Last Homestand in May
I’ll have a few pictures and statistics up for the home stand on Sunday evening. I’ve caught more commemorative baseballs than I know what to do with. It seems like I’m stretching the truth when I say this, but, the Houston Astros failed to hit a BP home run to center or right field. Regardless, I’ve been having good days. Check back Sunday evening for an update.
Quarter Season Review
As much as it pains me to say, one fourth of the Major League Baseball season is over. Some of us, such as my home town Milwaukee Brewers, haven’t amounted to much. Others, like the close-knit ballhawk community I belong to, have caught 1,370 baseballs over the course of the season. Personally, I’ve accounted for 132 of them. But what makes up that 132? Lets take a look inside the stats, or my ballhawk box score.
First, we’ll start with a game-by-game log.
March 6th- 4 baseballs
March 8th- 6
March 9th- 20
March 10th- 32 (World Record)
March 11th- 5
April 3rd- 6
April 5th- 3
April 6th- 3
April 9th- 4
April 10th- 6
April 11th- 2
April 26th- 11
April 27th- 3
April 28th- 2
May 10th- 9
May 11th- 8
May 12th- 1
May 15th- 7
———————
Season Total: 132
68 of which were batted, including a Michael Talyor’s 1st big league home run and George Kottaras’ 3rd
60 of which were thrown
4 of which were found
A few of my favorite 1/4 season ‘hawks:
George Kottaras’ 3rd career home run:
Green Bay Packer’s 1st round draft pick Bryan Bulaga BP home run:
“Sticker ball,” only two are known to exist:
Honorable mention (not pictured):
Justin Verlander toss up
Trevor Hoffman toss up
Tim Hudson toss up.
According to the Ballhawk League simulations, I’m on pace for a 256 baseball season. I’m thinking I’ll surpass that. I -should- catch my 1,000th career baseball relatively soon, barring an ACL tear or ban from the ballpark. Currently, I’m sitting on 933.
And last but not least, I’ll leave you with a few links. If you’re into autograph collecting, you’ll love these guys. They’re my friends Dan, Ryan and Adam’s youtube channels. They do a variety of autograph collecting, including in persons (IPs) and through the mails (TTMs). Good stuff.
Monday, May 10th: Atlanta Braves
Anyone who knows me outside
of the ballpark knows I’m a huge Arnold Palmer drinker. The mix of lemonade and
iced tea just hits the spot, I don’t know why. Also, they know I’m continuously
spitting sunflower seeds. After stopping at my local gas station, it would seem
I hit the jack pot:
New brand and flavor of
seeds and a new bottle of Arnold Palmer! This literally made my day.
About 45 minutes later, I
found myself parked near the ballpark and wandering Milwaukee‘s side streets:
Miller Park
peeking through the brush:
Isn’t that fitting? The
Brewers in the trash. Finally, the stadium comes fully into view, with an omen
lying in the grass:
Time slowly passes by, and I
find myself ordering my standard meal inside the ballpark, the French dip.
It’s pretty delicious and it’s served me
pretty well over the past homestands, as I’ve been ballhawking on a full
stomach. Shortly after putting the finishing touches on the French dip, Claudio
Vargas whipped me baseball number one, pictured below, and Casey McGehee hit me
number two.
The only way to see Brewers
BP at Miller Park
is to eat outside at Friday’s Front Row Sports Grille. However, there is a
massive overhang over half of the outdoor patio. It’s robbed about 50 baseballs
from me over its two year lifespan. Imagine you’re tracking a deep drive…
back tracking….
Back tracking some more,
looking up to catch the ball and seeing this disappointing sight;
Yeah, that can ruin your
day. Soon enough, the rest of the park opens and I find myself en route to
right field when Troy Glaus lifts a deep fly ball in my general direction in
left field. I back up, adjust and gobble up baseball #3.
Upon my arrival in right field,
Brian McCann began to settle in. He hit a very, very deep fly ball about 30
feet to my left. Sprinting backwards and leftwards, I leap against a railing at
the last second and when reaching full extension, haul in baseball number 4.
Two pitches later, McCann lands another in my glove in nearly the same spot,
baseball #5. Towards the end of the
round, McCann sends a third baseball in my direction, giving me my 6th
of the day.
The next round only had one
lefty, Jason Heyward. He’s injured, so he took it easy. I still managed to snag
a ball off the bat of the phenom, for my 7th of the day, and that
ended BP.
During
pre-game warm-ups, Roger McDowell tossed me number 8 out of the bullpen:
The
game’s lineups via bullpen Coach Eddy Perez:
The
game went pretty embarrassingly for the Brewers, as they lost 8-2 to the
light-hitting Braves.
After
the game, bullpen Catcher Alan Butts threw me my 9th of the day,
behind the dugout:
And
that was all she wrote.
-Ballhawk
Shawn-9
-Braves-8
-Brewers-2
Abbreviated Kottaras Home Run
The day had gone rather disappointingly. A few of the other Milwaukee ballhawks (well
known and unknown) resorted to rather questionable and flat out rude
tactics during most of batting practice, so my total when the game began
was pretty low. I had some good seats from a ballhawking perspective,
so I knew I’d have a chance at upping my total.
