Results tagged ‘ Camden Yards ’
Orioles Win One For Frank Robinson (4/28/2012)
During the week leading up to Saturday, April 28, 2012, we were looking forward to our first game of the season at Camden Yards. But the weather outlook was sketchy. Rain seemed to be in the forecast. And I was going back-and-forth regarding whether Kellan should join me and Tim for this game. I wanted him to join us, but I feared having to corral him in the rain. But on Friday, I made the decision: Kellan would definitely join us.
So let’s do it.
It was our first night game of the season. After having a nice relaxing day lounging around the house, we hopped in the car where Tim and Kellan kept themselves entertained during the drive south:
When we walked up to the stadium at 4:30 in the afternoon, a huge crowd was already waiting at the gates…
…, which apparently upset Kellan (he wasn’t too interested in getting his picture at the time).
Luckily, when it comes to Camden Yards, we know *people* and those people are permanently first in line…
…and so were we. In that last picture, along with Tim, Avi Miller and Matt Hersl, that is 1,100+ baseball ballhawk and east coast Oakland A’s fan, Rick Gold. Rick and I have known each other for a while through myGameBalls.com and twitter, but this was the first time we had ever met in person. Despite rooting for the wrong A.L. West team, Rick is a pretty cool guy.
Kellan grabbed a spot on the backpack-checking table and had a great time hanging out with the guys:
The crowd was so big because the Orioles were set to unveil a new Frank Robinson statue at a ceremony at 5:15 p.m. The ceremonyfeatured Robinson, Hank Aaron, Eddie Murray, Earl Weaver, Jim Palmer and others. As we waited at the gate, Hammerin’ Hank Aaron and his wife zoomed by (inside the gate) on a golf cart. A few minutes later, Eddie Murray walked by…
…and I took two of the worst possible pictures of him – that last one is the *better* of my two Eddie Murray pictures! The statue unveiling was part of the Orioles’ celebration of the 20th anniversary of Camden Yards. (Think, when Camden Yards opened, Fenway Park was a mere 80-year-old spring chicken of a ballpark).
I knew Hank Aaron was going to be at this game, and I really wanted to see him in person. But I didn’t want to sit through the crowded ceremony. So we headed into the ballpark for BP once the gates opened. As usual, we headed for the third base line:
Kellan absolutely loves wearing his glove and trying to catch baseballs around the house. His hand is so tiny that he cannot close the glove so he relies on the ball just landing in there and not bouncing out. Early in BP, he made his first ever attempt on a toss-up from a MLB player, Orioles pitcher Brian Matusz (who was wearing a “Brady Anderson” embroidered glove):
That is easily my favorite picture of the season so far. In our first three games, my camera has been annoying me like nobody’s business. It is ruining a ton of my pictures and really seems to have it out for me. But my camera apparently felt the gravity of the situation and it worked perfectly in the crunch and captured that last picture.
Thanks, Camera!
And thank you, too, Brian Matusz!
By the way, the ball bounced off of the side of Kellan’s glove and fell to his feet. But it was a great moment anyway.
Kellan grabbed his new baseball and held it tight:
Hey, remember that ceremony I mentioned? During BP, it was taking place in the picnic area behind the bullpens:
We decided to head over there for a little peak. But it was so crowded we could hardly see the panel of Hall of Famers – and my only picture attempt came out totally unrecognizable because I had to take the photo through trees, flowers, people, etc., etc.
We decided to head off to the restroom. Normally, cameras are off limits in the restrooms, but I couldn’t help taking this next one because Kellan looked so cute and funny lying on the flip-down baby changing table with is big baseball glove:
He was like, “Hey, let’s get this done so we can get back out there!”
And get back out there we did.
We headed back to the third base line. Unfortunately, he had taken Kellan’s umbrella stroller into the stadium, which was a terrible idea. Tim was in charge of rolling it around (empty) and finding places to stash it during BP. He seemed to like taking charge of this task and he was vehemently opposed to just leaving it out in deep LF while we went back to the third base line.
Anyway…when we returned to the field, the A’s pitchers were playing catch down the line. When he finished playing catch, we thought Jim Miller was going to throw a baseball to Tim. We were both excited for the third chance in three weeks for Tim to catch a toss-up from a player. But then Miller decided to walk it over and hand-deposit it into Tim’s glove:
Thanks, Mr. Miller!
Although there was no one in our vicinity blocking the rows of seats, Tim decided to climb back up to our spot in the tenth row (which I figured was out of foul ball range – I didn’t want any baseballs beaning my boys):
It was a long slow climb and during the process Tim dropped his baseball. It rolled all the way back down to the first row. I had to run back down and scooped it up for Tim.
Although we weren’t *at* the Frank Robinson ceremony, it was pretty cool being inside the ballpark during the unveiling. They had lots of nice videos playing on the scoreboards…
…and all of the speakers were broadcast over the PA system. It was really cool being in the same building and hearing Hank Aaron speaking about his friend Frank Robinson, and then hearing Frank Robinson talk about himself and his teammates.
Tim decided he wanted to scoot out to LF by the bullpens so we could see Avi. We walked out there, didn’t find Avi, and, almost immediately, it started raining and BP was cancelled. Out came the tarp:
And off we headed to the Club Level to eat some snacks and avoid the rain:
We were up there a loooooooooooooooooooooooong time. I’m not sure what time the rain started coming down, but it felt like we were up in the Club Level for about ten hours. When I finally looked at the clock on my phone, I saw that it was still another whole hour until the game was set to start! Yikes. Rain outs during BP make for a whole lotta down time.
After the boys ate a ton of snacks, we walked all over the Club Level and I took a bunch of photos of the various lounge areas. The Club Level at Camden Yards is not all that fancy, but it’s a good place to duck into and kill some time when it is raining. Here is what it looks like…
…and…
…and…
…and this is in a glass case just behind the main entrance to the Club Level:
We eventually ran into Avi and a couple of his friends in one of the little lounge areas. I sat down and chatted with them while Tim danced and tried to entertain everyone…
…and Kellan ran a million laps around two people sitting in chairs watching TV (one of them is above Kellan in that picture). Eventually, this resulted in a giant catastrophe – Tim decided to show Avi’s friends how fast he is, so he ran two laps around the chairs in the opposite direction of Kellan and the two collided chest-to-chest on the second lap. I could see it about to happen in slow motion as the scene unfolded, but I was helpless to stop it. Tim completely flattened Kellan, who fell back and smacked his head on the floor. It was a bad scene with lots and lots of crying.
Luckily, after five minutes sobbing uncontrollably on my shoulder, Kellan pulled through and was back to giggling and running around again.
When they did a second ceremony on the field, I snuck outside and snapped a few pictures:
In the upper left, that is Earl Weaver walking the “orange carpet.” In the bottom right, of course, that is Hammerin’ Hank Aaron.
Hidden under the orange sheet (bottom left), the Orioles presented Frank Robinson with a 2-foot tall replica of his new statue. Half an hour later, two guys walked by us in the Club Level carrying that little statue (which looked really heavy) to a suite (which I assumed was the owner’s suite) where all of the Hall of Famers watched the game.
All of a sudden, Hall of Famer Jim Palmer walked by and posed for a picture with (grumpy looking) Tim:
Although he has such a wonderful smile, Tim is prone to do these “grumpy” faces in pictures because he thinks it makes him look cool. He’s a big fan of being cool! Always has been. Growing up is an interesting process, eh? He keeps it fun, even if his *cool* / *grumpy* face stands in for his big smile in some pictures.
Anyway, after the photo with grumpy-faced Tim, Jim Palmer handed a “Luis Ayala” embroidered glove to Tim and was like “here, try this on.” Then Palmer handed Tim a baseball and was like, “here, hold this baseball…but you can’t have it because I have to give it to Frank Robinson.” I’m pretty sure the glove and baseball were used by Frank Robinson when he threw out the first pitch.
As the game started, it was time for some dinner. Kellan and I shared nachos…
…and Tim opted for some chicken fingers and fries.
After eating, the three of us headed out to the newly redesigned flag court:
The previous tall, two foot wide padded wall at the front of the flag court is now replaced with a short wrought iron fence. Just like when Tim was 2-3 years old, Kellan LOVED the flag court and he ran around like crazy all over the flag court and Eutaw Street.
Chasing Kellan in the flag court was too much work for both me and Tim, so we decided to take the long way around the ballpark on our way out to left field. On our way by RF, I noticed that the Orioles had a “20” painted on the grass in RF:
Of course, Frank Robinson played RF and the Orioles have retired his number 20.
While we were out in the flag court, it was the top of the second inning and the Orioles put up a 5-spot on the strength of six singles (by Adam Jones, Wilson Betemit, Chris Davis, Ronny Paulino, Robert Andino, and Nolan Reimold) and a sacrifice fly by J.J. Hardy.
That made the score 5-0 Orioles.
We never headed up there to check it out, but on our walk around the stadium, I took this photo of the new party deck above the batters’ eye:
And as we neared home plate, the A’s prized offseason acquisition, Yoenis Cespedes, had his turn at the plate:
He came up empty on that hack, and then hit a foul pop out to first base.
When we reached LF, we headed out to see the new Frank Robinson statue in the picnic area (which appears to be open to the public now, or at least it was for this game):
Then we grabbed some empty seats in section 86:
Although it was still drizzling a bit, the boys shared a swirl ice cream helmet:
And then they watched the very light rain fall on us:
Tim grabbed his glove and tried to catch specific drops as he tracked them on their way down to earth.
While we were out in LF, Adam Jones led off the top of the third inning with a single and then scored the Orioles sixth run of the night on a double by Wilson Betemit. That made it 6-0 Orioles. Things were looking good for the Orioles on a night dedicated to celebrating Frank Robinson.
Around the fifth inning, we relocated to the cross-aisle behind home plate. This was our view for a big chunk of the rest of the game:
Tim and I watched for foul balls (and a couple came somewhat close to us) while Kellan relaxed in my arms, never quite falling asleep.
During the seventh inning stretch, the Orioles Bird (as he is prone to do) sat on the ledge of the TV booth behind home plate. Kellan totally loved it and he repeated “BIRD!” about 800 times. While the Bird was up there, Kellan’s “BIRDs” were declaratory (i.e., “there is a bird!”). Then, after the Bird left the ledge, Kellan’s “BIRDs” turned inquisitive in nature (i.e., “where are you, bird?”). It was pretty cute.
In the seventh inning, Chris Davis blasted a monster homerun to RF:
The homerun cleared the flag court and crashed down on Eutaw Street. After the game, I heard one of the TV announcers mention that it was the 25th Orioles homerun to land on Eutaw Street…or maybe Davis was the 25th Oriole to hit a homerun out to Eutaw Street, I’m not quite sure.
I missed some scoring, the Davis blast made the score 10-1 Orioles.
We decided to head back up to the Club Level where we had left Kellan’s stroller at the front desk. We really went up there because Tim wanted to see Avi. We met up with Avi and watched Bryce Harper’s first at bat of his MLB career…an incredibly weak groundout to the pitcher.
And then we all (including Avi) headed back down to the Cross Aisle behind home plate. As we approached our spot, someone hit a foul ball to the guy sitting next to the person directly behind/above the spot where we had been standing for several innings. Had we been there, I might have had a play on it, but it would have required me to make a jumping catch above my head while holding Kellan, which would have been very difficult. We still could have got it if the ball had bounced down into the Cross Aisle, but the guy took the ball directly to his gut, and it fell harmlessly to his feet for an easy pick up. He was from Oakland (or at least he was decked out in A’s gear) so it was no doubt a cool moment for the guy.
Anyway, we went back to our same spot. Over the course of a bunch of innings standing in the Cross Aisle, none of the ushers ever told us to get out of there. In fact, one of them eventually came and said, “Hey, why don’t you just sit down right here?” He was concerned that someone else running for a foul ball might fun us over.
So we obliged him:
And each half inning until the game ended, we crept up a little closer to the field:
I took some random action shots…
…but the scoring was done for the night.
We kept moving forward because I wanted to go for an umpire ball. As we got closer and closer, about 10,000 kids, teens and adults all flocked to the tunnel with the same idea. I guess everyone wants one of those nice commemorative Camden Yards 20th Anniversary baseballs.
We made it to the very bottom spot and we were the first people there when home plate umpire Eric Cooper left the field of play. But he completely ignored everyone and gave out zero of those fancy commemorative baseballs.
We had one more idea – get over to the Orioles dugout (which was packed with fans) to see if anyone might toss up a commemorative baseball over there.
No such luck.
But that doesn’t mean there was *no luck* — indeed, there was a lot of luck left hanging in the night air.
As Orioles bullpen catcher Ronnie Deck approached the dugout, I called out, “Hey, Ronnie!” and gave him the obligatory *hit me* glove flap. He had an equipment bag (which no doubt had a commemorative baseball nestled inside) hanging from his shoulder, but Ronnie just held out his open glove to show us *no baseball*, but then he looked down into his glove and gave himself a little *hmmm, okay* shrug. He reached into his baseball glove, grabbed his batting gloves and tossed them to us.
The fans in front of us were nice enough not to intercept the gloves, which were clearly intended for us but would have been easy for another couple fans to catch before they reached us, and I caught them in my baseball glove.
Tim was SUPER-EXCITED about these batting gloves.
