April 2010
4/26/10 at Angel Stadium
The Indians were in town for a few days and, since my friend Randy (who I’ve mentioned in blogs before) is always down for the Tribe, I was heading to the game and Michelle, Randy, and his girlfriend, Beth, would meet me there a little after 7:00.
I got an early start, didn’t hit any traffic, and parked with plenty of time to get into line so I took a few pictures. Here’s a photo of the Big A:
And a panorama of the stadium taken from the parking lot.
I still think that Angel Stadium is one of the best stadiums to visit. It’s clean, the employees are friendly, and it’s affordable. Plus, the Angels are a great team!
I headed past the Left Field Gate:
Down the promenade toward the Home Plate Gate:
Until I got to where the lines had been set up:
I was the first one in my line. A few minutes later BP regulars John, Chris, and Rob showed up. John and I played catch for a few minutes and we all talked strategy for the day. My plan was to head straight in to left field since the Angels would be facing a lefty. All their switch hitters would be batting from the right side… I was the only one of the four of us that wanted to head that way. Cool, no competition.
5:00 came and we headed inside. I was the first one to reach the seats and this was my view:
The pavilion in left field is separated from the playing area by both teams’ bullpens so not a lot of homers (even in BP) go up there.
Well, the first Angels group consisted of Bobby Abreu, Torii Hunter, and Hideki Matsui. Torii took a big cut at a pitch and launched it into left field. It went just to the center field side of the bullpens, hitting some seats and then settling in one of the rows. I had a decision to make–there was no one in that section… yet. There wasn’t anyone in the pavilion area at all. But it wasn’t as easy as just making a beeline for the ball. To get from the lower left field seats to the pavilion you have to run up the steps and around–let me show you:
The photo above (taken in the ninth inning) shows the route I ran after the ball. Feel free to click on it for a larger view. I left my backpack near where I’d been (the white circle) and sprinted to the circle with the X. I got there moments before Terry, another regular who’d walked to the section, arrived. I snagged the ball and he looked at me strangely. “How’d you know it was there?”
“I saw it get hit when I was way over there,” I said, gesturing. A second later another home run landed in the seats above us and bounced right to Terry. My backpack! I ran back to the lower seats, deposited the ball, the 167th in my life, and went back to my hobby–snaggin’ baseballs.
Some Angels pitchers were nearby and after a little while Scott Kazmir fielded one and hung onto it. He still had it a few minutes later so I yelled out, “Hey, Scott, could you thrown one over here, please?” I stepped back away from the wall… he held the ball up and fired it from forty feet away–over the heads of the folks in front of me–and I had my second baseball of the day.
I’d previously missed out on a screamer down the line because the guy near me saw my reaction and jumped up, hung over the wall, and snagged it first. But after I’d labeled the Kazmir ball another one came dribbling out to the track. It was moving pretty slowly and was an easy grab for Ball #3. That was it for the Angels portion of BP, though Rob had come over to left field by that point as well and I watched a ground rule double go a few feet over my head and Rob ran, leaped, and snagged it for a cool catch of his own.
We both headed to right field when the Indians started hitting–they’ve got some lefties that can really smash the ball!
I called out to a few players for toss ups but got ignored by Jake Westbrook and Kerry Wood. After a while, some lefty, either Grady Sizemore or Shin Soo Choo, drilled a ball deep into the stands. I couldn’t make the catch on the fly but the ball went over my head, hit some seats, and bounced nicely into the fold of a chair one row above me. I climbed over and snagged it for my fourth ball on the afternoon. The next snag would be a BP homer as well, this one off the bat of Asdrubal Cabrera. He hit it high and deep, to the center field area of the pavilion and up about ten rows. I tracked it well, headed
up the stairs and–just missed making the catch. I was still able to grab the ball as it rolled across the concrete nearby. Five!
But despite quite a few more homers, I couldn’t get close to any of them and at 6:15 I ran down to the first base line and waited for BP to end. It did and both Chris and I ran toward the dugout. I was near the home plate end of the dugout as the Indians trotted in and someone threw me number six on the day. I never saw the player or coach’s face. Just the arm after I pointed to my Indians cap as he headed into the dugout.
Michelle, Beth, and Randy still hadn’t arrived so I made myself comfortable in the seats near the dugout. Eventually the Indians came out to warm up.
Maybe a few of them would play catch. After the national anthem Choo came out and threw with someone–but they didn’t throw their ball into the crowd. But Andy Marte played catch with Luis Valbuena and when they finished I stood up and yelled out, “Andy! Right here!” from the fourth row. He looked up and tossed me the ball. The lady in front of my screamed because she saw it at the last second and reached up, mostly out of fear, I think. And then smiled and sighed when she saw my glove over her head. The guy sitting to my right was amazed. He asked me, “Did he just throw you that ball?” I replied in the affirmative and he asked, “How’d you get him to do that?”
