Tagged: garrett
7/23/09 at Angel Stadium
I really didn’t have any intention of going to this game until about 36 hours before it actually happened. July 23rd happened to be the birthday of a good friend of mine named Garrett (who you might remember me mentioning in this entry from back in May). He didn’t have any big plans when I called him up so Michelle and I invited Garrett and his roommate, Julian, also a good friend, down to the OC for some baseball action. I found some cheap tickets on StubHub and the plan was set: Michelle and I would go to batting practice and the guys would drive down from L.A. for the start of the game. We were psyched to spend an evening with friends and I was extra jazzed because I hoped to snag a Twins Metrodome commemorative baseball. I hoped that they’d brought a few with them on the road trip.
We got to the stadium at 4:45pm (ugh… traffic) and got a surprisingly good spot in line. When the Home Plate Gate opened I ran out to right field but on my way I stopped mid-stride. There was nobody hitting!
But the cage was up…
But there was nobody hitting!
But– Oh, what the heck!?! I ran the rest of the way out to the pavilion anyway hoping to find an Easter Egg. Sure, the one day that the Angels aren’t hitting (I later realized they got in from their roadtrip at about 3:00am, hence the lack of BP) is the day most of my competiton is nowhere to be seen for the first five minutes. Look:
Four fans, three ushers. Not including me… I was the first one out there. I took this photo after I’d checked… no baseballs to be found.
My favorite usher did welcome me by laughing at me (my rush out to the pavilion only to be sorely disappointed seemed to amuse her) but otherwise the first fifteen minutes in the park were uneventful. I snuck past the field level ushers and down to the Twins dugout where I attempted to get a ball from Brendan Harris. He tossed it over my head… but then the Twins started hitting! My first ball of the day was a foul ball by a right-handed Twins player. I didn’t see who because, for once in my batting practice life I actually wasn’t paying attention to the batter at all! I was making my way back down the first base line toward the outfield in preparation to ask a pitcher or two for their warmup ball. I was in the first row and I heard a THUNK a few rows behind me and about twenty feet closer to the foul pole. I knew that sound! A ball had hit one of the seats and, could it be? No one else had paid attention to it. I rushed over as people turned their attention from the field to the mysterious source of that THUNK (and the guy running toward where the sound had come from) and I pulled baseball #1 of the day (and #75 in my lifetime collection) from its spot stuck in the seat. Not commemorative. 😦
A few minutes later I asked infielder Brian Buscher if he could please spare a baseball. I used his first name and said please and he pulled a ball out of his back pocket and flipped it to me. Simple. Easy.
Justin Morneau and Joe Mauer were hitting with the second group so I ran up to the pavilion and, get this, I couldn’t snag a ball for the rest of BP. I was just a bit off when homers were hit. I saw a few go right over my head when I thought I’d lined ’em up perfectly. Bah!
Anywho, I watched the Twins end BP early and run off the field. I ran over to Michelle and told her I was headin’ back down by the dugouts. And before you knew it I was here:
Hey, what’s that out there on the batter’s eye? Well, the Angels had revealed the 2010 All-Star Game logo that day–there it is:
Oooh! Anyway, Michelle came and met me on the Terrace Level after I watched some Angels players warm up:
Then we hung out and waited for Garrett and Julian to show up… we knew they were going to be a little late (ugh… traffic). Here’s the view:
We got kicked out of those seats a few minutes after that photo was taken so we took a walk and decided we were hungry. We went to Beach Pit BBQ, in my opinion it’s the best food Angel Stadium has to offer. We sat down in deeeep left field to eat our meals. Delicious, and the view wasn’t bad either:
After the first inning our friends called us. They were at the Left Field Gate so we met them there and then headed up to the View Level… our seatswere waaayyy up in the nosebleeds but I’d seen some decent seats in a nearly empty section and THAT’S where we stayed for the whole game:
Not too shabby. The game was great! The Angels trailed from the first inning, 3-0. They made i
t close with two runs in the bottom of the fifth but the Twins scored again in the sixth. Going into the bottom of the ninth the score was 5-3 Twins.
Joe Nathan was in the game with his under 1.30 ERA. It wasn’t looking good for the Angels. By this time we had all moved down to the Field Level (at Garrett’s request) to watch how the game ended. Gary Matthews Jr. and Howie Kendrick provided RBI singles in the ninth inning to tie the game! Kendrick hit was a lucky miracle dribbler up the middle that Nathan got a glove on. It rolled toward second and shortstop Nick Punto was all set to snag it and step on the bag to end the game but it hit the base and he couldn’t get a hand on it! Mike Napoli scored from third and we had some free baseball coming up! I was thrilled! Like, literally, I thought the game was over because there were two outs, two strikes, and that little roller was sure to be nabbed for the last out. I was right behind the Twins dugout thinking I might get a baseball tossed–but this comeback was way better! I ran back up to the group and high-fived the guys and Michelle. Brian Fuentes came in and shut down the Twins in the top of the tenth. About half of the 38,145 were still around in the bottom of the tenth when Mike Napoli doubled home Chone Figgins to win the game! We were there–it was awesome! The Angels came back AGAIN against an All-Star closer this time. One thing I can tell any Angels fan reading this is: don’t leave early. Especially with this team, you never know what’s gonna happen.
We had an usher take our picture after the game:
From left to right: Julian, Michelle, me, Garrett
Then we headed back to the cars… it was a great birthday night for Garrett (who turned 23 on the 23rd = golden birthday) with the Halos winning a tight game.
