4/3/08 at Yankee Stadium

April 4, 2008

I need to start by thanking my friend Eric Marinbach (who, by the way, runs THE definitive message board about bobblehead dolls). The cheapest ticket available for this game would’ve cost me more than $60. Eric was somehow able to come up with two extra $5 seats at the last minute–one for me and another for my girlfriend Jona–and he gave them to us for free. Nice looking tickets, too. Check it out:

It was another cold day (game-time temperature: 42 degrees) but that didn’t stop me from lighting the right field seats on fire during batting practice. As soon as I ran inside, I saw a line drive hit the protective netting along the right field foul line, and the ball dropped down behind the rolled up tarp. There were only a few other fans in the seats, and I wasn’t sure if any of them had seen it, so I raced over, got permission from a security guard to head down to the front row, and then lifted up the net and grabbed the ball. Too easy. I wanted to take a pic of the ball before I grabbed it, but Jona had my camera and even if she hadn’t, there just wouldn’t have been time.

I ran back out to the seats in straight-away right field, and within a few minutes, a Yankees player (not sure who) flipped up a ball. It cleared the people standing directly behind the wall and was heading over my head and about 10 feet to my right. I darted through the aisle and jumped and reached up high for a back-handed catch when a fan standing in the seats right above me reached out and tipped it out of my glove. We both bobbled the ball, and I snatched it during the fumble.

I snagged two more balls with my glove trick, and Jona got a really cool pic as I was reeling one of them in. This was her view from about 100 feet away…

…and here’s a closer look at the same pic. I’m the one wearing the blue cap and puffy black jacket. You can see my glove dangling just to the left of the “314” sign.

Did you notice the two other fans in this photo who are dangling their cup tricks? Some people with ball-retrieving devices like to pick a spot and immediately lower their contraptions. It’s like they’re claiming their spot, so that if/when a ball rolls to the wall below them, they’re all over it. But when balls roll 10 feet to the side, they’re screwed. I prefer to wait until I see a ball roll to the wall and THEN make my move. Sometimes I get there too late, but I’m always able to cover much more ground.

My fifth ball of the day was a line drive homer that barely reached the seats. Somehow it wasn’t touched by any of the fans standing behind the wall, and it rattled around in the crowded aisle for a couple seconds. Just before I snatched it off the ground, a man (who knew he didn’t have time to reach down for it) stepped on my hand, and when I tugged the ball out from under him, he a) nearly lost his balance and b) proceeded to yell at me.

The previous day, I didn’t snag a single ball during the 35 minutes that the Yankees were taking BP. But this time? I ended up with half a dozen before the Blue Jays took the field. Ball #6 required a touch of athleticism, and Jona saw me get it. Basically, I was about eight rows back when one of the many Yankees lefties (don’t ask me who) rocketed a deep drive in my direction. Only problem was…I wasn’t paying attention. I guess I’d looked down for a split second, for whatever reason, so I didn’t see the ball coming until everyone around me started shouting and jockeying for position. I looked up, spotted the ball coming in fast, instantly realized that it was heading over my head, and jumped as high as I could. THWAP!!! I caught it in the tip of my glove and the whole section (minus the guys standing directly behind me) applauded.

I’d been hoping for another commemorative ball, but no, all six had the regular MLB logo.

The Blue Jays took the field and starting hitting. Just about every batter was right-handed. It was terrible, and the players retrieving balls weren’t throwing much into the seats either. At one point, Jessie Litsch walked over to retrieve a ball, and when I asked for it, he said, “You got like forty-two balls yesterday, am I right?”

Needless to say, he didn’t toss me the ball, but I did manage to snag four more with the glove trick. One player stood on the warning track and watched intently as I got the first one. I gave another ball to a kid and beat out a couple fans with cup tricks two minutes later. (Don’t worry, they beat me a few times earlier in the day.) 

The non-snagging highlight of BP: I ran into a guy who was quoted 12 years ago in the very first article ever written about my baseball collection. His name is Howard Pressman. We hadn’t seen each other for at least five years. “You’re still doing it,” he said. Soon after, I saw him catch two homers on a fly and disappear into the crowd.

