Tagged: mark ellis
4/27/12 at Dodger Stadium
After conferring with fellow Orange County ballhawk, Devin (aka DevoT,) I was set to make my first appearance as just a fan at Dodger Stadium since September of 2009. Each of the other times I’d taken a trip up to Elysian Park it had been with a media credential… and I wrote columns for myGameBalls.com each time, both in August of 2010 and Sept. of 2011. And you can read those entries on that awesome site or at my blog: here (Aug. 2010) and here (Sept. 2011). Obviously, since I was at work as a member of the media, those games weren’t about me snagging baseballs, they were about others who got to snag… and I didn’t record those games in my stats.
But on this particular day I was just me, the guy who tries to catch as many baseballs as he can at each game, and the Dodgers (who’d be facing the Washington Nationals–both teams were in first place at the time) were using commemorative baseballs for their fiftieth year at Dodger Stadium. And I wanted one.
I parked outside the stadium and hiked up the hill with Devin. We crossed the parking lot and headed down some stairs…
We went inside the Field Level gate as the Dodgers were hitting (and some pitchers were warming up and it was great–we were severely limited in where we could go–but there was such a small crowd that I had plenty of room to run around (even though they kept us along the left field foul pole).
Check out the ball in this pitcher’s glove.
Might that be a commemorative logo?!?
I had a shot at my first ball of the day when Kenley Jansen (owner of the photographed glove, above, who was long-tossing with an unknown pitcher, maybe Scott Elbert) overthrew his target. I watched the ball as it was sailing through the air and yelled, “HEADS UP!” I ran toward where I thought it would land, a section to my right, lost the ball for a second, watched as it hit some seats… then bounced away from me. But I tracked it down in the fourth row and took a look at the logo… it WAS commemorative!
I was thrilled… but my joy was short-lived. I looked toward the field and Elbert (or whoever) flapped his glove at me. I knew what this meant. They weren’t done long-tossing and needed the ball back. Cool, I flipped it to him, willingly, and figured he’d get it back to me when they were finished. That’s what had happened plenty of other times. Then I looked over my shoulder. Apparently, the errant throw had grazed a lady who was, get this, sitting in the second row and not paying attention. She was lucky it hadn’t broken her face… but she wasn’t complaining… just rubbing her shoulder a bit. I felt badly… I knew she should get a ball. But would it be my ball? The commemorative one I’d just given to the pair of Major Leaguers to use on the field? I could have kept the ball and been done with it–and at that point I’d probably have noticed the lady and debated whether or not I should have given it to her–and scolded her for not paying attention to the on-field activity. But I never got the chance. Jansen finished his throwing, walked toward the lady, and apologized to her. And then signed the baseball I’d given to him and Elbert to use… and then neither of them acknowledged me. Think about it, loyal readers, am I overreacting? Should I not have counted the ball? Because I counted it… and I’m a bit irritated that such careless behavior gets rewarded.
Anyway, Devin beat me out for a liner that went foul as we almost tumbled over a row of seats together. But then, when a couple Dodgers played catch further toward the infield I had another shot at a ball I’d actually get to keep. Mark Ellis warmed up with Adam Kennedy and when they finished I yelled out, Hey, Mark! Over here!” Ellis threw me the ball over all the box seats along the third baseline and I caught it chest high–it was a great throw–then grabbed it out of my glove and checked it out:
BAM! And this one was all mine! I wasn’t giving it up. I quickly ran back to my backpack, stored it safely, and went back to snagging with a feeling of relief. Mission accomplished. If I didn’t snag another ball all evening, I’d be fine. But the Jansen ball was #395 and the Ellis ball was #396. So I started actively thinking about the big 4-0-0.
