Author Archive
Tony Bracco- Graphic Designer
For anyone who knows me, I’m a Graphic Designer just out of college. So basically that means 2 things
1. I have a diploma (B.F.A. to be exact) and ready to use it.
2. I need money… like asap!
So take a look at my website, if something catches your attention, and you’d like for me to create something for you, shoot me an e-mail and we’ll figure out how I can accommodate you.
P.S.- I do ALOT of Baseball Photography so if you have a photo that you need cleaned up or made all fancy schmancy looking, i’m your guy!
2012 YANKEE TICKETS
Section 231 Row 1 2 seats
The following games are available for purchase. Each ticket is priced at face value, $45/ticket.
*Premium games are priced above face value, for price info please e-mail me.
May
Date Opponent Time
Tuesday, 22nd Kansas City Royals 7:05pm
June
Date Opponent Time
Tuesday, 5th Tampa Bay Rays 7:05pm
Wednesday, 6th Tampa Bay Rays 7:05pm
Thursday, 7th Tampa Bay Rays 7:05pm
Monday, 18th Atlanta Braves 7:05pm
Wednesday, 20th Atlanta Braves 1:05pm
Tuesday, 26th Cleveland Indians 7:05pm
Thursday, 28th Chicago White Sox 7:05pm
July
Date Opponent Time
Friday, 13th LA Angels 7:05pm
Tuesday, 17th Toronto Blue Jays 7:05pm
Friday, 27th Boston Red Sox* 7:05pm
Saturday, 28th Boston Red Sox* 4:05pm
Sunday, 29th Boston Red Sox* TBA
Wednesday, 31st Baltimore Orioles 7:05pm
August
Date Opponent Time
Monday, 13th Texas Rangers 7:05pm
Tuesday, 14th Texas Rangers 7:05pm
Thursday, 16th Texas Rangers 1:05pm
Friday, 17th Boston Red Sox* 7:05pm
Sunday, 19th Boston Red Sox* TBA
Tuesday, 28th Toronto Blue Jays 7:05pm
September
Date Opponent Time
Friday, 14th Tampa Bay Rays 7:05pm
Saturday, 15th Tampa Bay Rays 4:05pm
Sunday, 16th Tampa Bay Rays 1:05pm
Wednesday, 19th Toronto Blue Jays 7:05pm
9/6/11- Don’t forget your umbrella… and your glove!
September 6th, 2011
Baltimore Orioles
Vs.
New York Yankees
Game start time- *7:05pm (more on this in a little bit)
First just let me say sorry for the lack of photos because I didn’t want to bring my camera in this godforsaken weather and my camera phone wasn’t cooperating with me.
Now right from the start… I didn’t want to go to this game. I had absolutely no intentions of going to this game. Why? Well for obvious reasons.One, being that it’s the Baltimore Orioles and (no offense to any Orioles fans reading this) they are just dreadful to watch. Two, being that I have school the next day and I wanted to use the entire day to get some things together and prepare myself for my final year of college (B-Cliffe 12’ sonn!). Three, I really had no choice but to go to the game because since I’m a full-season ticket holder and paid face value for these tickets, I would of wasted $80 on this game and I couldn’t find anyone to buy these damn tickets. And four you may ask…
“Oh the weather outside is frightful”.
Seriously, rain ALL DAY LONG. Now don’t get me wrong, I love Yankee baseball more than anyone I know and I try to go to as many games as I can but sitting in the rain all evening long isn’t exactly what I look forward to. But with that being said, this game had the possibility of being a special one. The only thing that had me fired up to go was that no one was going to be crazy enough to be in attendance tonight and whatever people did show up were not going to show up in great numbers. My guess was around 2,000 people would be at the game tonight. So with my assumption that only a handful of people would be in attendance, this is the perfect game to attend to try and get my first foul ball at new Yankee Stadium and/or to catch my first game Home Run. So let’s summarize real quick shall we.
- The Orioles are in town
- Barely any people are going to show up
- The forecast looks absolutely miserable
- Prime opportunity for a Foul Ball/Homerun
- It’s going to rain ALL NIGHT LONG
Lets continue, shall we?
