30% chance of rain, I used a day off for today, if It had been higher I may not have went to this but Erik and I decided to go for it.  When we first got to Cleveland it was almost totally clear, and then a bunch of rain clouds threatened, with some raindrops for like 5-10 mins but it never shaped into trouble.  Erik and I watched as Carlos Santana I think raked some balls into the seats during an early Indian hitting session for him and some righty.  There were like 5 balls, and we didnt see any ushers ever pick them up.

Amy noticed when we were getting ready to go in that she saw somone with some baseballs but we werent sure, she turned out to be right.

There was only one ball to be found and I was in the right spot to do that for Ball 1.  Later we saw an usher giving away like 3 balls to random fans.

Here is a look at Cle and the very uncrowded seats, but the bats werent getting much done at all on either side of the field.  But it ws really empty.

So with the lack of action was a plentitude of scrum opportunities on some weird plays, both with Chris Perez orchestrating them.  He launched a ball way high of Erik which took a bounce to the left where I was for Ball 2.

Another scrum occurred all the way over by the Indians pen when an unidentified right hander lifted one midway into the middle which took a favorable bounce my way where I fielded it for Ball 3.

Here is the pic of that AO (Area of operation).

Ball 4 was a scrum from another wild a$% toss up from that mafia dude Chris Perez.

Ball 5, that was a Carlos Santana high explosive blast that went directly into the trees.  And seeing the trees from close by I got a good jump and saw the ball in the trees when I got to the landing in Heritage Park.

Check out the trees of Heritage Park.

Lastly after many insanely high pop ups and 100 mile an hour liners to the outfield Adam Dunn came my way in the suburbs of the CF seats where I figured hed bring one to eventually.  It was yet another scrum with a guy closing in but I won the race for Ball 6.

Here is how deep I was playing done for some perspective.

Thats downtown Cleveland deep.

Day-6

Year-36

Career-1130

First Sunday game of the year, cages up lets go, get it goin right.  Well instead of that we sat around trying to figure out why we were unable to access the stands til noon, wtf wtf, at the gates I couldnt stand it and thought quick to hit up the Allegheny Riverwalk outside of PNC.  It was hella beautiful down there with a cool breeze.  As I was crossing past the set of trees on the side of the hill I heard a thump and turned to see a bright white ball rolling toward the water.  I wouldnt let it beat me in the race, and wouldnt let it drown, I backhanded it for Ball 1.

As I walked into position I noticed a ball floating in the water pretty close to the shore in the murky Allegheny, I got down and stretched as far as my 6’1 frame and 14 inch glove would reach and I scooped it out of the water like I was fishing for Ball 2.

Fishing in the Allegheny on Easter Sunday.  HAha

And then what, this is what, another one waiting in the water to sink.  These baseballs have been timed to sink in about a minute and a half.  This one was a real fighter to catch, just out of reach.  I stretched so far out some passerby offered to hold my ankles, and the crowd grew and grew.  First I tried a empty case of beer to try and pull it close in the water by scooping it up in the box.  This didnt work very long cause the box weakened too quick.  I ran around through those trees you see in the pic above and tried to twist off a nice branch, but could only get the lower, shorter ones, or I would have had to climb the tree.  So I used the one I could get and it wouldnt reach the ball at my fullest extension.  So I started running around again through the trees.  And like finding an easter toy, I found a perfectly long enough branch and reached this one too for Ball 3.  Check out the ball from the shore, and the stick which got the job done.  A tough ball to catch.

And the stick that reached it, and this ball had to have been there at least 5 mins.  I guess if they are new they stay up longer.

Three balls was great, and it was great to be fishing for baseballs on Easter.

When we got in, at noon, which is new I guess, I went to the Clemente Wall to search for an Easter Egg on Easter and came through finding an egg for Ball 4.

And to top off a good start to the year?

The Battling Bucs walked off on the Philthadelphians.  Victorino, nice job chasing after that Cutch ball you are a bum, shoulda started walking home, because you didnt stand a chance with your Spud Webb height.  HA HA LMAO.

Day-4

Year-30

Career-1124

After the early Cleveland game it was back to Pittsburgh for the first Saturday game of the year.  This was the first time that I had been at two batting practices in one day, it was another beautiful day, and I was excited to do good.