An usher took a picture of the three of us with our post-game prize:
Avi witnessed the toss-up from Ronnie Deck and came over to chat with us. Before we headed out, I took two pictures of Tim and Avi. Avi decided to smile in the first picture, and Tim decided to smile in the second picture, so let’s take a look at both:
Before we left the stadium, we got one last picture of Tim and his new gloves (no chance he is sharing them with his little bro!):
Note the cool “20” with a spot light on the side of the warehouse behind Tim. Cool.
When we got to the car, Tim told me not to tell mommy about the gloves. They were a secret. When we got off the phone, he asked if he could show her something when he got home. Something secret. He slept then entire ride home (as did Kellan). But at 1:00 a.m., Tim let mommy in on his little secret before hopping into his bed.
So, there you go, a great night of baseball at Camden Yards. Now we have an off-week and then it’s time for the Fifth Annual Cook Grandfather-Father-Son Baseball Roadtrip. It is going to be an AWESOME trip this season with stops in Minnesota, St. Louis, Kansas City, and Denver. Our Mariners/Rockies games in Denver will mark a major milestone for me and Tim: we will finally have seen all thirty MLB teams play a home game (of course, with the opening of Marlins Park this season, we now have to go back to Miami before we can say we have been to every current MLB stadium – that will happen in September!).
This season’s GFS Roadtrip will also be extra special because it will feature a new and improved lineup: Jim, Todd, Tim and Kellan! That’s double the “Sons” and double the fun!
Stay tuned.
2012 C&S Fan Stats
| 3/2 Games (Tim/Kellan) |
| 6/4 Teams – Tim – Phillies, Mets, Marlins, Athletics, Orioles, Nationals; Kellan – Marlins, Nationals, Athletics, Orioles |
| 2 Ice Cream Helmet(s) – Phillies 1, Orioles 1 |
| 14 Baseballs – Marlins 4, Mets 4, Nationals 1, Phillies 1, Umpires 2, Orioles 1, Athletics 1 |
| 1 Commemorative Baseball(s) – Marlins Park |
| 3/2 Stadiums – Tim – Citizens Bank Park, Nationals Park, Camden Yards; Kellan – Nationals Park, Camden Yards |
| 1/0 Player Photos – Tim – Ricky Bones; Kellan – N/A |
2 Batting Gloves – Ronnie Deck
MyGameBalls.com Ballhawkfest 2011 (7/23/11)
Tim and I were in for a long day on Saturday, July 23, 2011. We are members of myGameBalls.com, and by the decree of founder Alan Schuster, this game was dubbed “Ballhawkfest 2011.” While the battle between the Angels and Orioles was the primary focus of Ballhawkfest, there was a lot more going on than just the MLB game.
Tim and I left home at about 9:00 a.m. and we arrived at Carroll Park Field #2 for a friendly softball game at 11:00 a.m. Well, that was the original plan. But the 100+ degree weather scared off some of the would-be participants and we did not have enough for a full game. In fact, we only had 10 softball players. But that did not stop us from having a great time.
First, we divided up into two teams. My team included me, Alan Schuster, Mateo Fischer, Mike Rowles and the late arriving Ben “Wild Thing” Weil. Our opposition included Zack Hample, “Flava” Dave Stevenson, Oliver Rowles (Mike’s son), Alex “Gold Glove” Kopp, and Garrett Meyer.
In the dugout, we had Jona (of Team Hample fame), Tim (who kept busy keeping score and hitting whiffle balls), and James (a documentarian who is filming a piece about Zack).
I have no clue how we decided the rules of the game, but it turned out to be a lot of fun and a very interesting format. We played seven innings of super-modified homerun derby. At the outset, Zack pitched to both teams. Once Ben arrived in the third inning, each team pitched to itself. Each inning, each batter got two outs – one hitting a softball and one hitting a baseball. All fielders played in the outfield. Any ball that landed in the outfield grass without being caught on the fly scored one run. Any baseball hit over the outfield fence scored five runs. Any swing that did not result in a run was an out.
It was hard to get pictures because we kept running in and out from the field to the dugout. But here is the best of what we got. First, Alan Schuster sized up a sweet Hample baseball pitch:
Interesting side note, for the baseball portion of the derby, we used Alan Schuster’s entire MLB-snagged baseball collection.
Zack was a quality pitcher for our first two innings:
I was happy to take him yard twice.
The final score was high because homeruns counted for five runs each, but really it was difficult to score runs because everyone played stellar defense. Would you expect any less from this group? My unofficial Gold Glove award goes to Alex Kopp…
…pictured here in the red shorts. He patrolled left field like a pro. He was running all over the place and made a ton of great catches. He personally robbed me of several runs.
In the dugout, Jona was busy taking tons of pictures (by the end of the day (including the MLB game) she took over 900 photos)…
…and Tim used a spray bottle of cold water to keep cool as he played.
It was harder to score with the softballs because they did not travel as far as the baseballs. Here is Mateo putting a good stroke on one of Ben’s neon yellow softballs:
Special thanks to Jona for taking a couple shots of me at the bat. Here I am turning on an inside pitch from Benny Bang Bang and driving a homerun that stayed fair by about five feet:
This picture looks better than the last, but it resulted in only a one-run hit, not a homerun:
The game was tight until the bottom of the fifth inning when we went off for 14 runs. The final score was…
…44-29 good guys. Zack and I tied for the most homeruns with 4 each. Alan Schuster also had one bomb. Speaking of Alan, the game ended on a great play. Zack was the final batter in the top of the seventh. He hit a ball that was clearly going to land over the fence. But Alan calmly drifted back to the fence, leaned his entire upper body over the fence, and, with full extension, flat out robbed Zack of a homerun.
After the game, we set up our cameras on a flipped over garbage can and got some group photos. First at home plate:
From left to right: (Front) Jona, Flava Dave, Tim, me. (Back) Ben Weil, Zack Hample, Oliver Rowles, Alan Schuster, Garrett Meyer, Alex Kopp, Mateo Fischer, and Mike Rowles.
I do not have a photo that goes with it, but I would be remiss if I failed to mention that Oliver made an amazing running grab on one of my swings. I hit a deep ball to RCF that I was sure was going to score one run. But Oliver ran…who knows, maybe 75 feet to his left and made the catch at a full gallop. Excellent catch, Oliver!
Back to the pictures, we turned around and got another group shot standing at the mound:
I should note that Ben threw on some official Cleveland Indians “Major League” give-away glasses to complete the “Wild Thing” Ricky Vaughn look. Nicely done, Ben!
Next, we all hopped in our cars and scooted across town to Di Pasquaele’s Italian Marketplace. Matt Hersl, who skipped out on softball/baseball, picked the restaurant and it was a good one. Tasty, tasty.
Tim requested a picture with the “chef”…
…and he posed with Alan and the Andruw Jones bobblehead that he won in the drawing Alan organized. That bobblehead now rests on a bookshelf in Tim’s room.
Here is the best picture of our table at lunch:
That’s an official eating action shot!
Lunch wrapped up around 3:30 and people started to break up and head their own ways. The plan was to meet up again outside the CF gate on Eutaw Street. The gates would
not open until 5:05 p.m., and I was absolutely dreading the idea of standing in the sun at the gates for an hour or more in the 100+ degree heat.
So we found a very favorable alternative. After parking in a garage on Eutaw Street, we headed to the Hilton on Pratt Street and found some empty couches in the lobby. Soon, Mateo wandered by and the three of us ended up chatting for almost an hour while gate opening times drew nearer.
Actually, it was primarily me and Mateo doing the chatting. Tim was spending most of his time monkeying around and spraying himself with his spray bottle:
We did not have tickets for the game yet. As we relaxed in the Hilton lobby, I exchanged a bunch of texts with our Baltimore ticket agent, Avi Miller. Avi arrived at the CF gate just about ten minutes before gate opening. When we got the text that he’d arrived at the ballpark, Tim, Mateo and I left the air conditioned Hilton lobby and headed to the blisteringly hot gate at the CF side of Eutaw Street.
Before the gates opened, we said our hellos to the myGameBalls.com guys whom we’d dined with just an hour or so ago. We posed for a bunch of group shots (but not with my camera…so see here and here) and then every headed toward LF as the gates opened.
Everyone, I should say, except us. We headed to the shady third base line where (among all of the Angels stretching in front of the dugout) we found former-Mariner Russell Branyan (no. 39):
It is always good to see a former-Mariner, even if he’s playing for one of our A.L. West rivals like the Angels. Actually, there is another former-Mariner (although one who was never an everyday player for the Mariners) in that picture, Adam Jones.
After a few minutes, we drifted down the line a bit toward the outfield. Right along the foul line, Osaka Japan’s Koji Uehara (wearing tight running pants under his shorts in the 100+ degree weather) was chatting with Toyko Japan’s Hisanori Takahashi:
Maybe they were discussing the “cultural fault lines” between their respective hometowns. Or maybe they were discussing the fact that Takahashi (April 2, 1975) is exactly one day older than Uehara (April 3, 1975). Whatever they were discussing, it did not prevent Koji from fielding a batted ball and walking over and handing it to Tim.
As Koji approached, I said “Hey, Koji, could we get a picture with you?” He said, “Yes.” And then he handed the baseball to Tim, turned around and walked away. Hmm…I don’t think he understood my request…I probably should have asked him in Japanese. Nevertheless…
Domo arigato, Koji-san!
A few minutes later, Russell Branyan finished playing catch with his partner and he flipped the baseball to Tim. Tim just watched the ball sail by his face and land in the empty seat next to him. But no one else was around, so we picked up the ball and no error was charged on the play.
As he tossed the baseball, I asked Russell if he could pose for a picture with Tim. Sure he could:
After the photo but before heading back out onto the field, Russell reached out his humongous hand and gave Tim and I each a mighty hand shake. They don’t call him Russell the Muscle for nothing. That dude is huge.
All of the myGameBalls.com ballhawks were going crazy out in LF chasing homeruns. Around this time, Avi came and visited us in foul territory so he could inform us that our prank of Zack Hample had been successful – for the complete story click here.
While Avi was over chatting with us, someone sliced a foul ball about 10 rows behind us. It hit the seats and ricocheted right to Avi.
A few minutes later, Takahashi’s interpreter and trainer Yoichi Terada (at least that is my assumption of who this guy is)…
…walked by and handed Tim a baseball. Terada had been playing catch with someone…maybe Takahashi…along with all of the other Angels pitchers playing catch along the LF foul line. When he finished, he picked up two baseballs (including the baseball he gave to Tim) that were sitting on the ground along the line. The two baseballs were *extras* that were brought out there in case someone lost their warm up ball. Those baseballs were never used, and the one that Terada handed to Tim looked like it was brand-spanking new.
Eventually, Tim asked to go check out the bullpens. We did, but no one was in either. So when we spotted Jona sitting in the shade in the first row above the cross aisle, we joined her for a little bit of sun relief. This is what it looked like:
And that is where we were standing when Dan Haren…
…unloaded a mega-toss-up over section 84 and directly into my glove for our fourth and final baseball of the day.
After BP ended, most of the myGameBalls.com’ers gathered toward the bottom of section 86. Most of the guys were there in hopes of snagging one of the 8 or so homeruns that had been hit into the Orioles bullpen. But we were just there to chat with the others, chew on some of the free ice the Orioles were providing in the concourse, and to spray Tim’s spray bottle all over the place.
Our “Ballhawkfest” shirts had our names and the number of baseballs we had snagged in our lives (through the all-star break) on the back. Just for kicks, I got this picture of Tim and Zack showing off their numbers and they watched the empty field:
Not too shabby, Tim is (or was!) only 5,052 baseballs behind Zack.
Eventually, the Angels starting pitcher (and former-Mariner) Joel Piniero made his way out to CF to warm up:
When Piniero moved to the bullpen, Tim and I headed up to the top of section 86 to watch Joel:
Well, I watched Joel. Tim spent most of his time squirting himself in the face:
With the game just about to start, a bunch of us met up in the LF corner for a group photo with the baseballs we had snagged during BP:
Lets see…going clockwise: Zack had 5 at the time (including a special FeMeBe baseball from Jeremy Guthrie), Alex Kopp had 4, Garrett Meyer had 4, Flava Dave (who you can
hardly see except for his arms) had 4, Jeremy Evans (who was a late arrival) had 1, Alan Schuster had 3 (his first 3 of the season), Oliver Rowles had 5, Tim and I had 4, Avi had 3, and Jona and Ben each had empty hands. FYI, those are not necessarily final totals.
Right before that group photo, the Orioles PA announcer informed us that the game time temperature was 102 degrees. We were hungry and hot. So Tim, Ben, Avi and his
girlfriend Beverly, and I headed to the air conditioned club level. Avi and Beverly headed to section 258 to watch the game in person. But Tim and I grabbed a table in front of a big flat screen and ate dinner:
After a few minutes, Ben joined us. We had been out in the hot sun so long that we were in no rush to head outside and watch the game in person…the air conditioning and flat screen were a-okay for us. We stayed in there until the fourth inning! After eating, Tim entertained us with some extreme high pants…
…and some fake DJ’ing on one of the nearby easy chairs:
While we were eating dinner, Ben and I discussed (among other things) the definition of a “ballhawk” and whether we qualified under that definition. Personally, I don’t think of me and Tim as “ballhawks” because we don’t go to games with the purpose of getting baseballs. We go to games because we love baseball and want to experience all that a Major League game has to offer. It just so happens that trying to get a baseball during BP is one of those experiences…and an important part of the game experience since I was a little boy. But, when you compare us to the other participants in ballhawkfest, our *strategies* and *skills* are quite limited. Essentially, Tim and Kellan are cute kids (players like cute kids…most people do actually) and we know where to stand during BP. But, if that makes us *ballhawks* I suppose we can live with the title. Although,
maybe a better title would be baseballhawks or ballparkhawks…or, simply, baseball fans.