After several failed attempts to try and get someone to buy the tickets off of me I decided to just try and get someone to come with me. Again, after several failed attempts to try and find someone to go with I finally got my good buddy Kyle to tag along and make the bold journey to the Stadium. Since batting practice was obviously not going to happen, we decided to wait till 5:30 to leave in case they called the game off and I didn’t waste any gas or my e-z pass. Sure enough 5:30 rolls around and the game is still on. So we’re off and things aren’t looking too good. Rain is coming down with no stop in site. We had the radio on listening for any updates on whether or not the game was to be played. From what we were hearing, the rain had no intentions of stopping, the chances of them actually playing is slim to none, and to top it off we were running late! My God we’re going to be late and miss the first pitch. I can’t believe it! Ehhhh, not quite. We parked a couple of blocks away from the Stadium and as we were walking towards it, we see a sea of cars driving and a bunch of people walking away. We both assumed that they must of called the game off but when we got to the gates, the joint was open.
So we went in and walked towards the field to see hundreds of people crowded around the concourse standing around, eating, drinking, just plain out hanging around. So Kyle and I did the same. We walked around the Stadium once, I said hello to a couple of the “very few” nice security guards, and we went into Monument Park. Kyle had never been inside Monument Park so this was a good time to knock this off the list of “things to do while we wait” and I haven’t been in Monument Park in over a year so I haven’t had the chance to see the completely oversized plaque for George Steinbrenner. Don’t’ get me wrong, the man deserves to be honored for all that he’s done in the organization but to make a plaque THAT big for him… come on now. He makes Ed Barrows and Jacob Ruppert look like termites compared to their plaques. Ruppert brought in a guy named George Herman Ruth. Steinbrenner brought in Reggie… and he’s got a bigger plaque than him? I think you get the picture (and don’t try and get on me about all the great things Steinbrenner did because I’m well aware of how generous he was). Anyway, so we exited Monument Park and found our way behind the 3rd base dugout to hangout and eat. Kyle bought this gigantic bucket of wings and fries for $20 so that kept us occupied for a while.
After munching down and digesting (in the rain) we decided to take another “stroll around the Park” as I kept telling Kyle. So we went all the way around the Stadium into the upper deck to the very last corner seat in Left Field and then all the way around to Right Field and went to the very last corner seat up there. That was something I always wanted to do but never had the opportunity to soooo00 yup. Oh yea, while we were up there we had a little fun
So after the shenanigans we walked back down to the field level. My friend Kristina was at the game (probably the only other person I know who is crazy/dedicated enough to come) so we went down into section 104 to hang out with her, her father, and sister. Around 10:30ish the PA announcer Paul Olden came on and announced that the game was indeed going to be played tonight and start time would be shortly after 11pm! Well there ya have it. Now we have to stay and watch this game because it would make no sense to wait around for 4 hours and for nothing. So the grounds crew came out and began taking the tarp off and slowly but surely, players began emerging from the dugouts and began to stretch and throw. Kyle and I decided that we would both go for the starting pitchers warm-up balls so Kyle headed over to the lf bleachers to hang out above the Orioles bullpen and I stayed in the rf bleachers above the Yanks bullpen. Tommy Hunter was starting for the Orioles and Phil Hughes was on the bump for the Yankees. Both pitchers are having sub par years so tonight should be an interesting match up. Kyle eventually got Tommy Hunter’s warm-up ball tossed to him I believe by pitching coach, Rick Adair and I walked away with jack squat, which is fine because any ball that wasn’t game used tonight I felt was a waste of time (no offense to Kyle).
So Kyle and I met back up and we decided to go and hang out behind the 1st base dugout for any possible foul balls or 3rd out toss-ups.
As you can see there was literally NO ONE inside the stadium. It was a ballhawks dream and personally I couldn’t have been more excited. I mean I’m watching my favorite team play at 11pm (on a school night hehe), it’s raining like hell, and there is no where near the 2,000 people in attendance that I had predicted. It was probably somewhere around 1,000 at most. What I’m getting at is two mains thing.
1) I can scream as loud as I want and not only will all the fans hear me throughout the Stadium but the players will hear me as well. Which I think is pretty cool.