Well, I knew his name, was in Indians gear, stood up, made myself noticeable, called out to him–
“I guess he saw my hat.”
After that I moved back a few rows and the game was under way. I took some great action shots. Like Jered Weaver throwing the second pitch of the night:
And Erick Aybar running between second and third after he hit his first homer of the year:
And a couple others:
In the bottom of the first Michelle called me to say they’d arrived. I waited until the inning ended, tried for a third out toss from Russell Brayan, I let the kid in front of me get it even though I’m prety sure it was meant for me… but I didn’t want to fall on the little dude… and then I met them at our seats on the 500 level.
I was happy to see all of them. They asked me if I’d caught a ball…
I showed them. Can you tell my wife was impressed? Michelle and I have both been working a lot and it would be so great to have some relaxing time at the ball game. So, for a while at least, I put catching baseballs out of my mind so we could just enjoy the game. But first, food. They were all hungry so Randy and I bought refreshments–hot dogs, sausages, Chinese food, drinks–oh, yeah! It took a while but it was all delicious and we all hung out in Section 524 for most of the game. It was a light crowd (not surprising–a Monday against the Indians) which, at Angel Stadium, means 35,000 or so. The seats I gotten were through eBay for six bucks each and I sure couldn’t complain. I love eBay.
Here was the view:
I decided to take a panorama from the highest point of the stadium (like I did last year):
And we watched the Angels, who were up 3-1 after the second inning, take on Randy’s Tribe. The last time we all watched a game together was back in July of ’09. In that game the Indians came back to beat the Halos in a thriller–for Randy. This time would they do it again? Bobby Abreu hit a two-run bomb in the sixth inning to make it 5-1. In the eighth we left our upper level seats.and found seats with this view:
It was 5-2 at this point because Austin Kearns had homered as we walked down the ramps… I was a little nervous. Fernando Rodney got the last two outs of the eighth… the scored stayed 5-2 going into the ninth. Brian
“Makes Me Nervous” Fuentes was called in to close it out.
Fuentes struck out Choo leading off the inning, then Travis Hafner reached first on a throwing error by Brandon Wood. Fuentes struck out Branyan, then walked Kearns… yikes. Finally, Fuentes struck out Jhonny Peralta to end it. Whew. Not pretty–but he struck out the side.
Predictably, the Indians didn’t toss anything up at their dugout and we all made our way out to the parking lot. Michelle and I parted ways with Beth and Randy but first we all posed for a picture.
It was a great game, a fun time, and the Angels won! So I was ecstatic.
Thanks for reading.4/20/10 at Angel Stadium
I knew I was going to head out to one of the Angel games against the Tigers this week. I randomly chose Tuesday’s game. As it turns out, the weather was not a friend to me on this day. This will be a pretty quick entry because not a lot happened.
I left in plenty of time to get to the stadium before it opened. As I was driving along the freeway it started to rain. Ridiculous. Then the rain let up… then, as I got of the freeway it picked up again. Ugh.
I parked and walked up to the outfield tunnel to peer in at the field. I was disappointed to see the tarp out on the field. I headed up to the Home Plate Gate anyway. At about 5:00 the rain had lessened again but I just knew there wouldn’t be batting practice. I called Michelle, who had planned on meeting me at the game, and she decided to just go home… she told me if the weather got better she might drive out to meet me later. I considered just calling it a night right then (I thought about my streak–I’d snagged at least one baseball at 43 consecutive games).
I ended up heading inside–grabbing my giveaway item (an Angels wall calendar) as I went. I ran toward the first base side and out onto the field level. Cue the sad trombone. No BP. I did see a few Angels throwing over near left field–so away I went.
Fernando Rodney was throwing with someone–I couldn’t tell who. Here’s why:
Now that is long toss.
Rodney almost threw one over the center field fence.
When they finished, Rodney threw his ball to a little kid (who already had a ball given to him by Scot Shields as he passed by). The mystery player still had a baseball in his pocket. I took a wild shot as he moved the ball from his pocket to his glove as he walked away toward the dugout…
“Rodriguez! Aqui, por favor!”
Now, let me just say that the player looked to be Hispanic. Also, according to my roster the Angels have three players with the surname Rodriguez on their forty-man roster… all pitchers. The player turned, saw my glove up in the air, and tossed the ball over a few rows of fans and to me. I bobbled it–but held on and, just like that, my streak was at forty-four. After checking photos at home I confirmed that it was Francisco Rodriguez who threw it to me. Not the one who used to be an Angel and is now a Met… a different Francisco Rodriguez. He has since been reassigned.