Anyway, it was an interesting conversation, and it was a lot of fun chatting with Ben. We actually met Ben at U.S. Cellular Field back in 2009, and we had a lot of fun with him on that day too.
Before joining Avi and Beverly in the seats, Tim and I walked the club level to check out what it had to offer. Most of my pictures came out blurry (I guess because of the lighting) so I will just share this one of Tim and the Orioles Hall of Fame:
Here is what Camden Yards looks like from section 258 in the club level:
N.T.S. (You know it, not too shabby).
By the time we arrived in the seats, the Angels had already scored all of their runs for this game. In fact, all of the Angels runs came in the first inning on a 2-run homerun by Vernon Wells.
The Orioles got on the board in the bottom of the fourth inning courtesy of a solo shot by Adam Jones. Then, in the bottom of the fifth, the Orioles took a 3-2 lead on an RBI single by Nick Markakis and a sacrifice fly by Adam Jones. And that was all of the scoring in this game. While I was happy to see the Mariners division rival fall, it was sad that Piniero got tagged for the loss.
We sat in section 258 from the fourth through the seventh. Tim spent most of that time unloading 3 squirt bottles full of water on Avi:
Avi laid down a rule that Tim could live with: No spraying Beverly, but Tim could spray Avi as much as he wanted. And Tim wanted to spray Avi a lot. In the eyes, in the ears, on his shirt, on his shorts, back of the head, shoulders, elbows, a direct shot to the mouth, Avi was an excellent Target, and Tim was a happy triggerman.
Between sprays, Tim did a little spinning happy dance:
Before the Angels removed him in the bottom of the sixth, I got this shot of Joel Piniero on the mound:
As I said, gotta love former-Mariners. Particularly, a former-Mariner who performed well and was a fan favorites while in Seattle. And that describes Piniero.
Our bright yellow “Ballhawkfest” t-shirts served their purpose perfectly; it was easy to spot the guys all around the stadium. Like here – we spotted Garrett Meyer sitting about half-way up the field level seats behind third base:
In the seventh, Tim and I decided to head down to the field level behind home plate. On our way out of the club level, I had a little bit better luck taking photos. This is the seating area where we ate dinner (at the empty table in the middle of the photo):
Oversized autographed baseballs art:
From left to right, that is Brooks Robinson, Frank Robinson, Boog Powell (with the notation “MVP ‘70”), and Cal Ripken, Jr.
A busy bar:
Orioles World Series trophies and four gold glove awards:
And six Orioles Cy Young Awards:
When I was taking the picture of Tim and the World Series trophies, Avi was standing behind me chatting with Adam Jones’ mom (and several other people). When Jonesys’ mom walked by Tim she said something like, “Oh, honey, you should squirt me!” Tim was still holding his squirter, but he did not squirt her.
We ended up sitting with Jona (who deserves special thanks for being so cool and chatting so much with Tim throughout the day) for the last couple innings. She had been sitting in the last row on the ailse in section 32. Before joining Jona in the back row, Tim tested out a double seat setup:
The Angels were trying to come back, but Koji Uehara and Kevin Gregg were too much for them. Neither Bobby Abreau…
…nor Vernon Wells…
…could help the Angels. Both grounded out against Gregg in the ninth.
Toward the end of the game, Tim enjoyed a twist ice cream helmet to cap off a great day…
…and after the game he used his water squirter to clean the ice cream residue from his dirty face.
After the game, the remaining Ballhawkfest participants met up again behind the third base dugout. We got our picture with Alan Schuster:
Then Garrett (who was visiting from Kansas City) requested a picture with Tim:
Of course, with two cameras going, Tim was looking at one camera while Garrett looked at the other. Doesn’t it always happen that way?
Here is one of the coolest pictures of the day:
And one more featuring everyone’s sweaty faces:
Once again that is (right to left): Jeremy Evans, Mateo Fischer, Zack Hample, Jona (she’s only got one name like Ichiro), Alex Kopp, Tim (posing with one of Garrett’s baseballs
because ours were packed away in my backpack), Garrett Meyer, Oliver Rowles, Alan Schuster, and Benny “Bang Bang” Weil.
A great group of guys (and girl). Ballhawkfest 2011 was loads of fun and a smashing success.
| 2011 C&S Fan Stats |
| 18/3 Games (Tim/Kellan) |
| 16/5 Teams [Tim – Mariners, Orioles, Rangers, Brewers, Nationals, Phillies, Mets, Rays, Braves, Diamondbacks, Astros, Royals, Cubs, Angels, Indians, Reds, Giants and Tigers; Kellan – Mariners, Orioles, Angels, Mets and Indians] |
| 13 Ice Cream Helmet(s) (Orioles (2), Nationals, Phillies (2), Rangers (2), Mets (1), Reds (1), Tigers (1)) |
| 54 Baseballs (6 Mariners, 7 Rangers, 4 Orioles, 3 Umpires, 2 Nationals, 2 Brewers, 5 Phillies, 2 Mets, 1 Rays, 2 Braves, 2 Diamondbacks, 1 MLB Authenticator, 1 Easter Egg, 1 Glove Trick, 2 Royals, 2 Cubs, 5 Angels, 4 Indians, 1 Giants, 1 Tigers) |
| 8/2 Stadiums [Tim – Camden Yards, Nationals Park, Citizens Bank Park, Minute Maid Park, Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Citi Field, Great American Ball Park, Comerica Park; Kellan – Camden Yards, Citi Field] |
| 13/9 Player Photos* [Tim – Felix Hernandez, Adam Moore, Garrett Olson, Chris Seddon, David Aarsdma, Michael Pineda, Miguel Olivo, Ryan Langerhans, Greg Zuan, Mark Lowe, Michael Saunders, Chad Durbin, Russell Branyan; Kellan – Luke French, Milton Bradley, Franklin Gutierrez, Justin Smoak, Matt Tuiasosopo, Ryan Langerhans, Michael Saunders, Tony Sipp, Chad Durbin] |
| 3/1 Management Photos* [Tim – Howard Lincoln, Jack Zduriencik, Eric Wedge; Kellan – Jack Zduriencik] |
| 5 Autograph(s) (Michael Pineda, Michael Saunders, Mark Lowe, Felipe Paulino, Aroldis Chapman) |
| 1 Bat* (Milton Bradley) |
| 6/2 Mascot Photos* [Tim – Mariner Moose, Teddy Roosevelt, The O’s Bird, Mr. Redlegs, Gapper, Slider; Kellan – Mariner Moose, The O’s Bird] |
| 1/0 Divisions Closed Out** [Tim – A.L. West (Safeco Field, Oakland Coliseum, Angel Stadium & Rangers Ballpark in Arlington); Kellan – N/A] |
| 2 Line-up Cards (Royals vs. Rangers; Indians vs. Orioles) |
| *includes Spring Training**divisions where we have seen each team play a home game. |
Kellan and Tim, 1 and 100 (7/16/11)
July 16, 2011 was a special day. Most importantly, it was Kellan’s first birthday. Yep, he’s finally made it to the single digits. We decided to celebrate his birthday with a weekend trip to Baltimore with a whole bunch of friends and family. The big event on Saturday (Kellan’s actual birthday) would be attending the game between the
Indians and the Orioles. The following day, we would visit the famous National Aquarium in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.
As an added bonus, the baseball game would be Tim’s 100th game.
Just like the Cleveland Indians, we stayed at the Renaissance Harborside hotel across Pratt Street from the Inner Harbor. We started off with lunch a Tir Na Nog and then it was back to the hotel for birthday cake:
We were a little bit late to batting practice and missed out on most of the Orioles BP. Right as we circled around to the 3B side, two Indians pitchers were finishing playing catch and one of them tossed their baseball to us.
A few minutes later, Avi Miller (decked out in full Indians garb) was chatting with Tony Sipp. I called out, “Hey, Tony! It is this guy’s first birthday, how about a picture!?”
Thanks, Tony!
Just a few minutes later, Chad Durbin and his partner finished playing catch. A quick “Hey, Chad” later, he spun around and tossed his baseball to me, Tim and Kellan. A few seconds after that, Durbin became the second major leaguer to hold the birthday boy:
In that last picture, the Orioles stadium attendant (Tom) has pointing at me and telling me to give him my camera so Tim and I could get in the picture. The funniest part was when Tom delayed the picture so he could clear all of the people out from behind us – Tom apparently thought they were cluttering our picture with Durbin.
The picture of all of us with Chad Durbin turned out pretty hilarious…
…because Kellan is about to blink and his eyes are half closed. He looks like he is falling asleep.
Earlier in the day, Avi had told me that the day before Zack Hample had pre-arranged to get the line-up cards from Manny Act after the game. It would be awesome to get a line-up card for Kellan’s first birthday game. So I figured it was worth a shot.
At the time, it was me, Tim, Kellan, Colleen, my cousin Nathan and his buddy Matt. We all relocated from the 3B line to the seats behind home plate:
We spotted Manny Act hitting fungo on the 1B side of the batting cage. Kellan and I scooted down to the first row on the side of the umpire tunnel. Everyone else grabbed some seats, and Tim provided the entertainment:
Things worked out ideally. I wasn’t sure if we would be able to get his attention. But he ended coming over to the net on the other side of the umpire’ tunnel to talk to some
people he knew:
To get back to the Indians dugout, Manny would have to walk directly in front of us. While we were waiting on Manny, an Orioles reporter (who Avi Miller has identified as Craig Heist)…
…came over and played with Kellan. It was pretty funny. The guy acted like Kellan was the cutest and funniest baby of all time.
And then Manny Acta walked by and stopped…
…to chat with us after I called out his name. The discussion went something like this:
Todd: Hi, Manny. Hey, it is my son’s first birthday today. I was wondering if there is any way that after the game we could get the line-up card with his birthdate on it?
Manny: Oh, sure. No problem. But, it has to be after the game.
Todd: Awesome! Thanks so much.
Manny: But, after the game!
Todd: Sounds good.
Manny: Yeah, but you have to wait until after the game.
Todd: Cool. Thanks.
Manny: So just come down to the dugout, but not until after the game.
Got it. I was excited to come back to see Manny, after the game, and see if he would remember us.
Tim, Kellan, Colleen and I spent the rest of BP out in left field, but nothing came of it…well, except for some nice family time:
So, it was game time. We reported to our seats in section 7. This picture is out of order, but here was our view from section 7, row 11:
There were 21 of us in all, including Tim’s buddy Sam…
…, who is the son of Colleen’s friend, Deb.
To start the game, we moved over a section so we could hide in the shade. Kellan spent some quality time sitting on his aunt Kimberly’s lap:
In the bottom of the first, J.J. Hardy led off with a double for the Orioles. He eventually scored on a sacrifice fly by Adam Jones. That made the score 1-0 Orioles after one inning.
At one point, the Orioles Bird showed up in the seats just below section 7. I called out for whoever wanted a picture with the Bird to follow me. And then began the slowest Bird chase of all time. My crew included my sister-in-law Kimberly, my nephew and niece Gill and Kate, and Noah. None of them had ever chased down a mascot before and they didn’t understand the urgency of a mascot chase.
Tim and I could have got our picture with the Bird and been back in our seats eating a pile of steaming hot nachos before this rag-tag group of Bird watchers made it to the
spot where the Bird used to be. But the Bird had darted into a new section and was making his way through rows of fans handing out high fives and posing for pictures.
I repositioned our group at the bottom of the next section over where I predicted the Bird would return to the cross aisle. While we waited, Kimberly posed with some displeased Orioles fans:
And then the Bird arrived on the scene and made Noah’s day:
When the moment came, Kate opted not to get in the picture. The funniest thing about this picture is that I was the only person taking a picture. The Bird is looking at the camera, and I have no clue what Gill and Noah are looking at…maybe they are watching the game! And check out Gill with the classic Ted Williams glove on, ready to catch a foul ball. Atta’boy, Gill!
The Orioles extended their lead to 2-0 in the bottom of the fourth when Derrek Lee singled in Nick Markasis.
With a group of 21 people to choose from, it was our first real opportunity to get one of the more difficult photos from the 2011 myGameBalls.com photo scavenger hunt:
15 people in 3 rows of 5, each holding a baseball. Many thanks to (front row) Noah, Kate, Tim, Sam and Ellie; (second row) Jenn, Geralyn, Gill, Kristen, and Andy; and (back row) Mark, Kevin, Will, Matt and Nathan!
In the middle innings, it was time to hit the play area and get some dinner:
After having lots of fun on the fort, Tim gave us a huge scare by trying to inhale his hot dog and choking on it. It was really freaky. It was just like in “Field of Dreams” when the daughter chokes on a hot dog. I slapped Tim on the back and he shot a two inch piece of hot dog out of his throat.
We’ve learned our lesson. MLB games are nacho time, not hot dog time.
We had to hustle back to our seats because we were expecting something fun on the scoreboard. But first there was more scoring. The Indians tied up the score at 2-2 in the
top of the sixth on a double 2-RBI double by Mariner-child Michael Brantley. The Orioles then recaptured the lead in the bottom of the sixth inning when Nick Markakis blasted a homerun to RCF.
And then our scoreboard message appeared out in CF:
Kellan’s first ever scoreboard “Happy Birthday!” First of man, I am sure.