Things started off with Erik, Zackweiss, and myself having a good throwing session in a park across the street from the CF gate as we normally do on Saturdays.  I took a pic of the skyline with Erik catching with Zack.

It was a great warm up session.  When we entered the gates we ran in to look for Easter Eggs and I heard a heads up from a Pirates player and a huge clang nearby.  I got eyes on the ball quick and grabbed it for Ball 1.  Shortly after this another clang and an usher picked it up.  Supposedly the ushers are not allowed to pick up any baseballs nowadays, so I tested the rule as he picked it up right near me.  I put out my glove to him and said can I have it, and he put it in my glove very reluctantly for Ball 2 so I guess maybe ushers wont be collecting baseballs anymore.

Check him out.

Ball 3 was a wild throw by J mac donald, that hit a wall by the foul pole and shot all the way down to me a section away.  Nice throw Jmac.

Ball 4 was another insanely good bounce, its crazy how sometimes you are a magnet for the ball in all ways, and other times you dont exist.  When it comes to good bounces and some luck this was as good as it gets.  This one was a home run srum that bounced away from three other people and rolled out toward me to be picked up in the handicap section.

Ball 5 was a toss up from bullpen pitcher Jared Hughes who obviously seems like a cool guy, looked like he was ecstatic to be in the majors.  I tried to get a pic but he was too far away for a good one by the time I took it.

Ball 6 was a caught home run right at me, with the sun blocked well it was an easy catch, I dont know who hit it.

The catch was made about three rows back from where Evan Meek and Ryan Howard are.  Shortly after this one I got another ball hit right in my reach and I made the catch for Ball 7.

I noticed 3 minutes remained until the Clemente Wall opened and I wanted to test again if the ushers would truly leave the balls to the fans.  When I got in I found Ball 8, then a new usher directed me to a ball in the front row for Ball 9, as I picked that up a ball banged off a seat.  I was in a race for it with a wolf of a man, in an old school Penguins coat, his eyes were wild, but he was too slow from his mountain top to get it, he stays at the top of the wall as his strategy, not good.  I got this one for Ball 10, and the first double digit game of the year for me.

My final ball of the day was a caught home run in the front row of the Clemente Wall for Ball 11.  I couldnt tell who hit it, I was pretty sure it was J Roll but I wasnt positive and I couldnt get a definitive answer from any of these Philly fans that invaded my city.

Day-11

Year-26

Career-1120

Up early again for another road trip. boy I was sleepy getting up early again.  This was a risky first trip to Cleveland for the year.  We knew that we would catch one teams bp, but we banked on a bunch of easter eggs, right on cue for easter time.  Well that would not be, because as we waited outside the HR porch and charted where the Indians were planting eggs in RF we noticed 2 ushers who picked up at least 6-7 balls that we counted, as they pretended to wipe off random seats.  This made mer nervous because all the gates opened at 1130 and there was a ton of Blue Jay and Indian fans.

Erik was going for Heritage Park for his strategy so I decided to look for a ball that luckily escapted the evil ushers who claimed all the other balls we watched.  I ran wuick to the top and sure enough the bomb that got away was tucked into the Bermuda triangle in RF as I like to call it, I picked it up for Bll 1.

Here is a much warmer and pleasing picture then this cold row of seats I had to search to get on the board, a nice pic of the Indians scoreboard from RF.

I then walked down to the front row to look for any more that may have been missed by ushers or fans.  During the brief time I was there someone blasted a ball to right center that bounced off the concrete in front of the railing, I barely was able to slam my glove down on it for Ball 2.  The guy in the pic below was literally ripping at my arm like pirahna at goldfish.  I thought he would never give up.  Later on he was asking for balls from players by begging them every time the touched a ball, it was creepy for sure.

I then walked around some more, and not surprisingly found a ball sitting nicely in a seat for Ball 3.

After this I decided to camp out kind deep in left-left center for the power hitting Jays righties.  Bautista was a disappointment hitting one homer, but either Encarncion, Francisco, or Arrencibia launched two can of corn homers right at me for Balls 4 and 5, which would be it for the day. Despite alot of space and opportunity nothing else would come my way.

Here is where I caught the two homers one below in the tunnel and one up top 5 rows back in the bleachers.

A cool statue in the works.

And me in modified Blue Jays gear as I dont have their shirt or their new hat, black makes a big difference from the blue hats they now wear.  Anyway, with only 45 mins of bp and a short drive from the Burgh it was worth it for sure.

