This would turn out to be my final game of the season as Fridays game with the Reds was a washed out bp due to rain, and Sunday was a no bp day for either team.  It ended up being a pretty good day though as I fell just one short of double digits.

The day began well with a toss up from Ross Ohlendorf for Ball#1, it was great to see his face out there shagging fly balls in CF, a stark contrast in personality and fan friendliness compared to Joel Hanrahan and his brainwashed crew of bullpen bums!! haha

Thanks Ross.

Thanks Ross for recognizing the regular fans and ballhawks, and good luck to you in wherever your MLB career takes you if you are not back in PNC next year.

Today felt good, I left it all out there on the field (I mean the bleachers) as I felt like I had a perfect combination of hustle, good positioning/reads on ricochets, enthusiasm, and good glove work which is good to carry over into the next season.

Ball#2 was a scrum for a homer hit down the left field line.

Ball#3 was a good reaction on a homer that landed hard on a bleacher which I snagged immediately as it bounced off the bleacher.

Ball#4 was another scrum, this one on a ground rule double which bounced high up onto the LF crosswalk over everyone.

Ball#5 would be a toss up from Heberto Andrade who has routinely thrown me toss ups all year, and who should single handedly through toss ups to me alone win friendliest player/coach  of the year on mygameballs.

Thanks alot Herbie for your toss ups to me and my son.

Ball#6 was a caught home run of an unidentified Reds righty.

Ball#7 was a nice underhanded reaching catch forward of a quickly sinking Joey Votto CF blast.  Ball #8, a scrum of a Joey Votto home run a few pitches later in the same section as seen in the pic below near the bullpen.

Ball#9, which ended up being my last ball of the year was another caught home run in the area of the picture below.

Walker made a valiant and futile bare handed attempt, but came up short over the reach of my glove.  People without gloves make me laugh when they compete for caught homers, bring the leather son.

That was it for the day, and the season.  Stay tuned as I post a full season recap with hilites, best pictures, and best balls of the year.  Also, go PNC, bye bye Shea/Citi as most snagged balls, big ups to all my PNC fellow ballhawks, and keep up the good work.  And for anyone that thinks PNC is easy you must have never been here, Ive seen one of the best get nervous as the stiff competition and difficult play of the park ensued throughout bp.  There are also a few people from Baltimore who put up some really low numbers in the forms of 1′s and 2′s when they came, and there is someone in Milwaukee who made a smart comment how my 100th game wasnt really much in the city of Pittsburgh as if to say that it was always easy here and the streak should be much higher.  I and all PNC ballhawks invite those eager to give PNC and the competition here their best shot and see how it goes.

I will also be posting balls of the year to coincide with my compilation of balls of fame started last year.

Stay tuned.

Day-9

Year-343

Career-1094 and on the rise!!!

And I took one last pic of my favorite statue, favorite skyline and favorite place to be come 5pm until next year.

My final game at Progressive Field would turn out to be a good one, although the way it began I thought it was going to end up in double digits.

It was sunny out, and I took to the outside of the home run porch as the White Sox took an early bp session.  In the second group one of their righties launched two in a row in the vicinity of the home run porch, the security guy there walked slowly to retrieve them, he walked one of them over to me and said here take one home, Ball#1.

In his next at bat the same White Sox hitter launched another towards the porch, it took a nice bounce through the garbage cans, recycle bottles, and turnstiles, and finally made its way through the gate without trouble and onto the street.  With no one around I ran across the street and scooped it up as it ricocheted off the curb for Ball#2.

When I entered the stadium first I was able to find Ball #3 in the seats, and when an Indian player gave me a heads up to a homer coming in nearby I was able to see it as it landed and make an easy scrum on it for Ball#4 as the limited amount of fans still sauntered their way in.

Ball#5 was a scrum for a ball hit directly into Heritage Park.

Things got tough for a while after this. when I entered the LF bleachers Alex Rios lifted a deep shot that I was able to climb the steps and bleachers for and srum for Ball#6, and what would turn out to be my last ball of the year in Cleveland.

Day-6

Year-334

Career-1085

Cleveland which continues to be an awesome ballpark to ballhawk at will again be a big factor into my plans and stats for next year.