I walked over to the bullpen. Mike Butcher was heading toward the dugout and the rain had continued… I asked if they were going to play if this kept up and he assured me they would. After that… nothing happened. For a while. Seriously.
The most exciting thing to do was take photos of the tarp on the field:
A rarity in Anaheim.
Here it is from the first base side:
Around 5:45 the grounds crew felt the weather was good enough to take the tarp off the infield. They were right to do so, it wouldn’t rain for the rest of the night.
They did a good job:
Still going…
And finally, a couple of Tigers came out to throw. By this point I had decided that I would just head home before the game started (due to traffic, the weather, and wanting to watch LOST). I watched Ryan Perry and Joel Zumaya throw. I stood behind Perry for a few minutes as Zumaya pitched fireballs to him. Yikes!
And they put on their own long toss show.
I ended up getting both of their autographs on ticket stubs, and Phil Coke signed a baseball for me, too.
Three autos, one baseball, a free drink, and a calendar. A quick night.
4/10/10 at Angel Stadium
I got back from New York on Friday–and on Saturday I convinced Michelle that we should head to an Angels game. I was psyched and ready for a real game at the stadium this time (I’d already been to an exhibition nine days earlier). We didn’t have tickets in advance but we got to the ticket window near the gates at 4:40, bought two tickets, and got in line. Shortly after Michelle and I arrive I saw Chris and chatted with him about his offseason and a little while later we saw Rob and Terry. I’ve written about all these guys before, remember?
The gates opened at 5:00pm and I was off–running to the pavilion in right field. Rob was right in front of me heading up the escalator and I zoomed by him and made it out to the seats first. I ran down the staircase, checking each row of seats. As I got to the second row I saw a ball rolling… down into the first row. What? There are NEVER any Easter eggs in Anaheim!!! It probably had just been hit out to the seats just before I got there. As I scooped up Ball #1 on the day (and the 161st of my life) I thought back and this was only the 2nd game at Angel Stadium in which I’d found a ball. The last time it happened was 7/27/09 and I’d found two of them!
I’d forgotten my camera on this abrupt trip to the ballpark but Michelle had hers and she agreed to snap a few pictures during BP. She typically sits and reads in the shade out of the way of flying baseballs so the pictures are a little far away (or blurry) but she got some good ones.
Here I am tracking a home run (well, I thought it would be a home run):
A minute later Bobby Abreu was batting and I had been talking to Rob about Abreu hitting anything out in BP. He said, “I’m still waiting for him to hit one out up here.” And then he did–the ball went screaming into the pavilion behind us and to our right. It landed in the 10th row, took a high bounce as we were approaching it and in the picture below you can see me grabbing it just before Rob got there:
Hey, that’s my backpack in the seat just below Rob’s right arm…
I had to wait until almost the end of the Angels’ portion of BP.to get my next ball–but it was a great moment. I’d been hanging out on a staircase in right center. Mike Napoli was swinging and I knew he had good opposite field power. He smacked one that had a chance to make it up to the pavilion. I ran a full section to my left, down the staircase to the first row and reach out over the wall just to my left. The ball hit the pocket of my glove just in front of the wall… I kind of hit the wall, too. But it was worth the bruise on my leg to make that catch. It was my first ball caught on the fly in the 2010 season. I can still catch, go figure.
Michelle snapped a series of pictures at some point during BP that I turned into a panorama:
In the above photo you can see a red arrow (click on the pic if you need to) and it’s pointing to me.
It was a pretty light BP crowd.
Since I knew that not many A’s had home run power to right field I decided to play down the line near the foul pole. I got a good spot… and at some point Michelle took a photo of me in my A’s garb:
Shortly after he finished his warmup throws, Andrew Bailey threw me Ball #4 on the day. There were a few slicers and foul balls that whizzed by but I couldn’t get a glove on any of them.
I moved down to the closest section to the dugout that I could. At Angel Stadium you’re not allowed to go close to either dugout until BP is over unless you have a ticket to that section… which is weird. That’s the opposite policy that most other stadiums have. Usually you get kicked out of dugout seats at the end of BP. Anyway, for the last few minutes of batting practice I was here:
And then as the A’s trotted in I sprinted to their dugout and Brad Ziegler tossed my my fifth baseball. Sweet!
I found Michelle sitting in the outfield and she took a photo of me with the baseballs I’d snagged:
The only other thing I got (other than stomach pain from the gross buffalo boneless wings I ate) was one of those soft baseballs the Strike Force shoots out of an air cannon. I tried for warmup tosses before the game and then tried for a third out toss in the bottom of the first… and then Michelle and I decided to find some seats in the upper level to watch the game.