Day-5

Year-15

Career- 1109

Yes another Opening Day, and better then PNC opening day, it was a beautiful day in Baltimore, when we arrived and got in line I was pretty chilly so we decided to catch for a while.  After I warmed up I took some pictures of Baltimore, one of my favorite cities to visit.

The first thing that caught my eye that I hadnt noticed around Camden yards before was this veterans memorial, having recently been discharged from the Army, and been on one deployment for Operation Enduring Iraqi Freedom I liked this saying, not just for what I had the opportunity to do, but what so many before me have done and so many will continue to do to allow us freedom and baseball.  So here it is and lets get to beautiful Camden.

And when we got to the gates I looked in and took a pic of the scoreboard from the gate.

Oh, I cant forget this cool pic of the warehouse from where we parked and walked toward the gate.  Ive taken alot of pics of the warehouse as there are many angles and different perspectives to take pics of it from.

I had to hit the john badly so I searched around for a bit and found a cool looking bar and walked in fast toward the lavatory.  I came across a cool pic of a player I always liked growing up, Harold Baines, as an Oriole.

When I ran into the Camden yards I ran for LF but no one was hitting so I stopped by to where players were throwing, I waited till someone was finished and in sight as there were few people around and got Ball 1 from Nick Johnson, in the high socks.

The next ball, Ball 2, was found tucked neatly under a seat, just minutes earlier Erik had found a wet ball as well that may have been there for quite some time.  The one that I found had a film of frost covering it, and it was major water logged.  Here is where I found it.

When I arrived in LF I took a sweet pic of the scoreboard showcasing opening day with the warehouse in the background, of course.

Things were kinda slow for everyone for a while and all the gates were open, I was on a mini drought, and then made a nice play on a ground rule double ball that bounced high and into the sun, I kept my eye glued to it and got Ball 3.  I was in the second row behind all these peeps.

Things really started jamming uo in LF, and with the Twins up, CF relatively sparse in its crowd, and alot of lefties on the Twins I moved.

After much requests for a toss up from Francisco Liriano and other Twin pitching company with no other Twins fans around I got Cisco to throw me up Ball 4.

For Ball 5 I was able to make a catch of a home run from an unidentified Twins lefty at this location.

Another cool pic of the warehouse from the first base side.

Here was a pic of the Baltimore flag as the National Anthem was sung.

While I was waiting for the game to begin, we stayed for an inning and watched the ceremonies which were awesome, I walked around looking for landmarked home run balls outside of the flag court.  I was able to find three new cool ones that I had not seen before.

The first was from Nick Swisher, one of the coolest current Yankees, the distance of this one was 412, that is my area code.  Yankees fav team, Swish cool as hell, definitely cool.

The next one I found was cool because it was the newest one that I could find, and it was from a player that I have a ball from in the PNC Park Home Run Derby, and recently crowned world series champ Lance Berkman.  It occured during interleague play last year I guess.

The last one was from old Pittsburgh star Bobby Bo, or Bobby Bonilla.  It was real old looking as it was from 1996.  After Bonilla left the Pirates he slowly fizzled out from team to team, but he was a part of the killer B’s with Barry Bonds, Sid Bream, and comp.

That was really it for Baltimore, I have a bunch of opportunities to go back to Balt and I def like it there as I always feel comfortable to put up good numbers, so Ill def be back a few times.

Here was todays stats.

Day-5

Year-10

Career-1104

This season crept up on me real quick and all the sudden it was opening day, its been beautiful consistently outside and it stayed that way for the first game of the year.  Here is a pic of the Pittsburgh skyline that I routinely take as I come across the West End Bridge toward the North Side.

When I got to the Cf gate at PNC I was the first person in line by like 10 mins as my friend and ballhawk Ian Weir showed up.

This however was a beautiful site as baseball was back, my favorite site when its time to do baseball was in front of me with sun as the backdrop.

When I got into the stands I saw my long time friend Jim Saylor and during a break in the action took a pic with him.

After a slow start Jose Tabata began to hit some blasts, one of them towered over my head and bounced out into the concourse past this table.

With the best jump on the ball I was able to scoop it  up for Ball 1, and my first ball of 2012.  Scrum of hr by Jose Tabata.

