While Baltimoreans were starting to fill the pubs on the morning of Opening Day, I was standing in line at 11 AM, one of only a few people outside of Gate H on Eutaw Street.
Me, my girlfriend Kelly, and a good friend of mine, Ben, left Towson University at about 10 and headed downtown. With help from fellow ball hawk Alex Kopp (who attends every game except Opening Day), we were able to snag free parking in his driveway just blocks away from the stadium, making the process painless.
When we got outside the stadium, we immediately planted ourselves outside Gate H. I wouldn’t say we were alone, but pretty close to it.
You can see my friend Ben in the bright orange jacket, standing in the center of the shot. You can also see my thumb. Ignore my thumb.
Of course, as it got closer to 12 when gates were supposed to open, the plaza began to fill.
It was not as crowded as I have seen some games, but the line was nearing the street.
Our plan for the day was simple: get inside the stadium and go directly to the Eutaw Street standing room area on the flag court. That’s where our tickets were for, and we knew the faster we got there, the better chance we had to grab a spot on the front rail.
When we got in, we did indeed grab a spot on the rail, and Ben and Kelly held a spot for me as I faded towards the back of the flag court to try to catch a ball or two. Here was their view from where they stood.
While it was still early and a majority of the fans were not in the stadium yet, I was hoping to get a few opportunities to grab a ball, and maybe even one of the Orioles’ 60th Anniversary commemorative baseballs that they will be using all season.
As luck would have it, the Orioles took a quick batting practice. None of the lefties that I saw hit really put one onto the flag court. But, for the righties, new acquisition Delmon Young sure did put on a show. I can not wait until the crowds begin to thin and I have room to run in the left field seats. He is going to keep me busy.
Immediately after the Orioles jogged off the field, the Red Sox started to hit. Within a few minutes, balls were beginning to find their way onto the flag court.
A.J. Pierzynski was the first to start the trend, hitting a ball just to my right in an area where there was not many people. The ball was hit pretty hard, but I thought I had a read on it. I tracked it to my right and quickly realized that this one was going to be a bit more difficult than I had thought. I stretched my glove to my right, across my body, and watched as the ball flew just beyond the tip of my mitt. The ball ended up short-hopping into one the concrete gate columns at the back of the flag court and causing a panicked shuffle between a couple older fans.
I gave up on that one and turned my attention back to the field; and good thing I did. Pierzynski drove the next one towards the flag court, just a few feet in front of me. While yelling “heads up” for everyone that was still watching where the other ball landed, I quickly ran to the front of the flag court and made a clean catch before it could strike one of the many unaware fans.
It was my first ball of the season; and it is a beauty.
As you can see, this ball had the regular MLB logo beneath the Selig signature, meaning the Orioles’ commemorative balls have not mixed into the Red Sox’ batch, nor were they using special Opening Day balls. That was assumed since they really only use those during the games. More on those balls later.
After catching that ball, I was still hoping to pull in some more. Even though Pierzynski hit the flag court few more times, I was not able to grab any of those. I did have a few fly over my head and onto the crowded Eutaw Street, but I was not trying to battle the crowd on my first game of many.
When David Ortiz came up to bat, however, things got a little crazy. Here is a spoiler alert: David Ortiz has some power. If I had to make a team of the best batting practice performers, Papi would probably fill one of the positions. I have seen that man come awfully close to hitting the Warehouse on multiple occasions.
He did not disappoint this time, either. He was a constant threat to the pedestrians strolling through Eutaw Street as well as the diners enjoying a meal on Dempsey’s outdoor patio.
One group of fans enjoying a meal got a real surprise as Ortiz drove a ball so far that it cleared Eutaw Street and landed directly on one of their dinner plates, shattering it to pieces, sending shards flying everywhere. The sound of that plate breaking was louder than any window I’ve ever heard shatter.
I was able to snag a picture of the pieces as one of the Dempsey’s managers was cleaning it up from as far as the middle of Eutaw Street.
Things at Camden Yards David Ortiz has smashed to pieces: dugout telephone, dinner plate.
Meanwhile, it was getting pretty crowded on the flag court. People were everywhere and, overall, just not paying attention.
Here was the view to my right:
In front of me:
To my left:
Because of that, things got a bit tricky. I had a few more opportunities to snag another ball even with the crowd, but for one reason or another, I was not able to come up with any, ending my batting practice total at one: a solid number for a challenging Opening Day. I hoped that I would be really lucky and get a home run hit right to me during the game.
Before the game could start, I made a few interesting (for one reason or another) observations.
On an important Orioles note, the injured Manny Machado jogged around the warning track a few times, hopefully meaning his return is coming very shortly.
Also, I caught a glimpse of this chick and her snack of choice.
Yeah, thats a whole cucumber. I couldn’t tell you why.
As for the festivities, Jim Hunter did a solid job as always and it was fun cheering on the guys as they made their entrances on the orange carpet.
Here is how I saw things from my spot.
My girlfriend took this awesome panoramic shot.
And yes, the stadium was filled. Check out the left field bleachers, my usual stomping grounds.
You can see Nelson Cruz and Adam Jones in that shot, warming up after the defense took the field to Lil Jon’s party anthem “Turn Down for What?” If that stays for the whole season and the team does well, will the 2014 Orioles’ slogan be “turn down for what?” I guess we’ll see.
Of course, there were only two home runs hit during the game. Grady Sizemore gave me the best opportunity as he hit one right to the front row of the flag court, his first home run since July 15, 2011. Unfortunately, the ball landed about 15 feet to my left.
Look at the screengrab. The circle on the left is around me and the one on the right is around the ball.
