Here is Domink who loves the Piratefest at the entrance.

And here is Dominik and Shianne, I take a picture of the Monongahela/PNC Park in the background to show what the wintery weather is showing, here it doesnt show much as we have had a really mild winter so far.

Dominik preparing to take some swings off the tee in the batting cage.

And the follow through on a nice swing, I almost took this one right in the junk, he whacked it good.  Dominik is ready for tee ball this summer, we practiced alot last summer.

Dominik getting ready to go into the giant Pirate Parrot to bounce around.

Yea a huge Pirate Parrot.

Lauren with Shianne and her favorite toy of the day she got at Piratefest.

Then I made my way to the Pirate ticket sales to place the remainder of the money I owed to obtain my season tickets, in October I had to put a down payment to get a seat in s-z in the 300 level to keep my price at $400, as everything else in the 300 level went up to $600.

I checked out the Pirates shirt giveaways for the year.  Of course I like the yellow ones, I like the one with the camoflauge P because of my army background, and I like the all black with the P as a necklace.  The whites and greys just dont stand out, and to me wont be worn.

Dominik and Shianne with all of their Pirate loot when we were ready to go home.

And the last cool pic was on the way out when I met up with season ticket holder Steve, and his wife Nancy who works as an usher for the Pirates.  Nancy took all the Pirates give away shirts and made a huge quilt out of them and had signatures all over it.

That was it for Piratefest  2011, a good time for everyone.

I invited my friend Deric to hit with me, remember Deric from the onfield hitting day was my guest also, well he loves baseball so he was happy to attend this event also.

Here is a pic of me taking a cut.  I didnt hit all that well, my contact wasnt as solid as I would have liked on the faster machine.

Deric on the other hand was smacking balls all over, and shattered one of the Pirates bats and sent it flying at the machine.  Nice work in the cage DD$.

Here me and Deric took pictures of the two of us at the Pirates logo on the way up from the cages to the Pirates Hall of Fame club to grab something to eat, talk to players, get autographs and hang out.

And here I am.

When we got up to the Pirates HOF club the first person th5at I recognized was Baseball Joe, who also goes by Baseball 365.  Hes a pretty cool guy to hang around with and talk baseball.  He claims to watch baseball every day of the year and despises all other sports.  Baseball Joe is mute, and at one time was a good minor leaguer for the Pirates according to some sources.  He ballhawks, and loves being at the games.

Here I am with ex Pirate and Carrick native John Wehner, who apparently likes to talk baseball, he must have talked to me and Deric for about 15 mins while he drank a miller lite about the toughest pitchers to hit what kind of pitches were hard for him to hit and from who.

Here I am with Daniel Mccutchen, who immediately got the drift of who I was as he sees us all the time, and noticed the number of the baseball.  He put it together and I told him I was glad to have at least one ball from him in my career, because he does not throw the regulars baseballs.

Deric and I talked baseball, talked to baseball players, and had some good grub after we hit.  Definitely a good time on a cold November evening.

Starting with milestone balls.

Here is ball #800, clean catch of Matt Stairs bp home run, #900, toss up by Pirate pitcher Charlie Morton, and the #1000 club ball, a hand off of an early bp homer at the Progressive Field home run porch by security.

A couple other milestone balls on the year.

#300 on the season, tossed up by Pirate closer Joel Hanrahan, and the ball that got me to 100 straight games with at least one ball, and counting, I believe its in the 150′s now.  Anyway I named this grass gem, I was a little nervous about getting to 100 with the way PNC was this year.  Outside on the riverwalk with a bunch of other ballhawks a ball bounced out near me, I dove into the weeds outside the stadium in an attempt to smother it, I ended up catching it in the basket of my glove instead.

Commemorative baseballs on the year.

-Angels 50th anniversary.

-Colorado Rockies commemorative for their new spring training home field.

Other then the usual weird markings on balls that I have showcased as part of Balls of fame in the past this is one of several balls with a BP stamp on them that the Indians used this year.

Two weird snags of the year.

1-With my glove on the ground, labeling a previous ball I looked up to a Matt Stairs home run coming right at me, I had no choice but to bare hand it.  It was an awesome first for me, hopefully something I dont have to do again also.