I had yet to encounter a rain out at Progressive Field, but due to the early planning of days off to end the season with a final two day trip to Cleveland and to make my best shot at reaching 350 on the year.  As luck would have it, Mother Nature put what would end up being the finishing touches on my goal of reaching 350 balls this year.  Mother nature also ruined 13 and a half bps in Pittsburgh this year, compared to 8 and a half last year, thats 19 games rained out for me, and 5 more this year in Pittsburgh then there was last year.  So mother nature definitely had an impact on my season, possibly being one of the deciding factors that I couldnt reach 400 for the second straight year, Im not one for excuses but to say the least the weather was not kind to me, as well as the PNC regular ballhawks there.

With 149 straight games with at least one ball on the line and rain pouring like it was going out of style, I considered getting something to eat and retiring to my hotel and returning back to action tomorrow, but the competitior in me kept my drive alive.

Here is a picture along the side of Progressive towards downtown Cleveland.

And a picture of the storm towards the Bob Feller statue.

And a site that I had seen for the first time ever entering Progressive field, the white monster enveloping the field.

Things looked bleak as sporadic groups of White Sox pitchers warmed up along the RF line, and I was trapped in RF seats.  One thing on my side was that there was zero White Sox fans.  All the players had their warm up coats on, so I had to really look hard to recognize someone, there were only three lefties, and I was able to recognize the tall and lanky bullpen star in that of Chris Sale.  He overthrew me, that bounced back to the field, he got another one and fired it in for a strike and Ball#1 of the day.

This pic was taken the next day as I was unable to get a pic after the throw.

Ball#2 was found in the LF bleachers when they opened, an Indian player ditched the wet ball when they were warming in CF.  I kept my eye on it for quite a while.  I was yelled at by a lady usher who said that I was supposed to leave it for a kid, she really tried her best to make me leave it there, “Arent you here everyday, thats for a kid, theres no bp today” and me, “No Im from Pittsburgh.”  And left the scene, I give away balls to kids alot, and like other ballhawks, I dont like being told what I should or shouldnt do with a baseball, I have lit up many kids faces this year and years past so I had no remorse of scooping this up and moving on.

After I took this picture of the scoreboard I was able to yell out to an animated Juan Nieves in the bullpen who was having a good time fooling around and giving tips to Mark Buerhle as he warmed up, I played the animated role as well yelling loudly, “Go sox Go Buehrle, whats up Juan,” he flipped me a ball as I stood out with ease in the wet and unoccupied seats.  Ball#3.

I stayed for a good portion of this game into the 8th inning in hopes of a home run on the porch but would have no such luck.  I then retired to my hotel in hopes of sunshine and good opportunities the next day.

Erik Jabs and I had planned on either Baltimore, or Cincinnati for today.  Baltimore, we couldnt get season tickets, and Cincinnati had some type of ceremony going on for Johnny Bench, so we decided on Washington.

More bad luck in DC for me.  I made the trip labor day weekend for a game in Washington and their was no bp due to meet and greet the players on the field.

Today wasnt as bad, but the Nationals didnt take bp today.  You have a picnic at the park for season ticket holders, then you dont take bp for all the extra fans there?  I dont know the answer.  So I waited around for the Marlins.

Not much action, and a crowded left field led to two baseballs on the day.

Ball#1 Scrum for Mike Stanton home run.

Ball#2 Toss up by Leo Nunez.

Day-2

Year-325

Career-1076

I dont have much to say about this game except that I sucked, my luck sucked, and I had a serious bruise to the lower portion of my quad just above my knee, which has just know gotten back to full range due to the swelling, it is 9/19/2011.  It slowed me down in Washington, and at the Pirates field day for hitting and fielding.

Anyway I ended up with two balls.

Ball#1 Caught home run from unidentified Pirate.

Ball#2 Toss up by a police officer as Edwin Jackson left the field, the officer saw that Jackson was throwing the ball to me as it ricocheted off the bleacher to the field.

Day-2

Year-323

Career-1074

There was a very low crowd today, and with the recent call ups from both teams hitting I expected to have an awesome day.  This would not be the case, the Cardinals through zero balls to anyone first of all, I am sick of them and glad that tomorrow is the last time I see them until next year, I hope that the Pirates put a nice dent into their fading chances to make the playoffs.  And I also hope that Pujols gets traded, thats how much I hate the Cardinals, I dont care where he would go.

Well, today was just that day where even with a low crowd and many opportunities, I was one step too late, or outsnagged by one of the few other people that stand in one spot waiting.  I was gassed as I chased ball after ball, coming up short time and time again.  Sometimes thats the way it goes, the ball just wont bounce your way, and everything you do is a failed effort.  I left immediately after bp, not mad at my efforts, but frustrated with the outcome.