Before we went upstairs we went to check something out… I had heard that the Rally Monkey would be making an appearance at this game. And that you could have your picture taken with said monkey. Now, I’d never seen the Rally Monkey before and I didn’t know if it would be an actual monkey or someone in a monkey suit.
Actual monkey:
Super cute li
ttle guy, but the line was super long… so we were fine with just getting a picture of the little critter.
Here’s a photo from where we decided to park ourselves:
It was a great game! It could have been better but, still, we had a lot of fun.
Ben Sheets pitched against Jered Weaver and Weaver gave up one run in six innings against Sheets’ three runs given up in six innings. But Weaver didn’t get the win. Erick Aybar and Jeff Mathis made base-running mistakes and Kevin Jepsen and Scot Shields each gave up a run so we went into the ninth inning tied at 3-3.
Michelle and I watched the last inning and a half from here:
Fernando Rodney would throw a shutdown ninth.
It was exciting!
Bobby Abreu doubled with one out in the ninth… and then Torii Hunter was intentionally walked by Craig Breslow to get the lefty-lefty matchup against Hideki Matsui. Well, Matsui laced a double just fair down the right field line to score Abreu and the place went nuts!
4-3 Angels. It was a good time–and we headed out to the parking lot with smiles on our faces. On the way out I gave away two of the baseballs I’d snagged (and I had already given one away to my favorite usher during the game). I’m basically giving away most of the balls I snag this season unless their special/commemorative… I’ll run out of storage space eventually anyway. So, I’m making tons of kids (and parents) happy. Heck, I’ve snagged twelve baseballs and given away more than half of them to ushers and kids already.
Ah… it’s nice to have baseball back again!
4/8/10 at Citi Field
Ah, my first baseball game of the regular season…
I had been working/vacationing in New York for the few days prior to this trip to Citi Field and I had been excited all week. A new ballpark, my first chance to get on the board snagging baseballs, and I was hoping to simply take in the joy of watching a game in the newly built stadium. I took the #7 train from Manhattan and headed down the steps from the platform and the first thing I saw was this:
I would later find out it was Shea’s old apple… which in the 2009 season had been located inside Citi Field. Now it resided in a little landscaped garden out in front. Interesting. It was about 4:10 at that point and the gates were going to open at 4:40. I didn’t see more than a few people milling about outside the Jackie Robinson Rotunda so I took a walk around the stadium.
The architecture of Citi Field is pretty cool, though it does look just like Ebbets Field used to look:
As I got back to the front gate I noticed a guy a few years younger than me with a backpack on and I asked him, “You look like you know what you’re doing, is this where they start letting people in?”
“Well, yeah, they open all these gates,” he replied, gesturing to the six or so openings. He noticed my black Mizuno glove and asked, “You’re here for batting practice?” I told him I was and he asked, “You ever hear of Zack Hample? The guy that catches all the baseballs?”
I told him I had, yes, and that I read Zack’s blog. He told me Zack and some of his friends had been to the stadium the day before and he added that, “They must’ve gotten, like, thirty baseballs between ‘em.” I told him I would be excited by one or two, since I’d never been to the new Mets stadium before. I told him my name and that I was from California and he introduced himself as Steve. After that, I went to a line and a few minutes later I saw a tall, skinny guy pass by, then he appeared over my right shoulder and said, “Are you Matt?”
I replied in the affirmative and he introduced himself as Greg, a frequent reader of Zack’s blog, as well, and he and I had e-mailed back and forth about Spring Training and about my trip to Citi. We chatted for a bit and then he mentioned he didn’t know if anyone else he knew would be there… I pointed to a kid I thought I recognized from the blogosphere and Greg said, “Oh, is that Clif?” It must have been because Greg went over to talk to him and they played catch for a bit as we all waited for the gates to open.
Sure enough, 4:40 came and I darted in… I ran up the escalator, took a left and headed toward the outfield. I passed by a few people who were jogging out there and was the second one to the left field bleachers… after Greg. I told him he was pretty quick and he said, yeah, he had to be… he was used to it. This was my first look at the field:
Citi Field is a pretty place. I’d have a lot more time for photos later… the next thing I noticed was the wind. It was a strong, gusty wind that night and my hat nearly got blown off my head a couple of times. I realized quickly that any ball that was hit to left-center got caught in the swirling winds and died on the warning track. Anything that was going to reach the seats on the fly would probably get pulled down the line or hit out to straight left. In the following photo you can see the sparse BP crowd as the Mets were hitting including Clif (in the foreground), Greg (in the black shirt), and Steve (wearing green). Note how Clif and Greg are playing the staircases. Nice.