The non-snagging highlight after BP: Jona and I ran into a friend named Michael Fierman (aka “tswechtenberg” if you’ve been reading the comments on this blog). Here we all are:

The non-snagging humorous moment of the night: There was a long line out the door of the men’s room, and everyone was grumbling and waiting rather impatiently when a young man with baggy pants and tacky bling side-stepped us all and barged right through.

“Whoa!! Whoa!! Whoa!!” we all shouted. “Where do you think you’re going?!”

“Don’t be watchin’ MY moves, baby!” he called back as he kept moving.

Once the culprit reached his urinal, a fat, 40-something-year-old man next to him said, “Dude, what’re you doing, cutting the line like that? Can’tcha see we’re all waiting here?”

The line-cutter answered without answering: “How you gonna talk to a man while he’s holdin’ his johnson?”

“What!” shouted the fat man playfully as if to challenge him. “I’m comfortable with my sexuality. How about YOU?!”

The culprit and his friends (who apparently were waiting near the exit) burst into laughter, and the fact that they found this amusing made the rest of us laugh.

And now back to our regularly scheduled program…
Shortly before the national anthems, I snuck past security on the 3rd base side for ball #11. Aaron Hill and David Eckstein (whose last name is an anagram of “neckti
es”) were throwing in shallow left field, and I got Eck to flip me the ball on the way in. No way he’s 5-foot-7. I don’t care what the media guide says. I’ve seen subway rats taller than him.

All 11 balls I’d snagged were standard balls. The only thing unusual was that more than half of them had prominent grass stains.

The game itself was good–better for Yankee fans who saw their team win, 3-2. Jona and I kept moving all night. (I wanted baseballs; she wanted to stay warm.) I played most righties in the tunnel to the right side of home plate. (Nothing.) I played all lefties wherever I could find a couple open seats directly behind the main aisle on the left side. (Nothing.) I camped out in left field for Derek Jeter (who went 0-for-2 with a sac bunt and was hit by a pitch…fabulous) and A-Rod (who went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts…terrific) and Frank Thomas (who got ejected in the fourth inning for arguing a called third strike…thanks a lot, putz). I’m not used to going for home run balls, and let me tell you, it’s really frustrating. In this game, there weren’t any balls that left the yard, and even on a good day, there are still just a small handful. But I’ve decided that when a future Hall of Famer is in the batters box, it’s a waste of time trying to catch a foul ball.

Jona and I sat in the fourth row behind the Yankees’ dugout for the last two innings. Don’t ask me how. I will only say that the face value of those tickets is $250.

Joba Chamberlain picked up the win after tossing a scoreless eighth inning. Mariano Rivera notched his second save and held onto his precious ball. I couldn’t get one from the home plate umpire either, so my quest to get another commemorative ball failed miserably. It’s tough. Unless these balls start being used during batting practice, you’ll pretty much have to get your hands on a game ball, and at this stadium, it’s not easy because access to the seats behind the dugouts is extremely limited. I still think that these balls WILL end up being used in BP, so my advice to anybody from out of town who wants one is:
wait a couple months and then come to Yankee Stadium.

I might go back to the Bronx on Sunday afternoon if the weather’s nice. If not, my next game will be a Watch With Zack outing at Fenway Park on Tuesday, April 8.

STATS:

• 11 balls at this game = my 2nd highest one-day total at Yankee Stadium.

• 17 balls in 2 games this season = 8.5 balls per game.

• 498 consecutive games with at least one ball

• 110 consecutive games at Yankee Stadium with at least one ball

• 74 lifetime games with at least 10 balls (including 4 games at Yankee Stadium)

• 3,294 total balls…moves me ahead of Willie Mays (3,283) and into 11th place on the all-time hits list. Next up is Eddie Collins (3,315).

Written by Zack Hample Posted in Dailies Tagged with awesome girlfriend, balls galore, bathroom humor, blue jays, glove trick, gustavo chacin not being able to ruin the glove trick because he's in the minor leagues hahaha, yankee stadium