2-While watching the early bp at Progressive Field from outside the home run porch a ball was scorched down the line, went untouched through the home run porch, and shot out of the gates bouncing across the street and toward the Quicken Loans arena, after a good chase I tracked it down.

Autographs of the year, something I dont chase down, but like to get when there is an easy opportunity.

-Nelson Figueroa         -Wilton Lopez     -Brandon Wood   -Tony Campana

-Mark Melancon          -Pedro Beato       -Kerry Wood         -Ramon Ortiz

-Enerio Del Rosario    -Joel Hanrahan  -Edwin Jackson

Scrummed balls from All Star caliber players.

You’ll notice that two of these are from Vladimir Guerrero, well when he came to PNC I had never snagged a ball off his bat, and he definitely made me work for each one of these two megabombs pictured below.  Both of these were scrummed in the upper bleachers, one all the way to the bullpen, and the other all the way at the other end of the upper bleachers near the foul pole, both took alot of effort with competition closing in.

The other three are.

Justin Upton, Hanley Ramirez, and Austin Jackson

Best thrown balls of the year by All Star Caliber players or really cool players.

*Interesting Stat, Arthur Rhodes is included here with a ball from him when he was a Ranger, and as a Cardinal.  In the last two years I have a ball thrown from him with the Reds, Rangers, and Cards.

*Interesting Fact, Justin Verlander spotted me in Tigers gear when they visited PNC when I was on the Clemente Wall.  This would have easily been my best thrown ball of the year, and maybe career as he won the CY Young and AL MVP.  Well, he underthrew me barely from about 15 yds, got the ball back, then overthrew me.

-Alfonso Soriano  -Michael Bourn   -Gerardo Parra    -Scott Hairston

-Ryan Braun         -Adam Jones        -Andrew Bailey    -Domonic Brown

-Josh Beckett       -David Murphy    -Brayan Pena        -Dave Racaniello (Mets Bullpen catcher)

-Carlos Marmol   -Kerry Wood        -Colby Lewis         -Arthur Rhodes (x2, win, win, WS champ x2)

Best caught bp home runs of the year from All Star Caliber or really cool players.

*Note-Pujols, Votto, Choo, and Stairs are repeats from last year.

-Josh Hamilton (Best)  -Starlin Castro   -Shin Soo Choo      -Koye Hill

-Jayson Heyward           -Adrian Beltre    -Adam Laroche      -Casey Mcgehee

-Andre Ethier                 -Carlos Lee          -Juan Uribe            -Jonny Cueto

-David Ortiz                    -Joey Votto         -Bobby Abreu         -Jemile Weeks

-Albert Pujols                -Matt Stairs          -Russell Branyan

And last but not least, the two best snags of the year.

Jayson Werth Gem of the Diamond

Andrew Mccutchen Gem of the Diamond

Check out 2010 balls of fame if you got some time, thanks for reading.

Goal #1-Attend 70-75 games.

I was able to attend 70 games on the nose.  56 at PNC, 8 at Cleveland, 4 at Texas, and 4 at Washington.  If not for excessive rainouts at PNC this year I would have definitely hit 75 games or more.

Goal #2-Finish in the top 3 of MyGameBalls.

I finished with a total 0f 343 balls behind Zack Hample and Erik Jabs.  The heat was on for most of the year, but I kept up my pace throughout and was able to hold off oncomers, only losing 3rd place for a week or so.

Goal #3-Snag 350 balls.

Following up a 400 ball season is tough, and I wasnt able to reach 350 either, ending at 343.  The only excuse I have is that PNC had roughly 13 rained out bps, thats why I was only there 56 times.

Goal #4-Snag 3 game time home runs, Gem of the Diamonds.

During the season I was able to catch a Jayson Werth home run on the fly and track down an Andrew Mccutchen opposite field homer that landed on the PNC riverwalk and landed in the grass outside the stadium.  The closest call to number three was in Texas, I was seated end of the row, 5 rows back next to the grass batters eye.  JJ Hardy ripped a line shot, I was up and near the middle of the grass before any competition was out of their seat, but the ball just missed landing in the grass and went into the blackness of the gap.  That close to meeting this goal.

