For multiple reasons, I always love when the White Sox visit Camden Yards. A mid-week series against the White Sox means sparse crowd and, even though I do enjoy winning baseball (which comes with large crowds), it is sometimes nice to have a sub-20,000 attendance. Plus, it is good for the ball hawking.
Another reason I love when the White Sox visit is because, well, we have a history. When I had my streak of catching a home run in three consecutive games, it was in the middle of a four-game, mid-week White Sox series. I also caught an Adam Jones home run last season that he hit versus the White Sox. There was also a Kevin Youkilis home run in 2012. In all, five of my 26 home runs have come in games against the White Sox. That near-20% average is pretty impressive, yet odd, when you consider how often the White Sox visit Camden Yards as opposed to teams in the American League East.
With that excitement, I arrived at the stadium just before 5:30 (late, of course, because of work). I hustled into the stadium and over to left field where I saw that the White Sox were just beginning to hit.
After about 10 minutes, I finally had my first opportunity. A shot off the bat of an unidentified White Sox slugger was coming towards me. I easily drifted into position, and lined myself up to make the grab. With a group of other fans trying to do the same thing, the ball never made its way into my glove. In fact, it did not make its way into anyone’s glove. The ball, instead, fell to the ground where I was able to grab it for my first ball of the day. Check it out:
It was nice seeing a baseball in my glove again after a long break.
After that, batting practice was a little dry for me. Some balls went out, but just not close to me.
Towards the very end of batting practice, Jordan Danks was taking his cuts. In case you have never seen Danks in the cage, allow me to describe him for you: a right-handed Adam Dunn. Before he got into the cage, Alex Kopp and I were trying to decide which one it was, Dunn or Danks. The only way we knew was one Danks stepped into the right-hander’s batters box. Unlike Adam Dunn, however, Danks does not crank the ball. In fact, for a man his size, his batting practice is disappointing.
With that said, he did manage to hit a liner to the warning track that skipped off the dirt and zipped over the wall. Noticing the ball was going to be close to either getting out or bouncing out, I was able to get myself in position in about the second row. Once the ball shot over the wall, it smacked the pocket of my mitt for my second ball of the day. Immediately after snagging it, I handed the ball to a kid in the front row that the ball had sailed over top of.
After that Danks double, I failed to catch anymore during batting practice.
With about a half-hour to kill before the game started, I did my usual: meet up with Alex and Grant Edrington, played trivia, won $5 in Orioles bucks and hung out.
I decided to grab a seat out in left field and was quickly reminded as to who was pitching:
You see those dudes with the cameras at the end of the row? That’s a portion of the Taiwanese media that covers Wei-Yin Chen’s every start. It really puts into perspective how big Chen is back in his home country. What would be our equivalent? Would it be if like LeBron James played overseas? Or maybe like if Peyton Manning was the starting quarterback in some new professional football league in China? Or maybe it is like Tim Tebow doing just about anything, ever? Maybe some people in Taiwan are just tired of hearing about Chen and think he is overrated. Who knows.
Here is what I do know:
I had this view …
… and I enjoyed it.
With a crowd of less than 20,000, I had a decent amount of room to navigate if I needed to. There were multiple home runs hit that night, but only one was really that close. Caleb Joseph’s shot in the eighth was a little more than a section to my right. I certainly made a move for it, and made it to the stairwell on the opposite side of me. However, the ball landed in the first few rows where a group of people were sitting. In fact, the ball was actually caught cleanly by a guy using his bare hands. Props to him.
After thoroughly enjoying the Chris Davis pinch-hit, walk-off home run (which I called more than an hour before it happened), I waited outside of Home Plate Plaza for my ride to pick me up.
Home Plate Plaza is a fun place to wait after a game for the simple reason that visiting players, and other special guests who were at the game, sometimes exit that way.
The most notable person I saw leave while I was there was that night’s starting pitcher for the White Sox, the dominant Chris Sale. For a guy who just went 6 innings, gave up an uncharacteristic 11 hits, but managed to only allow 2 runs and keep his team in the game while getting a no decision after a walk-off, he was extremely nice. He held the cup of whatever-he-was-drinking between his teeth and signed autographs for everyone who asked: even the autograph dealers. He was even conversational. What did he have to say about pitching out of two bases-loaded jams without surrendering a run? He called it “a Houdini act.”
Long story short, I got him to sign the batting practice ball that I had kept from that night:
You can even see a glimpse of Sale in the background with the white cup between his teeth, still signing autographs.
Former Oriole star Harold Baines walked out of Home Plate Plaza while Sale was signing autographs, as well. What did he do? Completely ignored anyone who approached him or tried to talk to him. That is cool, too, I guess.
June 24th v. White Sox
I once again arrived at Camden Yards just before 5:30 and immediately made my way towards the left field stands. When I made it above the bullpens, I saw Alex standing in the right-center bleachers. Knowing he does not move from left field unless there are a lot of lefties, I turned right around and went over to join him. Here was my view:
Even though Alex had the right scouting report, my time in right-center proved unfruitful. After that lefty-dominant group, I transferred to left field. I chose a spot closer to the foul pole than I usual stand, a decision I am still regretting:
While I was over there, some idiocy occurred on the field on the part of the White Sox:
Those two players standing together in the middle of the picture are Chris Sale (left) and Scott Downs (right). Shortly before that picture, a batted ball came towards them; Downs stayed where he was while Sale drifted back to make the catch. For whatever reason, Downs decided to be “that guy” and toss his glove in the air in an attempt to hit the ball. He succeeded in part, clipping the ball, causing it to slightly change direction. Because of that, Sale, who had lined himself up to make the grab, was almost hit in the face with the ball.