2) Kyle and I have a ton of room to run around in case a foul ball or homerun was in our vicinity.
So after a 4 hour and 3 minute rain delay, the Yankees take the field and we are underway… at 11:08pm. So the first 2 innings go by and both 3rd out balls were tossed into the exclusive Legends seats and all of the foul balls were either hit into the seats behind home plate or into the main level above us. So it’s been a total let down so far and Kyle and I were thinking of moving. So we decided to move further down the right field line in case a righty lined one off that way. I had other plans though. My plan all along was to go for a home run ball because I’ve watched to many games this year on my TV when it’s raining at the Stadium and someone jacks one out and there is no one in sight to make the clean catch, let alone have a glove on. So I knew that tonight would be the perfect opportunity with no one in the outfield seats. Now before I left the game I was trying to decide where I wanted to camp out for any possible home runs and since both teams had right-handed pitchers on the mound, it was a no-brainer to hang out in right field, section 104 to be exact. So as Kyle got settled in his new seat, I told him I was going to hang out in sec.104 for any home runs. I made my move solely because I was tired of waiting for a foul ball and if any home run was hit into the stands and I wasn’t there to make a play on it I would never forgive myself. And plus the Yanks had 6 lefties in a row coming up.
So it’s the bottom of the 3rd inning and Eric Chavez leads off. Chavez eventually flies out to left field and that brings up Jorge Posada. Now before I go into detail of what happens next I just want to clear one thing up. People may not understand why it is such a big deal for me to catch a ball at a game or why I would even go out of my way to do so. Well to put it simply, I just love the thrill of being able to possibly become apart of history and having the chance to come home with something that a lot of people can say that they have never gotten. I got into “ballhawking” in 2008 and have caught 100’s of balls since; I have yet to catch an actual Home Run during the game. I’ve had many close encounters before and a lot attempts but they all ended up in the hands of other fans. Each time I had the opportunity to catch a game Home Run before I either messed it up by getting a little too excited and ran myself out of position or got blocked by other fans and couldn’t really move around to much. But like I told all of my friend who were at those games with me:
“ it’s ok, I know it’s going to eventually happen and my 1st game Home Run is going to be a special one. There will be plenty more games for me to have a shot at it again ”.
So with the veteran Posada who I grew up watching and has been having a tough time hitting this year stepped up to the plate, things were about change for the better for both Posada and I.
I positioned myself in section 104 row 15 and I’m in the aisle seat closest to section 105. I knew that if anything were hit near me I’d have a great chance at it considering there was about 15 fans in my section and only another handful in the sections next me. The only thing that were to stop me from getting a Home Run ball would be me misplaying the ball or if it lands in some empty seats and takes a wacky bounce. Basically, I had the entire right field seats to myself and if missed anything that came my way I didn’t deserve a game Home Run ball. So let’s get to it shall we?
Tommy Hunter throws a 0-1 fastball middle-in to Posada and he gets an excellent piece of wood on it.Once he connected I immediately sprung out of my seat and raced over to my right. (You can click the photos to see a clearer version)
I located the ball at its highest peak and saw that it was coming right to me! This is when things get a little blurry and the tunnel vision kind of sets in. I don’t see anyone around me, I don’t hear anything around me, all I see is the ball coming straight towards me. As the ball was descending over the wall I quickly realized that it wasn’t going to be an easy play. Not because of the couple of people around me but due to the ball was falling a little short and I wouldn’t be able to catch it anywhere above my chest. So as the ball was finally looking to hit its mark, I reached over the seats in front of me, stuck my glove up in front of me, and…POP!
I look in my glove just to make sure and there… it… is!!!
My first thought was “HOLY F***ING S**T, I DID IT! So I grabbed the ball out of my glove and did what I’ve been dubbing after watching the replay so many times, my best impression of Carlton Fisk after hitting his HR in the 75’ World Series.
