Today’s game would be the first weekday day game of the
season that I attended. The kids are in school yet not to mention it was a cold
and rainy day. Good stuff for ballhawking, right? Not so much. The day would
turn out to be the polar opposite of what I expected. I did get a nice photo op though…

Now, the last time I attended a Major League Baseball game
and did not leave with at least one
baseball was on Saturday, May 5^th of 2003. Several estimates have
placed my streak at around 100 games in a row with one baseball, when in
actuality it is at 409. That is in the last 409 games I have attended, I have
left with at least one baseball. Now, you would think the chances of a ballhawk
of my caliber being shut out are miniscule, especially with the anticipated conditions.
Not so fast…

I arrived at the ballpark at 9:30
AM, just early enough to park in the front row. There were a few
fire trucks parked on the concourse, as well as a giant blow up grub worm.
Strange stuff. Nonetheless, the concourse was empty until about 10 o’clock… as soon as the clock hits 10, three
school busses pull up and drop off LOADS of kids. I’m talking the entire Milwaukee
Public School district was in attendance, or so it seemed. Kids everywhere… not
good. Friday’s Front Row Sports Grill would not be open until game time today
as well. Disaster!!!

The park opened its standard 4 minutes late, and I was off
to the races. I knew I would have to earn my baseballs today. Toss ups would be
limited to the kids and I’ve already been recognized by a few players as having
tons of baseballs. There were no Easter eggs in the bleachers. Upon further
inspection, I realized only one team would be taking BP today, and that team
would be the INCREDIBLY stingy Milwaukee Brewers. I played for BP homers from the
lefties and for toss ups from Jody Gerut. A group of kids got 6 straight
baseballs from 2 players. Other than that BP was dead. Nothing hit and nothing
thrown… boring! Batting practice ended with my glove empty. Nothing, zero. What
a scary feeling. I was being shut out.

The game was rather exciting; the Brewers kept it close but
couldn’t hang on. They dropped 2 of 3 to the Cards as well as sole possession
of 1^st place. Both Trever Miller and Ryan Franklin pitched… what a
treat! I came to the conclusion that my best chance to get a ball was behind
the winning team’s dugout. The players would be on the field and the bullpen
staff would need to walk right in front of me. The final out was made and I
scurried down to the Cards dugout.

Player after player ignored me. Duncan,
Motte, LaRue, Barden, Rasmus. No dice. No ball, rather. Nearly the entire team
had walked under me without even waiving or nodding, let alone throwing a ball
to me. There was one player left
walking in from the bullpen: Joel Pineiro. I half-a$$ed a glove wag at him,
accepting defeat. Out of nowhere, he pulls a ball out and tosses it right to my
extended glove. Wow. Talk about taking it to the wire. I was within 5 feet of
being shut out for the first time in 410 games. Whew. Too close for comfort.

One (1) baseball
today

64
total on the season

May 26^th… Cardinals Round 2

Today would be another special day in the way of fan-player interaction.
The day prior my mother and I had a long talk with Cardinals LHP Trever Miller,
and got a ball from Ryan Franklin. Today the script would be flipped… Let’s not
get ahead of ourselves though.

I got to the ballpark rather early today, so I figured I would
try and watch the players and broadcasters arrive. I arrive at my destination
above the tunnel and see a few familiar faces…

That would be ESPN color commentators Steve Phillips, Dan
Schulman and Orel Hershiser talking to FSN Wisconsin’s Bill Shroeder. Cool
stuff. They soon disappeared into the tunnel and no sooner a gentleman with a
blue hat and black backpack approached me.

“Hey man.” He says.

I timidly reply with “sup?” He hands me a stack of business
cards. I figure its some of those cliché “NEED CASH FAST!?!?!?” flyers, so I pocket
them and say thanks. The fella continued walking away so I began to inspect the
stack of cards he handed me…

Yeah, that’s right. He gave me 24 free admission tickets to
local strip joint “Silk”. One of the weirder items I’ve gotten at the ballpark
(it doesn’t beat the parakeet I caught though). That was that for the outdoor
portion of my day at the ballpark. Time for the usual meal at Friday’s Front
Row.