Then Avi and Zevi showed up at our seats to say hello, and I handed off a Mexican League (FeMeBe) baseball to Avi for a little prank I had in mind and with which Avi offered to help – you can see that story here.
Avi also told me that Orioles pitcher Alfredo Simon would soon be heading back to the Dominican Republic to stand trial for involuntary manslaughter in the celebratory-shooting death of his cousin. I figured I should take an action shot of Simon in case he gets convicted and never returns to MLB:
Of course, we got some random shots in the stands. Like this shot of Colleen and Kellan seemingly in the middle of a staring contest:
And this shot of the Steeles as they get ready to call it a night:
And you know we had to get a brothers-in-matching-shirts shot:
It was a nice and relaxing evening at the ballpark. The birthday boy got lots of attention…like here where he gets some snacks from Geralyn while I hold him:
Tim was his usual silly self:
In the eighth inning, Tim, Kellan and I relocated to some seats behind the Indians bullpen in hopes that Manny Acta would remember that he said Kellan could have the line-up cards. Soon after grabbing some seats, Avi joined us. And then a few minutes later, Colleen joined us as well.
Here was our view from the first seats we found:
Avi, Tim, Kellan and I eventually moved down to about the fourth row. Nice seats. This doesn’t really do the view justice, but it looked something like this:
Now, the Orioles were leading 3-2 going into the bottom of the eighth. But then, on the strength of a trio of doubles by Nick Markakis, Adam Jones and Felix Pie, the Orioles put up three more runs to make it a 6-2 lead going into the bottom of the ninth.
Koji “Now A Ranger” Uehara pitched a 1-2-3 eighth for the Orioles, but they did not bring him back for the ninth. Instead, they went with Kevin Gregg. It was not a good decision. Gregg was anything but clutch.
After striking out the first batter in the top of the ninth, Gregg walked the bases loaded. He then struck out the Lonnie Chisenhall for the second out of the 26th out of the game. As Orlando Cabrera strode to the plate and the Orioles still leading 6-2, Avi declared, “The Orioles are going to win this game 6-5.”
He was spot on. Cabrera laced a double to the RCF gap. It cleared the bases and made the score 6-5 Orioles.
Buck Showalter had seen enough of Mr. Gregg. He got the hook and was replaced by Mike Gonzalez. Three pitches later, Grady Sizemore grounded out to first base and that was the ballgame.
I was did not have high hopes of actually getting the line-up card for Kellan because the Indians started filing into the tunnel to their clubhouse instead of out onto the field
for high-fives. But we walked down to the first row right above the player exit to the clubhouse. Just then, Manny Act walked by. He looked up and saw me and gave me a look that made it clear we were getting the line-up card! I was excited. Manny ducked out of view for a few seconds and then he popped out of the dugout, reached up high and handed me the line-up cards – not one card (like the one taped to the dugout wall), but two (as in the official cards he kept in his pocket during the entire game). They were beautiful. One for the Orioles. One for the Indians. Each signed by the respective managers (Manny Acta and Buck Showalter. And both emblazoned with the date of Kellan’s first birthday.
Outstanding.
Thanks, Manny!
Before heading for the exit, Avi took two family pictures for us – this one with Kellan finding the field much more exciting than the camera (can you blame him)…
…and this one (where we could at least see his face):
On the walk to the exit, I took this photo of Kellan’s birthday gift from Manny Act:
He is officially the first Cook to ever receive birthday gifts (two baseballs and two line-up cards) from Major Leaguers….of course, he is also the only Cook whose birthday is
during the baseball season, so he has an advantage over the rest of us.
All-in-all, it was a great night!
Ah, I almost forgot, we also got another baseball post-game behind the Indians dugout. The next day was Noah’s birthday and we had got him a Rawlings baseball glove.
Conveniently, it was in a gift bag and not sealed up in a wrapped box, so I slid that baseball into the glove when we got back to the hotel and gave it to Noah at breakfast the next day. I am pretty sure he likes the baseball more than the glove.
Speaking of the next day, we had a blast at the aquarium and Inner Harbor.
The National Aquarium is great. Here is a family photo of us in the Australia exhibit…
…and a shot of Tim and his cousins looking at some fish…and it appears Tim is applauding the fish. “Good job swimming, guys!”
Tim really loved the dolphins (who were practicing for their show):
That is Uncle Kevin holding Kellan in the dolphin arena.
Tim and Kellan both loved the big jelly fish exhibit…
…but the sharks were scary with all of those teeth. Actually, Tim told me the scariest thing about the sharks was their gums!
After the aquarium, we took a water taxi…
…to Fells Point for an early dinner.
What can I say, it was a great birthday weekend for our little boy. Thanks to everyone who joined us and helped make it extra special.
| 2011 C&S Fan Stats |
| 17/3 Games (Tim/Kellan) |
| 16/5 Teams [Tim – Mariners, Orioles, Rangers, Brewers, Nationals, Phillies, Mets, Rays, Braves, Diamondbacks, Astros, Royals, Cubs, Angels, Indians, Reds, Giants and Tigers; Kellan – Mariners, Orioles, Angels, Mets and Indians] |
| 12 Ice Cream Helmet(s) (Orioles (2), Nationals, Phillies (2), Rangers (2), Mets (1), Reds (1), Tigers (1)) |
| 50 Baseballs (6 Mariners, 7 Rangers, 3 Orioles, 3 Umpires, 2 Nationals, 2 Brewers, 5 Phillies, 2 Mets, 1 Rays, 2 Braves, 2 Diamondbacks, 1 MLB Authenticator, 1 Easter Egg, 1 Glove Trick, 2 Royals, 2 Cubs, 2 Angels, 4 Indians, 1 Giants, 1 Tigers) |
| 8/2 Stadiums [Tim – Camden Yards, Nationals Park, Citizens Bank Park, Minute Maid Park, Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Citi Field, Great American Ball Park, Comerica Park; Kellan – Camden Yards, Citi Field] |
| 12/9 Player Photos* [Tim – Felix Hernandez, Adam Moore, Garrett Olson, Chris Seddon, David Aarsdma, Michael Pineda, Miguel Olivo, Ryan Langerhans, Greg Zuan, Mark Lowe, Michael Saunders, Chad Durbin; Kellan – Luke French, Milton Bradley, Franklin Gutierrez, Justin Smoak, Matt Tuiasosopo, Ryan Langerhans, Michael Saunders, Tony Sipp, Chad Durbin] |
| 3/1 Management Photos* [Tim – Howard Lincoln, Jack Zduriencik, Eric Wedge; Kellan – Jack Zduriencik] |
| 5 Autograph(s) (Michael Pineda, Michael Saunders, Mark Lowe, Felipe Paulino, Aroldis Chapman) |
| 1 Bat* (Milton Bradley) |
| 6/2 Mascot Photos* [Tim – Mariner Moose, Teddy Roosevelt, The O’s Bird, Mr. Redlegs, Gapper, Slider; Kellan – Mariner Moose, The O’s Bird] |
| 1/0 Divisions Closed Out** [Tim – A.L. West (Safeco Field, Oakland Coliseum, Angel Stadium & Rangers Ballpark in Arlington); Kellan – N/A] |
| 2 Line-up Cards (Royals vs. Rangers; Indians vs. Orioles) |
| *includes Spring Training**divisions where we have seen each team play a home game. |
Ballhawking Prankology 101: The Plant
In case anyone who reads this blog hasn’t seen this yet, I thought I would share the guest column I wrote recently for myGameBalls.com. Enjoy:
Here are a couple bonus pictures. First, Tim with one of the FeMeBe baseballs:
Here is a photo by Avi Miller of Jeremy Guthrie standing in LF with the FeMeBe baseball in his glove pre-toss-up:
Here is a group shot from the myGameBalls.com “Ballhawkfest 2011″ featuring the FeMeBe baseball:
Finally, Avi and I did not tell Zack about the prank or the article. We wanted him to find out about it through normal channels…just however the news would reach him. I’m still not sure how the news got to him, but a few hours after the article was posted this message from Zack showed up on Twitter:
That’s all for now. Go Mariners!
25 Mariners & 4 Cooks in Baltimore (5/12/2011)
The day was upon us: Kellan’s first game of the season! Our first Mariners game of the season! Kellan’s first Mariners road game of his life! Our first game of the season with Colleen a/k/a “mommy.” Fun times were ahead, guaranteed!
We packed ourselves into Colleen’s more family friendly car…
…and headed off to Camden Yards
We met our friend and Baltimore ticket agent, Avi Miller, on Eutaw Street before the gates opened, got out tickets, and then hung out with the regulars at the front of the line.
As Kellan waited for his first “gate opening” of his life, I snapped this picture of my little crew:
Yeah, that’s a good crew.
When the gates opened, we headed over toward the Mariners dugout. The Orioles were hitting and the Mariners were stretching. When the M’s finished stretching, most of them headed to the outfield to play catch, while a select few stuck in front of the dugout and played catch there.
As Dan Cortes walked by, I called him over and asked for a picture:
Cortes was very nice. He chatted with us for a few minutes, and he confirmed that it was indeed him that we saw at the airport the day after the following game of the season last year.
Thanks for being cool, Dan!
As we watched Ichiro and Michael Saunders play catch in front of the dugout, a pair of fellow Mariners fans standing nearby offered to take a family photo:
Kellan was so into the pre-game festivities, he couldn’t be bothered with looking at the camera.
As we watched the action, the people from ROOT Sports came over and chatted with us. They ended up taking our names and they take some video of us watching Ichiro and Saunders playing catch. The guys said he wanted to show us on TV during the game. I have no clue if that actually happened or not.
Three minutes later, Ichiro and Saunders finished up. Ichiro ran off and Saunders came over and gave us their warm up baseball. I asked him if we could get a picture and Tim asked him if he’d sign the ball he just gave us. His answer was “yes” to both questions. I handed Kellan over and we got this picture:
Thanks, Michael!
Kellan was having a blast at his first road Mariners game…
… “YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!”
As can be seen between me and Kellan in that last picture, the ROOT sports guy came running back to get video of us talking to Saunders, but he was too late.
We decided to head down the LF foul line to watch the Mariners pitchers warm up. As bartender turned Major Leaguer Tom Wilhelmsen walked by on the edge of the foul warning track, I asked him if he could help us out. He looked confused but willing when he asked, “What’s up?
I explained that we needed a picture of Tim throwing a baseball to a player on the field for a photo scavenger hunt (the mygameballs.com photo scavenger hunt). Tom was happy to help out. To make sure we got the shot, Tim tossed two baseballs to Wilhelmsen. Here is Tim’s favorite of the two photos:
By the way, this is Tim’s favorite of the two pictures because you can see the blue logo on the ball in flight.
As we hung out in foul territory, we chatted briefly with Mariners bullpen catcher extraordinaire Jason Phillips as he passed by on his way to do some work in the outfield. Very soon after Phillips passed by, David Pauley finished up playing catch along the foul line. As he turned and prepared to toss the baseball into the baseball bag (that can be seen in the picture of Tim throwing to Wilhelmsen), I called out, “Hey, David!” He turned and tossed the baseball to us rather than to the baseball bag.
Thanks, David!
Mere second later, Jason Phillips ran by again. Without us saying a word (or even really noticing yet that he was there), Jason grabbed a nice rubbed up baseball out of the bag, called out to get my attention, and tossed the baseball to us. Man, that guy is awesome!
Thanks, Jason!
Before continuing, I must digress for a second. Tim and I have got the game day process down pat. It’s a fun and easy day for us. While it’s just as fun, I rediscovered that it’s a lot harder taking a baby to a game! We had a little umbrella stroller that we ultimately had to lug around for Kellan. We strolled him into the stadium and around toward the Mariners dugout, but then I took him out of it while we were down front by the Mariners dugout.
Back to our story, eventually we noticed that rookie star Michael Pineda was sitting on the brick wall in LF foul territory. We all scooted over there to see him. From 2-3 rows back, I asked him if we could get an autograph and a picture with him and the boys. He said, “sure.”
Colleen had our camera. As I we started making our way up to Pineda, Colleen noticed that we’d left Kellan’s stroller sitting in the staircase behind the Mariners bullpen. She ran off to grab it. I turned around to see how she was setting up for the picture and I saw her walking away from us three sections down toward 3B. Pineda was obviously wondering what was going on. He mentioned he had to get going. I told him that my wife had just run off with our camera so we’d settle for just an autograph.
Luckily, that same pair of Mariners fans who took our picture by the dugout snapped this picture…
…as Pineda handed our autographed David Pauley baseball back to us. I gave the guy my card and he emailed the picture. Thanks, Ray!
Next, we packed up our mass of bags and equipment, and headed out to the bullpen area in deep LCF. On our way out there, we ran into the luckiest fan in the ballpark, Zack Hample, and he would, indeed, be quite lucky on this day. We’ve got a couple Zack-Tim fist bump pictures over the last couple season, and Zack and Tim were back at it at this game:
Zack tried to go for a sliding up the rail fist bump, but Tim turned it into a high intensity brute force fist bump. Tim is all about intensity.
We made plans to catch up a bit after BP, and then Zack headed to the flag court while we headed to the bullpen. Nothing was going on in the bullpen at the time, so Tim, Kellan and I hung out in the front row and watched the M’s take BP…
…while Colleen grabbed a seat and relaxed in back row by the bullpen. At one point, Felix Hernandez tried to throw us a baseball, but it fell short. Could have easily caught it, but with Kellan strapped to my chest I let it go and it bounced into a lady’s lap who wasn’t paying attention. A nice little surprise for her.
