With the six-day road trip giving me enough time to relax my legs and forget about the unfortunate (ball hawk-wise and otherwise) Tigers series, I was excited to get back to the Yards and conquer the four-game Indians series.
Since the time of the game on Saturday was changed from the usual 7:05 start to a 12:35, I knew there was a good chance that there would only be two nights of batting practice in this series: Thursday and Friday.
But, during the commute to the ballpark, the prospects for batting practice on Thursday looked to be dwindling. At the Woodberry stop on the lightrail, there was a steady rain, an awful, awful sign. Then, when we got off the train, it was spitting outside the stadium.
I left my girlfriend Kelly in line outside of Gate H, and went to the fences behind the statues/picnic area to see if the Orioles’ grounds crew were preparing for more rain.
Here is what I saw:
If you look between the trees, you can see that the batting cage was up. However, there were only a handful of players on the field, and members of the grounds crew were moving some cages around. Were they putting stuff up or taking them down? It was kind of hard to tell. All I knew was that it was nearly 4:30 and the Orioles had not started hitting yet.
Hoping to see batting practice when I got inside, I waiting in line outside Gate H:
As it got closer to gate opening time, there was a semblance of a crowd lined behind me:
When 5:00 hit, the gate I was in front of opened first, allowing me to slide right in, have my ticket scanned and begin on my way to left field before any other gate swung open. I was able to make it into left field first and without having to run. Because of this, I grabbed my first ball of the day off the ground in the first row of section 84.
I tried something a little different during this batting practice: I stayed in row 4, close to the wall, a big difference from my usual spot in row 13. No matter what row I stood in though, it had turned away from a potentially rainy day and it was simply beautiful:
My position near the first row paid off early as the left-handed Chris Davis hit a high pop towards the warning track in left field. Hoping the ball would squeak out, or at least bounce off the wall at a spot where I could lean over and grab it, I drifted to my right, tracking the ball through the first row. The ball finally landed just beyond the edge of the grass and took an odd, curving bounce even further to my right. The ball barely cleared the wall, but I was able to easily pick it up as it fell to my feet for ball #2.
Despite it being the first game back from a decently long road trip, there was not much ball hawking competition:
Especially to my left:
The sparse crowd helped me out with two more baseballs in left field during Orioles batting practice. A right handed hitter that I couldn’t identify knocked one into the seats. I was able to scamper over and pick it up before anyone else. After that, I moved back close to row 20 for Delmon Young’s cuts. I was able to make a clean grab running to my left on one of his blasts.
When Orioles’ batting practice ended, I already had four baseballs, only one less than I had all of the Tigers series.
With the first two groups of Indians hitting, I stayed in left field. However, for the third group, I moved over to the right-center field bleachers:
And it may have been even less crowded than left field. I could run for days!
To my left, it looked just as promising:
One problem: nothing was really hit up there.
But, do you see those guys in the white shirts shown two pictures above in the first row? There was even more of them that can not be seen in the shot. They were all twenty-somethings and were begging for baseballs whenever one came close. After spending the whole time I was over there pestering Sandy Alomar, Jr. for a baseball (without knowing his name), Alomar finally grabbed one that had rolled to the wall, and threw it up into the seats towards them. However, not wanting the ball to fall back on the field, Alomar tossed the ball over their heads. Aware of what was going on, I had lined myself up behind them in the third row, and made an easy catch of the Alomar throw, my 5th baseball on the day.
When batting practice ended, those same guys were yelling to a security guard that was in the groundskeepers tunnel, telling him there were baseballs in there, asking for him to toss them up. The guy grabbed one, gave it to one of the guys. Then, he got the other, and threw towards them as well. However, just like the Alomar one, he threw it over their heads. Prepared for this one as well, I reached with my bare hand and made the snag as it was going over their heads. With that, I grabbed my bag and Kelly and I left the section with my 6th baseball of the day.
We settled down in left field and waited until it got closer to game time. All during batting practice I had worn my new, orange and black, Fed Thrill sunglasses. I bought them with day games in mind: I hate losing game home runs in the sun on the flag court. I did it a few times last year, and I did it this year with a Matt Wieters home run that would have been an easy catch. The glasses passed my test during batting practice, so I decided to take a cool shot of them:
Hungry for a 7th ball, I left Kelly in left field and went behind the dugouts for the pre-game throwing:
You can also see Alex Kopp sitting directly in the middle of the shot, wearing an orange shirt.
But what caught my attention was right by the Hyatt beyond center field. Here is a closer look:
That sky was not looking too promising, and I was just hoping that it would hold off for the game.
It did not look too great over the Warehouse, either:
On the field, Adam Jones, Nick Markakis, J.J. Hardy, Manny Machado and Jonathan Schoop all came out to throw. I was targeting a throw from Jones by standing at the back of the section, but I was not successful.
I met Kelly back in left field where we sat in my usual spot in section 84. With it getting a bit crowded around us, I spotted this green oasis to our right:
It was a no-brainer to move there in between innings. While over there, I was excited not only about the home run potential, but also the chance to possible make a play on a deep foul ball:
Another thing that caught my attention over there: the “RIDE MTA!” sign. A new advertisement at Camden Yards sticks out to me; it would be like if someone rearranged the furniture in your house. I just found it funny how the MTA is now advertising at Camden Yards, but does not also run after the games. If there is a long extra-inning game, or a game with a drawn-out rain delay, and you have to take the light rail to Hunt Valley: good luck. You better leave before 11:30 or you are going to be stuck in the city. They say the train will run “an hour after the game,” but that’s a lie. It will run to North Avenue and that’s it. Ironically, we faced that situation that very day when the game went into the 13th inning; we had to leave before the bottom of the 13th started in order to catch a train. Dumb.
Anyway, the view from that section wasn’t terrible:
But there weren’t any home runs hit. In about the 10th, a group of school kids that were sitting in section 84 left, so we were able to jump into their seats, but still no luck.
As I said, we left in the middle of the 13th inning in order to catch a train, prepared to come back the next day … and the next … then the next.
Season Stats:
20 games
59 baseballs
– 33 hit
– 10 thrown
– 9 ball retrieved
– 7 found