Soon after getting our seats over the bullpen, Brewer’s
pitcher Jorge Julio fielded a liner about 100 feet in front of me. Asking for
the ball in Spanish, he tosses the ball directly to me and the small crowd that
had converged in my area. I inch my glove out in front of a rival ballhawk to
catch myself Baseball #1. The rest
of Brewers batting practice was relatively quiet until stud Ryan Braun fired me
Baseball #2. It was a perfect strike
directly to the web of my glove. This one was meant for me. Our one hour time
limit on the table was up, and it was time to change into the Cardinal’s gear.  

The gates opened and soon after Cardinals RHP Chris Perez
signed my baseball. Trever Miller, whom we talked with quite extensively the
day before, gave me a head nod and fist pump. What a guy! A few moments later
Ryan Franklin made his way over. Extending his hand for a handshake he asks “how
ya’ll doin’?”. I reply with my standard “Great, how about yourself?”. We went
on to talk about his family, taking another trip down to Saint Louis, golfing,
poker, Trever Miller, Ron Villone and various other things. Ryan Franklin and
Trever Miller have to be the most
fan-friendly players in the league. As soon as Franklin
headed in to SS and began to take ground balls, I get swamped. “WHO ARE YOU?
HOW DO YOU KNOW HIM? WHO WAS THAT? ARE YOU FAMOUS?” came from every direction. I
just gave general answers. “A friend of mine. He’s a good guy. Ryan Franklin.
Kinda.” I managed to get a picture with my guy:

Ryan Franklin’s vacated spot was soon filled by pitcher Kyle
Lohse. Everyone began to demand a ball, calling him things like “dude” and saying
“I need a ball right now”. Waiting for a lull in the action, I tell my mom “watch
this”. It quiets down and I put myself in a golden position: making it known
you know who a player is. I holler “hey Kyle Lohse!” and wag my glove in his
direction. He points and acknowledges me. He fields a grounder only seconds
later, scans the crowd and points to me. He threw me a knuckleball for Baseball #3. That was it for batting
practice.

I make my way behind the tarp, the place where opposing
players will stretch out for the game after batting practice and before the national
anthem. I sit down and begin to get grief from one of the regular autograph
hounds. They like to call him “G-Rob”, I have no idea why. He sells EVERY one
of his autographs by his own admission and has a massive scar across his face… not to mention mannerisms of a crazy person. He had some
not-so-nice things to say about ballhawks. This is the same fella that
(purposefully) pushed my mother in the back, making her fall over so he could
get Joe Torre to sign a few pictures. “G-Rob” apparently enjoys selling autographs and pushing women, all while talking trash. If you see this fella, ask him how
much he sold his most recent autograph for. The guys a bum.

After watching the players stretch, I make my way out to the
bullpen. Wainwright had a stellar bullpen session, his curveball was really
working. After the warm-ups were over, I made my way to the seats. Out of sight
from my previous location, I spot this gem:

Do you see what I see? Lets take a closer look:

That’s right; it’s a commemorative ball of some sort. More
on this later. The view from my seats:

In the middle of the uneventful Cardinal blowout, something
catches my eye. There is a gray blur in my peripheral… It ends up being this guy.

Yep, a squirrel was running around on the field. Good stuff.
He soon disappears, as well as the Brewer’s chances. After the game, I made my
way over the commemorative ball from a few paragraphs ago. I get bullpen
catcher Jeff Murphy’s attention. “Jeff, can I get this ball?” I ask.

“I just threw you one yesterday!”

“But it’s a commemorative ball!”

“A whaaa…?”

“A Twins ball… special logo for the last season at the
Metrodome!”

