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The day had begun rather
uneventfully. I hadn’t taken any pictures until things heated up, so bear with
me. Upon arrival at the ballpark, my traveling party and I had attempted to
book a table at Friday’s Front Row Sports Grille in left field. The host rudely
instructed us otherwise.

 

“In ten minutes they’ll be
ready. Go away and come back later.” Shocking. The thing that really got on my
nerves is that I would be forced to spend valuable BP time indoors, in the
confines of the roofed restaurant.

 

Whilst waiting and steaming,
I counted 4 baseballs that landed in the vicinity of our table. Twenty minutes
later, we returned to the host’s podium.

 

“Come back in 10 minutes,
we’re having a meeting,” she quipped. Without having a chance to give her a
piece of my mind in regards to her unprofessionalism, she turned around and
swiftly vacated the public part of the restaurant. After waiting another 10 minutes, we were seated
outdoors in deep left field, prime and ready for a big day of ‘hawking… until I
realized that instead of having a “meeting” as previously stated, the Friday’s
staff cleared the area of Easter eggs, while failing to remove bird feces from
diner’s tables. Amazing. Don’t eat at anything “Friday’s”. They’re extremely
unprofessional and flat out rude. My view during the meal:

(The picture is from last homestand… Its the only one I could find of my view!)

 

Anyways, with the lack of
Easter eggs combined with early gate times, my (crappy) Friday’s experience was
cut short and I remained baseball-less. Upon the opening of the stadium, I
positioned myself in right center field, where the tempo was upped. Nearly
immediately, my request for a baseball en
Espanol paid off. Brewer’s shortstop and extremely overrated prospect
Alcides Escobar whipped a ball, #1 of
the day and 989 of my career.

 

And that would be all the
Milwaukee Brewers would provide for me today… during batting practice. More on
their in-game gifts later. Upon
assuming the batting cage, the Pittsburgh Pirates wasted no time in upping my
totals. Ryan Doumit lifted two line drives in my direction, which I snared
rather easily, providing me my 2nd and 3^rd
baseballs of the day, and the 990^th and 991^st of my
career. Pedro Alvarez send the 4^th
and 992^nd to the pocket of my glove 5 minutes later, and Delwyn
Young batted me my 5^th and
993^rd. Once again, the day was rather ordinary, so I failed to
take detailed pictures until this point. I’m sorry; you’ll just have to bear
with me on this.

 

Towards the end of batting
practice, I heard my mother calling my name from about 20 feet behind me. She’s
surprisingly and avid ballhawk and proficient memorabilia collector. Last
season, she was pegged in the chest by an errant Octavio Dotel throw to Jose
Contreras. Long story short, Octavio has taken care of my mom since with
autographs and baseballs and whatnot. After a brief conversation above the
dugout, Dotel departed to the outfield at the same time Garrett Jones was
entering the dugout. After getting to the top step, Jones placed his bat on the
roof of the dugout and attempted to push it to Sue, my mother. It stopped a bit
short, and Pirates bullpen catcher and all around great guy Herbie Andrade gave
the bat a final nudge, directly to us. Score! A few shots of the bat:

 

After inspecting the bat for
cracks and marks and anything else interesting, I put the bat down and picked
my glove up. I’d need it shortly.

 

During the bottom of the 3^rd
inning, Brewer’s LF and All-star Ryan Braun stepped to the plate. Two seasons
ago, in 2008. I caught his 55^th career home run and his first as an
All-star. His making of the team was announced in the top of the inning, and he
bashed me the baseball in the bottom of the inning. Tonight, I would snag his 116^th career home run and my 994^th
career baseball. Brauny lifted a line drive to deep left center. Check the
video out HERE. The ball took
a miracle bounce here:

Rolled here:

 And was thrown to me by
Andrew McCutchen here:

 The ball:

 After I snapped back into
reality, I began to inspect the ball. It was the standard game home run… the
special rub, the bat mark and the landing abrasion. My day couldn’t get any
better, could it? Oh, it could get MUCH better. And it did, a mere 6 pitches
later. Prince Fielder lifted a moon shot about 30 feet to my left. I set
Braun’s gem down, throw the glove on, and sprint to my left. In a group of
about 4 people vying for the sailing ball, I was the tallest fan, as well as
the only one with a glove. Second’s after Prince sent the ball into orbit, it
crashed directly into the web of my glove, right here:

 

 I proceeded to go absolutely bananas. I hopped and jumped like crazy, fist pumped
like a champion while screaming “F**k yeah” at the top of my lungs. If you
watch the video (HERE),
you’ll see me raise two fingers. That’s not to say “peace” or “victory” that’s
to say “two gamers”. Watch my mouth, I’m saying “that’s two!”

 

The ball:

 A few interesting things
happened immediately after I caught Prince
Fielder’s 180^th career home run, my 12^th career blast,
and 995^th career baseball. A woman who has season tickets a few
seats down from mine and I have a little history. She’s got a passion against
ballhawks and a vendetta against yours truly. She hates to see me get batting
practice balls, let alone game home runs. As soon as I came down with Fielder’s
blast, (off camera) she punches me in the
arm, back and neck region 5-10 times. I’m not sure if she was trying to jar
the ball loose or what. She swore at me a few times and told me it isn’t fair I
caught it. She told me I threw her kid out of the way. After (un)politely
letting her know she was full of S**t, I walked away, hands raised in jubilee.
Upon turning my back, she kicked me pretty hard in the back of the knee cap.
Upon review of the play, no children were knocked down. In fact, they were
running scared of the baseball. Watch the video and decide for yourself. Lady,
you know who you are, you’re probably reading and you know you’re a wench. I
win. You lose. Deal with it and act like
the adult you claim to be. Don’t worry, she didn’t ruin my day. She isn’t
even a blip on my radar.

 

A shot of the
baseballs:

 

After catching the two
gamers and completing my second career two-home run game, I attempted to track
down an MLB authenticator. Long story short, I was unsuccessful in getting my
baseballs authenticated, but I did make it pretty far up the ladder. The
Brewers staff actually handled the situation uncharacteristically
professionally.

 

I’ll leave you with a few
random thoughts and pictures from my mammoth day:

 

During the broadcast, Bill
Schroeder gave me a shout out and said “and that’s a nice catch!”. Thanks,
Rock! You’ll be seeing me do that more, I promise!

 

Billy’s partner, Craig
Coshun, wondered if the “P” on my Pirates hat stood for “Prince or power”.
Whatever floats your boat, Craig. I know you think I’m a Pittsburgher, but I’m
just a ballhawk. Common mistake. You’ll see me catch a few more relatively
soon.

 

If you text messaged me or
called me after my back to back plays and I didn’t respond, I’m sorry. My phone
just went too ape and I turned it off.