After BP, Zack (and Jona) came back over to the bullpen area. And Tim tried to break Zack’s hand with another ferocious fist bump (Note: Tim doesn’t full understand the concept of fist bumping):
Avi stopped by to say hi and he gave Tim a Orioles activity book/magazine for Tim. While Colleen fed Kellan a bottle by the bullpen, Tim looked through his book and shared the highlights with his mommy:
Zack changed back into his Mariners gear to get a picture with all of us. First, Jona took a picture with our camera:
Then, she took one with her own, and Tim decided to ham it up for the camera by giving his brother a big kiss on the cheek:
While Tim truly loves his little brother, this kiss was 100% for the benefit of the camera. Tim is a little showman at heart.
There were a couple baseballs in the Mariners’ bullpen and about 5 or so in the Orioles bullpen. Zack asked if we were waiting to ask someone if they would toss one of the balls up from the Mariners bullpen. I told him to go for it.
Soon, Jason Phillips entered the bullpen and Zack politely asked him to toss up one of the baseballs. Phillips obliged.
After he tossed the baseball to Zack, I asked Phillips to come over to us. When he arrived about 10 feet below us, I asked him if he would take a picture from the middle of the bullpen with my camera. It’s a picture I have had in mind for about a year and had been planning to ask Jason to take for us. Jason told me to drop my camera down to him.
I paused. It was a scary dilemma. My camera is about 2 months old and Phillips was standing on concrete. I said something like, “make sure you catch it!” Holding his hands open to me, he gave me a look like, “Do you seriously think I am going to drop it…I’m a professional catcher!” I asked him to take two steps to his left so he would be standing on AstroTurf. He did. I tossed my camera down. He caught it and headed out to the middle of the bullpen with it.
Zack thought quickly and asked Jona to take a picture of Phillips with my camera:
Thanks, Zack and Jona!
And here is the photo I’d wanted for so long, the Mariners relievers-eye-view of Camden Yards from the visitors bullpen:
Cool! Thanks again, Jason!
A little while later, Brandon League was pacing around the bullpen rubbing a baseball in his hands. He walked over to our end of the bullpen and I told Tim he should ask Brandon for the ball. When Tim asked League if he could toss him the baseball, Brandon walked over to Jason Phillips equipment bag, pulled out a different baseball and toss it up to us.
Thanks, Brandon!
Moments later, the game started and we watched Ichiro’s first at bat from LCF. As Figgins came to the plate (and was in the process of hitting two consecutive foul balls that Zack caught in the air), we started walking to the other side of the stadium toward the RF foul pole.
On the way, we stopped at the Orioles fan assistance office where the O’s issued some certificates of recognition to the boys:
I thought it was pretty cool that when I told the fan assistance lady that Tim had already been to many games at Camden Yards she decided to make him a certificate for “being an AWESOME big brother!”
As we walked through the concourse toward RF, I snapped a picture of these retired number banners…
…I’m not sure if they are new or not, but I’d never noticed them before.
Here is where we landed – Section 6:
So its official, Kellan loves going to baseball games! He had a blast. Here he is sharing some pizza with me and doing some yelling-for-joy:
This was a great place for us to sit because it was the closest we could be to Tim’s favorite player – Ichiro. Here was our view of Ichi:
Of course, at this first trip to Camden Yards, I had to take a picture of Kellan with the warehouse in the background:
In that last picture, Tim is right behind us and my friend and co-worker Charlie is sitting behind Tim. Charlie was in Baltimore for a conference and joined us for the game. Right around this time, he got an important email on his blackberry and was feverishly typing a response while Tim was talking a mile-a-minute into his ear. A few second later, Tim was relocated to the seat in front of me…
…so Charlie could finish his email without getting a big ear full of Tim’s jibber-jabbering.
I was really hoping that Ichiro could get a hit for Tim and Kellan:
But he kept grounding out for most of the game. And the game was speeding on by us. The pitching match-up was Jason “Viva Las” Vargas…
…and Zack Britton. They were both dealing big time. They both pitched 9 shutout innings.
As the game whizzed by, we got some family pictures. Here are my peeps:
The game went so fast, in fact, that we never even got ice cream helmets! But Tim enjoyed a little pistachio and sunflower seed platter:
At one point, a bunch of people in section 8 stood up, yelled at each other, and acted like they were going to fight:
No punches were thrown. But the cops ended up pulling a couple of the young thugs outta there. As the people yelled at each other, the fans in the section inexplicably chanted “USA! USA! USA!” Very odd.
Tim spent a bunch of time sitting next to the railing spitting seeds onto the warning track. I came over and snapped this picture of Tim with Ichiro in the background:
Eventually, I was assigned mid-game diaper duty and I had to take Kellan to the bathroom. On our walk through the concourse, we ran into The Bird and Kellan got a picture:
The Bird is a good guy. Thanks,Bird!
On way back to the seats, I walked Kellan through the flag court and took some flag court photos. Like this one…
…and this one:
Kellan really put on a serious face in the flag court. And when we got back to our seats, I took another picture that for no apparent reason I like
The first nine innings took less than two hours, and then we were into bonus baseball. And that meant bonus fun for us. Tim did some sitting on Colleen’s lap:
Colleen did some sitting on Tim’s lap:
Kellan did some sitting on my shoulders:
And…well, no. I didn’t do any sitting on Kellan’s shoulders. He’s too little.
Finally, in the twelfth inning, Ichiro got his first hit of the day. He worked his way around to third base and then scored the first run of the game on an RBI single by Miguel Olivo:
It was the first Mariners lead of Kellan’s in-person baseball life. I was so excited about the prospect of Kellan’s first Mariners win. In retrospect, however, I think I jinxed it. Tim, Charlie and I relocated to the second row behind home plate for an attempt at a post-game umpire baseball. This would mean that, if the Mariners won, I would not be with Kellan for his first Mariners win. In retrospect, it was an incredible error in judgment by me.
Forces of fate (i.e., it is fate that I should be with Kellan when he first witnesses the Mariners win in person) kicked in. In the bottom of the twelfth inning, Brandon League gave up a hit to the first batter. He beaned the second batter. He drilled the third batter too. So the bases were loaded with no outs. The fourth batter blistered a line drive that should have been a hit, but Luis Rodriguez made an outstanding diving catch at short stop. Finally, the fifth batter hit a single up the middle that I could see and hear tip off of Brandon League’s bare hand, the tying and winning runs scored.
And the Mariners moved to 0-3 for Kellan.
It was painful, but in the long run, Brandon League did us a favor. I won’t make that mistake again. Next time we see the Mariners play, I will be holding Kellan when Miguel Olivo (or whoever) squeezes the glove on Kellan’s first Mariners win.
Despite the loss, it was a great day. Kellan had a great day at the ballpark. Tim and I had a great time having Kellan and Colleen join us. It was great to see our Mariners for the first time. Lots of fun all around.
By the way, we didn’t get an umpire baseball. In fact, no one did. The umpire just buried his head and left. I went over to say good-bye to Zack and Jona. They were behind the 3B dugout where Jona was taking this picture of Zack and the THREE foul balls he caught at this game. As Jona took the picture, I could see in the distance that two ushers were kicking Colleen and Kellan out of the seats! I didn’t have time to say good-bye to Zack, Tim and I took off like a lightning bolt back to Colleen and Kellan.
On our way out of the ballpark, I held Kellan up real high and Colleen snapped this picture…
…of Kellan with the Ken Griffey, Jr. homerun marker on the warehouse wall. We then had a fun walk…
…back to our car.
Our first full family-of-four baseball game was in the books. I can’t wait for our next.
| 2011 C&S Fan Stats |
| 8/1 Games (Tim/Kellan) |
| 9/2 Teams [Tim – Orioles, Rangers, Brewers, Nationals, Phillies, Mets, Rays, and Braves; Kellan – Mariners, Orioles] |
| 4 Ice Cream Helmet(s) (Orioles (2), Nationals, Phillies) |
| 24 Baseballs (4 Mariners, 3 Rangers, 3 Orioles, 2 Umpire, 2 Nationals, 2 Brewers, 4 Phillies, 1 Mets, 1 Rays, 2 Braves) |
| 3/1 Stadiums [Tim – Camden Yards, Nationals Park, Citizens Bank Park; Kellan – Camden Yards] |
| 11/7 Player Photos* [Tim – Felix Hernandez, Adam Moore, Garrett Olson, Chris Seddon, David Aarsdma, Michael Pineda, Miguel Olivo, Ryan Langerhans, Greg Zuan, Mark Lowe, Michael Saunders; Kellan – Luke French, Milton Bradley, Franklin Gutierrez, Justin Smoak, Matt Tuiasosopo, Ryan Langerhans, Michael Saunders] |
| 3/1 Management Photos* [Tim – Howard Lincoln, Jack Zduriencik, Eric Wedge; Kellan – Jack Zduriencik] |
| 3 Autograph(s) (Michael Pineda, Michael Saunders, Mark Lowe) |
| 1 Bat* (Milton Bradley) |
| 3/2 Mascot Photos* [Tim – Mariner Moose, Teddy Roosevelt, The O’s Bird; Kellan – Mariner Moose, The O’s Bird] |
| *includes Spring Training |
I-95 Doubleheader: Baltimore-to-Philadelphia (5/7/2011)
On September 6, 2010, Tim and I managed a first: a multi-city doubleheader with a day game at Nationals Park and a night game at Citizens Bank Park. It was great fun. Our only regret was that we were able to get one baseball during BP in D.C., but we did not get a baseball at the night cap.
So turning to the 2011, I wanted to do a couple more multi-city doubleheaders. I originally had three of them on our schedule, but my wife (not wanting Tim to get too exhausted) asked me to scale it back to just one. So I picked May 7, 2011: Rays vs. Orioles at 1:05 p.m. followed by Braves vs. Phillies at 7:05 p.m.
We woke up just knowing it was going to be a great day.
We were in the car by 8:30 a.m. and, after drawing a bunch of pictures, Tim ended up napping most of the drive down to Baltimore:
In addition to going to the games, we had an extra task to accomplish in Baltimore. I had made a bat for a guy named Mike Jasser who reads our blog. Mike and I had arranged to meet up before the game so we could deliver the bat.
In the parking garage before meeting Mike, I had Tim pose for a picture with Mike’s bat:
Although we had exchanged emails from time-to-time over the past year, I had never met Mike before. Turns out he’s a cool guy. We ended up hanging out together (along with several of the Camden Yards regulars) during most of the game and it was a lot of fun.
When we entered the ballpark at 11:00 a.m., the field was set up for BP, but there was practically nothing happening on the field. A couple Orioles pitchers were warming up down the 1B line so Tim and I grabbed some seats in the first row to watch them.
And Tim busted open a pack of peanut butter crackers. Tim could easily eat nothing but peanut butter sandwiches and crackers and live a happy life.
There were only 4 Orioles playing catch and another Orioles pitcher (Josh Rupe) was running in the outfield. When Rupe finished running, he walked over to us, reached out and set a baseball in Tim’s hand.
Thanks, Josh!
Before he could walk away, I declared that I needed to ask Rupe a funny question. He agreed to listen.
Todd: We’re in a photo scavenger hunt and I was wondering if you could take a picture of yourself with my camera?
Rupe: A picture of myself?
Todd: Yeah.
Rupe: With your camera?
Todd: Yeah…
Todd: In fair territory.
Rupe: In fair territory? Sure!
Rupe backed up into fair territory, looked around like he was thinking about something, and then explained, “I’ll face this way so you can see the foul pole and tell that I’m in fair territory!”
Here is Rupe’s handiwork:
As Rupe handed the camera back to me, he said, “If anyone else asks me to do this, I’ll say ‘no’ so you win the scavenger hunt!”
Thanks, again, Josh!
Still, not much was going on. The day’s starting pitcher, Jeremy Guthrie, was stretching on the warning track in the RF foul corner:
We headed over there to chat with Guthrie.
Todd: “Hey, Jeremy! I can’t believe that Zack didn’t write about you in his book!”
Guthrie: “Its disgraceful! Man, I gave him a baseball on the last day of Yankee Stadium. And I play catch with him all the time!”
Todd: “That’s inexcusable!”
A few minutes later, someone hit a ball in the corner right by Guthrie.
Todd: “Hey, Jeremy. If you toss that baseball up here to us, I promise I’ll write about you in my book…not that I actually have any plans to write a book or anything.”
Guthrie chuckles, but didn’t toss us the baseball. Hey, it was worth a shot.
After a bit, Tim and I headed over to LF to say hi to Matt, Avi, Zevi and Mike. They were all doing their best to catch BP homeruns. But I’m not a big fan of hanging out too long in homerun territory with Tim during BP – too many hard hit baseballs flying around. So we headed around the LF foul pole into foul territory where a couple Rays pitchers were playing catch.
As we passed behind the foul pole, Vlad Guerrero launched a homerun about 20 rows over our heads. Here is a graphical reenactment:
The baseball took a huge bounce down about 10-15 rows. Then it took a second smaller bounce that found its way into the pocket of my glove. Hey, a Vlad Guerrero homer is a pretty darn cool baseball to get. We’ll take it.
Thanks, Vlad (even if you didn’t specifically intend to hit that ball to us)!
Finally, we found our way into foul territory and watch two Rays who we did not recognize play catch. They warmed up their arms, then played long toss, then one of them pitched to the other, then they switched places and the other guy pitched. When they finished up¸ the second “catcher,” who ended up being…
…Juan Cruz, tossed us their warm up baseball.
