Today the White Sox would be in town, as well as a boat load
of their fans. I would need to grab a few baseballs early in BP so I could relax
by the time the crowd of 40,000+ settled in. I ended up making it from work, in
my uniform, to my table at Friday’s Front Row Sports Grill, in all my Brewers
gear, in 40 minutes flat (it’s much more impressive if you know where I work). With
weekend traffic the same trek would take triple that, and this was during Friday
rush hour. Whatever, it all worked out.

Outside the ballpark, I ran into a few more readers… Inside the ballpark I got my favorite table and ordered the same thing as always. The California Club with a soda. I’m a very
superstitious individual at the ballpark. Feel is real. The outer portion of
the restaurant was full, but only one other fan had a glove… the bad news: he
was seated right next to me. I devour the sandwich before BP even begins,
to give myself the most time to ballhawk. Seconds after eating the last French fry
on my plate, a baseball is smacked in my direction. It lands 40 feet short, on
the warning track. Brewer’s utility player Craig Counsel was in left field for
some reason, talking to Brewer’s video coordinator and resident party-pooper
Joe Crawford. Joey hates seeing the local ballhawks get baseballs. Craig
retrieves the ball and one glove wag and shout out later, he tossed me Baseball #1:

Moments later, a baseball off the bat of Ryan Braun landed
10 feet to my left, in the fenced out area known to Miller
Park attendees as “the point”. I
hopped a few fences and picked myself up Baseball
#2:

And that was that for my time at Friday’s. The park would open half
hour early today, so I figured I would try my luck in the left field bleachers.
My extra half hour was uneventful, in exception to a little interaction with LHR
Mitch Stetter.

Anyone who has spent any time around the Milwaukee Brewers
during batting practice knows they are extraordinarily stingy, the stingiest
being Mitch Stetter. Mitch never
throws baseballs to fans. I’ve seen him throw a grand total of two baseballs to
fans at Miller Park YTD… until today. From up in the bleachers, I hear a little
kid holler for a ball from the left field corner. Lo and behold, Mitch threw
the kid a ball. I was floored… I had to say something. As soon as he turns
around, I let it go: “ATTA BOY MITCH, THAT WASN’T SO HARD, NOW WAS IT?” Mitch
whipped around and stared me down. He just looked at me for a good 45 seconds.
Everywhere I moved to, he was looking over his shoulder, staring daggers. Funny
stuff… loosen up Mitch!

Brewers BP ended with my tally sitting at two. I made my way
down to the left field corner, near where the White Sox pitching staff would
play catch. I managed to get a picture with Don “COOOOP” Cooper:

After the photo-op, pitchers Jose Contreras and Octavio
Dotel begin to play catch directly in front of me. My mom decided to come today
as well… she was standing next to me. They began to play catch:

Octavio Dotel has a live arm. And he also has a wild one.
While I look down between my legs and search through my backpack, Dotel lets a
two-seamer loose. It sailed wide left of Jose Contreras’ glove, striking my mom
right in the shoulder. I hear a loud thud… and laughter! She laughed off an
Octavio Dotel 70 something MPH pitch. Needless to say, everyone was frantic.  “ARE YOU OKAY?”s came from every direction. After
tending to my laughing and uninjured mother, I look between my legs to find the
ball that struck her. I pick up Baseball
#3 and hand it directly to her. She earned that one! She calls the baseball-sized
bruise “a battle scar” and wears it like a badge. Good stuff! Octavio and Jose come
to her after playing catch and apologize and sign a few autographs. When my mom
asked for a picture with Octavio, he tells her this: “I charge for picture. We
make talk like lonely.” Octavio was… a… friendly guy I guess you could say. Disaster
averted, ball snagged. Here are a few pictures of the incident:

After making sure everything was okay for the 1000^th
time, I make my way over to the right field visitor’s bullpen area. My favorite
White Sox John Danks fielded a deep drive to right up against the outfield
wall. One “Hey Johnny D, up here” later, he threw me Baseball #4. After the game, the home plate umpire threw me Baseball #5… a game ball, rubbed for
game use.

5 baseballs today

88 on the season