Some unknown Dodger drove a ball into the left field corner that came to rest on the warning track about 10 to 12 inches away from the wall in fair territory right near the bullpen gate. The drop to the field is probably about a foot or so more than in Anaheim so it takes a bit more athleticism to scoop balls off the warning track in Dodgertown than it does at the Big A. But I figured that I should give it a shot–no one else figured they could get it. After a couple of fans let me squeeze by them, I set my bag down, jumped up and balanced myself on the wall, leaned out and over stretching my left (gloved) hand as far as I could while steadying myself on the wall with my right hand and arm. The ball was just out of reach, so I adjusted my position on the wall, shook my glove so it was on the end of my hand instead of comfortably wedged on there… and just got the tip of it on the ball. I rolled it toward me a few inches and then snagged it and pulled myself back to my feet. I got a nice little round of applause from the nearby fans on that one–and the ball was a standard Selig ball.
About that time Devin decided to head up to the LF bleachers (where his ticketed seat was located) and we parted ways. We kept in touch throughout the evening though. As the crowd grew and BP became a bit less lively, I set my bag down and was looking through it when I heard a THWACK nearby. I looked up as I was kneeling near a staircase just in time to see a baseball bounce right toward my face! I grabbed it, barehanded, and then looked around. Had a kid dropped it? Was it meant for another fan? I asked a few people near me where it had come from–and no one knew. It didn’t sound like it had hit the seat with enough force for me to determine it was a home run. Maybe a ground rule double into the LF corner? Maybe it had been thrown from the bullpen?
Oh… and it was another commemorative ball! Sweet! It had been rubbed with mud… and it had a dirt scuff on it. So, it’s possible that a pitcher had been using it and then tossed it into the seats. But I have no idea–this is the first ball I have ever entered into myGameBalls.com with the listed method of snagging as “Unknown.” Totally weird–but I’ll take it!
That was #398… and I was totally focused on #400… so I didn’t mind that I was unsure of who hit my next ball. It was some lefty Dodger that flared a ball into the box seats just past third base. The ushers nearby (who were all super friendly–much more so than in past seasons) let me dart after it and check this baby out:
50th! Woo!
The Dodgers were about to leave the field. And I saw the Nationals starting to warm up on the far side of the stadium.
Unfortunately, because Dodger Stadium has weird rules, that side of the stadium wouldn’t open until 5:40pm… ten minutes is a long time to wait around. I tried to get a ball from Ted Lilly as he finished some throwing… but that was all there was to do.
And then I spent another eight grueling minutes waiting for the ushers to let the maddening crowd head toward first base. I ran that way and was the first one out to the seats in the right field corner–but I found no Easter eggs and the Nationals were being pretty stingy with tossups. And the sun was brutal:
And I didn’t snag another batted ball all evening. At least there was a Stephen Strasburg sighting…
It was really important to me that I identify who my next baseball came from. It was a mini-milestone for me. I had snagged baseball number 100 on August 28th, 2009 at Angel Stadium. And I have no idea who hit it to me. Ball #200 was thrown to me by Kanekoa Texeira of the Seattle Mariners on May 28th, 2010… again in Anaheim. And my 300th baseball was hit to me by Peter Bourjos on May 20th, 2011 at the Big A. I thought to myself, “I need to know who gets this next ball to me” And it would also be the first time I’d snagged a milestone baseball (for me) outside of my “home ballpark” down in Orange County.
Wouldn’t you know it? Throughout all of Nationals’ BP I didn’t snag another baseball…
Until the last few players ran off the field… and I was standing near the dugout… and Jordan Zimmermann tossed me this one as I leaned over the concrete partition that separates the haves from the have-nots.
My sixth ball of the night–and #400 in my lifetime. Woo!
With that, it was off to the restroom–and then I took a seat to rest for a while before the game began. And what a great pitching matchup: Clayton Kershaw vs. Ross Detwiler. And If you’ve never sat up close and watched Kershaw pitch–man, it’s epic! A 95 mph fastball and a 73 mph curveball. It’s just not fair. This was my view for the first pitch:
And then I sat here and tried to get a ball from A.J. Ellis after Kershaw struck out the side in the first.
No luck.
The only blemish on Kershaw’s record was a two-run homer he gave up to Adam LaRoche… which tied the game after Andre Ethier hit a two-run shot in the bottom of the first. The difference in the score would turn out to be an RBI single by Juan Uribe. That was it for scoring… 3-2 Dodgers.