In the bottom of the
7th, George Kottaras
stepped up to the plate and launched a moonshot towards the visiting
bullpen. I was already positioned fairly well, as I was leaning into the
‘pen conversing with one of the relief pitchers. Off the bat I thought I
had a chance, but when the ball reached it’s peak during its flight, I
figured it was about 20 feet to the left of my extended glove. Luckily,
LHRP Javier Lopez
was warming for upcoming slugger Prince Fielder. In one swift motion he
caught the ball on the fly, dropped
it and kicked it under the bullpen bench. I was pretty upset at that
point.
For the rest of the game I was quite literally ballhawking with
an eagle eye. I could see the back 1/4 of the ball protruding from under
the bench and I knew I had to walk away with it. I didnt leave my spot.
After the game had concluded, closer Octavio Dotel, who had been warming up,
walked right to the prize and fired it into my waiting glove. It was my
10th career home run, and Kottaras’ 3rd. Its pretty wild to hawk a home
run that is lower in number for the
player’s career than in mine. I had taken my seat in the right field
power alley hoping to catch a gamer, rather than have it tossed up, but
I’ll take it. It counts in my book.
The ball and I:
4/27/10, Game Home Run!
I brought home with me George Kottaras’ 3rd
career home run. Its VERY late in the morning right now and I
just don’t have time to blog about it… just yet. Stay tuned
for the entry!
April 26th, 2010: Pittsburgh Pirates
While working away at my hometown retailer several weeks ago, my coworker Kevin, claimed he could out ballhawk me. I would not let the claim stand. We negotiated the date of April 26th to test who is the best. This is the first hand account…
Today I would have to wake early, as Kevin is the standard college student living on campus, his only transportation being his mountain bike… needles to say, I offered to pick him up. I took this snap shot of my weekend stomping grounds, the UWM campus, or to Milwaukeeans, “The East Side”. I’m going to be honest, most of my memories of the east side are a blur, Milwaukee kids party hard.
Soon enough, I arrive on campus, pick Kevin up and we’re off. We take the scenic route to the ballpark, traveling along famous Lake Drive. The view to our right:
Upon arrival at Miller Park, Kevin was quick to put on his “game face”:
So let’s have a quick review…
Ballhawk Kevin
- 1 career baseball
- Softball glove
- No Pirates gear
Challenges…
Ballhawk Shawn
- Nearly 800x more career baseballs than Kevin
- Wilson a500 outfielder’s glove
- Perfect faux Pittsburgher
This should be good. I’m a big superstition person, and when I see animals at the ballpark, I always have a great day. Needless to say, I was ecstatic when this furry friend scampered into view:
After a few autographs and conversations with players in the lot, Kevin and I got a table at Friday’s Front Row Grill. Brewers batting practice was rather bland. New bullpen coach Fred Dabney fired me baseball #1, while Rickie Weeks hit a moon shot in my direction, caught for baseball #2. Ballhawk Kevin, after I take the lead, 1-0:
After BBBP (Boring Brewers Batting Practice), I switched over to my Pirates gear and prepared for further domination. Upon arrival to the Left Field corner, I snapped this picture of a few bullpen pitchers playing catch. Do you see what I see?:
Moments after I took this picture, Paul Maholm tossed me baseball #3, and Jason Jaramillo underhanded me #4. Kevin and I relocated to Ballhawk’s heaven, or Section 101. It’s a private, clear section in the dead center of the RF power alley. Things would pick up out there. Upon arrival, we were greeted by long time Brewers fan and season ticket holder Don T. Don’s been a Brewer fan for longer than I’ve been alive and he’s got some awesome stories to share about baseball at County Stadium. His baseball IQ is as high as anybody’s. Kevin talks with Don:
Then began the Pittsburgh lefties. Not to brag, but I made it look easy. I barehanded a Ryan Doumit fly ball off the bounce leaning over the railing in the above picture. The very next ball I did my best outfielder impression. Doumit lifted another high fly ball, driven deep in my direction. For those of you who have been to Miller Park, you know what the Tundra Territory is… a suite located in the outfield. Long story short, Toyota wants to keep the “regular fans” out of the section, so they erected a 4 foot wall. Back pedaling, I feel for the wall with my throwing hand, leap at the perfect moment and catch myself baseball #6, home run robbery style. During BP, Keven even hawked his second and third career baseballs, one of which he was instructed to give to a family a few rows up the bleachers. His second is pictured below:
Ryan Church landed number’s 9 and 10 in the pocket of my glove, and that was it for BP. The rest of the game went off without a hitch. Fans can now vote for the All Star game… This is the 2010 ballot, I’ve punched out players who have: Hit me a ball, Thrown me a ball or signed a ball for me (most of which are the first two):
Pirates Bullpen catcher and all around good guy Herbie Andrade hooked me up with Octavio Dotel’s warmup baseball in the 8th inning, and that was the last baseball I would snag tonight:
Final Tally:
Ballhawk Kevin- 4
Ballhawk Shawn- 11
(F)
I’m sorry, Kevin, but you’ve still got the “novice” tag. He’ll have another chance to prove himself on Wednesday afternoon, stay tuned!