Thanks, Juan!
Three baseballs in hand and the sunny beating down on us, we decided to hit up the kids’ play area. First, Tim did some pitching:
He actually went to this pitching station a couple times. His second time on “the mound” he pumped three consecutive strikes into the little strike zone box on the wall. So he left the cage and gave me a big thumbs up.
Next, he posed with the big yellow bobblehead:
Followed by some bouncing in the bouncy house and some running, climbing and sliding on the fort-thingy:
Finally, he did a little hitting off of the air tee:
The Orioles really have a first class kids’ play area now-a-days. Good job, O’s!
When we headed back out to the field, the grounds crew was finally ripping down the BP cage and nets. We walked around the inner-walkway toward LF and found some seats in the shade. Vlad Guerrero came out to stretch so I figured I should get a picture of him since we caught his BP homer:
Right when the game started, Tim wanted to go back to the kids’ play area. So we retraced our steps on the inner-walkway. On the walk, I got this shot of Evan Longoria…
…taking a big hack, which I believe produced a foul ball.
When we reached the play area, Tim got a picture with another big bobblehead…
…and took some hacks in the big kids’ batting cage:
…Tim is a good hitter, but the bats they use in these cages (like the one at Citi Field) are often times too heavy for him to swing. But he did okay swinging the lightest bat the Orioles provided.
After the kids play area, we met up with Mike Jasser in the RF flag court. Tim LOVES the flag court. Here he is hugging a flag pole:
Then he asked where the Mariners flag pole was (in the A.L. West last place position…for now) and, after making a game out of running to the wrong flag over and over, he finally found his way to the Mariners flag and posed for this picture:
While Tim was hugging and bouncing off of flag poles, I saw the Orioles Bird walking by in Eutaw Street. We ran out and got this picture:
After the picture with the Bird, we were standing around chatting in the flag court when Evan Longoria launched a homerun into the left field seats. We could see that either Matt or Avi caught the ball. It looked to me like Matt caught it.
I asked Mike if he wanted to go over and meet Avi, Zevi and Matt. He did so the three of us started walking to LF around the picnic area in CF. On the way, I texted Avi and asked if Matt caught the homerun. As we circled around the picnic area, Avi texted back that HE had caught the ball. Big congrats to Avi!
Before heading into the seats, we went and bought some nachos. As we were walking through the concourse, Mike said the funniest line of the day: “Man, I feel like I’m walking around in one of the blogs that I read.” And, hey, I guess he was doing just that.
When we got into the seats, I snapped this picture of Avi and his homerun baseball, flanked by Matt (and his glove) and Zevi:
Around this time, B.J. Upton hit a ground rule double into the seats in RCF. The fan who caught it launched it back onto the field, which prompted several fans sitting about 10 rows behind us to start mentioning loudly that whoever caught the Upton ball was a “real fan” because they tossed it back. Avi ignored these silly statements and instead took some shots of Tim playing with his mustard dog:
We had a very relaxing time out there in LF. Most of the scoring in the game was behind us. So we just relaxed and chatted:
This was the Fox Saturday game and Avi noticed that Fox had put up a green screen behind home plate…
…so Fox could show their own advertisements during the game.
We were sitting right behind breakout star outfielder of the season, Sam Fuld:
During this game, he had a nice diving catch and picked off a homerun that Mike would have been all over had Fuld not made the catch.
Of course, Tim enjoyed a chocolate ice cream helmet while we lounged in LF. While we were off buying the ice cream, I got this panoramic view of the new and improved Camden Yards concourse:
After finishing his ice cream, Tim asked if we could go get a picture with the Orioles ballgirl down the 3B line. On our way, we got this panoramic view of Camden Yards from (I think) section 62:
The ballgirl was happy to pose for a picture with Tim:
But Tim was let down when the ballgirl didn’t have an autographed ballgirl card for him (like the Phillies ballgirls).
Before we headed back to LF, a fan asked if we wanted him to take our picture. Sure, we did:
Right at the end of the game, Avi, Zevi and Matt headed over to the Rays dugout and Mike decided to hit the road a little early. Before parting ways, we got a picture with Mike…
…in which Tim is posing like he’s too cool for school.
The Rays were winning by a score of 8-1 and it was already past 4:00. I was hoping to be on the road by 4:00 so we could hopefully catch a little bit of BP in Philadelphia. We wanted to stay for the entire game, but to make our exit process more efficient, we decided to watch the bottom of the ninth from the tunnel in straight away CF.
Here is what it looked like as we hoped (unsuccessfully) that Vlad Guerrero would make the final out of the game:
After the Orioles scored one last run, Felix Pie made the final out (for an 8-2 Rays win), and Tim and I high tailed it for our car. Tim played with his little baseball action figures for a bit…
…but then fell asleep for a majority of our drive up I-95, through Wilmington, Delaware, and into Philadelphia.
We made great time until we reached the outskirts of Philadelphia. Ultimately, we missed batting practice. If we were going to get a baseball at two stadiums in one day, it would have to be during or after the game. A tall task for Citizens Bank Park.
Luckily, we had amazing seats. Here was our view of Citizens Bank Park from Section 131, row 3, seats 17-18:
FYI, seat 18 is on the aisle of the section 132 staircase.
Aside from getting food twice, we stayed in our seats this entire game. It was a great spot for taking pictures of the action at home plate. Here are some shots of Jason Heyward…
…and Chipper Jones…
…neither of whom got a hit in their first inning at bats.
Braves pitcher Julio Teheran made his MLB debut at this game. The first batter he faced in his Major League career was Jimmy Rollins…
…who laced a single down the RF line.
Ryan Howard came looking to drive J-Roll in:
The Braves put on an interest shift:
Instead of shifting the SS to the other side of 2B, they brought chipper Jones all the way from 3B to the 2B position. But the Braves didn’t need the shift because Howard grounded out to 1B.
Although Howard couldn’t push a run across in the first, the Phils took a 1-0 lead in the second when Pete Orr hit an RBI ground out.
It was time for some dinner. Tim and I had a thorough discussion our day’s meal plan. Should we go hot dogs for lunch in Baltimore with nachos for dinner in Philadelphia? Nachos in Baltimore and hot dogs in Philadelphia? We for nachos in Baltimore. So…dinner…what would it be….
…NACHOS!
And after being ridiculed by Avi in Baltimore for wasting some excess cheese, we were sure to finish all of our dinner nacho cheese with the help of some crackers we brought with us from home.
In the fourth inning, Ryan Howard beat the shift be going way, way over it. He blasted a homerun over section 101 and into the Phillies bullpen. Here he is about to score the second Phillies run of the night:
Although it may not look like it in this picture…
…the place was rocking, and so was the Liberty Bell. The bell tolls back-and-forth and lights up all red, white and blue when a Phillie hits a homerun.
So the fifth inning rolled around and it was looking like our attempt to get a baseball at two stadiums in the same day were fading. Our best opportunity would be to go for an umpire baseball, which is really difficult at Citizens Bank Park.
But with a runner on first and no outs in the top of the fifth inning, Alex Gonzalez strode to the plate. On the first pitch from Kyle Kendrick, Gonzalez hit a soft foul grounder right to the Braves 3B coach Brian Snitker:
Snitker gave us a baseball last season at PNC Park and that was the only reason that I knew his first name. It came in handy. I bounced to my feet, jumped down into the first row, and right as Snitker fielded the foul ball I called out, “Hey, Brian!!!” and I flashed him my glove.
A soft underhand toss later…
…and Tim’s first foul ball of his life (albeit via toss up)…
…made Citizens Bank Park the second stadium at which we’d caught a ball on May 7, 2011. Mission accomplished. I was incredibly excited. As shown in the last picture, Tim was equally excited by the fact that he had just found a quarter on the ground (I didn’t tell him that it was actually our quarter that simply fell out of my pocket) that was facing heads up (backstory: Colleen told Tim its good luck if you find a penny laying heads up on the ground, and Tim has decided that the rule applies to any and all coins).
We celebrated with a gargantuan Phillies ice cream helmet. Our special ice cream helmet lady made it so big that when I scooped the top portion and put it in our Orioles helmet from earlier in the day, we both had full ice cream helmets:
Note: when given the choice, Tim chose to eat his share of the ice cream from the Orioles helmet at this Phillies game.
In the top of the seventh inning, the Phillies brought in reliever Michael Stutes:
A couple years ago when my company softball team was playing a game against the “AA” Reading Phillies front office softball team, Stutes and Mike Zagursky heckled my team mercilessly. This was the first time I’d seen Stutes pitch in the majors. Now, I can say that I’ve been heckled by two (future) Major Leaguers.
Stutes gave up a hit, but got out of the inning without giving up any runs. At this point, the score was 3-0 (Victorino had an RBI triple in the fifth to score the third Phillies run) and that ended up being the final score.
In the eighth, I got another picture each of Jason Heyward…
…and Chipper Jones:
Both popped out. Tim thought the name “Chipper” was hilarious and, following his first at bat, he joked about it for much of this game.
This was a really fun game. Among other things, Tim and I chatted a lot with two Braves friends from California who sat right behind us.
I asked the guy if Braves fans had gotten over Brooks Conrad’s 2010 post-season errors. In a tone implying he did not care what other Braves fans thought about it, he answered with a matter of fact: “I’m not.”
Our seat neighbors were thrilled for Tim when we got the Gonzalez foul ball. The lady kept saying she wanted to “rent” Tim so they could get a ball too. But in the end, they didn’t need to rent Tim. When Ben Francisco grounded out to end the bottom of the eighth, none other than replacement first basemen Brooks Conrad fired the third out ball to the happy Braves fan. I think it was the first baseball he’d ever got at a game, and he and his girlfriend were quite happy about it.
I turned to the guy, “He must have heard you say that you weren’t over his errors!”
In the ninth inning, the Braves fans were nice enough to take this shot of me and Tim:
[Note: the possessed-looking little girl sitting in front of us and oddly looking back at the camera in this picture stared at Tim for like half of the game. It was bizarre. The Braves fans’ theory was that she was jealous of Tim’s stuffed Mustard Hot Dog toy that he was holding for much of the game.]
So, the Phillies own. We were totally content with the Gonzalez foul ball so we didn’t even make an effort to get an umpire baseball. However, we did end up getting one more baseball after the game. We were just standing above the dugout when Brooks Conrad poked his head out of the dugout. All of the other players were gone. When I say Conrad, I said, “Hey, Brooksy” like we were buddies. Brooks nodded, pulled a baseball out of his pocket, tossed it to me, and then pointed to Tim on my shoulders like “hey, that’s for your boy up there.”
Thanks, Brooks!
Before heading out, I took this picture of us with Tim holding his Gonzalez foul ball and his coveted Mustard Hot Dog:
Another fan saw our self-portrait and offered to take our picture for us. Here was his effort:
On our slow walk up the stairs, an usher gave Tim a little Phillies Phanatic figurine. At the top of the stairs, Tim had us stop so I could take some pictures of his Phanatic and each of the four baseball players he brought with us to the game:
It was time to head out. On our walk to the car, Tim got his picture with a statute of “Mr. Baseball” Connie Mack:
And, another picture by our car with the stadium in the background
Two games, two stadiums and over 13 hours after leaving home that morning, we were on our way home once again. Tim actually started awake chatting with me in the car for about half an hour. But eventually, he crashed:
It was yet again another awesome day. You gotta love baseball!
| 2011 C&S Fan Stats |
| 7/0 Games (Tim/Kellan) |
| 8/0 Teams [Tim – Orioles, Rangers, Brewers, Nationals, Phillies, Mets, Rays, and Braves; Kellan – none] |
| 4 Ice Cream Helmet(s) (Orioles (2), Nationals, Phillies) |
| 20 Baseballs (3 Rangers, 3 Orioles, 2 Umpire, 2 Nationals, 2 Brewers, 4 Phillies, 1 Mets, 1 Rays, 2 Braves) |
| 3/0 Stadiums [Tim – Camden Yards, Nationals Park, Citizens Bank Park; 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) |
| 2/1 Mascot Photos* [Tim – Mariner Moose, Teddy Roosevelt; Kellan – Mariner Moose] |
| *includes Spring Training |
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 |
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 |
Guys Night Out In Baltimore (9/18/10)
The day before Tim’s 4th MLB Anniversary game, my buddy Greg accompanied me on a trip to the car dealer to get some equipment installed on my wife’s car. Greg (and his former-lady friend) had accompanied me and Tim to a Blue Jays home game in Philadelphia back in June. While waiting on the car, I asked Greg if he would be interested in going to Camden Yards with us the following weekend. He was.
Some people arrive two hours before a baseball game, chase balls during BP, and explore the stadium before and during the game. That’s me and Tim.
On the other hand, some people show up five minutes before first pitch, report to their assigned seats, and stay put thoroughout the game other than trips to the concourse for food/drinks/bathroom visits. Heck, they may even leave early to “beat traffic.” That’s Greg.
But on September 18, 2010, Greg proclaimed that he wanted the full Cook & Son ballgame experience. So Tim and I called the shots at this game. Let’s see how it turned out.
The only bad part of the night was that Baltimore was invaded by hordes of Bronx-based baseball fans. The line to get into the stadium…
…was ridiculous. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people were there before the gates opened.
With the help of Mr. Avi Miller, we had “season tickets” allowing us to access the main stadium while the riff-raff were confined to Eutaw Street and RF-CF. With the help of some other Camden Yards regulars, we managed to get into the stadium ahead of 98% of the hundreds of people pictured above.
