field and tried my luck with the Braves this time. Nothing really in the begining but a couple of more pitchers were still throwing in the outfield. I noticed Peter Moylan was throwing with someone so waited by the wall untiul he was done. I called out ” Big Pete” and he looked at me and fired the ball to me for my 4th ball of the day. I had a very rude guy in his late 20′s start bickering to me about how i was wearing a Mets hat before and now i got Braves stuff on now. Then his girlfriend threw in her 2 cents about how i should move and get out of THEIR area. Oh i’m so sorry sweety i didn’t know that was YOUR area. Stupid broad. Well about 5 mintues after that someone on the Braves smacked a ball that had a chance to clear the wall for a homerun. Greg and Brian were else where so i THOUGHT i had no competition. i ran down the aisle and began to lean over the wall with my glove when an unexpecting hand came into my view and swatted at the ball and caused the ball to fall to the warning track. the unexpecting hand you ask? That same rude guy who was still bitter from before when i got the toss up ball from Moylan. Guess he wanted his revenge and he got it cause that ball wound up being thrown in. Whatever, typical Met fan. Anyway, i stood patiently in the aisle for what seemed to be forever when i finally got some action. A deep fly ball was coming my way. I tracked it perfectly and i made an easy two handed catch in the middle of a row of seats. That was # 5 for the day. I got a nice round of applause from the crowd and got a compliment from an older gentleman who told me that was a great catch and that i was exactly in the right spot. Why thank you kind sir, that’s kind of the point of me running around like a lunatic anit it. Well after that it was more pathetic BP and there was nada coming my way so i decide do make a move. 

I ran into the centerfield seats and tried my luck there. I saw a guy with the last name “Carlyle” and he just fielded a ground ball. I quickly checked my pockets for my roster but i couldn’t find it. I had no time to lose so i kept on checking but right when he was about to throw it in i remembered his name. “BUDDY” i called out and he turned around. i jumped up and down like a wild child and he threw that same ball to me for my 6th ball of the day. This ball though came within inches of an older couple sitting in front of me and thank God it was high enough for me to make the catch without them getting hurt. Everyone in the stands though started complaining to Buddy about why he threw the ball to me and not them. His answer ” He’s wearing Braves stuff of course i’m gonna throw it to him”. Let that be a lesson to any ballhawks in the making. Wearing the opposing teams gear does give you an advantage over the home crowd. I then thought about when Zack brought his 4,000th career ball with him to a game and got it signed by Livan Hernandez who threw it to him in the first placee. I figured that would be pretty cool if i could get the ball that Carlyle threw to me and have him sign it. The ball isnt a milestone or anything but i figured if i have the opportunity to get it signed, might as well. So i walked down to the centerfield wall and Buddy was actually already standing their trying to talk Japanese to a Japanese Met fan… ok weird. Well i asked him if he could sign thew ball he gave me and he did. i threw it back to him, he signed it, and tossed it back. 

That did it for BP. I ended up with 6 balls during BP and i was dissapointed that i didn’t end up with 8 or 9. But considering how BP was i can’t really complain.

So gametime was about 30 minutes away and i headed to my seat in section 123 and waited until the players went out to stretch and throw. In the meantime i ate my dinner (a Stromboli roll and a yellow gatorade ) and wrote a more detailed explanation on how i got my 6 balls on the back of my roster. So after that a couple of Braves came out and began streching and only Martin Prado and Yunel Escobar were throwing. 

A couple of idiotic Mets fan were distracting Prado when he caught each throw and he was obviously was getting annoyed. He let one of the throws from Escobar sail over his head in attempt to hit the group of hecklers but instead it took a crazy hop and landed in the the Photographers Box. Some doofy kid taken pictures “of God knows what” scooped the ball up and held on to it. Can’t really blame him, would of done the same thing myself. So that was the extent of pre-game warm-up balls.

GAMETIME- So like i said before, my goal was to get a 3rd out ball and i was hoping to get one ASAP. Sure enough i didn’t have to wait very long after all. Bottom of the first Carlos Beltran grounded out to Yunel Escobar. Adam LaRoche was playing 1st and he started heading in with the ball. I was already down by the dugout waiting alongside with Brian. LaRoche  got his warm-up thrown to him and then he looked up into the crowd, looked right at me, and tossed it to me for my 7th ball of the night. I told Brian that i was done going after 3rd out ball’s. I wanted to give him chance at 1 since i got mine. Here it is

I figured that not many homeruns were going to be hit tonght because most of the hitters on both teams were lefties and i didn’t have a ticket for rightfield or the Pepsi Porch. So i decided to position myself for foul balls. i went up to section 124 where i noticed in past games alot of fould balls went in that general direction. So i grabbed a great aisle seat and sat back with my glove on and waited for my chance…………………………………………………………….

Before i knew it, it was the 9th inning… THE NINTH INNING and still not 1 ball in my area. Just my typical luck. Every other game i go to, there are plently of foul balls hit in that direction but tonight, NADA! So i figured that my only chances for another 3 balls were from Umpire balls and the relievers walking in from the dugout. Just then i got my chance. Daniel Murphy was up and he lifted a foul ball in my area. It wasn’t a pop up and it wasn’t exacltly a line drive either. It was kind of in between that so i didn’t have much time to react. I jumped out of my seat and instantly made a decision whether to go up or down the aisle. i decided to run up the aisle. i ran up one row and darted to my left (towards homeplate). along the way i ran into a guard rail (Gotta love those guard rails) and i felt a brief moment of pain but i just shrugged it off. As i running through the rows of seats i looked up and saw the ball. At the last second i put my glove up, leaned over the railing,  and made the catch. I looked in my glove just to make sure and it was there. My second career foul ball but more importantly, my first career foul ball caught on the fly. I have always wanted to catch a foul ball on the fly and tonight i finally did it. I was congratulated by a nice round of applause from the crowd and Greg and Brian came over and congratulated me as well. 

This is where i caught it (right above my hand)

So after the 3rd out was recorded i ran over to the tunnel where the umpires exit. I had no luck there so i ran over behind the dugout. Again no luck but thats ok. I caught a foul ball tonight including 7 other balls giving me a total of 8 for the day. That’s my new Citi Field record. Hopefully next year i’ll be able to break it.

Catch ya lata