Goal #5-Snag a ball at three new ballparks.

With two kids, a wedding planned for June, and not many vacation days to work with in my new full time job I had a hard time planning how to meet this goal.  I knew there was no way I was getting to three new ones so I used the last four days I had all on the awesomeness of Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.  A+++ in my book, heat included.  The architecture, atmosphere, friendliness of staff/fans, early gate time, ability to run onto the grass batters eye for home runs (I sat in the end seat 5 rows back without a ticket each of four games without even the hint of a question from an usher, try that at PNC) may be unrivaled.  Seeing just this park for four games was WELL WORTH IT!!

Goal #6-Average 5 balls per game.

I ended up with 4.90 per game, I am fine with this as my average (career and year) has been steadily increasing year by year.

Goal #7-Remain Injury Free

Besides the usual array of bruises, bumps, cuts, and scrapes I only had one significant injury.  Nothing like the one in 2010 where I had a softball sized egg on my right shin which I had to go to the hospital for.  This one was where I slammed my knee into the corner of the LF wall at PNC.  It made it tough to get around as the swelling slowed me down, but I managed and finished the season strong.  It wasnt fully healed until mid October, and happened Sept 13th, good thing that happened late in the season.

Here are the best moments in picture and dialogue of 2011.

The season began on the road in Washington with Erik Jabs, we drove through a near blizzard of snow and arrived to lite overcast at the gate to begin the season.

My first ball of the year, well it was a pair of balls to begin the year, definitely sweet.

I took some pics of Nationals Park, the last time I was there I had no camera and used Eriks pics for my blog.

On the way into Washington with the REAL Washington Monument in the background.

A pic from the upper deck.

A pic of the entire field from above.

Cherry blossoms outside the gate with the National logo in the background.

And a picture of one of many mirrored baseballs hanging along the parking garage toward the CF gate.

So that was it for Washington, onto Cleveland moments and recaps.

Yes Indeed Cleveland, the home away from home.  Great for the early entrance, easter eggs, huge rf to roam, heritage park, and the home run porch.  Under two hours away Cleveland plays a major role in overall stats for the year.

And the site of where I would snag career ball 1000.  It occurred outside the home run porch gates, nearly rolling out, handed over to me by the security guard at the gate, not very  remarkable but a majr milestone indeed.

Here is the ball with my glove, a beer, and an italian sausage with the amazing mustard which is made in Cleveland.

One of the funniest moments for me was at an early Cleveland bp as I was standing outside the gates.  Imagine a ball untouched, full velocity, shooting through the gate untouched around 2 o clock, your walking by and you see a guy with a glove take off sprinting after a baseball bouncing around in the streets toward the Quicken Loans arena.  Cool moment.

Here is the site of action.

Nothing else too significant in Cleveland the 8 games I attended there, so now lets head to the BIG state of TEXAS, Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.

Totally Amazing trip, it felt great to be in flight on the way there.

Here is a pic of the outside of the ballpark at home plate.

A close up pic with the Texas flag waving.

A look at the beautiful and fitting architecture along the right and left field sides of the ballpark.

Here is a broad look at the field from above.

The fans of Texas, who were all very  friendly and laid back.

A pic of the grass batters eye.  Did I mention that the ushers are laid back too, I was able to sit on the end seat five rows back each game.  During those four games there was a total of 14 home runs, one of which just missed landing in the grass.  I had a great jump on it, making it out to the center of the grass before any competition but fate would have the ball land in the gap.

Notice the sexy flag girls in the pic, well I had front row seats for that too, and they come out every  time the Rangers score, which was alot, so I was able to have the treat of seeing them many times do their Texas flag run through the grass.

Here is a pic of a statue of one of the most dominant pitchers ever, most no hittaers, and leading man of the Rangers, Nolan Ryan, this is behing the center field batters eye.

On the 4th of July, this vendor was sweating it out in the Texas heat, and dressed for the heat and the occasion.