Thanks, OPACY regulars! (Its good to know people).
Five minutes after the gates opened, we were in LF and…
…Chris Tillman (the player above on the right*) tossed a baseball to Tim. After we got the ball, Greg asked if he could hold it. It was the first time he’d EVER touched an actual Major League baseball.
I wanted Greg to catch a BP homerun. Unfortunately, the O’s stopped hitting early and the Bronx horde (much like the evil Jun Horde of Beastmaster fame) made an early entrance:
Non-season ticket holders were not supposed to be let in until 5:30. But we think they were let in early because there were simply too many “Juns” to be contained out on Eutaw Street.
We decided to head up to the upper deck to see some sights.
When we reached the top of the winding ramps, Tim popped a squat in the concourse…
…and had us lob him some pitches. Look, a no-eyes catch!
Next, we headed over to LCF and watched the action out on Eutaw Street…
….it was packed. Then we headed into the seats where I got this shot of the bullpens and batters eye…
…the team from the Bronx was peppering the back wall of the batters eye with homeruns. I think there were about 8 balls hit in there. Also, notice all of the strips of grass transplanted for use in the outfield.
In centerfield, we spotted Mariano Rivera…
…who I’m guessing must be the last baseball player who wears the number 42.
After spitting lots of sunflower seeds out of the upper deck, we headed around the upper deck concourse toward right field:
Then it was down to the field level concourse for some fun in the kids play area. But it was ridiculously packed. So, after Tim took some hacks, he decided to head to the Camden Club for some dinner.
On our way out of the play area, we noticed this sign showing the evolution of the Orioles’ logo:
I like ‘em all except the angry “Cuckoo” Bird second from the right. That one is just silly. This sign raises the question, what did the O’s use from 1989-1996?
Eutaw Street was insanely packed:
We ended up getting the same table in the Camden Club where we sat with my mom back in July. This time, I realized I could open the window a tiny bit. So I stuck my arm out and took these shots looking down on crowded Eutaw Street:
As we waited for our dinners to arrive, we could see C.C. Sabbathia warming up in the visitors’ bullpen:
Tim the photographer took this shot of me and Greg hanging out at our table:
We arrived at the Camden Club pretty late in the pre-game festivities. When we ordered, our waitress told us that our food wouldn’t arrive before the game started. That was fine with us. We ended up watching the first 2-3 innings from our table in the Camden Club. It was quite pleasant up there.
Derek Jeter led off for the visitors and Jeremy Guthrie “welcomed” him to Baltimore with a first pitch to the back/elbow…
…to see the video clip, click here.
Eventually, our food came, and it was delicious:
Tim and a chicken strip posed for a picture by the window:
Unfortunately, after hitting the Bronx short stop, Guthrie walked the Bronx third baseman and then gave up a 2-out 2-RBI single to the Bronx catcher. So the O’s trailed 0-2 after the first inning.
For the record, we were rooting for the O’s. My forever first and favorite team is the Mariners. My second favorite team is whoever is playing the team from the Bronx.
After the sun dipped behind the stadium, I was able to get a halfway decent panorama:
We headed down to the field around the third inning. On our way, I talked the elevator operator into letting us get out on the second floor (while she continued on with other elevator passengers) so Tim could get a good look at the Camden Yards model…
…and Greg could get his picture in front of the glass doors to the O’s front office. Tim loves that model.
When we got to the field level, it was time for something special…
…the first ice cream helmet of Greg’s life.
Even with the packed house, we were able to find some nice unoccupied handicapped accessible seats in the cross aisle behind section 16. This was our view:
Unfortunately, this guy’s game was on…
…and he was gunning for his twentieth win of the season. And when he did in fact win it later this evening, it was the first time a pitcher in either league had won 20 games since 2008 and the first time Sabbathia had won 20 in a season in his career.
On a side note: In 2008 there were several pitchers who won 20 games (Cliff Lee, Brandon Webb, Roy Halladay, and Mike “20 & Retire” Mussina), and Tim, my parents and I witnessed Brandon Webb record his 20th win of the season at Tim’s second MLB Anniversary game in Arizona. It was also the first time Webb had ever won 20 in a season.
Things were going the visitors’ way all night.
The O’s couldn’t get them out…
…and Buck “The Miracle Worker” Showalter couldn’t argue his way into any additional outs.
In addition to Sabbathia’s milestone 20th win, we’d also witness Robinson Cano hit a lesser milestone with a 2-run homerun in the 5th inning. When A-Rod touched the plate on Cano’s homerun, it marked the first time in Cano’s career that he had reached the 100-RBI mark.
We had plenty of fun, nonetheless.
In that picture above to the right, Tim looks pretty serious. Possibly because we were on a mission to finish off our final two pictures needed to complete the MyGameBalls.com Photo Scavenger Hunt.
Earlier in the game, we found a mulleted beer vendor and were able to check off the highest point value picture in the scavenger hunt. Only one picture remained. Above, Tim is wearing my glove as a hat and there is a long rope’ish looking thing coming off of my glove. We needed to find an usher to pretend to cut the string. And we had a tip from the aforementioned OPACY-crew regular, Avi Miller.
After watching A-Rod very satisfyingly ground out weakly to 3B…
…we decided to head toward LF to find Kelly, the usher Avi advised would be a good choice for our final scavenger hunt picture.
On our walk toward LF, Tim looked up and spotted the Bird sitting in the press box window…
…without even realizing he was doing it, I managed to capture the Bird as he waved to Tim. Tim was very excited to be the recipient of the Bird’s wave.
We decided to get an usher to take our picture in the concourse behind home plate…
…this same usher usually takes our picture every time Tim and I visit Camden Yards. He always does a fine job.
Out in LF, we grabbed some seats in the last row. Eventually, an usher walked by and I spotted “Kelly” on her name tag. I flagged her down and asked if she knew Avi. She did! And she was more than happy to help us with the final scavenger hunt picture once the half inning concluded. Here is the final scavenger hunt photo:
A difficult part about this one is that you either (i) had to find an usher with a pair of scissors (I guess meaning he/she really intended to cut some ball retrieving devices during BP) or (ii) you had to bring scissors to the game (something that didn’t really seem possible).
Well, it turns out that the letter actually is possible. Without planning it or even knowing I was doing it, I brought a pair of craft scissors to the game. Security at the gate did not find them because (unknown to me), they were in by back pocket. Apparently, I had driven 2 hours to Baltimore while sitting on these scissors, but never noticed.
During BP, I felt something in my back pocket and figured it was Tim’s sunglasses. I grabbed the “sunglasses” and was delighted to find they were actually a pair of scissors I’d used earlier in the day to help my wife with a project around thehouse. So, I knew we *had* to get this photo. Interestingly, we’ve never used the glove trick, so we had to figure out how to rig it specifically for the photo. Luckily, it all came together with some MacGyverish ingenuitity.
Shortly after we got the picture, the 9th inning was on us. We planned to go for an umpire ball. I made a rookie mistake, but we were able to overcome it.
The last time we were at Camden Yards, I saw the same usher who took our picture (above) seating some little kids to go for an umpire baseball. So, when he took our picture at this game, I asked him if he could seat us down there to go for an umpire ball. He said he would take Tim down to the umpire tunnel, but Greg and I couldn’t come because we didn’t have tickets for that section.
Well, that wouldn’t work because there is no way Tim would go off on his own with an usher and then ask for an umpire ball. In fact, without me, he is not tall enough to see over the wall of the umpire tunnel.
The problem was that the guy now *knew* we didn’t have tickets for that area. If I had not asked, he never would have even questioned it. Anyway, we made our way down there at the top of the ninth. We were on the other side of the tunnel (not in that usher’s section) about 8 rows back. But then I got greedy. I saw that rows 3-5 were completely empty on the other side of the tunnel. So we headed over there.
The usher saw us and told us Tim could stay, but Greg and I could not. I told him Tim wouldn’t stay there on his own. But the guy wouldn’t budge. Again, I never should have asked him in the first place. Anyway, as the three of us exited the section, a couple was leaving the same section and they walked over and gave us their tickets (unsolicited). We thanked them profusely and then turned around. I walked up to the usher and showed him the tickets. He waved us in and gave his blessing for us to sit anywhere we wanted in the section.
We ended up here…
…sitting directly behind the usher. With no one else on that side of the tunnel, it was easy pickens for Tim to get an umpire baseball from Tony Randazzo.
Thanks, Tony!
Sadly, Chad Gaudin shut the door in the bottom of the ninth and the O’s fell to the visitors 11-3.
Before heading out, a nice fan took one more group shot of the three of us:
As we slowly left the stadium, Greg gave me his assessment of the Cook & Son ballpark experience: two thumbs up. He’d never seen so many parts of a stadium or been “on the go” throughout a game and he found it to be quite fun.
So did we.
Hopefully, Greg will be back for another game or two with us next season.
2010 Fan Stats:
26 Games
20 Teams (Mariners, Orioles, Blue Jays, Red Sox, Angels, Twins, Athletics, White Sox, Indians and Yankees; Phillies, Dodgers, Pirates, Braves, Mets, Brewers, Padres, Giants, Nationals and Marlins)
22 Ice Cream Helmets (Orioles (4), Phillies (3), Padres (2), Pirates (2), Mets, Dodgers, Athletics, Nationals (2), Indians, Yankees)
60 Baseballs (12 Mariners, 2 Angels, 3 Athletics, 3 Brewers, 4 Nationals, 2 Blue Jays, 9 Umpires, 2 Phillies, 1 Mets, 4 Braves, 2 Orioles, 1 Dodgers, 1 Padres, 1 Giants, 2 Twins, 1 White Sox, 7 Easter Eggs, 1 Yankees, 2 Marlins)
12 Stadiums (Camden Yards, Citizens Bank Park, Nationals Park, Citi Field, PNC Park, Oakland-Alameda County Stadium, Dodgers Stadium, PETCO Park, Angel Stadium of Anaheim, AT&T Park, Progressive Field, Yankee Stadium)
15 Player Photos (Jamie Moyer, Ryan Rowland-Smith (2), Omar Vizquel, Chad Cordero, Mike Cameron, Joel Piniero, Frank Catalanotto, Billy Wagner, Jeff Suppan, Tommy Hanson, Jered Weaver, Jay Buente, Brian Sanches and Scott Olsen)
2 Retired Player Photos (Jim Palmer, Bert Blyleven)
1 Umpire Photo (“Cowboy” Joe West)
10 Autographs (Ryan Rowland-Smith (2), Omar Vizquel, Chad Cordero, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Joel Piniero, Frank Catalanotto (2), Billy Wagner (2), Jeff Suppan, Tommy Hanson, Jeff Weaver, Brian Sanches and Scott Olsen)
8 Kids Run The Bases (Citizens Bank Park, 2 Nationals Park, Citi Field, PNC Park, PETCO Park, Camden Yards, Progressive Field)
Camden Yards: Infield, Outfield & All Around
Since Kellan’s birth in mid-July, our family has been crazy busy. Tim and I only went to one game in July. But we had big plans for August.
It all started on August 8, 2010, when Tim and I hopped in our trusty Prius and headed down to Camden Yards to see the Orioles take on the Chicago White Sox.
We had one major goal for the day: get Tim’s picture with former Mariners ace Freddy Garcia. I loved Freddy as a Mariner, and I thought it would be great to meet him. And what better place than at Camden Yards? I don’t know if there is another stadium where the players are as accessible as they are in Baltimore.
One problem, we didn’t have “season tickets” that would allow us to get into the main part of the stadium half an hour early. And our man with the season tickets hook-up, Camden Yards regular Avi Miller, was home ill.
So, we hung out in the shady seats in RCF for the first half hour…
…it really didn’t matter too much though. There was no batting practice and almost no one was on the field. One Oriole was running in deep RF, and he gave Tim a wave a said “hi” as he ran by at one point. A little later, a couple White Sox came out to play catch in shallow LF. I used my camera to zoom in on them, and Freddy was not among them.
When the stadium finally opened, we headed over to the 3B line to watch the remaining White Sox play catch. I did not recognize any of them…
…but I noticed that one of them had “68″ written on the heal of his spikes.
Eventually, Mr. 68 headed back toward the dugout. He tossed a baseball to a kid in a White Sox shirt and another to a kid in a Mariners hat…
…when we got home, I discovered that Mr. 68 has a name: Erick Threets.
Thanks, Erick!
There was NOTHING happening on the field.
We headed over to LF for no apparent reason. While over there, we ended up getting a special picture — with Babe Ruth — for the MyGameBalls.com photo scavenger hunt. Then we got a picture of the two of us in the cross-aisle…
…Tim looked kind of bored, huh? Yep. So it was time for the play area:
We hung out over there for a while, but then I had an idea. There is something special that the O’s do before pretty much every game. The O’s Bird heads out to LF and plays a little whiffleball with kids he pulls out of the crowd. He does all sorts of funny stuff, like throwing a base when the kids are running the bases.
Its been my goal all season to get Tim involved, but it hasn’t happened. In the car ride on the way down, I asked Tim if he’d like to try to play whiffle ball with the Bird. I had to prep him for the possiblity because he takes his base running seriously. I feared that he would get upset if he didn’t understand that the Bird likes to do things such as throw the bases while a kid is running the bases. It was good that I prepped him, because he didn’t understand why the Bird would do that. I told him it was just to be funny and play a joke on the kids. Tim liked that and he was excited to try to get in on the whiffleball.