I managed to snag three balls.

Ball#1 was a nice running catch on the LF crosswalk.

Ball#2 was a miracle bounce off the back of the Pirates bullpen wall which may have landed in my glove without moving, I guess I had one ball of luck on my side as I caught the amazing ricochet from an absolute Matt Holliday bomb.

Ball# 3 was another caught home run from an unidentified Cardinal.

And that was it.

Day-3

Year-321

Career-1072

Today was a slow and tough day, I managed to snag four balls.

Ball#1 Toss up by Scott Cishek

Ball#2 Toss up by star reliever Leo Nunez

Ball#3 Caught home run hit by Brett Hayes

Ball #4 Scrum for home run, given away.

The Saturday game against the Marlins was much better, as it got off to a great start.

When I ran in I found Ball#1 by the bullpens in left center, and then ran to the upper bleachers to find Ball#2 there.  Not long after this I was involved in a scrum with ballhawk Zack Weiss which landed in the handicapped seats, we closed in on it quickly, I hopped onto a bleacher to reach from it with my glove for some extra extension as Zack was a bit closer.  I barely swept it up for Ball#3, Zack then on his way out of the bleacher seats fell over the railing right on his butt and rolled over back to his feet to get back in action, it was hilarious.  Talk about adding insult to injury.

Ball#4 was a caught home run from an unidentified Pirate right hander.

Ball# 5 was a toss up from recent call up and always generous Jason Jaramillo.

Ball#6 was a toss up from Heberto Andrade.

Ball # 7 was a scrum for a deep left center shot near the bullpens by Mike Stanton which touched down in the upper bleachers.

And Ball #8 was a second toss up from Heberto Andrade at the bullpen before the game began.

Today would end up being a great day for ballhawking, just about as great as this Pittsburgh skyline on a day where it was predicted to rain.

As I entered the LF bleachers looking for any easter eggs, a home run was hit right at me by an unidentified Pirate for an easy catch of Ball#1.

Another thing about today was that by obtaining three balls I would finally reach 300 on the year.  Ball#2 was a scrum for a ball hit near this empty part of the bleachers which landed against the back of a bleacher and stayed put where I was able to pick it up with no trouble.

If youve read my blog you would have noticed that the Pirates closers that shag balls in left field kinda despise us ballhawks, they ignore every requests and sometimes engage in glaring stares and negative conversations about us ballhawks due to seeing the balls that we obtain.  Being loyal fans of a team that has struggled for so long my opinion is that there shouldnt be such a dislike for us and that a toss up here and there rather then the negative reputation they perceive is unwarranted.

Ball #300 would end up coming from the ring leader of the anti Pirate bullpen pitchers, Joel Hanrahan.  Joel consistently goes out of his way to snag close home runs and close ground rule doubles and has spread his feelings to all of the rest of the Pirate bullpen that they now throw absolutely nothing into the stands.  How ironic it was to get number 300 from the ring leader himself Joel Hanrahan.  Somehow he had a ball and was facing the stands where myself, Erik Jabs, Ian Weir, and Jim Saylor, all regular ballhawks at PNC pled their case for a ball from the most anti ballhawk Pittsburgh Pirate.

My statement to Joel was, “I am not going to lie, I already have two balls,” as he questioned each of us on if we had any baseballs yet.  I also mentioned, “I would like to get number 300 of the year from the best closer in the NL.”  He asked me if I was going to stop after number 300, I gave the honest reply of No.  He considered the other ballhawks requests, then turned and threw me a knuckleball for Ball#3 and #300 on the year.  Thanks Joel.

That was it for the Pirates portion of bp and I went to change into my Astros gear.

Ball#4 ended being a toss up from Astros reliever Wesley Wright.

Ball#5 was a nice catch of a Carlos Lee blast which went to the last row of the LF bleachers, I had a good read on it from the start and made a running catch from the vantage point of this picture into the last row ahead.

I then made my way to the Roberto Clemente wall in RF as some lefty Astros were due to take their cuts.

Things picked up pretty good in RF, more then I thought it would.  Ball#6 was a caught home run leaning very carefully over the rail just as I was requesting a toss up, the ball was more then half way toward me, and I was lucky it was right at me, and I barely was able to make a can of corn catch due to my late tracking of the ball.

Not long after this was a scrum for a home run that landed in the front row of RF which bounced high and over my head, I made an error on trying to catch it, but it dropped easily enough to pick up on the scrum for Ball#7.