And tried to get LaRoche to toss me a third out ball. No dice–damn that partition!
But I had a great view of the action…
See the concrete partition that keeps folks away from the dugout? Lame.
And there were plenty of open seats around me. At one point I had a whole row open to my right. I shifted seats twice once the game started but there certainly weren’t over 44,000 people there… even though that was the announced attendance.
Um… Matt Kemp is very good at baseball:
Fast-forward to the top of the ninth inning… Jansen came in to close the game out (since Javy Guerra apparently isn’t the closer any longer because, well, he took a line drive off his face). And he made it interesting. He got the first out by inducing a fly ball to center off the bat of Mark DeRosa. Then, Danny Espinosa turned on a fastball at hit it to the seats… about ten feet foul into the right field corner. He nearly tied the game with that almost-homer… but eventually flied out to center, as well.
Jansen then drilled pinch hitter Chad Tracy on the wrist with a mid-nineties fastball. Tracy was pulled from the game. Because the Nationals called up Bryce Harper but he hadn’t arrived in L.A., the team played with only twenty-four men on the squad, meaning there was one less bench bat available, and Edwin Jackson was forced to pinch-run for the Tracy so that final bench option, Rick Ankiel, could pinch hit in the pitcher’s spot if the inning got that far. But Jansen ended up striking out the catcher, Jesus Flores, in the next at-bat, and the game ended.
I shouted for a toss-up at the dugout as the Nats left the dugout but nobody even looked my way–and the bullpen guys coming in ignored me, too. A kid on my left said, “I think they’re upset because they just lost.”
So I ended the game with six baseballs snagged–and I’d gotten some commemorative balls and snagged #400. I wasn’t disappointed by any means. I didn’t plan to stay for the Friday Night Fireworks–I needed to get home–but I did want to take advantage of one cool thing that Dodger Stadium does…
I got into a line and ended up on the field. The Dodgers let a certain quantity of fans watch the fireworks from the outfield grass. I took a few photos, like this one from the field looking up at the stadium:
And I touched the grass–a major league field feels so nice! And then, the the confusion of the ushers… I asked to leave.
And they had to open a special gate so I could leave. I snapped a picture of the explosions in the sky as I headed through the parking lot to my car… and was on the road before most people even got out of the stadium. I had a long drive back to Orange County… it’s roughly an hour with no traffic. But I’ll be back to Dodger Stadium this season–probably when the Marlins, Astros, and Mets come to town.
A successful night.
8/28/09 at Angel Stadium
Remember when I went to a sports bar called Throwbacks earlier in the week? Well, Michelle and I ended up with raffle tickets which ended up being exchanged for free tickets to this game! What’s better than going to a baseball game? Going to a baseball game for free.
And this: And this:
And it kept going. There must have been a thousand people there… it was ridiculous. Sadly, I was sure that many of those people toward the end of the line wouldn’t get Figgy’s autograph because the signing would end at 1:00. I grabbed a free pouch of juice and went to my backup plan. I’m a stage manager by trade, I always have a backup plan. Today it was heading to an AT&T store in Seal Beach to a Howie Kendrick signing. That event worked out better for me.
I got to the parking lot and headed up toward the store at about 11:30 (when the event was to start). As I headed toward the back of the line I passed by Anaheim regular, Chris (aka cjpyankee), and said hello. I continued to the back of the line. When I got there I heard, “Matt!” and looked up. Chris waved me over to him and led me up to his spot in line which his girlfriend had been holding. I thanked them and wished them both a happy belated birthday. Then we went inside and I snapped a photo of Howie before having him sign a ticket stub for me.
After we got out of the store Chris and Ariana (sp?) left and I decided to jump back into line. It took about thirty-five minutes to get through the twisting (mostly in the shade) line and back up to the front of the store. When I was about to get inside for the second time I saw AM830’s Jorge “Pollo” Sevilla, the station’s Promotions Manager. I knew from my previous experiences at Angels events that he was THE MAN to talk to about tickets. When I saw him I introduced myself and casually asked, “Hey, Pollo, you guys givin’ away any tickets today?”