My first baseball of the day was thrown to me by Hisanori Takahashi. When he fielded a ball in left-center I held my hands up and gestured to him to throw it, as he was looking for someone to throw it to… he hesitated but then I asked him for the ball in Japanese. He tossed it right up and I yelled out, “Arigato!” and he gave me a thumbs up. Nice! I looked at the ball right away… my first Citi Field commemorative. Check it out:
I was excited. The day was off to a good start… a few minutes later Takahashi fielded another ball and I yelled out, “Hey, how ’bout one for this guy?” and I pointed to Clif, who was standing to my right. Clif looked over and Takahashi threw him one, as well. Yeah, teamwork.
Though I didn’t catch a David Wright home run on the fly, I watched him hit at least ten out of the park… but most of them went to the second deck. That dude can seriously crush the ball in BP. Jason Bay was underwhelming… but he hit a baseball that Angel Pagan caught just shy of the warning track that he then threw t
o me. It was another commemorative ball.
Greg saw me in the seats and asked me how I was doing. I told him I had two… he offered to let me know names of players and I told him I had the rosters in my pocket. I added, “Guys from California know how to do this, too.” We laughed and ran to different sections. I’d already seen Clif make a home run catch and Greg would snag a homer on the fly during Marlins BP while in a dead run through a row. It was a pretty active batting practice. Fernando Tatis hit a few out, Gary Matthews was kind of a jerk in center field (no change from his Angel days) and then the Marlins came out to hit.
I went down to the third base side and watched while some of the players warmed up and Cameron Maybin started off their BP. After a few minutes Ronny Paulino threw one to me as he finished his warmups. I then decided to play back, farther out in the outfield but still in foul territory where the pitchers were throwing. I nearly caught a Maybin foul ball… but I think Clif ended up with that one. Jose Veras told me (in so many words and gestures) that he would thrown me his warmup ball after he was finished… but he didn’t, despite my polite request in Spanish. Meh. I headed back to the left field seats. Maybin was in center field and he made a great running catch at the wall which he then threw up to me when I told him, “Nice wheels!” That was my fourth ball of the day… but I wanted to catch one on the fly.
Jorge Cantu started hitting and I lined up a deep drive of his pretty well. The wind got it and it ended up falling just short of the row I was in and into a group of three or four people two rows in front of me. It tipped off someone’s glove or hand though, hit the row of seats in front of me and ricocheted right to me. I gloved it and was up to five on the day!
It got a bit more crowded after that and I had a bit of exploring to do so I ran out of left field and behind the batter’s eye over to right. I snapped a few pictures, including this one:
That player in that photo threw me my sixth ball on the night… it wasn’t the ball in the photo… it was a bit later. But I don’t know exactly who he is… I believe it’s John Baker. After that I headed down to the first base side near the dugout but realized too late that I needed to be on the third base side for the end of BP. The Marlins trotted off the field and I was at the Mets dugout. Bummer…
Oh, well. I headed over that way, casually snuck by an usher at the top of the section, and ended up in the fourth row behind the visiting dugout. Clif and a friend of his were nearby for a while. I was snapping photos and a young boy in front of me was amazed by my camera. He started talking to me… a little while later a kid behind me (who looked like Russell from Up! but in Mets garb rather than scouting attire) started up a conversation with me, too. Jorge Cantu signed a few autographs near the dugout so I got him to sign the ball he’d hit that I caught:
Nice–especially now that he’s set a record for most consecutive games with an RBI to start a season.
A few guys showed up and had the seats I was currently occupying so I picked up my stuff to move. One of the guys said, “Actually, there are only three of us,” and I assumed they had the four seats nearest the aisle. He continued, “So, you can just move down to that one and stay here if you want.”
Did I want? Of course, a license to sit in seats that cost waaaay more than the fifteen dollar, upper deck seat I had purchased? Duh. So, here was my view for the entire game:
The Marlins. Watch out for them this season.
The Fish scored in the first, and the Mets tied the game at 1-1 in the fourth. Nate Robertson pitched just a bit better than Jon Niese… the Marlins would score single runs in the fifth and sixth innings to make it 3-1.
I ate a hot dog–delicious, and went for third out balls a the dugout. As the Marlins came off the field in the seventh inning Cameron Maybin tossed one to me about three or four rows back but the teenager in front of me stood up at the last second and got his bare hand right in front of the pocket of my glove… and ended up with the ball. Bummer. A gamer would’ve been nice. ::sigh:: By the eighth inning most of the fans had left, except for an awesome heckler near me who got a laugh out of the third base umpire and Marlins third base coach. He told them, “Hey, blue, make him get in the box!” referring to the coach’s box, which no coach ever seems to stand in. After a few minutes the ump did it, laughingly. And the coach went in for one pitch, then back to his normal spot.