Ball#8 would be another scrum, it was hit pretty high up in the pic below, and most of the time due to the steep sections these balls bounce right back onto the field, this one didnt and I was able to srum it for Ball#8.

That was it for batting practice, but the best was yet to come.

In Andrew Mccutchen’s first at bat of the game, as I was standing in LF, he launched a serious opposite field bomb onto the Right center portion of the PNC riverwalk.  All I could think of was man I wish I was in my usual spot for lefty home runs there.  Shortly after the home run I got a call from Erik Jabs in which he told me that from his seat in the club level he noticed the ball bounced out of the stadium.  At this point I took off for a chance at finding the Mccutchen home run.

When I ran out of the stadium toward the outside Riverwalk I noticed that Jim Saylor, a PNC regular ballhawk was already searching extensively with a cane in the overgrown weeds and grass.  But as I approached I immediately noticed a game used ball sitting right in the grass below the trees.  I picked it up to show Jim that I had the game time Mccutchen home run, and told him that he ran right past it.  Here is where the ball was found.

Now you may think, how did he run right past this ball in the grass?  And I was thinking he may have tried to trick me by putting this one there to make whoever picked it up feel as though they found it, buying him more time to search the weeds and grass where he thought it was.  From his vantage point in his Right center seats there was no way he could have seen how the ball bounced out.  After reviewing the replay it was obvious that the ball didnt take a straight bounce from where it landed into the weeds and grass, it took a major left near the tress and rolled down the grass, just missing the actual pavement of the outside riverwalk.  I spent about 20 minutes after Jim went back into the stadium searching thoroughly through the weeds and grass where I had also assumed it may have gone, nothing was in there.  When I saw the replay later it explained where I found it.  Jims thoughts of it being in the weeds and grass made him run directly to the weeds to begin searching, missing the ball which layed in the grass in plain sight waiting to be found.

To further confirm the game time home run snag of Andrew Mccutchen’s 21st homer of the season and career homer 49 I called the Pirates ticket office and asked to speak to someone who may know if the ball was snagged inside the stadium, the response I got was that no one had gotten the ball, and that it had left the stadium.  The Pirates have a program where if you snag a game time home run from a Pirate they will confirm it and have it signed by the player, and then send it back to you in the mail.

By video, confirmation by Pirate staff and Jim Saylors confirmation that he had ran straight for the weeds and grass I was finally sure that this rubbed up ball was the Andrew Mccutchen home run.  And during bp, not one ballhawk saw a bp homer leave PNC park.

Gem of the Diamond, 7th career game time home run from the rising star Andrew Mccutchen.

Major, Major assist by Erik Jabs, we always help each other out when possible but this was truly a great assist, thanks Erik.

Ball#9 of the day.

Here is a pic of the Gem of the Diamond and ball #300 of the year tossed by Joel Hanrahan.

Here is a pic of todays baseballs.

Day-9

Year-306

Career-1057

My family and I had decided to spend labor day weekend in Silver Springs Maryland with relatives.  We had a nice, relaxing time, and I took the opportunity to get some more stats under my belt as I attended the bp only of this game and then returned home.  Took the subway for free with my cousins transit pass and headed off for Nationals Park which has always been a good ballpark for me.

Today that would not be the case, and it was partially my fault.  My consecutive games streak with at least one ball was on the line big time.  Something seemed weird when the gates opened at 330, something seemed even more weird when I noticed that the entire warning track was roped off, metal stakes and all.  I was worried but hopeful as it was still very early, well my optimism took a nice shot when I exited the lf seats to an usher telling me, “You wont have to worry about finding a good spot because there wont be any bp today.”

Great!! I noticed rather quick that their was a group of Nationals warming up along the rf line, I quickly ran over there, and disregarded all security, somehow eluding there site and catching them off guard.  Sean Burnett, Gorzellany, and Livan were all prime candidates to get toss ups from, until a security said I couldnt be there, I asked nice could I please wait as they were almost finished throwing, well the lady was so nervous that she started nagging the players for a ball so she could get me out of there.  Finally she said you gotta go, and the Nationals were just about getting done, I took like a minute to go up each step.  And finally, Gorzo and Slaten finished throwing, I yelled out to Gorzo and he flipped me Ball #1, just as the lady got backup and some deuchy guy started screaming for me to leave.  I politley waved bye bye, and took a big breath of relief.