He grinned and said, “Man, I don’t have very many.” He then proceeded to pull a stack of them out of his pocket and hand me two tickets to a game in September against the Mariners. Yes!! I thanked him and headed inside to get Howie’s autograph again.
Then I headed home, straightened up the apartment with Michelle, and got ready for the game. After some confusion with some friends over who might be joining us at that evening we set out to pick up our friend Amanda before grabbing food. We ate, talked, and I dropped Michelle and Amanda off across the street at a Starbucks while I parked and got in line. Who should I see again in line? Chris and Ariana. Chris has become a pretty good ballhawk this year and you can check out his blog here. We chatted a bit about his trip to New Yankee Stadium and my trip to Kauffman Stadium and at 5:00 the gates opened and we flooded in. I was sprinting out to right field and as soon as I got up the escalator and could see the field I stopped dead in my tracks.
Yep… the cage was up but no one was hitting. Gwah?!? Oh, yes, the Angels weren’t going to hit after they amassed an amazing THREE hits with ZERO runs the night before. Ugh.
I saw BP home run catcher extraordinaire, Rob, jogging about five seconds later so I figured I’d just finish my trek up to the pavilion, beat him there, check for Easter eggs, then regroup. Boy, I would have felt dumb if I’d let Rob passed me and there were three or four baseballs sitting up there. But there weren’t any… so I simply chalk that up to a round of cardio exercise that I could get in. Nice.
The only players on the field were a few Angels pitchers. I jogged alllllll the way around to the third base line thinking there was a small chance they’d throw me a ball. No luck. The Angels didn’t hit at all.
Eventually the A’s started stretching in front of their dugout so, in preparation for their hitting I headed past the bullpens, through the center field family section, past the pavilion (again) and over to the seats near the foul pole where I saw Chris. We chatted again for a few minutes, both of us were now in our A’s gear, and FINALLY some batters started hitting. Right about that time Michelle and Amanda showed up after having made a stop at the Team Store.
I was really excited because I was sitting on ninety-nine career snagged baseballs and the next one I got was going to put me in triple digits. A’s pitchers were throwing in front of me, batters were knocking baseballs all over the field… then I saw it.
A ball trickled foul and came to rest near the wall between the A’s dugout and the foul pole. It was about ten feet to my left and ten feet to Chris’ right. We both moved toward it and I squeezed into the front row excitedly saying to the female fan near the ball, “Excuse me, can I try to get it?” I knew I could get it. I just would’ve felt bad forcing someone to move out of the way. She obliged, I leaned out and over, and I
snagged my seventy-second ball of the season and the 100th baseball I’d snagged ever.
Now I felt conflicted… I was jazzed to have snagged the ball but I was confused because I had no idea where it came from. I asked the people nearby me, including Chris, where the ball came from. Apparently, it had been hit by an A’s batter. That’s all I knew… all I still know about it. Oh, well. Nothing’s perfect. I had the ball. I let out a contented sigh.
Chris congratulated me and we both went back to work. He headed up to the pavilion (and ended up snagging one up there that I saw… I think) and I hung out around the foul pole in right field. Five minutes later a ball rolled to the warning track near the wall where the outfield seats end and there’s a big gap where the wall opens up and leads to a tunnel used for trucks and storage. There were a couple of fans that couldn’t reach the ball as I jogged up and said, “Hey, guys, let me try to grab it.”
I did. Ball #2 on the day… again, I had no idea who hit it. I had two baseballs and both were hit by the A’s and I didn’t know who hit either of them.
A few more baseballs came over my way but I couldn’t quite get a glove on anything… I had a BP homer lined up but it hit the foul pole and I missed out on it. Dang… and Trevor Cahill ignored me for about twenty minutes straight.