I jumped up and down like a lunatic and ran towards the middle of the aisle in 104/105. The replay doesn’t show my full celebration but trust me when I tell you, besides the Yanks winning the World Series in 2009 I can’t remember me acting so wild at a Yankee game. I was dancing around, jumping on seats, waving my hands in the air, high fiving fans, the whole 9 yards. At one point as Posada was rounding the bases I pointed to him and yelled out loud “ THATA BOY JORGE!”. So I kissed the ball and looked back towards the field to see Posada reaching the dugout, getting high-fives from his teammates, and finally descending into the dugout. Then I remembered Kyle, oops. I looked over to where he was sitting and he was up out of his seat cheering so I knew he must of seen the catch.
You can see the video of Posada’s Home Run HERE
So after a couple of people congratulated me and wanted to see the ball I heard a familiar voice from above me. It was Kristina who was at the top of the aisle with her dad and sister. I ran up to them and they congratulated me for my catch. They told me that they were just about to leave but they stuck around just in time to see Posada hit the Home Run. So it was pretty cool that they were there to see the Home Run and there to congratulate me afterwards. We said our goodbyes and I made my way back towards Kyle. I kept on looking at the ball as I was walking back and I kept on shaking my head in disbelief. I still couldn’t believe that I had actually caught a game Home Run ball, off the bat of Jorge Posada no less!
My heart was still racing so fast and I felt like I had enough adrenaline in me to lift a car. So I walked down towards Kyle and flipped him he ball and he was pretty psyched up. He told me he saw me dancing around like a psychopath and asked me if I had caught it on the fly? I told him what happened and how I did in fact catch it on the fly. Also, for when I did catch my first game Home Run ball, it was very important to me that I would catch the ball on the fly. I always thought it’s a little cheesy to obtain a game Home Run ball after it bounced around some seats and you pick it off the ground. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to get the ball by any means necessary but for my first time, I just wanted to make a clean catch.
All right now I’m not going to bore you and myself for that matter by talking about the rest of the game. Basically Kyle and I just hung out in the bleachers for the remainder of the game. Kyle ended up getting 2 more balls from the bullpen giving him 3 for the night. I did however meet up with my buddy Ben, who also congratulated me on the catch. So throughout the game we were hanging out whenever he was in the area. Anyway, at 2:15am the game ended with Mariano Rivera getting J.J Hardy to ground out to him securing another Yankee victory and Rivera getting his 598th career save. So after the game I took a couple of more pictures where I had caught the ball and we finally began to make our way out of the Stadium. We get to the car at 2:29am and we make the drive back to North Bab. After watching a couple of replays of the Home Run and taking a shower I finally crawled into bed… at 5am! Can’t wait for my fist day of class in 5 hours!
So that ends my story of the insane/intense/rainy/long/stressful/night which ended with a Yankee victory, Rivera getting one save closer to yet another milestone, and achieving a milestone of my own. Catching my first ever Game Home Run on the fly.
p.s.- a lot of people may think that this is a cheap home run to catch and it was easy because there were no fans in attendance but last time I checked, I was one of the very few dedicated/crazy to actually brave the weather and stick it out for the game. So in return for being a loyal fan, I was able to get something I’ve always wanted. Hi haters!
Some Stats from the game
Jorge Posada
Career Homerun # – 274
Career Hit # – 1659
Career RBI # – 1061
47th career Homerun given up by Tommy Hunter
Posada’s Homerun was the 198th of the 2011 season for the Yankees
Mariano Rivera recorded his 598th career save trailing only Trevor Hoffman by 3 to tie the all-time saves record
*This is unofficial but I’m pretty sure that this is the latest or earliest not sure (as in time wise) save for Mariano Rivera 2:15am
HERE is the clip of when i called up to 1050 ESPN RADIO the following day to talk about my experience from the game.