Murphy walks over, inspects the ball, shows it to me and
shrugs. It has a phrase written across the sweet spot, a practice common among
Brewer BP baseballs. I shrug back and extend my glove. He gives me a look and
reluctantly tosses me Baseball #4. The
phrase reads “Bubble’s is here”. I’m thinking it’s a reference to the
Metrodome. Any Ideas? The gem:

After all the players had left the field and the action had
resided, I made my way to the second deck in an attempt to get an Orel
Hershiser autograph. The extremely rude and unprofessional Miller
Park security/usher staff notified
me that would not be possible. Moments later, an “e-Bayer” wanders down the steps I had just been kicked down with
several pieces of signed Hershiser memorabilia. I love it how Miller
Park and the people that work there
blow. I think my good friend The Happy Youngster said it best: “I have no desire to ballhawk here any
longer.” Mr. Attanasio, wake up. Your staff is extremely
unprofessional and your prices don’t match the product, on the field as well as
off. Wait until the Brewers suck again and we see who the real fans are.

I’ll leave you with a few snap shots:

Telly Hughes and I:

The Happy Youngster doing what he does best:

Franklin deals:

4 Baseballs today

63 on the season

Memorial Day… what a great day to watch a game… not so much
for ballhawking. Tons of people tailgating, the park opening half hour later
than usual holidays, plenty o’ kids, only one team taking batting practice and
a geographical rival in town. That spells disaster for ballhawking. I knew
today would not be a high total day, and I was fine with it… Why, you ask?
Answer: Trever Miller and Ryan Franklin. I wouldn’t be doing much running
around or blending in. Let me explain…

Let’s go back in time, say, to the end of July 2005. On a
whim, we decided to go to two games in Minnesota
and see the Twins take on LHR Ron Villone’s Mariners. Ron is the player who
threw me my 1^st career baseball and jump-started my ballhawking
career a few years prior. The day before we leave ends up being July 31^st,
also known as moving day for about 50 players around baseball, also known as
the non-waiver trading deadline. Pretty much every left handed reliever or 4^th
outfielder is on call to be moved, as well as players without (and a few with)
a no-trade clause. But I digress… Ron ends up being traded to the Florida
Marlins the day before we leave. We now have no one to see in Minneapolis.

Begging for a few autographs, all decked out in new Mariners
gear, every single Mariner walks by without even waiving… except one: Ryan
Franklin. Ryan tosses me a ball covered in Astroturf stains and signs another
ball. We tell him about how he is the friendliest Mariner on the team and the
discussion shifts to Ron Villone. We tell Ryan about how we expected to see
Ron. We find out the two of them were locker mates and how much of a “good guy”
Ron was. Exit 2005, enter 2006. Ryan Franklin is now on the Phillies. We attend
all 3 of the Phillies v. Brewer games where Ryan recognizes us as “them fans
from the Metrodome”. We end up following Ryan’s career, traveling to various
places in the country to say hey and watch him pitch. We’re pretty much on a
first-name basis.

Let’s stick in 2006… but at an Astros v. Brewers game… A
left handed specialist named Trever Miller ends his pre-game warm ups and
tosses young Ballhawk Shawn a ball. Then another. And yet another. Three in a
span of 5 minutes. Whether he did this on purpose or not, I do not know. All I
know is that such great display of fan-friendliness and generosity should be
recognized. A few years, baseballs, cardboard “TREVER MILLER’S #1 FANS” signs
and a trip across the country to see him play in Tampa
later, we’ve gotten to know each other.

Fast forward to 2009. Both of my favorite players end up on
the same team: the Saint Louis Cardinals. This would be the first time all
three of us are in the same ballpark at the same time. The gates open exactly 5
minutes late and I jog my way down the 50 feet to the left field corner to
begin taking snap shots.

The Cardinals finish stretching and begin to play catch.
Ryan Franklin throws with fireballer Jason Motte, Trever Miller with Dennys
Reyes.