BP ended at 6:15 and I followed the players in toward the dugout but didn’t snag anything there. I went over to chat with the girls for a while, chugged some water (it was HOT), then saw a player signing autographs. I just missed Mark Ellis and his lousy signature but I got Adam Kennedy to sign a ticket for me and I got to talk to him for a minute about how we both gre up in Riverside, CA. He’s a big inspiration to a lot of kids who play (or played) baseball growing up out there. After that I got Cliff Pennington to sign and Brad Ziegler as well.
I watched Adam Kennedy and Mark Ellis play catch and when they finished I asked Adam for the ball. Turns out that Mark Ellis had their actual warmup ball and Adam had just pulled one out of his pocket(just to throw to the crowd… what a guy). Ellis threw me the ball he had and I yelled, “Thanks!” Then I went to change out of my sweaty A’s shirt.
The three of us watched the first two innings from here:
Check out that sunset! I love California.
And each time the Angels had two outs I ran to the dugout to try for a third out ball… but both innings ended in a strikeout and the ball got rolled back to the mound. The three of us decided to head to the View Level since the stadium was getting crowded. We found seats above third base but got kicked out of them within ten minutes.
Then we found these seats:
Nice! And we got to stay in ’em for the rest of the game! And it was a GREAT game. The Angels were down 6-1 at one point but they put up a seven spot in the seventh inning.
Kendry Morales went five-for-five with six RBIs! He was a few inches from a three home run game! The umpires reviewed it but it stayed just a double.
It was 11-7 after the A’s got a run in the ninth and Brian Fuentes came on to close out the game. With one out in the ninth I ran down to just behind the Angels dugout (and I mean ran) and I tried to get a ball or something from the Halos as they came off the field before then running back up to the View Level to watch the fireworks with the ladies from our primo, home plate seats.
I didn’t catch anything after the game but can you find me in this above photo?
Angel Stadium’s Big Bang Friday fireworks are pretty fun to see. I played with the fireworks setting on my camera:
And we took a few photos together before heading out for the evening… here are the girls:
And I made sure to get a picture with the three baseballs I snagged that day.
I was exhausted when we finally got home… it had been a loooong day.
Monday: PETCO Park – Padres vs. Nationals
Wednesday: Dodger Stadium – Dodgers vs. Diamondbacks
Thanks for reading!
4/8/09 at Angel Stadium
There’s a lot that I can say about this game that could bring people who read this entry a lot of sadness based on events that occurred after the game was played. I’ll save that for another time. For now, here’s how my second game of the season went:
At Wednesday evening’s game between the A’s and Angels I was joined by Randy, a friend I know through UC Irvine. He is from Ohio originally and is a big Indians fan. After I dropped him off at the end of the night I realized I hadn’t snapped any photos of him… or me… at the game. Weird. I did take a lot of pictures though. You’ll see…
We left at about 4:15pm and got to the stadium before it opened. Randy had never been to Angel Stadium of Anaheim so I told him I’d give him a grand tour after the game started. But first, batting practice. The Angels were hitting and the wind was blowing in and toward left field so I told Randy that we should leave the right field pavilion for later when the A’s were up (because the Angels were starting a righty, a twenty-two year-old top prospect, Nick Adenhart) and their strong lefties were hitting. We hung around the foul pole in right field. It was a small crowd but not many balls came toward us. Jeff Mathis tossed a couple to kids but we (in our mid-twenties) were gettin’ no love!
