C&S’s Opening Day: Let’s Play Two (4/9/2011)

Tim and I celebrated our own personal MLB Opening Day on April 9, 2011 at Camden Yards in Baltimore.  Due to a rain out the night before, we were treated to a single-admission doubleheader.  The match-up:  Rangers vs. Orioles.

We met up with national news reporter and MLBlogs Top 50 blogger, Avi Miller, on the sidewalk in front of Camden Yards. (Read Avi’s game update).  As the three of us walked toward the gates, Tim spotted Brooks Robinson’s “5″ statue and had to get a picture with his “favorite number”:

FYI, Tim always wants to sit in seat number 5.

We met up with a bunch of Camden Yards regulars and waited for the gates to open.  There was one problem, no one, including the gate workers, knew when the gates would be opening.  We thought it would be 2:30 – two hours before game time – but at 2:30, we were told the gates would not open until 3:00.  And the word was there would be no batting practice.

When we entered the stadium at 3:00, we were happy to discover that the Rangers were, in fact, taking BP.  We headed down to the first row in RF foul territory with the intent of walking around to left field.  Before we could even begin the walk, a Rangers righty hit a looping foul ball down the RF line.  It hit the warning track and bounced right over our heads.  As I turned around, the baseball smacked off of a seat in the second row and flew straight into my glove.  There we go, baseball no. 1 of 2011:

We circled around toward the LF foul pole and stopped along the brick wall in foul territory.  Moments later, Rangers strength and conditioning coach Jose Vasquez, fielded a batted ball, spotted Tim on my shoulders (fyi, he’s way too big to be on my shoulders these days!), shouted to me “take the boy down! (fyi, players/coaches are always scared of hitting Tim with a baseball when he’s on my shoulders), and tossed the baseball to us:

Thanks, Jose!  (Fyi, that is Jose in the blue sweatshirt just to the left of Tim’s head in that last picture).

One of our goals for this game was to get a picture of Tim wearing his Mariners hat with a Ranger for the 2011 mygameballs.com photo scavenger hunt (we are going to do our best to defend our title!).  I made a list of three ex-Mariners who now play for the Rangers:  Mark Lowe, Arthur Rhodes, and Adrian Beltre.  Lo-and-behold, it wasn’t long before Tim got an autograph from and picture with Mark Lowe:

Thanks, Mark!  We enjoyed having you in Seattle, and wish you good luck in Texas (provided that, after you get a hold, the closer comes along after you and blows all of the Rangers saves).

So, the day was going great already.  It was time for a snack break.  “Mommy” had packed a big bag of snacks.  Tim chomped down granola bar number one before we left the LF foul line:

Soon, a group of Rangers ran in toward home plate to take their turn in the cage.  For some reason, we were fooled.  It seemed like BP was concluding.  So we headed over toward the Rangers dugout.  But it was soon plainly evident that BP was still in full swing.  So we headed out to left field…where Tim did some gymnastics…

…and then had another snack…

…, this time it was peanut butter crackers.

After Tim finished his crackers, we worked our way into the first row in section 86, the closest section to centerfield.  Mark Lowe and Authur Rhodes were shagging balls together – nice to see former- Mariners sticking together!  When Lowe shagged a ball about 75 feet from us, I called out to him.  He turned around and saw Tim and me in the first row and hit us with a perfect strike.

Thanks, again, Mark!

A few minutes later, BP wrapped up (for real this time).  I took our first panorama of the season from an essentially empty section 86:

FYI, that’s Avi tossing his glove in the air in that panorama.

If you click on that last panorama to enlarge it, you’ll see three baseballs in the grass by the batters eye.  Tim and I decided to get some dinner and eat sitting in section 90 next to the batters eye to see what would happen with those baseballs.

We found a nacho stand in the concourse by the kids play area.  So we grabbed some nachos and…

…enjoyed them in section 90 as planned.  Our first nachos of the season did not disappoint.  And soon enough, a couple bullpen attendants came by and one of them tossed one of the baseballs up to us.

Thanks, bullpen guy!