Mr. Met came out during the seventh inning stretch:
It stayed windy and cold the whole night. There had been rain in the forecast but it didn’t hit until long after the Mets lost, 1-3. I made it to the umpire’s tunnel as they came off the field but couldn’t score a ball there. I ran back to the Marlins dugout and, as some guys were coming in from the bullpen, I noticed a player in a coverup tuck a ball in his pocket. When he got near the dugout I asked for it. He looked at me and threw the ball high up along the dugout’s edge. There was a line of fans all squeezed in there and the ball was falling a bit too far to my left. I held my glove hand (my left h
and) out and missed the ball, but the guy two people to my left had the ball bounce off his hands. It ricocheted sharply to his right and sort of toward the field. I leaned out and barehanded the ball. Seven! I was pretty proud of my quick reaction on that one. The fan later spent a solid minute trying to convince me to give him the ball. Sorry, dude, learn how to catch.
I had tied my record for baseballs snagged at a single game. Something I’d done once at Angel Stadum and once at PETCO Park.
I saw Greg as he was exiting and we chatted for a minute, shook hands, and wished each other well. The people I met at the stadium were all really nice. Who says New Yorkers are rude?!? I returned their kindness by giving away three of the baseballs I’d snagged to little kids. A lot of parents shake my hand when I do that… interesting.
After that there wasn’t much left to do except take one last, long walk around the stadium. I headed up the stairs and went behind home plate to snap this panoramic view of the stadium:
Then I went out to the outfield, across Shea Bridge, past the Shake Shack, then had an employee snap a picture of me:
And I headed back toward the Rotunda. A nice family took this photo of me:
And what Citi Field entry would be complete without Jackie’s #42? The Rotunda sure is pretty.
My opinion of Citi Field is this: It’s big. BP is active. The stadium is new and beautiful, though it does have some weird quirks, and as long as the Mets are lousy (yes, they are lousy right now) the place will only attract 25,000 or so fans per game. So, there’s space, ample snagging opportunities, and it’s a pretty place to watch a game. I would totally go back… though my guess is the next time I’m in NYC I’ll want to check out New Yankee Stadium. I had a blast at the stadium and I can see why people say great things about it and why people say terrible things about it, but really, once you’ve gone to see a game in Oakland or Dodger Stadium, new, pretty ballparks really have a lot of niceness about them. You don’t feel as bad spending money there, you don’t feel gross when you see pipes leaking or trash overflowing. You can focus more on the beauty of the game. Next up: Angels and A’s in Anaheim.
Thanks for reading.
4/1/10 at Angel Stadium
Well, Spring Training had been a fun and relaxing precursor to the season but I decided that I wanted a real warmup before I took on Citi Field as my first official game of 2010. So, I got a ticket for the exhibition between the Padres and Angels for the first of April and was off to the ballpark for batting practice. I had decided I certainly wouldn’t stay for the whole game–I had packing to do. But I didn’t know how long I’d stay there. Would I leave right after BP? Stay a few innings? I didn’t know as I left my place around 4:15… and then I hit AWFU traffic on the 55 and 5 freeways and I ended up parking as the Home Plate Gate opened and I made it into the stadium at about 5:05pm… and I was rushing… which is why there aren’t any photos in the first part of this entry.
So, no Easter eggs for me. Today was about acclimating myself to the stadium experience I’d become so used to in the ’09 season. The lawns of Spring Training were fun to run around on but batting practice in rows of seats and huge concourses to run through are a different experience. Anyone who has cuts and bruises on their thighs, knees, shins, and ankles can attest to that–trying to catch a baseball on steps with seats all around you is tough.
My first interaction with some of the Anaheim crew occurred today, too, when I saw Warren and then Rob during BP. Also, I should mention that I lost my notes from my snagging of the day. I had great notes! And that’s why I really shouldn’t put off blogging for two weeks–stupid school getting in the way.
Anyway, I headed up to the pavilion and that’s where I snagged my first ball of the day–it was during Angels BP and it was a homer hit to the seats that bounced once or twice before I snagged it… that’s all I know. That was it for the Angels’ portion of batting practice. I had planned to stay up in the pavilion for Adrian Gonzalez but he didn’t hit! I didn’t see him anywhere around the cage and since he’s the only lefty on the Padres that could possibly hit ‘em to RF a long way I decided to play for slicers and tosses down the RF line near the foul pole.