Jorge Posada Home Run
Blog will be up shortly
2011 Remaining Yankee Games for sale
Section 311 row 4 2 seats
April
Date Opponent Time
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May
Date Opponent Time
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Wed, May 11 |
Royals |
7:05 pm |
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Thu, May 12 |
Royals |
7:05 pm |
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Fri, May 13 |
Red sox** |
7:05 pm |
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Sat, May 21 |
Mets** |
7:10 pm |
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Sun, May 22 |
Mets** |
1:05 pm |
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Mon, May 23 SOLD |
Blue jays |
7:05 pm |
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Wed, May 25 |
Blue jays |
1:05 pm |
June
Date Opponent Time
Tue, Jun 7 SOLD |
Red sox** |
7:05 pm |
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Wed, Jun 8 |
Red sox** |
7:05 pm |
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Fri, Jun 10 SOLD |
Indians |
7:05 pm |
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Wed, Jun 29 |
Brewers* |
7:05 pm |
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Thu, Jun 30 |
Brewers * |
1:05 pm |
July
Date Opponent Time
Mon, Jul 25
Mariners
7:05 pm
Tue, Jul 26
Mariners
7:05 pm
Mon, Jul 25
Mariners
7:05 pm
Tue, Jul 26
Mariners
7:05 pm
August
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Thu, Aug 25 |
Athletics |
1:05 pm |
September
Date Opponent Time
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Mon, Sep 5 |
Orioles |
1:05 pm |
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Tue, Sep 6 |
Orioles |
7:05 pm |
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Wed, Sep 7 |
Orioles |
TBD |
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Fri, Sep 23 |
Red sox** |
7:05 pm |
|
Sun, Sep 25 |
Red sox** |
1:05 pm |
All games are FACE VALUE $40/per ticket ($80/game)
*Interleague games: $45/pet ticket
April 26, 2011 NYY VS. CWS & possibly a Game Homerun???
before Paul Konerko stepped up to the plate, i had took out one of my balls from bp and placed it in the cupholder in front of me. I explained to Sean that if we were to catch a homerun ball hit by the Sox, we would pocket the real hr ball and than chuck the bp ball onto the field so everyone would be happy if that were to happen…and whatyda know… it happened…. well sort of
ook during the encore of the game
2011 Remaining Yankee Games for sale
Section 311 row 4 2 seats
April
Date Opponent Time
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May
Date Opponent Time
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Wed, May 11 |
Royals |
7:05 pm |
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Thu, May 12 |
Royals |
7:05 pm |
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Fri, May 13 |
Red sox** |
7:05 pm |
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Sat, May 21 |
Mets** |
7:10 pm |
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Sun, May 22
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Mets** |
1:05 pm |
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Mon, May 23 SOLD |
Blue jays |
7:05 pm |
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Wed, May 25 |
Blue jays |
1:05 pm |
June
Date Opponent Time
Tue, Jun 7 SOLD |
Red sox** |
7:05 pm |
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Wed, Jun 8 |
Red sox** |
7:05 pm |
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Fri, Jun 10 SOLD |
Indians |
7:05 pm |
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Wed, Jun 29 |
Brewers* |
7:05 pm |
|
Thu, Jun 30 |
Brewers * |
1:05 pm |
July
Date Opponent Time
Mon, Jul 25
Mariners
7:05 pm
Tue, Jul 26
Mariners
7:05 pm
Mon, Jul 25
Mariners
7:05 pm
Tue, Jul 26
Mariners
7:05 pm
August
|
Thu, Aug 25 |
Athletics |
1:05 pm |
September
Date Opponent Time
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Mon, Sep 5 |
Orioles |
1:05 pm |
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Tue, Sep 6 |
Orioles |
7:05 pm |
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Wed, Sep 7 |
Orioles |
TBD |
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Fri, Sep 23 |
Red sox** |
7:05 pm |
|
Sun, Sep 25 |
Red sox** |
1:05 pm |
All games are FACE VALUE
$40/per ticket ($80/game)
*Interleague
games: $45/pet ticket
Day 3 Baltimore Trip 4/29/2010
4/29/10 DAY 3
All right so today was our last day
in Baltimore. The series is tied up at 1 a piece and we got AJ going for us
today against some hot shot rookie the O’s supposedly got in Brian Matusz. No
worries cause today I was confident that AJ would be on his A game tonight. So
lets get started shall we?
I wake up nice and early to write
my blog from the previous day and take a shower. I go and see if everyone else
is up and of course they’re not. So I begin to get all my stuff together
because we were not coming back into the room later tonight. Eventually
everyone wakes up and we all begin to get our stuff out of the room and into
the car. We say our goodbyes to Anthony and his roommates and we’re off for
breakfast. I wanted to go into downtown Baltimore and go to the Blue Moon Café
and get the Cap’n Crunch French Toast but we woke up too late and we missed it
because they close at 2pm. So after a huge debate (and a 2-3 coin toss in the
Dairy Queen parking lot) we decided to go to Chaps again. (I made a couple of modifications to my Sandwich though) Incredible!
