In the world of ball hawking, day games usually mean bad things. For one, there usually is not batting practice. Since most day games come directly after night games, teams usually give their players partial days off from some of their pregame workouts.
On this particular 1:35 Sunday game, the Orioles and Blue Jays had just played a 3-hour-39-minute 12-inning game thanks in part to rookie umpire Jeff Gosney and Orioles’ closer Tommy Hunter.
So, the hopes of having batting practice before the game seemed futile.
You can imagine why I cringed when fellow ball hawk and my light rail buddy Grant Edrington told me he wanted to hop on the train scheduled to arrive at the Lutherville station at 10:47. Since I didn’t really feel like taking the light rail alone, I agreed, and we arrived at the park about 10 minutes before the scheduled 11:30 gate opening time.
After being harassed by one of the nasty bag checkers outside Gate H, Grant and I walked calmly in towards the left field seats. It was a nice change of pace from usual: we had no reason to rush.
But, when we got above the bullpens, we saw one of the greatest Sunday sights one could see:
The batting cage was up!
Now, it was quite clear the Orioles were not gonna hit. For one, they would probably already be hitting. There were also no position players to be seen anywhere on the field. So that could only mean that the Blue Jays planned to take some BP at some point.
Until that time, Grant and I just wandered around, doing random things, soaking in the beauty of a nearly-empty stadium. I looked for balls that may have been overthrown during pitching warm-ups down the third base line (there were none), tried to chase down R.A. Dickey for an autograph (but he wasn’t having any of that), then just hung out with Grant down the third base line when Blue Jays pitchers finally did come out to throw.
Grant was wearing a blue shirt, a common ploy to get opposing teams players to give you a baseball. I do not particularly like getting toss-ups, so I just hung back and let Grant do his thing.
He did not end up getting a ball from any of them, but after I left to go to the right-center field bleachers in preparation for BP, he got two of them thrown to him above the Jays’ dugout.
Speaking of the right-center field bleachers, check out how much room I had if the Jays would have started at that time.
To my left:
To my right:
And my view:
They did end up hitting a little bit after that, and it did get a little more crowded, but still a lot better than most weekday games. But, only some of the Jays hit, and they were not that impressive.
I stayed in right-center for the first group of Blue Jays, but nothing was hit to me. I did end up using my ball retriever to fish a ball out of the gap for my first ball of the day. I gave it to a little boy who was standing right above it.
For the second group, expecting it to be the usual Bautista-Encarnacion-Lawrie trio, I went to left field where it was a little more crowded, and stupid people were doing stupid things like this:
If only there were a place at Major League ballparks where a person could sit. If I owned a team, I would have such places arranged all around each stadium. And to make sure every person had a seat, I would specifically put a section, row and seat number on each ticket. I know, I know: that’s some Jetsons-type stuff.
But seriously: some of the stupid stuff I see people do at the stadium blows my mind. After about 20 minutes, she finally stopped sitting in the middle of the stairs. But, she left her toddler sitting there with his feet sticking out in the walkway. All it took was for one person to walk down the steps, not expecting to have a baby’s legs in their way, and..
Anyway, only Encarnacion hit in that group, and it was simply too crowded to move for any of his bombs. The Jays ended BP right after that.
I got out of the crowded left field seats as soon as the Jays finished, and noticed a ball sitting in the gap in right-center field. I fished that out with my ball retriever, marking my second ball of the day. I gave it to a little boy whose mother said that a player had thrown it to them, but they dropped it down there.
During BP, Grant had been hanging out on the flag court, and something kinda freakish happened. Look at this:
That is a part of one of the flag poles on the flag court; it’s one of the pieces that the rope wraps around. A Blue Jays player had hit it during BP, causing it to snap off. Grant grabbed the ball that broke it, as well as that piece. And yes, he took both home.
Here’s the flag pole that it broke off of. You can see the bottom part of the rope-holding-thing is broken.
While waiting around for the game to start, I noticed something different in the Orioles’ bullpen:
The number 17 was taped to the back of the bench. Of course, #17 is Brian Matusz, who would be making his return from having the flu. The guys in the bullpen decided to mess with him and make a little memorial.
Back to ball hawking: just before every game starts, some position players on each team warm-up their arms by throwing with each other in front of their dugouts. Grant and I had heard a rumor that, while they are not using them during BP, they are indeed using the 60th Anniversary baseballs during their pre-game throwing.
With nothing else to do, Grant and I decided to give it a go. Grant went a section to my left, and I went down here without any problems at all:
Soon, four Orioles came out and started throwing: Nick Markakis with Adam Jones, and J.J. Hardy with Jonathan Schoop.
J.J. and Schoop finished first. From about the fifth row, I stooped up, waved my arms and called for J.J. He saw me and flipped the ball towards me. Remember, since I was in the fifth row, me getting the ball from an underhand flip would be difficult. Why he didn’t just throw it, I don’t know.