Brad Thompson managed to sneak his way into my pictures. A few simulated ABs and obligatory knuckleballs later, they were done
tossing. Trever Miller spots us in the crowd and meanders his way over. “How y’all
doin’?” he asks. “Good, how about yourself?” I respond with. On his way over,
Trever extends his right hand for a shake. I’ve only seen one other pitcher
shake hands like that and put his livelihood quite literally in the hands of a
stranger (and that player was coincidentally Ryan Franklin). We talked about
his family and him being back in the NL Central division. Trever Miller is a
class act, what a guy! As soon as it started, it was over. He scooted back
toward center field and that was the end of our Trever experience for the day. I
had to answer all the “How do you know him”s and the “who are you”s, making me
stand out even more.

Ryan Franklin was a little more discreet about his greeting
and salutation. Ryan would usually come over and talk like Trever did, but his
group had already shifted to left-center field. He’s just as good of a guy as Trever;
he signs anything and everything with a smile on his face and stays long enough
for everyone to say hey. A Cardinal’s righty rips a line drive down the left
field line that settles in the corner about 50 feet away from me. Two people
have begun to use the “cup trick” to try and snatch baseballs off the field
from the second deck. Seeing this, Ryan Franklin runs over to the corner and
scoops up the baseballs. He takes a look at one of them and begins to scan the
crowd. He finds me, gives me the “whats up” head nod, smiles, points, and fires
me a perfect strike for Baseball #1. I
holler thanks, give him the nod and smile back. Ryan knows whats up. He then
moves to the infield and takes a few ground balls at shortstop. I guess that
ball was special because it was the only tossup of batting practice that I saw.
BP ended and I was fine with my one ball, today meant a lot to me.

Yovani Gallardo carried a no-hitter into the 6^th inning,
and not to be out done, Chris Carpenter took a perfect game into the 7^th.
Neither historical event grew into fruition. The game was managed horribly on Ken Macha’s part in my
opinion. Nonsensical hit-and-run call and a gaffed call to the pen/double
switch. I’ll definitely take the 1-0 victory. I couldn’t sneak behind the
dugout today; in fact my rear never even touched a seat bottom. How
unprofessional are those Miller Park
ushers going to get? I return to my seat in right-center and find it a bit more
favorable than behind the dugout. Bill Hall’s walk off single dropped in right
in front of me, and I got Cardinals bullpen catcher Jeff Murphy to toss me Baseball #2 after the game.

A several Brewer fans found it necessary to throw elbows at
me as they passed, because I was wearing my red “USA Baseball” jersey. Roughed up for wearing a USA jersey on
Memorial Day. Who would have thought? Milwaukee…
we have some of the most classless fans in the nation. There is a certain team
that plays down I-94 with worse fans, but Brewer fans are getting there. Why?
Why is it necessary to push me in the back because I am wearing a USA Baseball shirt on Memorial Day? Oh
well, it wouldn’t ruin my day, a day which I regard as the best of the year. I’ll
give it a go again tomorrow!

I’ll leave you with a few more pictures…

Trever Miller fielding a grounder:

Ryan Franklin’s monstrosity of a goatee:

The Crew doesn’t wear red all that often:

2 baseballs today

59 on the season

This day would be the most awkward, quirkiest and
nonsensical day I’ve had at the ballpark in a very long time. This entry may be
hard to follow, but bear with me.

I got to the ballpark early. Very early. About two o’clock… I like to watch the players arrive
and wish them good luck. I then move on to Friday’s Front Row and you know the
rest… but not today. I met my ticket taker Joe and we began to have a
discussion about the expected crowd. A man exits the team store and eventually
exits the building. He takes about three steps out of Miller
Park and freezes. He comes back
through the doors and says to Joe and I “You guys got a parakeet out here.” I
thought he was joking.