And my  favorite pic of all, me with a bp caught homer from my favorite current player in MLB, Josh Hamilton.  A man of true heroics and faith.  When he hit the two run homer in game 6 I thought I could never be more certain of the outcome of the game and series being the Rangers winning it all, and Josh Hamilton having a very much deserved heroic home run to lead his team to the finish line, and to go from near death to hitting a World Series winning home run.  I cant understand why this wasnt to be, I guess fate didnt play out the way I thought it should have, and the Cardinals, my third most hated team, took the trophy home.  Anyway, I was ecstatic to have caught a CF bp blast home run clean off his bat.

So that was it for an amazing trip to Texas.  Now the recap of PNC park.  After attending two games in Nationals Park we had a nice sunny day for the home opener against the Rockies, my first ball of the year was snagged on the riverwalk outside of the stadium as it rolled down into the grass.

During this series I was able to get two toss ups from the sensational and very friendly Ubaldo Jimenez, giving me a total of three for him in career.  Here he is after a side session.

Here I am after a good first week of the season at Nationals and PNC park in some cool Rockies gear.

Any ballhawk at PNC is happy when the Brewers come to town, you can almost bank on a double digit day every time they do due to the many homers hit by their powerful and plentiful right handed hitters.  Here is a display of another good day with the Brewers in town.

And a pic of me in Brewers gear with a pretty cool ball, I have gotten many caught homers and other hit balls by Ryan Braun, but never a toss up, in my eyes Braun is a pretty cool player.  Here I am with the ball and a nice Pittsburgh skyline.

This year the Astros were a mess, but their bullpen was laid back as I have ever seen, horsing around, goofing around, and totally chillaxed.  Here is a pic of them.

They  were pretty cool too, I ended up getting some toss ups from Wilton Lopez, and Nelson Figueroa.  Also, autographs from Lopez, Figueroa, Mark Melancon, and Enerio Del Rosario.  Rosario I asked for a dip of chew.  Didnt come through on that but he got a good laugh out of it.  Here he is signing a ball.

Here is Nelson Figueroa signed ball.

And the final product with the three signatures.

Here I am rockin the Astros gear with caught Hunter Pence and Carlos Lee homers, I love these guys in bp, I stand on the LF crosswalk above the bleachers for him and Lee and caught three from each of them this year.  They are a great combo for a ballhawk.

A cool pic of my lil man Dominik with the Astros hat on with some balls hit by the Astros.

Ball number 800 caught clean off the bat of a bp monster by the name of Matt Stairs, the man who tries to hit a home run every time he steps to the plate.

Ball number 900 thrown to me by Pirates pitcher Charlie Morton.

A cool pic of glove, baseballs, ticket, and ticket during the Mets series taken on the Clemente Wall.

The Boston Red Sox were in town this year and with a huge crowd on a Friday I came very close to being shut out for the first time in a long long time.  Near the end of bp though I was able to get a toss up from a star pitcher by the name of Josh Beckett in my Boston gear, which was the only ball at this game, but a definite gem.

The second game on Saturday against the Red Sox was pretty tough also, but I came away with a major web gem outside the CF gate before it opened, off the bat of Big Papi.  Notice the crowd at the gate in the pic below, well Papi hit one that was a bullet of a homer right at the oblivious onlookers heads that just cleared the gate.  I was aware of it the whole way in and lunged high above and to my left to make a sweet catch with a big applause from the crowd who had a strong idea that they may have been struck hard by the homer that they didnt see coming.

And here is the Big Papi web gem, along with another homer Papi hit that I scrummed.

This year I was able to snag three Colorado Rockies Salt River Fields commemorative baseballs, for their new spring training stadium.  Here is what they look like.

The second commemorative ball I was able to snag, four total, was the Angels 50 year anniversary ball.  When the Braves came to town they had just played the Angels, and they must have had a *&^%load of these balls as I got four, and every other ballhawk got at least one as well.  Here is the sweet logo on those commemoratives.

And here I am showing them off after bp with a nice Pittsburgh skyline.

And here is a nice bloody scrape that I got scrumming one of them.

Another cool ball was Clevelands BP logo, I snagged a bunch of these in Cleveland.  I believe you were able to trade these in for some gas perks or something but I didnt take the time to go and do it, and I wanted to keep them anyway.

Here are a some random and cool pics taken during the season.

One game when I got down to the riverwalk to play any early bp balls that left the park I encountered the overflowing Allegheny after some big rains.  That killed any possible balls outside the park that day.