The Padres pitchers started throwing nearby as the sun blocked much of my view of the hitter. I focused on the pitchers and eventually got a baseball from an unknown Padres pitcher–right-handed. It was one of these guys… but I don’t know who.
It wasn’t Jon Garland… that I know for sure because I got his autograph later and I would’ve had him sign the baseball he’d given me.
He’s the tall one. But he didn’t give me a baseball so I got him to sign my ticket stub.
I focused my attention on the hitters again once the sun went down a bit more so that I could actually see. Note the difference between this picture and the similar one above:
Nothing much was happening… it was a pretty boring BP session. I knew I wasn’t going to count the baseballs I collected at this game just like I didn’t count the Spring Training ones… but I wanted to have a decent showing at my warmup game, you know? The pavilion was sooo not crowded at this point (with good reason–there was one Padre homer hit up there in their entire BP section):
As BP ended I ran to the Padres dugout and got my third baseball of the day from a player heading into the dugout. Again, I have no idea who threw it because my notes are gone. ::sigh:: I debated even putting this entry up since the details would be quite lacking.
Near where players sometimes sign autographs just past first base I ran into Warren again and talked to him for a minute before deciding that I was still good at catching baseballs and running around Angel Stadium. I figured I’d just go home, see my wife, and pack for out trip while watching the game on TV. I took this panoramic photo before I left:
Three baseballs: one that was hit, two that were thrown. One autograph. A quick night at the ballpark. The Angels ended up losing, Kyle Blanks hit a three-run homer, and I had a good time watching from my comfy sofa.
3/28/10 at Scottsdale Stadium
While the rest of my group headed off to breakfast at about 10:20am I made the brief walk down the street from our hotel to Scottsdale Stadium.
I had decided that, since this stadium was a bit more intimate and cozy, I could walk all the way around it before the gates opened at 11:00am. I was right. I started at the southwest end, near home plate:
And then I proceeded counter-clockwise to the first base gate:
And down the street past a practice field until I was behind the stadium at the center field gate:
Then I took a look through the tunnel in center field (where the Padres bus would soon pull in):
There would be batting practice! See the cage?
I had some time so I walked even further, past the berm in left field:
And to the concourse in left… I took a picture through the gates:
I decided that I would enter through the center field gate and run to the left field lawn as soon as the park opened. As it turned out, the old lady at the gate hadn’t heard the radio announcement that the park was open and I didn’t get inside in time to even check for Easter eggs, but I could tell right away that the field and stadium were great. It was smaller than Camelback and not nearly as spread out. I felt like I could run around the whole place in a minute or two.
The Giants were hitting and in all my time on the left field berm I think two home runs got hit up there… the wind was blowing in like crazy and anything that had any notable height got knocked down before it could get near the outfield fence. After about 20 minutes in left field I went to right center field.
No luck there… and that berm was STEEP!
Finally, I went to far right field:
On the practice field behind me, Tim Lincecum and a few other Giants pitchers were running some drills. Finally, after about five minutes near the right field wall I got Waldis Joaquin to toss me a ball as he came out of the bullpen. After taking a few pictures I went down to the foul line on the third base side of the stadium and bullpen coach Mark Gardner tossed me my second baseball of the day.
BP wound down after that (about noon) and, though i made it to the dugout, nobody tossed anything up–and Buster Posey signed a few autographs but I missed out on that. I decided to head to the concourse underneath the seats to peruse the concourse while I waited for the rest of the group to arrive to the game. There is one main concourse at Scottsdale Stadium that is partially covered by the seats behind home plate. Over at Camelback Ranch there is very little shade anywhere, on the concourse or in the stands. It was nice to cool down for a bit.
Before the crowds got too big I made sure to take a nice panoramic photo of the stadium from behind home plate:
Once Michel
le and the others got there (they sneaked in some cupcakes–score!) we found our seats. Michelle and I were actually in the first row about halfway down the left field line.
I felt like I had a decent chance at a foul ball. Or, if Kyle Blanks ended an inning by catching a fly ball maybe he’d toss it to me. Neither of those things happened… though I would have had a shot at a foul if an old vendor hadn’t been hanging out in the aisle to my right. It was a good game. The Padres continued their great Spring Training run… they beat up on the Giants. Jesse had a long drive ahead of him so he requested that we leave a bit early–I couldn’t object. So, at about 3:00pm the six of us met up at the home plate gate and headed back to the hotel. We had a seven-hour drive ahead of us through the AZ and CA deserts.
We got back to Irvine around 10:00 that evening… it was a really fun trip. Michelle and I decided we’d definitely go back to Spring Training–maybe even next year.
3/27/10 at Camelback Ranch
My Spring Training excursion started the previous day.