In the ninth inning, I went on a mission. As I mentioned before, the MLB uses special Opening Day baseballs during the games across the league. I wanted to make it down to the umpires’ tunnel behind home plate just before the last out to attempt to get a ball from home plate umpire Dana Demuth.
While new closer Tommy Hunter hit the lead-off batter with a pitch, I stopped down the first base line so I could time my arrival behind home plate properly.
With two outs, I made it down to here without an issue.
Immediately after the last out, I slid to my right to the umpire’s tunnel, stuck my glove out, and waited for Demuth.
As Demuth ducked into the tunnel, he did not seem like he was in a great mood, and I did not like my chances of getting a ball. But, to my surprise, he reached into his pocket, pulled out a ball, and stuck it in my glove!
Success! I had grabbed my first Opening Day commemorative ball!
Except not.
Before Demuth let go of the ball, he removed his hand from my glove and gave it to a kid that he had walked past to get to me. I guess he noticed I had a beard and was not ten years old.
According to Demuth, it was the only ball he had.
As Demuth walked on by, I felt another hand go into my glove. One of the other umpires had put something into my glove. I guess he saw that Demuth had originally put the ball in my glove and felt bad, so he gave me a handful of gum.
Ho-hum.
Even though I headed home with only one ball and a bunch of umpire gum, I had plans to start batting practice on Wednesday — the next game day — with a lot more than that.
See, I had heard that the Orioles were planning on having a team workout at Camden Yards at 3 on Tuesday. Of course, I knew I would not be allowed in the stadium, but I hoped that Eutaw Street would be open just as it always is on non-gamedays, giving me the entire area in front of the Warehouse to grab any balls that may find their way over/through the fence. I would also have the standing room area above the bullpens to try for toss-ups from the players shagging in the outfield.
After my classes I hopped on the lightrail, praying that the gates would be open and that I would not have made the trip for naught. When I got off the train and headed towards the stadium, I was excited to see that the gates were open. Now, I just had to see if there was any action on the field.
But the field was empty and there was no sign of the batting cage. The grounds crew was on the field when I got there and had just finished watering the dirt. After a while, they went into their little garage door in the right field corner. I was hoping they were going to wheel out the cage. Instead, they closed the door then turned on the sprinklers. Sometimes, that is just how your luck goes.
Since I was already downtown, I decided to walk around the stadium and look for signs of a possible practice. I walked down Eutaw Street and to the players’ parking lot. There were a few cars in there, but only one or two that were Major-League quality.
I decided to just waste more time. I finished the lap around the stadium and contemplated leaving. Not being able to drag myself back to that God-awful lightrail, I peeked my head back into the bullpens and I started to get excited.
The Red Sox had taken the tarp off their bullpen mound and had set up a bag of balls and a pair of rosin bags. This could only mean that some pitchers were about to get their work in.
After a few minutes, Jake Peavy and pitching coach Juan Nieves came out with a bullpen catcher.
Peavy spent quite a bit of time working on throwing a cutter. He was telling Nieves how he wants to go back to throwing a “real cutter,” not a mix between a slider and a cutter. Apparently, Peavy used to throw a cutter (presumably in San Diego when he was dominant), but, according to him, he has lost it, and “it’s embarrassing.” He messed around with different grips, settling on one that Al Leiter had used. But, no matter how he threw it, Peavy was not happy with it. A few times, he yelled some obscenities in between pitches. All I know is that I would not have been able to hit it either way.
While Peavy threw, a crowd of Red Sox players, coaches, and other personnel gathered.
Let’s identify some of these guys:
1 – Jake Peavy
2 – Juan Nieves
3 – Chris Capuano
4 – John Lackey
5 – ?
I just stood there with my glove on and watched Peavy throw. I wanted a ball, but I did not want to bother any of them. Plus, I know how this works from experience. Eventually, Peavy will accidentally throw a wild pitch or just want a new ball. He will give it to his pitching coach who will then throw it up.
This time, it was a little easier, though. Without me saying a word, guy #5 asked Juan Nieves for a ball and threw it to me as soon as he got it. I guess he noticed me hanging out with my glove.
Before that, Felix Doubront had made his way to the bullpen with another bullpen catcher. He stood near the unused pitching rubber while Peavy finished up. I guess he did not notice that guy throw a ball to me, because when Peavy threw a wild pitch that ricochet off the back wall, all the way to Doubront, he turned to me and threw it.
I knew all the Red Sox who saw me get the first ball saw me get that one as well. So, to not piss them off, and also because I would have done it anyway, I gave it to a kid in an Orioles jacket who had rode his bike over to the stadium to try to catch some action. A little bit later, Nieves threw him another one.
In case you are wondering: yes, that ball from Doubront does count as my third ball of the day. The way I see it is for that minute, I had full possession of the ball. I did not have to give the ball away, I just chose to.
When Peavy finished, Doubront took the mound.
Even though I assumed I was not going to get another ball, I hung out and watched Doubront work. I mean, what else did I have to do?
From my view, Doubront’s bullpen session was interesting. Even though he was not vocally frustrated like Peavy, he seemed to struggle to throw strikes at times. Juan Nieves did not seem impressed either, making faces and exchanging whispers with the bullpen catcher who caught Peavy’s session.
Nieves was also calling out names of Orioles batters and instructing Doubront where to throw the pitch. Nieves wanted Doubront to throw an inside fastball to a right-handed batter that he “would foul down the third base line.”
“Right-handed batter. That fool Young from here. What’s his name? Delmon Young.”
The “fool” comment got a few chuckles from the guys waiting around.
When Doubront finished, everyone left the bullpen and the field was once again empty. So, I headed out, happy with the two baseballs I had earned on a day when there was not even a game.
Season Stats:
1 game
3 balls
1 caught
2 thrown