So we eat our
delicious pit beef once more and then Rich insisted that we go to a local
Thrift Store. Smh. So we find one a couple of miles away from the ballpark and
we each get some silly souvenirs. I bought a softball bat for $3. Ok now it’s
game time. We get into the ballpark and because we aren’t season ticket holders
we could go into left field. So we stood in RF and CF for an hour or so and
then Rich and I go into LF. The Yanks were up and Tex and Arod were hitting
bombs but they were all going into the bullpen. One in particular caught my eye
though. There was a ball sitting at the bottom of the bullpen walkway that
could be obtained through the glove trick. So I whip out my string, rubber
band, and sharpie and get to work. 2 things though. 1) The wall that I was
leaning against was really weird and I had to either jimmy my hand in between
two bars and lower my glove down and not be able to see what I’m doing. 2) My
string was not long enough. It was a pretty decent drop from where I was and
the bullpen walkway. So after a couple of attempts with what I had… I
improvised. I think to myself where can I get more string in a short amount of
time… my feet! I look at my sneakers and there was some string, shoestrings! So
I quickly unlace my sneakers and tie my shoestrings to my glove. No having much
more string to work with I was able to look over the bar and see where I was
going with the glove. After about 5 minutes or so I finally got a hold of the
ball and lured it up! This was my 3rd career glove trick ball but by
far the most gratifying because of how I obtained it. By then the Yanks were
done with bp and we get a phone call from Dom. He said that another ball landed
in the well in CF. So I run over (still with no laces in my shoes) and go down
to CF. I see a couple of people eyeballing the ball and I knew this was going
to be like taking candy from a baby, I lean over the railing where the ball was
and after a couple of attempts I lured it up for ball #2 on the day. I got a
nice little round of applause from the crowd. They thought it was amazing that
I did it or whatever. Now I thought my day was over but I look over the CF wall
where there is a large area of grass and there were 7 balls just lying there.
So I obviously waited for someone to scoop them up and toss them into the
crowd. Finally one of the coach;s came by and started picking them up. I was
closest to where he was picking them up so I asked him politely if I could have
one. He took the ball and tossed it up for ball #3 on the day. Dom also got one
thrown up to him as well. after that we got settled into our seats for the
game. We decided to sit in LF tonight for possible Homeruns.
The game starts and we got jack!
Nothing even close came by us. No big deal though. The Yankees go on to win the
game and Rivera came in to get the last 3 outs which is always awesome to see.
So
that’s it. Baltimore trip is over and in my opinion is was a total success.
Everyone got at least 1 ball and the Yanks won the series 2-3. Now it’s back to
Long Island and wait for the next game. Catch ya lata
Day 2 Baltimore trip 4/28/2010
4/28/2010- DAT 2 OF BALTIMORE TRIP
Ok so after a very long night of
college dorm room shenanigans we finally got some sleep. I woke up around 9am
(for no apparent reason) and was so tired but today was going to be another
long day so I got up, brushed my teeth, and had some breakfast. I then sat down
and wrote my blog from yesterday but was interrupted once everyone woke up. We
started watching “4 Christmas’” that is an absolutely ridiculous movie that is
just full of nonsense. Anyway, I finish up the blog, hit the showers, and get
dressed.
My cousin Anthony was coming with
us today which was pretty cool because we don’t have much time to go to games
together since he’s away at college and I’m always too busy to visit so today I
wanted to make the most of it. We leave the room around 1pm and today I had big
plans for Lunch. Chaps Pit Beef in Baltimore was featured on the show Man vs.
Food and I had every intentions of going and see what all the fuss was about.
By the way if you haven’t seen the show I suggest you go Tivo it right now
because it’s awesome. So we get there and it’s some little mom and pops place
and was totally out dated but the food was amazing.