After we headed up to the pavilion in right a few baseballs trickled to the spot we’d just left… it was that kind of BP. At about 6:15pm we were both still empty-handed and I was losing hope. Then things got interesting. At the game on the 7th I had seen a young boy fielding balls for the A’s during BP. Here’s a pic from that game (the little boy is on the far right in a green sweatshirt):
At this game I noticed the same kid running around, fielding balls, having a blast, and he had a friend with him. I figured they were sons or little brothers of a player. I still don’t know for sure. Anyone have any idea? Maybe an Oakland fan that knows of two kids that occasionally take the field for BP? Anyway, as batting practice ended and I jogged (with Randy in tow) to the visiting team’s dugout I still hadn’t snagged a baseball. The players headed in and I didn’t get one. Then, these two kids came, strolling and chatting, toward the dugout. I had my A’s hat on so I stood up about three rows behind the dugout and got their attention… they each had a ball tucked in their glove. “Hey, could you spare a ball, please?” I yelled. The two kids looked at each other, then looked into their gloves. One boy, in a red sweatshirt, gestured to the boy in green I’d seen the day prior as if to say, “You can throw him yours… but I’m keepin’ mine.” Well, I guess it was my lucky day because the kid in green shrugged, pointed to me, and lobbed it right into my glove. I thanked him and the two kids headed down into the dugout. Lucky kids! Lucky me!
I wanted Randy to snag a baseball, too… he had told me that he’d gotten one years ago when he was much younger. A few Oakland players started throwing in shallow right field. When Mark Ellis
and Eric Chavez were done, Ellis tossed his a few sections away from us (and I would later get him to autograph a ticket stub for me), but when Rajai Davis and Travis Buck finished throwing, Davis
kept the ball and headed toward us. I stood up and called out to him. He saw me, pointed, and threw the ball from about thirty feet away. He’s an outfielder, so maybe he’s not used to short throws… this one sailed five feet over my head (even though I jumped as high as I could). Randy was sitting behind me and I turned just in time to see the ball pop off his bare hand! It bounced into the seat in front of him. Here it gets a bit odd. The ball landed between the armrest of the seat in front of Randy and the shoulder or a kid! The kid’s dad, sitting on the other side of him, had seen the ball thrown and I figured that he or his kid would simply grab it. It was literally touching the kid’s arm. No one, not me, the kid, the dad, or Randy had claimed the ball. At that point I figured the kid would want it. The dad said to me, “Guess you’re just not tall enough,” in a cheerful manner. Ten seconds passed… so I picked up the ball and sat down next to Randy. We both were kind of shocked. I told him, “Here, do you want it? It hit off your hand.” He said I should keep it because it had been thrown to me. I decided I would count it in my collection because nobody else had actually held the ball. Never had a non-player thrown me a ball and never had a weird situation like that one happened to me at a game.
Two baseballs–cool! Numbers 32 and 33 in my collection!
So, there we were, behind the visitor’s dugout. I told Randy we’d go on a tour as soon as we got kicked out of the section. Turns out… that never happened. We watched the whole first half of the game from the third row! Check it out:
By the sixth inning we were hungry and wanted to look around so we voluntarily left, knowing we’d probably not make it back down. After a quick stop at the the restroom we were off on our tour which included a stop at the Beach Pit BBQ stand out behind the rocks in center field. We both got pulled pork sandwiches and they were fantastic!
Some photos:
The view from waaayy out in center… also, here’s where they often do the post game show on FSN.
The bullpens.
After a lap around the Terrace Level we headed up to View. Our actual seats were somewhere in Lower View in right field… we never sat in ’em. Instead we watched an inning from right behind home plate:
Then we went allll the way out to right field:
Then we headed to the Budweiser Patio (aka smells-like-every-high-school-party-I-ever-went-to). Here’s the view:
Then we sat in the pavilion seats for a bit:
And lastly, we headed back toward the infield for the end of the game… what an end. By the way, our vacated seats from the beginning of the game were still open! Man, it was a great view of the late action!
Adenhart left with a 4-0 lead after six innings. The bullpen choked for the second straight night, however, as Arredondo gave up a run, Shields gave up two, and our new closer, Brian Fuentes gave up three runs in the ninth! 
I was livid… and the Angels couldn’t score in the bottom of the ninth. I had hoped to show Randy what happened when the Angels won… but the Big A would not “light up the Halo” on that night.
We had a lot of fun and I had a good time walking around the stadium… I’m there so much that I take for granted how much cool stuff there is to do there.
Two games this season… five baseballs! My next game probably will be when the Tigers are in town in a couple weeks. Thanks for reading!
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