When the ball was on its way, a guy stoop up in front of me and tried to catch it. I reached over him with my glove to try to make my own catch before he could put his hands on it. Neither of us caught it, but I was able to knock the ball back towards me and into my row. The ball fell on the ground and started to roll under the guy’s seat. I was afraid he was either going to notice it, or it was going to keep rolling.
Neither happened, and I grabbed the ball. My third of the day, and my first Orioles’ 60th Anniversary Season commemorative.
The only disappointing thing is that the logo was kind of warn.
And guess what? When Nick and Adam were finished throwing, Jonesy threw a bomb to Grant. So he got his first 60th Anniversary ball, too.
Yes, his logo is a little nicer. But, there’s a lot more season left.
For the game I hung out on the flag court with both Alex Kopp — who was the birthday boy — and Grant.
In the first inning, I was in my position when Colby Rasmus came to the plate against Ubaldo Jimenez, thinking how lucky I was that the standing room area really was not that crowded (yet).
Watching that red Roma Sausage sign, I quickly saw a ball eclipse it, and this one was for sure coming straight for the flag court. My first reaction was to stand my ground and get a read on it. I have been a victim of going to far in for homers onto the flag court.
As I was reading it, I felt a push from behind and heard a “go!” It was Grant, who apparently had a better read on the ball than I did.
I tracked the ball out through the gates, onto Eutaw, and made a jump for the ball that was going to sail over my head. I felt the ball smack the mitt, then I felt nothing. I came to feet, thinking that the ball had flew out of my glove.
But, when I opened my glove, BAM! It was in there! My first home run of the season!
I raised my arms in celebration, and ran over to my bag to get a ball to throw back. I was digging and digging in my back but couldn’t find a ball. Thankfully, Grant grabbed one quickly out of his and gave it to me. I chucked it to second base just after Rasmus crossed the plate. Remember kids: never throw back the real home run.
I wish there were some good screengrabs I could take from the video of the home run, but since it was onto Eutaw Street, it is hard to see the catch one picture. But, if you watch the video, you can partially see me jump for the catch, then raise my arms in celebration.
With the next batter up, my adrenaline still pumping and heart still pounding, Alex took a picture of me with the ball.
(I don’t think that is a sweat stain there on my right side, but I could be wrong. It was pretty warm out there).
I took my patented photo of the ball with it in my glove:
A little while later, they had estimated the spot on Eutaw Street where the ball would have landed had I not caught it. Check out the marking:
In the off season, there will be a plaque there commemorative the homer. It will be the third plaque on Eutaw Street commemorating home runs I have caught. Cool, right? I wish they gave the fans who caught the balls a replica of the plaque (hint, hint, Orioles).
Another fun fact: as far as we know, Alex and I are the only two people to catch a home run on the fly on Eutaw Street during a game. He did it last year with a towering Adam Dunn shot.
As for the game, it started to get a little crowded on the flag court, as it does on most Sundays:
But in the eighth inning, I had another perfect opportunity to catch another home run.
When Chris Davis knocked his first home run of the season to the batters eye in center field, I almost followed Grant over to try to get it thrown up to me — a tough task. But I thought better of it: Matt Wieters was up now and he was batting left-handed.
So, I hung out in my normal spot on the flag court, and Wieters sent a high blast right towards me. All I had to do was run a few feet to my left to get in line with it.
Let me just say this: the sun is brutal on the flag court late in day games. It is so bad that I don’t even think sunglasses would really help all that much (unless, of course, they are expensive, MLB-level shades. But I don’t trust myself with a pair of those).
Long story short: I lost the ball in the sun.
It had happened to me before in the ninth inning of a day game last season, so I kind of knew what to do. I just stood my ground, and hoped I could see it again early enough to make a play on it. By time I saw it, it was already landing a few feet in front of me. The ball bounced up and over my head, but I gave chase.
Two guys reached up for it and banged into each other right in front me. I thought I would be able to grab it there, but the ball was knocked to the ground. I went down after it, but it scooted to my right. Another guy who was eating at a picnic table grabbed it before I could.
I ended up tangled with one of the guys that had fell to the ground with me, but thankfully he was really nice and was not angry in the slightest.
It was a little frustrating that I could have had one of my easier flag court catches, but I try not to worry about that stuff. The sun is a force I cannot compete with. Maybe I’ll try to buy a pair of nice shades (any recommendations?) for future day games, though.
After the tough break, I went to section 88 next to the batter’s eye to see if I could get Davis’ home run thrown up to me. Check it out here in front of the batter’s eye.
Instead, a guy who looked like an official MLB authenticator — or at least an Orioles’ authenticator — came out of the groundskeeper’s tunnel and took it away. So be sure to look for the Orioles’ making even more money from selling the ball.
Overall, though, a Sunday day game with batting practice and four baseballs — a game home run and my first two 60th anniversary commemorative balls — is pretty damn good. I’ll take that every weekend!
Season Stats:
6 games
24 balls
– 12 hit
– 7 ball retrieved
– 4 thrown
– 1 found
2014 Game Home Runs: 1
Colby Rasmus – #101 in career – 4/13/14