The two baseballs I snagged in BP:
And wouldn’t you know it–I’d be heading out to the stadium AGAIN rather soon…
5/7/09 at Angel Stadium
Another day, another game…
The Angels were back home to face the Blue Jays (before facing the Royals and Red Sox). It would be quite a week… I knew it… I’m going to one game against each opponent. I’d like to mention, also, that I was starting to feel that I was a bit of a bad luck charm for my Halos. They were 0-4 in games I’d been to at the Big A this year. Did that stop me? NO WAY!
Michelle joined me (and some friends from school would meet up with us later) and we arrived early, as usual, for batting practice.
There weren’t too many folks waiting as we arrived. Michelle checked out the ever-present memorial to Nick Adenhart while I waited in line. I didn’t really want to look at it close up again… it really is a tragedy. I took a photo of some of the fans paying their respects:
At 5:05 the gates opened and I ran inside, not forgetting to collect my 1980s retro Angels cap (cool giveaway!). I scanned to right field seats quickly… no Easter eggs. Up to the pavilion… no Easter eggs (but I was the third one to arrive up there). I then took up a spot in right center. The view to my right:
And the view to my left (and notice the guy closest to me in the front row):
Woo! And how many homers were hit up there during the Angels BP session?
One.
And I didn’t snag it… grr.
I did, however, get a ball thrown to me by rookie pitcher, Matt Palmer. Here’s how our brief interaction went down:
KID NEAR ME: Hey, Shane Loux, can you throw a ball? Shane?!?
PALMER: I’m not Shane. Do you even know who I am?
KID: Umm…
PALMER: Can you read (I’ll assume he meant “Can you read the name on my glove I’m holding up?” and not “Are you smart enough to read, kiddo?”)?
ME: Matt! Matt Palmer, how about a ball for another Matt? Please?
A few seconds later he fielded a ball and looked up to me, gestured, and threw it. His throw was a bit off and the ball was just a bit to my right… and that guy I mentioned in the photo above reached out, barehanded, and tried to catch the ball. He reached, it hit his hands, he bobbled it, I yelled, “Come on, man!” And he backed away a step. I must have sounded fairly angry (I was… that ball was totally meant for me) but I would have let it go if he’d really wanted that ball. As soon as it was on the ground I scooped it up. Ball #1 on the day and #45 in my collection… not graceful, but still a snag. That was it for Angels BP.
I noticed that there wasn’t much of a crowd near the right field foul pole so I left the pavilion and switched to my Jays hat as I jogged down to the field level. Some Blue Jays pitchers were warming up.
After Scott Downs finished throwing (he’s in the background, with the long hair, in the above photo) I got his attention and he lobbed me my second baseball of the day. Then I hung out just fair of the pole and a lefty Blue Jays hitter knocked a ball down the line. It ricocheted toward me and I was able to snag it by hanging down over the wall. It was pretty impressive, if I do say so myself. The ball bounces off that curved wall fairly randomly and this one was still moving pretty wall when I snagged it. Not to mention I did it while most of me was on the field side of that green wall. My third of the day! I asked the Jays fan near me who’d hit it and he told me it was either Travis Snider or Lyle Overbay.
By the way, want to know how hard it is to snag during the afternoon BP sessions at Angel Stadium? Look at this pic:
Bring sunglasses and keep your cap brim low… you’re staring right below where that bright SoCal sun is… and as soon as a ball gets airborne you’ll lose it if you’re not careful.
My fourth ball of the day would also come via leaning out over the wall. A ball came to rest just foul of the pole and I ran over to it… two guys had tried to get over far enough (without falling down to the field)… they couldn’t reach it. I heard someone say, “Hey, son, bring me your glove.” I got to just above the ball, leaned out and over and Ball #4 on the day was in my glove. I ended up giving it to a boy who’d come over to answer his dad’s call for assistance. He hadn’t gotten a ball and he had his glove… and I handed him a souvenir. He stared at it in disbelief. His dad said to me, “That’s really great, man. Thanks.” Then the boy thanked me and we shook hands. It felt nice to make that father and son’s day a little brighter. Just think, they’ll go home and say, “Wow, that Jays fan was so nice!”
That was it for my snagging. No Blue Jays played catch by their dugout before the game and after the national anthem Michelle and I were hungry so we grabbed some grub and ate it while watching the first inning from the pavilion:
And we hadn’t heard from our friends yet… we cruised over to a virtually empty section in Lower View:
Section 412: a good foul ball section. Our friends, Garrett and Darcy, arrived just after we won Star Trek foam hands for being in the “lucky section.”
The Angels were in retro uniforms on retro 80s night… and Photoshopped pictures of all the players showed up on the Jumbotron instead of their normal player pics. Here is my favorite of the night (of Maicer Izturis):
I forget in which inning this happened, but a Blue Jays hitter knocked a foul ball up to near where I was sitting. I lunged to my right (over Garrett) and the two teenagers a few seats down from me reached out and over the edge of the level we were on, the ball smacked off one of their hands and fell to the Club Level below. They got a hearty round of booing from the fans around us. That was the closest a foul ball had ever come to me… probably within five feet. Had they not been there I’m sure I would have gotten that one. Maybe next time…
For the ninth inning we all headed down to the Field Level and I went behind the home dugout as Jered Weaver closed out the game. Three hits, one run, seven strikeouts, no walks. It was his first CG…. a bunch of baseballs, a bat, and some gloves came flying up from the dugout and I, somehow, didn’t get near any of them… more near misses. Still, I upped my average on the year and the Angels got a victory while I was there! Plus, I got a retro hat, four baseballs, a foam hand, and had a great time with my fiancee and our friends. Attendance: 41,007. A great night overall!
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