We took a stroll outside, and sure enough… a domesticated
parakeet was rummaging through the garbage. I’m no P.E.T.A. activist or
anything, but I like animals. Having a parakeet as the family pet didn’t help
either. I ventured into the team store and asked for a cardboard box. I took a
New Era hat box outside and wrangled the yellow and green little bugger. I took
him to my car and slipped a few of my sunflower seeds into the box. When my mom
arrived later in the day, she skipped out on the game to take him home and then
to a family friend’s house. What a trooper (she also managed to snag a few of
her own baseballs today as well). I’m told he was given the name “Bernie” after
Bernie Brewer. I apologize, I don’t have any pictures of the fella, you’ll have
to trust me on this one. You can’t make this up.

I got inside of Friday’s Front row, and nothing had changed
from the day before. Deep drives to my left, deep drives to my right and
nothing right at me. Toward the end of my meal, Jorge Julio tossed me Baseball #1. It was time to change into
the Marlins-themed gear.

The Marlins began their routine… pitchers playing catch in
the LF corner and position players throwing near the tarp. I asked a few
players for a ball, and they proceeded to ignore me. A woman to my left was
bugging the players to “throw a ball to the cuter one”, talking about why she
should get a ball and I shouldn’t. I noticed pitcher Dan Meyer walking around
by himself, with a ball in his hand. I holler for him, hold up the empty glove
and boom; I caught myself Baseball #2. I
got pitcher Burke Badenhop’s attention and alerted him to a baseball-less
toddler near me. He hooked the kid up and told the lady complaining about
“cuteness” effectively to go away. I made sure she heard me say “I guess the
cute ones did get a baseball”, referring to the little kid and myself. She
huffed and puffed and stormed away.

After watching the action calm down in left, I made my way
out to left center, under the scoreboard. I yell for pitcher Hayden Penn and
give him the glove wag. He shags a fly ball and whips me Baseball #3. I got a pretty clean Baseball #4 from a Marlins pitcher; I couldn’t tell who it was. It
may have been Renyel Pinto, although I’m not sure.

The rest of batting practice was lame; the Marlins were as
stingy as the Brewers. The day before, Marlins coach Jim Presley shut me down
on about 3 attempts for a ball. Today, after batting practice, he was gathering
all the baseballs and putting them in a bucket. All the Milwaukee
fans crowded around the dugout were screaming for “coach” and demanding “GIVE
ME A BALL”. I step about 5 rows behind them and let a “Jimmy!” loose as loud as
I can. Everyone shuts up and looks at me like I’m crazy. “Hows about today?”
with a big ol’ grin on my face. He looks at me and smiles. He mumbled something
about “you got me” or “yeah I got one today”. He threw me a very dirty Baseball #5. The Marlin’s clubhouse kid
flipped me Baseball #6 out by the
Marlins bullpen. I began to watch Ricky Nolasco warm up and snapped a few cool
pics…

The game was weird as well. Nick “Happy Youngster” (http://thehappyyoungster.mlblogs.com/)
caught Chris Coughlan’s 1^st career home run. The Marlins wanted the
ball back. Long story short, they would end up negotiating near the dugout
after the game. Remember that. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Return
to the 3^rd or 4^th inning.

Standing on the concourse, looking into the Marlin’s pen, I
hear someone ask “Are you Shawn?” I turn my head so fast I almost got whip
lash… Turns out I have a faithful reader by the name of Brian B. I shook
Brian’s hand and we talked for half an inning. He said he reads and enjoys my
blog frequently. This was awesome. I couldn’t believe I was getting recognized!
I expected someone to ask the usual questions: why I always wear the other
team’s outfits or if I’m from [insert visiting team's city here]. I never
thought I would meet a fan. Crazy
stuff. Thanks for reading, Brian, it is much appreciated! Readers… feel free to
say hey next time you see me at the park!  Brian and I:

After the Brewers beat the Marlins, Leo Nunez tossed me Baseball #7. Now comes some outrageous
stuff. Remember when I told you about Nick catching Coughlan’s 1^st
career homer? They wanted the ball back and were open to trading for the ball
near the dugout after the game. Maybe 20 minutes after the game ended, Happy, a
few friends of his and I take a seat near the on deck circle. Happy starts
talking to the Marlin’s public relations director and a few other Marlins front
office people… some very important Marlin’s personnel.