While eating our nachos, I got a panorama of Camden Yards from the back of section 90:

As we ate our nachos, we watched the starting pitchers warm up in CF and then in the bullpens:

As the national anthem ended, I got a picture of the bullpen attendant who had tossed the baseball up to us in section 90:

Avi pointed out the new retired number markers hanging from the upper deck in LF:

20 is Frank Robinson; 5 is Brooks Robinson; 4 is Earl Weaver; 22 is Jim Palmer; 33 is Eddie Murray; 8 is Cal Ripkin, Jr.; and 42 is Jackie Robinson.

Finally, the first game started.  It was Tim’s first single-admission doubleheader (we did, of course, do a two-city doubleheader last season) and only my second (this was my first – game 1/game 2).

I got a shot of Josh Hamilton playing catch in CF before the bottom of the first inning:

And I figured I ought to get a shot of the Rangers relievers since we were sitting right by them:

Tim and I were sitting in section 86 with Avi, Matt and Zevi, plus a couple of their friends, so I got this somewhat candid shot of Tim with 3-mygameballs.com members for the scavenger hunt:

Speaking of Matt, he was over in the Flag Court in RF during the bottom of the first and came close to snagging Nick Markakis’s homerun off of Colby Lewis.  That put the O’s up 1-0, and that was all they’d need in game one.

Another shot I needed for the scavenger hunt was a picture of Tim with a baseball we caught at the game with a Camden Yard’s sign in the background.  Here was out first attempt:

A great shot of Tim, but the Camden Yards sign was way too far away.

We were excited to see the O’s new acquisition, Vlad Guererro.  Its nice to see that guy get out of the A.L. West where we won’t do as much damage against the Mariners.  In his first at bat of the day, I caught him as he hit a single off the very end of his bat:

In the bottom of the second, Mark Reynolds hit his first homerun as an Oriole.  The ball landed about 2 sections over from us – in straight away left field.  Avi was off with the crack of the bat, but got tripped up and hit the deck en route to the ball.  And that put the O’s up 4-0.

The scoring in the first game concluded in the bottom of the third inning when Adam Jones hit a RBI single to put the O’s up 5-0.  The O’s lead was good for our Mariners, so we were happy with the way the game was going.

Around the fourth of fifth inning, Tim asked if we could get ice cream.  So we went on a little walk.  The concession stands at Camden Yards are all different this season.   It looks good.  Here’s a look at the new Orioles Shirt Shop on the 3B side of the concourse:

Tim and I bought our first chocolate ice cream helmet (with rainbow sprinkles) of the season and grabbed some ice cream seats down the 3B line:

The Rangers have a lot of impressive hitters these days.  I snapped this picture of one of them, Nelson Cruz, because he looked like a punk high schooler with his untucked jersey:

Come on, Nellie, tuck it in!

We gave another shot at the “baseball with Camden Yards sign” picture, but we were still a bit too far away:

Our handicap accessible seats behind section 58 were great for taking action shots.  Here is a shot of Elvis Andrus grounding out:

The ball is the little white blur on the far left side of the picture (vertically, right in the middle of the dirt).

Josh Hamilton singled to center on this swing:

Here’s Vlad again, getting ready to pop out:

In the 8th inning, we headed behind home plate to set up for an umpire baseball attempt.  From the cross aisle behind home, we got another shot of Josh Hamilton as he hit another single…

…this time to left field.

When some patrons left the fancy seats, an usher let us take their seats behind home plate.  It’s a pretty sweet view from down there.  Here is a shot of the final batter of the game, Michael Young:

And here is a screen shot from the TV broadcast showing where Tim and I were sitting as the game ended – Tim is sitting on my lap in this shot:

After Jason Berken put Michael Young away to end the game, home plate umpire Marty Foster awarded Tim his first umpire ball of the season:

And we finally got the perfect shot of Tim, his umpire baseball, and the Camden Yards sign.

Between games we hung out in the kids play area.  It was essentially unchanged from last season.  Tim did some jumping in the bouncy house…

…, which Tim loves.  He also played on the wooden fort-thingy.  Finally, before heading toward Eutaw Street, we got Tim’s picture with one of three big Oriole Bird bobbleheads:

Yes, that big thing is a bobblehead.

This was the first Saturday of MLB baseball in Baltimore.  Eutaw Street was packed.  I think a lot of people skipped the first game of the doubleheader and they were all showing up for the nightcap.