When I remembered it, I asked Tim if he still wanted to try to play whiffleball with the Bird. He did. So I suggested we head back into the stadium. Right when we made it down the LF line, I saw two O’s employees walking out with an equipment bag. I flagged them down and asked if Tim could get in on the whiffle ball action. The answer was “YES!” Sweet.
When the Bird arrived, the guy I’d asked came over and pulled Tim out of the stands…
…as they walked toward the home plate along the foul line, the guy told Tim what to expect, and handed him a big orange bat…
…then the Bird unleashed a two handed double pitch. Tim swung hard right between both balls…
…one of which (as you can see) actually went behind his head.
Essentially, each kid just takes one hit and then rounds the bases. Tim was ready for the next pitch…
…he drilled a hard line drive right off of the Bird’s leg. And then it was off to the races!
As Tim rounded first, the Bird ran to second base…
…I was hoping the Bird would fling the base far out into the outfield so Tim could run way out there to touch the base wherever it landed…
[TIME OUT: I have to mention that the last picture is one of my favorites. As Tim is rounding first, you can see Juan Pierre and Alex Rios walking in shallow CF, Carlos Quentin is at the far right walking toward the foul line, and a couple Orioles are playing catch in deep CF. How cool is that? The next kid actually hit the ball to "RF" and Alex Rios fielded it and gunned it back to the Bird.]
…Instead, the Bird just stood there as Tim approached to touch second. Then, the Bird grabbed the base and used it like a matador’s red cape…
…Tim ran back and forth trying to kick the base out of the air…
…as the Bird did his best “oley! oley!” routine. After a couple passes, Tim actually did kick the base out of the air, which I think surprised the Bird.
Tim immediately bolted for third. He thrives on eluding would-be taggers. The Bird chased behind Tim trying to tag him…
…before Tim scored, the Bird tossed a ball at him, but missed.
Tim scored! And then he kept running straight back to me. He was only out there for a minute or two, but he had a blast and absolutely loved it. He wants to do it again!
After whiffleball, a former Mariners great (but not Freddy Garcia) was signing autographs down the foul line. I had totally forgot that slick fielding former M’s short stop Omar Vizquel plays for the White Sox this season. But, guess what? He does.
And here he is signing the baseball that Erick Threets had given to Tim earlier in the day:
Now here is something interesting (at least to me). We’re not big autograph guys (we’re picture guys). In fact, before reading it on other MLBlogs, I had never even heard the term “the sweet spot.” But, over the past two seasons, Tim and I have collected about 10-15 autographs on baseballs that we’ve caught at games, and Omar is the first and only player to ever sign his name on the sweet spot. Every single other player has signed his name on…whatever they call the non-sweet spot.
As I said, autographs are good, but we’re picture guys. So this was the real prize:
For the record, that is Tim and a future Hall of Famer. I know his offensive numbers aren’t all that special (actually, his hit total is pretty special), but I would put Omar Vizquel up against any short stop in the history of baseball. The guy is absolutely incredible with the glove. I seriously do not think there has been a better short stop in the game, at least during my life time. And guess what? Omar’s offensive numbers are as good or better than Ozzie Smith’s numbers. So for my money, the guy is a first ballot Hall of Famer.
Bottom line: when we weren’t able to get a picture with Freddy, this picture with Omar more than made up for the disappointment.
A few minutes later, we watched Omar show off some of his fancy glove work…
…along the foul line. Omar can catch a baseball by letting it just tap the heel of his glove to deaden the throw before his bare hand swipes the ball out of the air. Its truly amazing, and incredibly hard to do. I’ve only been able to do it a couple times in my life. I should have taken a video of it because Little O was doing it here and trying to teach his teammate (not Ramirez, but the guy out in CF) how to do it. If you ever want to learn a thing or two about catching a baseball, you should seriously consider just taking a seat and watching Omar during pre-game warm ups.
By the time the game started, we’d already had a full day’s worth of fun.
It seems like we are always on the RF/1B side of the stadium at Camden Yards. I wanted to switch it up. We started off the game in the handicapped accessible seats in the cross-aisle behind section 62. We were standing in the cross-aisle and I asked the usher which way was north so I could figure out which direct the sun would be moving. I told him we wanted to avoid the sun. He suggested we sit in the handicapped accessible seats behind the section he was working, which were shaded at the time.
Here was the view:
Tim pointed out the pitchers mound for me…
…oh, there it is. Thanks, buddy.
Then, Tim took over the controls of the camera. Here are some samples of the shots he took:
The pitching match up was Mark “Send ‘em Home Early” Buehrle vs. Jeremy Guthrie.
In the top of the first, Guthrie gave up a single to Alex Rios and a double to Paul Konerko, but escaped without giving up any runs. Buehrle sat the Orioles down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the first.
The first scoring of the day occurred in the bottom of the second inning. O’s left fielder Felix Pie drove a solo homerun deep into the flag court yard in RF.
Two batters later, Cesar Izturis…
…collected his 1,000th career hit on a little dunker of a single to CF. After the O’s announced the milestone on the scoreboard, Izturis received a nice round of applause from the crowd.
As the all-time greats go, 1,000 hits is nothing. But when you think about it, to be able to collect 1,000 hits in major league baseball is pretty special. So congratulations to Cesar.
In the bottom of the third, I was all set to try to get an action shot of Omar Vizquel adding another hit to his impressive resume (as of today he has 2,778 hits). Unfortunately, I had to settle for this picture…
…of Omar about to hit a foul ball. Omar did actually get a hit in this at bat and I did get a picture of the swing, but Tim walked in front of the camera. It would be the only picture Tim blocked on the day, and it would be Omar’s only hit. Oh, well.
A couple innings later, we found ourselves sitting in LF where this was our view:
We had never sat in LF at Camden Yards so it was nice to take in the view from this spot while we ate some nachos:
Unfortuantely, there were no homeruns to LF while we were out there.
However, we did see Omar hit again (in the top of the 5th inning) while we were in LF:
He whiffed on that pitch, but eventually hit into a fielder’s choice and then scored the second run of the game on a single by Alex Rios. That knotted the score at 1-1.
The score did not stay tied long. And we didn’t stay long in LF. Tim wanted to move back into the shade. So we went and grabbed an Orioles Ice Cream Helmet and relocated to another set of handicapped accessible seats, this time in the cross-aisle behind section 47.
Here was our view:
And here is Mr. Perfecto 2009, Mark Buehrle:
Of course, Tim was enjoying his chocolate ice cream helmet with sprinkles:
As I said, the score did not stay tied 1-1 very long. In the bottom of the sixth, the Orioles took a 3-1 lead on the strength of back-to-back RBI doubles by Nick Markakis and Ty Wigginton.
All of the Birdland faithful were hoping that Adam “Not Pacman” Jones could make it back-to-back-to-back RBI doubles, but, alas, he could not. With this not mighty enough swing…
…the former Mariners top prospect flew out to Carlos Quentin in RF:
By the way, Tim really latched onto Quentin during this game. During pre-game warmups we were discussing the players we were watching and I pointed out Quentin. Tim started talking about “Carlos” like they were old buddies. Each time Quentin came to the plate, Tim would mention, “Hey, its Carlos.” And after this catch, we discussed how Tim’s good friend “Carlos” caught that high pop fly.
Fan favorite Jeremy Guthrie was still in the game and he was “dealing”…
…he was also putting so much pressure on his front leg that I feared it might snap in half on each pitch.
After Little O bunted this Guthrie offering foul…
…Jeremy got Omar to ground out to 3B to end the 7th inning.
Leading off the bottom of the 7th inning, Cesar Izturis started in on his second thousand hits by driving a 2B to deep LCF for his 1,001st hit. After advancing to 3B on a passed ball, Izturis scored the O’s fourth and final run of the day on a single by Brian Roberts.
Guthrie was back on the hill in the 8th inning, and he mowed down the ChiSox 1-2-3, including this harmless ground out by Paul Konerko…
…for the second out of the inning:
In the top of the ninth inning, Tim and I started the process of relocating behind home plate to make an attempt at getting an umpire ball from Phil Cuzzi…
…(BTW, how do you pronouce his name? Cooou-zee or Kah-zee?)
While scouting out seats from the cross-aisle slightly shaded toward 1B, someone (can’t remember who) hit a foul ball DIRECTLY to the handicapped accessible seat that I had been sitting in for the last several innings. All I would have had to do was stand up and make the uncontested catch. Bummer.
Anyway, this was our view for the bottom of the ninth inning:
Guthrie was out and O’s closer Alfredo Simon was in. After retiring the first batter of the inning, Simon gave up a single to Alexei Ramirez…
…and then a homerun to Ramon Castro. That made the score 4-3 Orioles. But that was all she wrote. Simon would get the next two batters (Brad Lillibridge and Juan Pierre) to secure the win for Guthrie and the save for himself.
Something else interesting happened during the ninth inning, the ushers on both sides of the umpire tunnel were actively assisting kids in trying to get an umpire ball. One usher stopped by and told Tim and a girl sitting behind us “The umpire’s name is Phil, you should ask him for a baseball when he leaves the field” while another usher on the other side of the tunnel brought three little kids down to the second row and sat them right on the tunnel with instructions to ask Cuzzi for a baseball.
Cuzzi came off the field after the final out and handed one baseball to one of the kids the usher had sat on the 3B side of the umpires tunnel. Then he approached Tim and placed a second baseball in his glove…
…which Tim promptly dropped (his hand isn’t big enough to squeeze his glove closed), so Cuzzi fielded the booted ball and replaced it into Tim’s glove again:
Thanks, Mr. Cuzzi!
Hey, guess what? It was time for Kids Run the Bases!
The O’s held the promotion exclusively for members of the O’s Dugout Club. We visited the extremely helpful and nice O’s fan assistance office to inquire about how Tim could become a member so he could run the bases. It costs $12 and comes with all sorts of goodies. But the lady in the fan assistance office (probably rightfully thinking we were in from out of town and were not O’s fans) suggested that we could probably run without Tim becoming a member of the club. So, we saved our $12 and did not join the club.
I was a little nervous because almost every kid in line was wearing some evidence of being a member of the club, everyone but Tim. But it didn’t matter. They made no effort to check to see if people were members of the club.
When we reentered the stadium to run the bases, the usher who is usually out on Eutaw Street spraying fans and giving out baseball cards was spraying people with his water bottle in the concourse. But he wasn’t handing out any baseball cards…that is, he wasn’t until we arrived.
As Tim approached to get sprayed, I said to him, “You gotta say “‘Hit me!’” Immediately upon saying that to Tim, the usher (whose name, I think, is Greg??), proclaimed, “He said the MAGIC WORDS!”…
…and he handed Tim a Ramon Martinez baseball card from his baseball card pouch. Tim was quite happy to receive the card. Little things can really make a kid’s day.
It was time to run some bases. As Tim waited in the line at first base (the O’s were making the effort to space out the runners, which we always appreciate), I got a shot of the visitors dugout:
Then I focused all of my picture taking efforts on Tim. I always feel that Kids Run The Bases is one of the hardest times to get good pictures. But it worked out well at this game.
I got this shot of Tim stomping on second base:
Third base also cooperated with my camera:
And after almost completely missing the shot, home plate was friendly to my camera too:
Before heading up into the stands, we posed for a few pictures on the field, including this one…
…with the baseball from Phil Cuzzi.
To recap:
- Whiffle ball in the outfield with The Bird;
- An autograph from and picture with former Mariner and future Hall of Famer Omar Vizquel;
- Kids Run The Bases; and
- Father-Son fun.
Wow – It was an excellent day! Not only that, it was a truly excellent weekend of baseball fun (this was the Sunday immediately following our campout in the Reading Phillies’ outfield).
Fun, fun, fun.
Thank you, Baseball. We missed you!
2010 Fan Stats:
19 Games
17 Teams (Mariners, Orioles, Blue Jays, Red Sox, Angels, Twins, Athletics and White Sox; Phillies, Dodgers, Pirates, Braves, Mets, Brewers, Padres, Giants, and Nationals)
16 Ice Cream Helmets (Orioles (3), Phillies (2), Padres (2), Pirates (2), Mets, Dodgers, Athletics & Nationals)
40 Baseballs (6 Mariners, 2 Angels, 3 Athletics, 3 Brewers, 3 Nationals, 2 Blue Jays, 7 Umpires, 2 Phillies, 1 Mets, 4 Braves, 1 Orioles, 1 Dodgers, 1 Padres, 1 Giants, 2 Twins, 1 White Sox)
10 Stadiums (Camden Yards, Citizens Bank Park, Nationals Park, Citi Field, PNC Park, Oakland-Alameda County Stadium, Dodgers Stadium, PETCO Park, Angel Stadium of Anaheim, AT&T Park)
13 Player Photos (Jamie Moyer, Ryan Rowland-Smith (2), Omar Vizquel, Chad Cordero, Mike Cameron, Joel Piniero, Frank Catalanotto, Billy Wagner, Jeff Suppan, Tommy Hanson, Jered Weaver and Scott Olsen)
2 Retired Player Photos (Jim Palmer, Bert Blyleven)
1 Umpire Photo (“Cowboy” Joe West)
9 Autographs (Ryan Rowland-Smith (2), Omar Vizquel, Chad Cordero, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Joel Piniero, Frank Catalanotto (2), Billy Wagner (2), Jeff Suppan, Tommy Hanson, Jeff Weaver and Scott Olsen)
6 Kids Run The Bases (Citizens Bank Park, Nationals Park, Citi Field, PNC Park, PETCO Park, Camden Yards)
Cook & Son Bats
Recent Comments