Every security guard in the building is standing by the
dugout and every usher is standing behind us. An extremely rude usher by the name
of John storms over and begins to yell at me and the rest of the small
entourage. He says we need to leave immediately. He is obviously senile. John
clamied that the Milwaukee Police Department came and forcefully removed Happy,
Me and Happy’s friends from the ballpark earlier in the game. WHAT!??!? When
was I arrested? None of our party was arrested or removed from the stadium. I
was in section 101 ALL GAME. I have multiple ushers that can confirm this, not to
mention I was on TV literally all game. I’m sure the Milwaukee Police DPT would
be happy to run my name and tell grampa I wasn’t arrested tonight, or ever for
that matter. He had me mistaken. Regardless, he told me about some fictional
$240 ticket I would be getting tonight for trespassing.

When we refused to leave, he asked what made us more
important than the rest of the people in the park. “Thirty thousand other
people want to get by the players, what makes you more special that them?” he
asked. Wh-wh-whaaaaaat? Did you not understand the 1^st career home
run part?

After I explained the importance of a player’s first home
run, he was stumped and proven wrong. Searching for something to say, John threatened to knock me out.
I was laughing my you-know-what off. Lets see… an 18 year old college kid
versus Katharine Hepburn’s great grandpa. I think we know who would win… I
leave the seating area and move to the concourse. John the usher proceeds to
chase me up the stairs and onto the concourse. He gets in my face, maybe an
inch away from my nose, and tells me the following: “Boy, I’m an ex-fighter. I
wouldn’t hesitate to knock you out.” I begin laughing hysterically and ask how
to spell his last name. He replies with “J-O-H-N” and scampers away. That’s Miller
Park for you: The Ushers threaten
to knock you out, even when you did nothing wrong. What a great way to run a
team.

This isn’t the first run-in with Johnny, a Reds player
tossed me a ball by the dugout  (which John stands atop of after games) last season, and he
kicked my glove to knock it loose. He picked it up and gave it to some other
person in the stands. A few games prior, he jumped in front of a ball directed
at me from a player, and pulled the same nonsense.

And that ends that.

7 baseballs
snagged today, all thrown.

1 bird snagged
today.

1 fictional
trespassing citation snagged today.

57 total baseballs this season.

Batting practice at Fridays was extremely slow. None were
hit up in my area, and there were multiple people sneaking in early combing the
stands for baseballs… and a few were lining up for autograph Fridays early.
Nonsense. At this point in time, I’m being shut out. When one thing goes wrong
at Miller Park,
everything else does as well. It seemed like it would be one of those days…

After lunch at Friday’s Front Row, I changed into my signature
“USA Baseball” WBC uniform and my D-Backs hat…

I ran down to the left field corner to see D-Backs bullpen
coach Glenn Sherlock catch a baseball batted by a Brewer… the ball had a phrase
written on the sweet spot, rendering it useless. He scanned the crowd for
someone to throw it to, and I flashed my Dbacks hat. Right to my glove for Baseball #1. I then moved behind Dbacks
center fielder Chris Young. After he was done playing catch, he tossed me Baseball #2. Jorge Julio was on his way
in when he tossed Baseball #3 into
the crowd and into my glove.

AZ coach Chip Hale was taunting Brewer fans in right field,
asking where their Dback uniforms were… Needless to say, I was the only one who
knew his name and also the only one in a Diamondbacks getup. That warranted Baseball #4. A few moments later
batting practice was over. Jon Garland was staring for AZ… he began to warm up
in the bullpen and bounced a ball on the astro turf… it was tossed up to me for
Baseball #5.