Not long after this Andrew Mccutchen was hitting bombs unlike any I have seen him hit before, including one that I caught that was impressive for its distance and awesome height for Ball 2.

The final ball of the Pirates portion of bp, Ball 3, was a caught home run of an unidentified Pirate in their last group.

The Phillies portion of bp was very crowded, as you can see in the pic, but I was in a good spot and caught a home run from a Phillie that I couldnt identify, somehow it occurred in this crowd for Ball 4.

The Philly gear which hurts me to wear, gave me an advantage later in bp in a big crowd, I stayed back from the swarm of rabid Philly fans and waved my Philly hat to John Mayberry and scored a toss up from him for Ball 5.

That would be it for baseballs snagged on opening day.

I took a picture in Philly gear with my friend from Philly who goes to Pitt, where I graduated from.

And that was opening day, I was glad everything worked out with Philly fans everywhere and all gates opening at the same time.

Day-5

Year-5

Career-1099

kk

Well I was dead wrong last year at picking the Rockies so let me see if i can set the record straight this year.

If you know me you know every Im with the Yankees, unless the Buccos are in it, and I could be 6 feet under by the time that happens.

So here is another shot at making some good predictions that come true.

NL Central

A Big Red Machine swallows up the Pujols less Cardinals.

NL East

Philthadelphians continue to take the East.

NL West

Giants return to World Series form.

Wild Card 1 – Miami Marlin Mania

Wild Card 2 – Dodger Beastmode

Miami, the wild bunch take out the blue beast Dodgers

NLDS

Phillies over Marlins

Reds over Giants

NLCS

Phillies over Reds

AL Central

This is a no brainer as the Tigers Tiger strong offense grew meaner, and the rest did little to tame the Tiger.

AL East

Yankees pull off a close race against Rays in a year long battle.

AL West

This is the best battle, Angels and Rangers, the Angels come out on top with Pujols as the catalyst.

Wild Card 1 – Rangers

Wild Card 2 – Rays

The Rangers come through over the Rays again, hungry to get back to the Fall classic.

ALDS

Tigers over Rangers

Angels over Yankees

ALCS

With a huge impact of the elite talent of Fielder and Pujols they meet for the right to go to the Fall Classic.  The Tigers claw their way through on the strength of Prince, Cabrera, and Verlander.

World Series

In a classic match up of amazing pitching and an offensive beast, the Tigers bear down, and begin to feast on the Phillies pitching, crowning the Prince, and the young prodigy turned perrenial chaser of MVP awards, Miggy Cabrera the World Series champions.

 

 

 

 

Its about that time, regular season baseball games are right around the corner.  This is going to be a big year for sure, and Im major excited that the gates will be opening at 430 for all weeknight games, thats right when I arrive.  The extra half hour a day is a big blessing.  Also, Im excited about my play, I lost 33 pounds from last winter and feel much quicker now on my feet so that should help things out.  The other thing thats going to be great this year is that I am no longer in the National Guard so I wont have to miss any weekend series of leave and miss up to 8 games in the summertime.

Right now I dont know where I am going for trips this season Im goina come up with somethings cool though, last year Texas was amazing, so it might take two trips to come close to that.

As for this years season ticket design, I like it, and improvement from last year.

Here is the cover.

This covers just simple but it gets the job done.

Here is the season ticket card.

Nothing special, I liked the yellow card the most.

The best part was the tickets;  Andrew Mccutchen, Neil Walker, Joel Hanrahan, and Jose Tabata.

Cutch was my favorite of the four featured players.

The Pirates do a nice job with their ticket design.

Anyway, I cant wait to get things going, I have a bunch of plans for April, I feel great, and here are my goals for the year.

1. Snag 525 + baseballs this year.

2.Average for the year, 5.5 to 6.0.

3.Attend 80 games.

5.Snag a ball at two new ballparks, TBD.

6.Finish top 3 on mygameballs.

7.Have Fun, Stay Injury free, and Play smart and quick.

Goodluck to all ballhawks, cya around!!!!

Usually when Piratefest comes around pitchers and catchers are ready to report to camp, this year however Piratefest would not mark that occasion as it was held the week before xmas, Im guessing to sell more tickets and such.

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.

This is a cool event that the Pirates have towards the end of November with the winter coming on and baseball fading away to cold snow and only hot stove talk.

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.