Thanks Gorzo.

With not a Met in sight and the festivities about the begin for Meet and greet the players on the field I decided that this may have been the only ball I would get today.  So I headed down onto the field, to look for any baseballs that could have been laying around.  And what do you know, right where the groundscrew keeps there stuff there was a ball about ten feet from the guard in the pic below.  I asked him nicely if he could grad it for me as it was maybe ten feet from him.  You would have thought I was asking the guy to steal a pen out of Barack Obamas office.  “No way man Im not leaving my post.”  Security guard of the year, another member of the no fun policy team.

Check him out.

When I went back into the seats to take this pic the ball was gone.  So the only ball I saw as I roamed the track was a no go.  So I was resigned to take pics from on the field, not cool.

On field photo day, I gotta take responsibility for this p#$% poor planning.  I wanted to barf.  I took some pics from on the field as the players were starting to meet and greet.  The rules of this were that you could take pics of the players, they didnt sign or take pictures with the fans though, nice plan Nationals.

I took a wonderful pic of the flowerpots from below.

Not, Id rather have been standing behing the flower pots catching baseballs, then staring at a trash can on the field and overvigilant security and ushers everywhere.  I was yelled at several times when I was in the stands roaming around frustrated, there was only one section to enter, and one section to exit the field, I purposely screwed around with their retarded rules for the day, and made them yell, and then just kept walking like I didnt hear them.  It was kinda funny actually, lotta good conversations I had that day purposely agitating and purposely ignoring, misery loves company right.  Thats a little extreme but I was in that kind of mood at the time.

Heres another wonderful on field pic, NOT!

Something the Nats dont have much of this year, I wonder why they are bringing Strasburg back this late in the season.  Why not allow continued strength and recovery.  They must need some ticket sales, who knows.

Totally down on my luck and resigned to the fact that I would be leaving soon with one ball under my belt I watched as the players walked briskly by trying their hardest to look enthused.  The first group was Ankiel, Zimmerman, and Alex Cora.  Well, when they made their way through CF their was two Mets players catching, one of which overthrew big time and landed it near Cora as he was heading past.  I watched as Cora picked it up to throw it back to the Mets players, and shockingly, he whipped it into the upper deck seats above CF.  That was it for my field day meet and greet, they were lucky I didnt puke on the track it was such a crock of crap to me.  I took off for the upper deck on the track as if tracking a deep home run, I went out the scheduled exit area and ran, while getting yelled at, again, but ignored, again, and made it to the escalators without being arrested, tasered, or beaten by the anal retentive, militant like Nationals Park security squads.  I booked up the steps to the section the ball landed, an usher was looking for it and stated that “he wanted to find it to give it to a kid,” it couldnt be any other way the way the day was going.  Problem was, his eyes and legs were no match for mine, I ran and scanned quickly and found Ball #2, and final ball of the day here.

A look at he field from where the toss up was found.

To celebrate the small victory on a difficult day, and to cool down I sat down and drank a 16oz cold Miller lite.  When I finished this it was time to change into Mets gear as they were finally warming up, signs of life finally.

But the fiasco was still going on and no more fans were allowed to enter the field.  The Mets players finished and handed out the baseballs like candy on Halloween.  I packed my bag and left, mad at myself for not researching this, but relieved that under these conditions I had two balls and my streak made it to see another day.

Day-2

Year-297

Career-1048

Today was a good day in Cleveland.

My phone was still on its way home from Minnesota so I was unable to take any pics.  I wasnt happy to begin with as the Indians took an early bp, I noticed as three balls either bounced or landed on the fly right near the CF portion of seats by the CLE dugout.  Before I could even get back in line I noticed a teenager walk out of the seats with his pockets bulging from each and every one of the balls I had scouted.

So I waited in line and put it behind me.

Ball #1 of the day was a caught home run from an unidentified Indian.

Ball#2 was a scrum for a home run, again unidentified.

Ball#3 was a toss up from always friendly Indian closer Chris Perez.

I then changed into a bright yellow Pirates shirt turned inside out with a crisp new A’s hat with the yellow brim.

I was sticking out like a sore thumb, maybe the only A’s fan there also.

Ball#4 was a toss up by Gio Gonzalez.

Ball#5 was a toss up by closer Andrew Bailey.

Ball#6 was a caught home run of the bat of Jemile Weeks, brother of Rickie Weeks, one of my favorite ballplayers.

Day-6

Year-295

Career-1046