Later on in this exciting game, Mike Cameron warmed up with
Ryan Braun between innings. After they concluded throwing the ball around,
Hammerin’ Cameron fired me up Baseball
#6. The ball was never live during the game, but it was on the field during
game time. Fun stuff.

39 baseballs in 6
games this season.

I’ll leave you with a few pictures….

Jon Garland warming up…

The view from my seats…

Today would not be easy. I had to run on this for breakfast:

I got to the ballpark and saw this:

An empty field and the good ol’ gate closed. Nothing to
worry about though. I got to Friday’s Front Row and it was completely empty. Hardy
was pumping balls to the restaurant, and I managed to snag one on the bounce. Baseball #1. Bill Castro soon walked in
the bullpen underneath me, and tossed me and incredibly lop-sided Baseball #2. Baseball #3 came in the
form of Yovani Gallardo throwing a baseball with the words “EVERY ROSE HAS ITS
THORN” on the sweet spot.  That was it for the Brewers part of BP. I
changed into my Dbacks gear. I do love the Dbacks.

Soon I positioned myself behind Ryan Roberts near the tarp…
After he was done playing catch, he tossed me a ball that was sitting next to
his foot for Baseball #4. I moved
back to the LF corner and watched one of my favorite pitchers, Jon Garland play
catch with freak of nature Jon Rauch.

After the concluded, Garland
tossed me that baseball lying near him on the ground for Baseball #5.

The next baseball was possibly my most painful of 2009, if
not my career. AZ pitcher Tony Pena retrieved a baseball near the bullpen,
where I had positioned myself. He was about 80 feet away. There is an overhang
above me, limiting the area in which to throw a baseball. I holler for Tony,
getting his attention immediately. I show him my empty glove, and the rest is
hard to follow… He bent over to get the baseball. He stayed bent over while he
threw the ball, crossing me up. When I say he threw me the ball, I mean he pitched
me the ball. He tossed that bad boy about 75 to 80 mph, with tail. It smacked
my forearm and fell 10 feet below. An usher later retrieved the ball for me, Baseball #6.

The Dbacks trainer tossed me Baseball #7 at the dugout after BP. That was it.

7 baseballs today. One BP homer on the bounce, 6 thrown. Attendance:
26,464… perfect.

33 in 5 games.

6.2/game.

I’m super tired. And I work in T-minus 6 hours. This is
going to be quick.

Baseball #1: A ball was hit directly at me, but a few feet
short. It landed in the net below the table. I retrieved it with “the glove
trick”.

Baseball #2: Jim Gantner threw a baseball with the words “Hanz
and Franz” written on the sweet spot.

Baseball #3: Brad Nelson fired me a baseball with the word “Android”
written on the sweet spot. Second “Android” ball snagged in 2 seasons.

Baseball #4: Ryan Braun tossed me a baseball with the word “Ambusher”
written on the sweet spot.

That ended batting practice at Fridays, and I changed into
my pirates gear.

Baseball #5: In the LF corner, Matt Capps and Tyler Yates
were throwing knuckleballs back and forth. For the record, Matt Capps has a
killer knuckler. Killer. When they concluded, Capps tossed me the ball.

Baseball #6: I headed towards the dugout right as Andy
LaRoche fielded a ground ball at third base. All I needed to do was raise my
glove, and he tossed it right to me.

Baseball #7: Pirates coach Gary Varsho whipped a baseball at
me with the words “Dominican Ambush” written on it directly at my face. He was
NOT trying to harm me. I caught it in self-defense. Though.

Baseball #8: Matt Capps threw me a ball at the Pirates
dugout after the game.

I was also on FSN Pittsburgh again, I got about 30 seconds
of face-time. Long story short I was on FSN Pittsburgh for the third time in 2
days. Nice! I’ll leave you with a few pictures…