A PNC park old timer, long timer, and legendary Pirate fan named Irene, with all of her many knick knacks, trinkets, and good luck Pirate memorabilia that she puts out for each game at her seat underneath the Clemente wall behind the fence that covers the RF wall.

A close up pic of Kerry Wood as he signed a ball of mine.

And another pic of my lil man Dominik posing next to balls snagged at a Cleveland vs A’s game.

And the treacherous enemy of many PNC ballhawks, the blistering 5pm sun, which caused me to misplay at least 5 balls throughout the season, all of which are usually routine plays.  You have to be so careful when the sun is like this to have your shades, have your glove blocking the ball, and hope that as the ball comes into you it doesnt cross through the sun.  So even if you do all the right things you may come away with a bruise if you dont duck away when you lose it, or you just look like a bum, but if your an experienced PNC ballhawk you just know that its gonna happen to you at least a few times through the year.

Yea, catching a ball as it crosses through that is a task.

This year Zack Hample came to town on his way to seeing all 30 stadiums, we took a good pic with him and his watch with Zack clients at the gate.

During this bp with the Brewers at bat, Ryan Braun tossed a ball to Zack Hample that was too high for him to catch, the little guy named Maple in the green striped shirt was close to the ball, but it was much closer to me and I picked it up for the snag.  With a clean toss up from Braun earlier in the season I had no problem with giving this one to Maple who was very  happy to have it.

Another milestone was my 300th ball, breaking 300 for two years straight.  This was tossed to me by the most anti ballhawk pitcher that roams the outfield during Pirates bp.  He managed to laugh at us when balls hit the wall, went out of his way to catch balls that landed near the track, and brainwashed all the Pirates pitchers other then Ross Ohlendorf to not throw balls to us regular ballhawks.  Joel Hanrahan, cocky, and ignorant at any request for a toss up.  Well the number 300 ball he must have been on a really good date the night before cause he scanned the regular ballhawks extensively to decide who he would rarely toss a ball to.  He asked how many each of us had, and at the time I had the most in three balls.  I just told him hey, “I got 3 but the next one will be number 300 on the year and it would be cool to get it from an All Star closer.”  He obliged and tossed it up, what a challenge and what luck I guess to get it from him after how he treated us, and passed this on to the other pitchers throughout the year.  Here it is.

If you noticed the ball with number 300 on the year is a Gem of the Diamond, a game time home run.  That was off the bat of Andrew Mccutchen, so that was a really good game for me.  Lets take a look at the first Gem of the Diamond on the 2011 season, the one that was a moon shot off the bat of Jayson Werth, caught cleanly on the LF riverwalk toward the CF bullpen.

Here is the spot where I made the catch, where I am standing in the pic below.

Here is a pic of the games baseballs with the Jayson Werth Gem of the Diamond in the front.

Now back to the Andrew Mccutchen Gem of the Diamond.  As I was standing in LF on the crosswalk Cutch ripped a homer that bounced hard off the PNC river walk in right center.  At first I thought wow, here I am playing in LF for Cutch and he goes to the spot where I play lefties, figures.  Well, my  buddy Erik Jabs happened to be sitting in the upper level on the first base side.  He called me and told me that the ball left the stadium.  Off to the races it was, surprisingly PNC ballhawk Jim Saylor was out there searching through the weeds.  He must have rushed straight to the weeds and went right past it as it sat in the grass.

I hurried up and took the pic before anyone may have noticed it.  Upon further review of the video footage the ball did take a huge hop opposite to where Jim assumed it would be, in the weeds.  Because of this I came down with a second Gem of the Diamond, from one of my favorite current players, Cutch himself.

Thank you again Erik for the heads up.

The final game of the year was against the Reds that I attended, and I went out with a bang, just missing double digits in my last game.  I was lined up for a Brandon Phillips bomb on the LF crosswalk, certain it was on its way into my glove as I leaned against the rail to the handicap section.  Right as I was ready to feel it pop into my glove and take me to double digits from a real cool player a woman sitting in the handicap seats popped up and snared it out of nowhere.  She literally stood up at the last second and robbed it.