Everyone enjoyed the food
and it was worth every penny. So after lunch we hopped in the car and made our
way to the ballpark. We found some parking in one of the local garages and
walked to the field. No one was really there yet since it was only 3:30 so we
were forced to wait around. Anthony and I went inside the gift shop by the
concourse to look at some Yanks stuff they had set up. I then get a phone call
phone call from Rich. He frantically tells me to come outside so I rush out and
what do I see? Aj Burnett, Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain, Sergio Mitre, David
Robertson, and the strength and conditioning trainer running past us. They were
just casually running around the general area around the ballpark so that was a
pretty cool surprise. We figured they’d have to come back so I took out a ball
to get signed just in case. Sure enough they run back about 10 minutes later
and I walk up to Hughes and ask Hughes for an auto. With his hands on his waist
he grumbled what sounded like a no so I just walked away. Total failure but I
don’t blame the guy; I wouldn’t want to sign either when I was trying to catch
my breath. So they run back in the ballpark and the fun was over for now.
Before we knew it, it was 5pm and
it was go time. Gates open and I made a beeline for LF. Now in Camden Yards you
need to be a season ticket holder in order to access the rest of the ballpark
before 5:30 so I just gave it a shot today to see if I could get through. I see
the guy whose checking tickets and such so I wait for the right moment and
sneak past. I now just get on my horse and get to LF as quickly as possible to
see if I could grab an Easter egg or two.
Some other guy clearly a local ballhawk beat me to it by picking up 2 or
3 before I could get there. No worries I figured I’d get one shortly since
there was basically no one I LF. WRONG! The O’s ended bp so early and I got
shut out within the 1st 30 minutes. I then go over into CF and try
my luck there. I got the attention of the Yankees bullpen catcher and asked him
for a ball. He threw it to me but there was a little kid next to me. I caught
the ball and I heard him say like “aww man” or something. So I turn to him and hand him the ball. He said, “You don’t want it?” Well of course I want it but
it’s the right thing to do in my opinion. So he and his father said thank you
and I continued to keep my eye on the filed. I did in fact count to my
collection so I have 1 for today so far.
Jorge Posada steps up and I noticed
during yesterday’s bp that he was hitting bombs into that RF walkway. So I ran
up to the walkway just as he launched a ball up there. I make a mad dash for it
but it takes this insane hop of the back gate and I have to completely change
course of direction. Lucky the people going after it knocked it loose and who
was there to smother it with his entire body: Me. So I got ball number 2
secured and I made my way into CF again. Someone then blasts a HR over the CF
wall and I notice there is a cop standing around. Now before when I was in LF I
saw him throwing balls up including one to Rich. So I knew he was bound to toss
one up if I simply asked. Sure enough he picks up the ball and looks at me and
throws me ball number 3 of the day. That would be all the action I would get
for bp. Once it ended we headed over to our seats that were located down the RF
line along the wall. I made a sign and you can barely see it but here i am in the background:
CC was pitching and he had amazing stuff tonight. Opposing
him way Jeremy Guthrie and he was bum from the start. We got a couple of early
runs off of him and that’s all CC needed. When
8 innings later and CC was still in
the game but a hit knocked him out and who was there behind the 3rd
base dugout to give him a standing O? Yes you guessed it, me. During the later
innings I figure I should try and snag a foul ball but had no such luck. I was
in the area though when CC got taken out so I figured some TV time would be nice. Here i am in the top right of the screen:
So the Yanks go on to win the game
and we decide to wait outside and try for some autographs. We didn’t have to
wait to long because Ken Singleton and Michael Kay came out. My cousin got
Singleton on a ball and managed to talk to Kay about an internship for ESPN New
York so he was certainly on his game today. Shortly after that a gentleman
named CC Sabathia came out! So I already got CC on my 09′ Championship ball and
on another ball at home so I figured I could get him to sign a ticket stub from
the game he just won. I made my way into the group of people, gave CC the stub,
he signed it, gave it back, and I was set. So after CC left Francisco Cervelli
came out and he was pretty cool. Not only did he sign my Champs ball he stopped
for a photo. (The photo is on Rich’s camera so i don’t have it now)
Now the night was a compete success
and over.
Final totals:
Me: 3 balls, Anthony: 2 balls,
Rich: 4 balls, Both Doms: 0 balls for the day
Catch
ya lata
Tony b.
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