I see people doing this in the stands during batting practice all the time and it is stupid and dangerous. The fact that a Major League player did it with near-disastrous results absolutely blows my mind.
On the ball hawking side of things, I was able to make a clean catch on a deep drive off the bat of Tyler Flowers, my first ball of the day.
A little later, another ball came flying out. With an open row to my left, I began moving through it towards where the ball was going to land. About halfway through the row, I banged my leg into a cup holder, a seat, or something, and it hurt a lot. The thing was that I had stayed straight when moving through the row. Usually when I hit my leg it is because I accidentally swerved off my track and either hit the back of the row in front of me or the seats of the row I was in.
I grabbed my leg in pain, and turned around to walk back to my spot. I then saw it: some idiot in the row behind me decided to step on the seat as I was moving through the row. I never saw it happen, but he still had his one foot partially on the seat when I walked back through. When I got to the spot of the seat he was standing on, he again put his full weight on the seat, stopping me from walking back to my spot. I just looked at him and threw my arms in the air.
“Sorry,” he said.
Idiot.
Mere minutes later, my leg was showing the effects of the hit. It was bruised:
And beginning to swell:
I stayed in left field until the end of batting practice, thankfully still able to move, but still feeling the tingling of the swelling. After batting practice, I was able to get a terribly ineffective ice pack from one of the first aid workers. Waiting for the game to start, I grabbed a seat in left field, propped my leg up and put the ice pack (which lasted about 5 minutes) on my leg:
As I write this a week later, my leg is still swollen. In fact, it is even more swollen than it was that night. From below my knee to my ankle, my left leg is swollen. Sigh.
When the game started, I took the ice pack from my leg and was ready for a game home run to come flying my way. As I previously mentioned, this series was bound to be poorly attended. For this second game, the left field seats were 2011-style empty.
White Sox’ second baseman Gordon Beckham was up against Miguel Gonzalez in the top of the first and mashed a towering drive that was definitely heading out of the park. I made a perfect, quick read on the ball and knew it was going to my right. One problem (besides my leg): a beer vendor had just put his container full of ice and beverages in the aisle to my right. Acting quickly, I leaped over both the container and the railing and tracked the ball into section 82.
With hardly anyone else around and my perfect track of the ball, I was able to make the running grab of my second home run of the season and 27th ever.
MLB.com has a pretty clear, definitely-not-embedable video. You should check it out.
You can see that after I made the catch, I scampered right back to my seat and grabbed an old ball out of my bag:
I have no idea where I got this ball from. I probably found it at a field when I was hitting a few around. As you can see, it isn’t a MLB ball either. In fact, it looks like it says NCAA on it. As for that “WR,” yeah, I don’t know either.
What I do know is that I chucked that ball onto the field in place of the home run I just caught. I did not get to unleash a throw like I wanted to/usually do: that beer vendor was right behind me, unintentionally preventing me from getting my arm back far enough.
Anyway, check out the beauty:
Here is a close-up:
As I touched on earlier, it was my second of the season, Beckham’s 7th of the season. It was the 27th of my career and 61st in Beckham’s. With that, 6 of my 27 home runs have been caught in games with the White Sox visiting Camden Yards.
Of course, I spent the rest of the game hanging out in left field, hoping to catch another to extend a little streak of mine. I have caught two home runs in one game at least once in each of the last three seasons.
I thought I had a pretty good chance to make it four seasons in a row when Ryan Flaherty came up in the bottom of the ninth with a chance to walk it off with a blast. With a mound visit, I hustled, leg hurting, to the flag court in left field. I decided to play Flaherty really deep — on Eutaw Street.
Let’s just say if Flaherty put one unto Eutaw, I liked my chances. Look at what I had to my right:
And to my left:
Obviously, Flaherty grounded into a game ending double play instead.
Once again, I waited outside the stadium at Home Plate Plaza for my ride, hoping that Gordon Beckham would leave that way so I could get him to sign the home run. I did not see him, but I did see:
Good ol’ Peter Angelos. Whether you still hate him for the years of losing, credit has to be given to him and his family for this turn around. He has helped hire the right people and provide sufficient funds to make the moves that needed to be made. Mr. Angelos was very nice to everyone outside, signing autographs and taking pictures with whoever asked. He also looked a lot healthier than what he did when I saw him about a year and a half ago.
Also saw White Sox outfielder Adam Eaton leave, and he was also as nice as can be. He had a few people ask him for autographs, but he very politely told them that he could not sign this time because he was with his family.
Before I left, I took a shot of Home Plate Plaza and Camden Yards as it winded down for the night:
Season Stats:
29 games
76 balls
– 47 hit
– 13 thrown
– 9 ball retrieved
– 7 found
Game Home Runs:
#26 – Colby Rasmus’ 101st – 4/13/14
#27 – Gordon Beckham’s 61st – 6/24/14