I was still glad to end the season on a 9 ball game, and plan on taking the momentum into the 2012 season.  Here are the balls from that game.

And lastly, the great one, Roberto Clemente immortalized in statue.  The site that I love to see as 5pm nears all throughout the season, and the site I will be excited to see as I await to enter the LF bleachers for another strong year of ballhawking in 2012.

Cant wait!!!

My guest for this event was my friend Deric who shares a passion for baseball just as I do.  Deric gave me a great opportunity as a clinician with Mercy Behavioral Health after a long and difficult job search, so knowing his passion and the opportunity he gave me it was the least I could do to show gratitude.

We began just throwing in LF and trying to rob home runs.  This was fun for a while, nobody was hitting anything worth hustling for so we caught until it was time to shag flyballs from the pop up machine.

From here we talked alot about philosophy and the ingredients of being a good clinician, and of course, baseball.

The pop up machine must have been set on easy, the last time I did field days it actually took some good judgment and some hustle to make the catches, today, I would stand in one spot and wait with no excitement involved in any of the catches.

We did begin taking some pictures though.

I liked this picture of the legendary Roberto Clementes number on the Clemente Wall.

I also had Deric take a pic of me next to the Yankees and Red Sox portion of the scoreboard on the Clemente Wall.  Since then the Yankees were defeated by the Tigers.  Pinstripes for life either way, Im excited about the Yankees every year, and have been a Yankee fan since the early days of Jeter, Georgie, Mo, and Pettite.  I just have a passion for their aura, and their ability to place some of the best baseball players on the planet on the field yearly.  Go Yanks.  Next year I plan on visiting NY and staying with Zack Hample to visit Yankee stadium, Citi Field, and Citizens Bank Park.

Notice the J-Peezy steeler jersey, thats right, the wild and untamed animal Joey Porter who was integral in making it to and winning Super Bowl 40, and the fifth in Steeler history.

I dont talk too much football during baseball season but I love my Steelers.

With the Yankees out Im with the Rangers, Id love to see Josh Hamilton get a ring.

When we were called in to hit we took a bunch of pics.

Deric standing on the steps of the Pirates dugout.

Me sitting in the dugout.

Deric in his stance with a beautiful Pittsburgh skyline as the backdrop.

Me in my stance with the beautiful Pittsburgh skyline as a backdrop.

As for the hitting, it was subpar.  8 pitches at a time, which were pretty much all slow and outside, definitely not ideal to hit one out to LF.

I hadnt practiced much at all leading up to this, and had injured my right knee at a game the week before.  I made good connections on all my swings in the first round.  Deric, having not played in a while took a few swings to get going and then got his swing going.  He had himself announced as Mickey Mantle, and I had myself announced as Ken Griffey Jr.

With the time winding down there was still ten mins left, we asked could we hit another round.  The response we got was despicable, “We need time to have the pitchers, (the guys so laboriously placing the balls into the machine time to rest.)  My thought was, “You gotta be %^&*($# kidding me, there was well enough time for the both of us to have a full round, as everyone else was abandoning the field to go eat.

Anyway, we were able to bargain it down to two more pitches a piece, I didnt mention that I had my new BB core certified Easton bat which felt great when I made the good contact in the first round.  This was my last two pitches to try to put one out to LF into the bleachers until next year so I was ready to make the best of it.

Pitch 1 was a rocket, but as is par for the course for me it was headed toward deep left center which is the largest part of the ballpark.  I stood back and admired the sweet rip as it landed deep in left center, Joe Klimchak, the voice of the Pirates called out that it was a 310 foot shot, I disagreed, as did Deric, we both felt it would have had a shot had I pulled it down the line.  I just cannot pull the ball though, but was happy with that.

Here is a pic of me taking the cut.

And here is a final pic of Deric and me ready to hit.

What a Sunday afternoon as we both had a blast.

We followed this up by going to Mullens bar and grill across from PNC for wings, tater tots, burger, and beer to watch the Steeler game, which we won big time.  We also had some good entertainment in that of an overzealous Steeler fan chic who got up on the table and showed her stuff every time the Steelers scored, which they did alot of that game.

Stay tuned for my season hilite reviews and my additions to my Balls of Fame collection from 2011.

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.

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.

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.

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

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