Friday morning we left Orange County at 7:00 in the morning and made the drive along the 10 freeway to Arizona. We got there around 1:00pm, put our stuff down at the hotel, and made the 10 minute walk into downtown Scottsdale. I would have loved to catch the Angels and the Giants at Scottsdale Stadium but it was sold out so our group (which consisted of Michelle and I and four of our friends) spent the afternoon and evening at various restaurants at bars enjoying our brief Spring Break.
On Saturday morning, the morning of our trip to Camelback, Jesse (who attended a game with me on 9/2/09 at Dodger Stadium), Randy (who’d gone to a game with me on 4/8/09 and 7/27/09), and I got up and made it to the complex around 9:30am.
Camelback Ranch opens four hours prior to the day’s game, which gave us plenty of time to explore. The facility is fantastic and sprawling.
In the photo above you can see the stadium gates on the left, a crowd waiting for the Dodgers to emege from their clubhouse in the center, and a body of water on the right. A man-made river/lake separates the White Sox training facilities from the Dodgers facilities but the casual fan can roam pretty much anywhere they want. Highlights of the morning included watching Matt Kemp hit off a tee in the batting cage:
Watching White Sox minor league guys practice their pitches:
And welcoming the Dodgers as they made their way from the clubhouse inside the stadium (which wouldn’t open until 11:30–bummer) to their practice field:
Note Manny on the tricycle for grownups. James Loney was a bit late:
I’ll go back to the White Sox minor leaguers for a minute. Watching them warm up I snagged the only baseball I’d snag that day. What? I know, it kind of sucked but the stadium was sold out and I only had 30 minutes of BP to work with.
A guy named Zach Piccola had a throw from a teammate tip off his glove and land on the grassy hillside I was standing on. I ran over and picked it up. It was a ROMLB and I looked at the players on the field. Piccola was looking at me and seemed to be wondering if I was going to keep the ball. I made a gesture to communicate that I could simply give it back to him. He didn’t seem to care too much (as there was a bag of baseballs a few feet from him. He shrugged… I decided to toss it back to him. I really didn’t care too much about it anyway. I was just excited to be there.
I headed to one of the Dodger minor league fields for a minute:
Well, after that I watched the Dodgers run some infield drills with Joe Torre standing in the middle of the field calling plays:
And a little while later the three of us watched some PFP which was really cool. We could hear everything the players and coaches said to each other and anytime a pitchers missed a grounder or a throw they had to run to the outfield wall and back… with one other guy of their choosing.
Most of the players picked poor Clayton Kershaw to run with them. Pickin’ on the young guy.
At about 11:15 I went into the–well, it was kind of a foyer of the stadium. I watched while at least a half dozen homers landed on the RF berm and were picked up by a staff member and given to little kids.
But it was kind of a depressing BP. Sure, it was great to get to run around freely without fear of smacking my thigh on an armrest, but it was so crowded and by the time we got inside the stadium there weren’t many baseballs being thrown or hit to fans. I got close to two homers. One came down to a sprint to the rocks between me and one other guy. I lost. And one bounced off the warning track and about two feet over my head as I ran to my left to try to get to it. BP ended at 12:00pm and the guys and I past the far right field lawn:
And to my seats. The six of us (including the girls that were on their way) had seats in different sections. While we were waiting for the ladies Chone Figgins and Casey Kotchman started playing catch down the right field line and a few other Mariners started stretching.
I didn’t get a ball but I did get Milton Bradley to sign my ticket for that day.
I went back to my seat–they were pretty great seats that Michelle and I had:
And the girls showed up at about 12:15. We all kind of split up at that point but before the game started I got Jack Wilson to sign a card I’d brought with me.
After that I kind of just relaxed in the warm Arizona sun–actually we had shady seats–and though I tried for a third out toss or two, I really just sat with Michelle and enjoyed the game.
Guess what? It was a sold out crowd of 13,000 people–lots of Dodgers fans. I really enjoyed Camelback Ranch but the next time I go I’ll do so for a White Sox game during the week. A Dodgers game on the last weekend of ST is just really crowded. Camelback is a beautiful facility, for sure, and it’s totally worth checking out.
After the game (which the Dodgers won… thanks mostly to Charlie Haeger’s knuckleball) we headed back to our cars. Michelle, Jesse, Alison, and I made a quick stop in downtown Phoenix to take a look at Chase Field:
We went into Friday’s Front Row Sports Grill and took a look at the field:
It looks like an amazing facility–I’m rather fond of retractable roofs–and Jesse and I vowed to come back to watch a game at some point.
Then we headed back to Scottsdale for dinner and another relaxing evening. There was another game the next day… Giants and Padres.
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