Baseball Graffiti: The Milwaukee Brewers’ Secret Messages
As any good ballhawk knows, coming upon a perfectly clean, brand spanking new baseball is relatively hard. Almost every baseball will have some sort of stain, rip, abrasion, secret message or in some extremely rare occasions foreign languages written upon them. Anyone who attended Milwaukee Brewers batting practice and caught a baseball from 2008 to the end of 2009 most likely knows what I’m talking about.
Most baseballs come with the standard grass stain:
Others, like this final out off the bat of Craig Counsell, have the infield dirt impressed upon them:
Another quite frequent marking would be the paint-smear. A baseball that finds real estate beyond the confines of the playing surface will likely come into contact with painted surfaces. Many baseballs at Miller Park have the “bleh green” smear, while this one, caught in Maryvale, AZ, has the trademark blue paint tattooed on the side panel:
Others have the standard bat abrasion mark, like my 1st career foul ball, a Gil Meche offering that was hit perfectly on the sweet spot by Minnesota Twin Shannon Stewart:
And if you get REALLY lucky, you’ll catch yourself a baseball with a mirror image of
something branded into a player’s bat, like this ball I caught at Miller Park in 2005:
See? Its a mirror image of the Louisville Slugger TPX logo shown below:
Some baseballs even have words from foreign languages written on them, like this baseball thrown to me by Nationals bullpen catcher Nilson Robledo. I have no clue what it means, but one reader had suggested it’s Mandarin Chinese:
Do you have any clue what could make a mark around 75% of a baseball, like this one?:
But the most coveted of my marked baseballs are the 2009 Milwaukee Brewer “blue balls” as some like to call them. They began showing up early in the year and lasted through the season. The Brewers would mark “practice” balls with just that, a mark, on the sweet spot. The main reason was to discourage fans from getting them autographed. After catching a few of the inscribed baseballs, I asked bullpen catcher Marcus Hanel what was up with them. He gave me the standard answer…”Nothin’. Just having some fun”. Baseballs were branded with a wide variety of terms and occasionally disguised vulgarity. There were a few “PLAY WITH IT” baseballs floating around, as well as phone numbers and hotel room numbers as well. I managed to catch a few of them, starting with “ANDROID” off the bat of Ryan Braun, moving to “PIPE CHECKER” to “AMBUSHER” to “DOMINICAN AMBUSHER”. I even caught a baseball with the words “C-HIZZY”, hit by none other than Corey Hart.Yovani Gallardo tossed me a ball with “EVERY ROSE HAS ITS THORN” sprawled across the sweet spot
What marked baseballs have YOU caught? Did I leave any out? Feel free to comment or yell at me in the comments section.
This Ballhawk’s Want-List… What I need to complete the collection
Hey there guys! First off, many of you have been coming up to me at the ballpark and saying “hey”, that’s awesome! Keep on doing so, I always enjoy meeting my readers… and if you’re lucky enough to catch me during a lull in the action, I’ll try and get a picture of you/us to post on this here blog!
I’ve been on a full out snag-fiesta this season, I’m currently leading the nation in total baseballs according to MyGameBalls.com with 89. I’ll crack 100 before April is over… that’s crazy! But as I drive to the ballpark on a near daily basis (blasting some As I Lay Dying) I contemplate what my collection is missing. I’ve come up with three personal must-grabs for this season:
- A grand slam… I’ve caught one run, two run and three run jacks, but never a grand slam. I gotta hit for the home run cycle!
- An even-number career home run (ex. 100th, 200th, 300th…) I’ve already grabbed a 1st career home run, but it would be nice to have another “milestone” blast
- A ground-rule double. I’ve been wanting to add one to my collection for some time now. I’ve got in-game third outs, foul balls, home runs and toss-ups, but never a ground rule double.
- Honorable mention: A pitcher’s game home run. I’ve got a ball Dave Bush put into play, however it was the final out of a ballgame, not a blast into the bleachers. I’ll settle for what I’ve got on this one, but I’m dying to catch a pitcher’s home run.
What do you guys think? My next entry will be about ballhawk’s and their gloves. Comments/tips? Any help or input is greatly appreciated. Thank you for reading and I’ll see you at Miller Park!
Update coming soon
Tonight I’ll be composing a blog about the
past opening series, MyGameBalls.com, and my potential
corporate sponsor(s)! Keep checking back, the update should
be up around 4 AM CST or so!
1000th career baseball?!
Including my spring counts, my career baseball mark sits at 868, a mere 132 baseballs away from the 1000 mark. The 1000 baseball club for ballhawks is likened to the 600 home run club in the Majors. The question is: can I pull it off?
I’ve averaged about 210 baseballs/season over the past 3 seasons. Who will deliver my 132nd baseball of 2010? Lets say I average 5 baseballs per game in 2010… that would mean in my 27th game of the regular season I would catch #1000 on the career. This means, if everything goes according to planned, on June 29th of 2010, the special ball will land safely in my glove, most likely being delivered by a Houston Astro. My guess: Brandon Lyon. Check back on June 29th to see if I come through on my predictions!
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