Tim played in the picnic area behind the batters eye before we headed back into the stands.  As we made our way back into the LF stands, we passed by the MASN crew who, I imagine, were busy talking about the upcoming game:

I have no clue who this lady is, but as we passed by, some dude yelled really loud, “YOU’RE HOT, WHATEVER-HER-NAME-IS!!!”  Classy, sir.  Classy.

We spent most of game two with Avi, Zevi and Andrew in section 86.  This was our view:

A lot of players were shuffled around in both line-ups, but big Josh Hamilton was still patrolling center field for the Rangers:

Tim was excited for game two:

In fact, he was so excited, that he put on a display of his super-rad dance moves:

In the picture above, that is Andrew sitting behind Tim in the black sweatshirt.  Tim had great fun “sitting” next to Andrew.   Tim laughed so much he got the hiccups twice during game 2.  When we got in our car after the game, he told me, “That guy who gave me the hiccups was funny!”

The Game one “fan of the game” was standing nearby in his zany outfit, so I snapped  a shot of him:

This game was all Rangers.  ALL RANGERS.  In fact, it was 13-1 Rangers.

Actually, the Orioles took a 1-0 lead in the second on an Adam Jones solo shot.  This ISN’T the homerun swing:

Note, the Orioles were wearing black jerseys for this game.

But the Jones homer was all the O’s could muster.  Meanwhile, the Rangers scored six in the third inning on the strength of 2RBI singles by Elvis Andrus and Josh Hamilton, and a 2RBI homerun by former-Mariner Adrian Beltre – his first as a Ranger.

I was happy to see former Mariner, Chris Jakubauskas warming up in the Orioles bullpen:

When he entered the game in relief, it was his first MLB action since getting drilled in the head with a pitch in the first inning of his first game in 2010.

Here is Jak in action, facing off against Josh Hamilton…

…and striking out the reigning A.L. batting champ.

Did I mention that Jakubaukas is officially the only MLB player Tim has ever invited to hang out in our hotel room?  He is (scroll all the way to the bottom).

Unfortunately, things did not go great for Jak in his Orioles debut.  He pitched the final three innings and gave up 5 runs (four in the 9th inning).

In the 8th inning, we headed behind home plate to make an attempt for Tim’s second umpire baseball of the day.  Amazingly, we got down to the same exact seats as at the end of the first game.

Tim asked me to take this picture of him hiding in his glove:

Then I got this shot of Big Daddy Vladdy warming up for his final at bat…

…and this picture of former Mariner Mark Lowe pitching to Jake Fox:

Once again, a screenshot of the TV broadcast showed our final seating position of the night:

Tim was in perfect position to get another umpire baseball, and the usher even lobbied homeplate umpire, Jeff Nelson, on Tim’s behalf, but the ump gave out only one baseball and it was to a kid on the other side of the umpires’ tunnel.

Not to worry, it was a great day of baseball.  Great father-son time.  A great time hanging out with the Camden Yards regulars.  And it was great to be back to live-and-in-person Major League Baseball.

Before we headed out of the park, a kind usher took this picture of two happy baseball fans:

Hooray for Baseball!

2011 C&S Fan Stats

2/0 Games (Tim/Kellan)

2/0 Teams [Tim - Orioles, Rangers; Kellan - none]

1 Ice Cream Helmet(s)

5 Baseballs (3 Rangers, 1 Orioles, 1 Umpire)

1/0 Stadiums [Tim - Camden Yards; Kellan - none]

10/6 Player Photos* [Tim - Felix Hernandez, Adam Moore, Garrett Olson, Chris Seddon, David Aarsdma, Michael Pineda, Miguel Olivo, Ryan Langerhans, Greg Zuan, Mark Lowe ; Kellan - Luke French, Milton Bradley, Franklin Gutierrez, Justin Smoak, Matt Tuiasosopo, Ryan Langerhans]

3/1 Management Photos [Tim - Howard Lincoln, Jack Zduriencik, Eric Wedge; Kellan - Jack Zduriencik]

1 Autograph(s) (Mark Lowe)

1 Bat* (Milton Bradley)

1/1 Mascot Photos* [Tim - Mariner Moose; Kellan - Mariner Moose]

*includes Spring Training