YouTube!

Hey Zack,

It's George, we met a few times a cpl years back at Shea Stadium...

Congrats on the new Youtube video and also on your successful book, and good luck at Shea this coming week.

I'll be visiting colleges at the end of June, and I'll be in the Chicago area, so I decided to get a ticket to the Cubs home game, and was wondering if you had any quick tips about BP and anything unique about Wrigley Field. My tickets are in the bleachers, which are General Admission, do you know what time I should arrive to ensure a good seat, and if I have a choice, where exactly would be the best place to sit?

Thanks a lot, congrats again on everything!

George

Thats awesome Zack!
i have a question..where do you get those picture rosters of the teams? thanks!

George:

I might be able to help.

Depending on the series, you should get there AT LEAST 2 and a half hours before gametime (gates open 2 hours before the start).

Left field is the best, for the simple reason that there are more righties than lefties.

And for actually getting a ball...

The easiest way to get a ball would be to go to straight away left, because for some reason, it is more vacant than where the field indents a little (look at a picture if the bleachers, and you'll know where I'm talking about)

But THERE is the best place to get home runs DURING the game, as well as a chance at a warm-up ball thrown by Soriano.

It helps to have someone save you a seat in the first few rows around the well, while you could go to straight away left.

I went by myself last friday, and I had more than a few chances at some BP balls, but I wasn't used to the angle. (where I usually sit, foul balls are more popups, where in the bleachers, they come at you more in a line [i know i know NO EXCUSES! haha])

ANYWAY, there were 3 Cub home runs that day, 2 of which landed near the well (the indent) and one landed a row and a half beneath me in the last row in straight away left (I missed it.... ARGHHHH)

Let's see..... there are the regulars, who know exactly where a ball will land right after it's hit, so watch out for them.... (one jumped right in front of me, almost knocking me over, at the last second and caught one....)

And hey, when are you going? I'm gonna try to get bleacher seats for June 15 and/or June 17th.

And for colleges... Which ones are you looking at? I am applying for DePaul for many reasons, and one of them is the fact that it's only 2 el train stops away from Wrigley!

If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask.

P.S. With a Bleacher seat, you can go almost anywhere in the park. I say this because you CAN'T go in the bleachers without a bleacher seat, even for batting practice, which is a bummer...

hope that helped a bit!

espnnewyork:

He gets the pictures/names/numbers from the teams website, cubs.com, mets.com, yankees.com etc.

and then (i guess) he just puts them together conveniently in a word document.

Oh, and Friday, Sean Marshall even POINTED AT ME, and the ball he threw was about 3 rows short....

I had kinda this expression -_-

I mentioned this on the last entry before you posted this one, but it looks like I'm going to Shea on Wednesday. Tommorow's weather is gonna be awful and I'm busy on Thursday. That leaves Wednesday. Now that I know you'll be there too, should I bring a (crappy) ball so we can catch outside Gate C?

hey zack!

i was looking through geoff jenkins blog, and although his blog didn't have it, some of the other blogs mite list nicknames of players. that mite help. i also noticed that some f the players were filming an episode for a soap opera, so maybe we could ask them how it went, and for a ball.

have fun a shea

you don't know me but I found your thing on cbs:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsF0mPONeZc

Zack, nice clip and Guilford article. Interesting how the reporter accidentally called the Marlins, the "Mariners". Oh well. What can you do.....

GEORGE-
Thanks! Great to hear from you again. I was about to start telling you about Wrigley, but "cubs0110" had already explained everything beautifully.

ESPNEWYORK-

"cubs0110" is correct.

CUBS-

Very impressive.

GREG-

Sure, bring a ball. But will your father be there to hold our spot at the front of the line?

BCIMONS-

Interesting idea. Thanks. I'm always looking for nicknames, and this looks like a great source.

BASBALL-

Cool. Yeah, that one was actually posted by CBS. I had nothing to do with it getting onto YouTube.

PSU-

Thanks, and good catch with the whole Mariners/Marlins thing. That goof has always bugged me.

Zacker:

Age is only a number.

With a little help from Mr. Vaseline and Mr. Sandpaper there should be a few foul balls...

**** Zack, you havent aged a minute!!

No, my dad is coming later, but I'm probably going to get to Gate C before 4:00 and the line will probably only be ten people long at that point. So if we put our bags down at the front, we shouldn't have a problem catching.

Hey Zack,
I'm in Cleveland now in my hotel room about a block from The Jake. I'll be blogging about Philly and Pittsburgh soon, but not as much about baseballs since I haven't gotten any yet. It rained for the 1:05 game in Philly, so no BP. And PNC was tough. Hopefully better tonight for the Indians-Royals though!

That's a great video. Now I miss Veterans Stadium again...
-deanna

Just got back from the Jake... great night, more than 5 baseballs but I'll blog about it later, I'm tired.

MIKE.LOS-
Don't forget the Kenny Rogers pine tar.

ALLMARSH-

Aww, shux.

GREG-

That sounds like a good plan except for one thing: I might not be there.

NICK-

Awesome! Can't wait to read about trip, and congrats on the balls.

DEANNA-

You can't be serious about missing that concrete donut.

EVERYONE-

I have a confession: I ended up going to Shea tonight (Tuesday the 5th). The weather was nice and I couldn't resist. I hope to have the blog entry up within the next 24 hours. There are gonna be some cool pics and tales of many balls. Stay tuned...

I had a feeling you went last night. (What happened to the storm?)

So what do you think the chances of you being there tonight are?

Chances tonight? VERY slim. I have too much to do, and on top of that, Shea drives me crazy. Even when I get lots of balls (as I did last nignt), it's boring.

Hi Zack et al.,

I've been reading the blog for quite some time now but haven't posted yet. I live in Atlanta and am a big baseball fan. In April I did a four stadium/four game ballpark tour that included a game from the Indians/Angels series that was played in Milwaukee. Next week I'm headed to KC to watch all three games they have against the Marlins over the weekend. I was wondering if there were any Kansas City people out there who could provide some tips on snagging at Kauffman and some general ideas about fun & interesting things to do in the city. Thanks and best of luck to you, Zack.

-John

p.s. Zack, you should head back to Atlanta to do some snagging. Like you've said before it's a great spot.

I'm dead serious. I pretty much grew up at the Vet. My grandfather had season tickets there, and after he died, my mom took over the plan. I went to pretty much every Sunday home Phillies game at the Vet for the first 15 years of my life (and some years, to every home Steve Carlton start as well).

It's sort of like, imagine you want to go back to the first house you ever lived in, but it's been blown up. That's kind of how I feel towards the Vet. It might have been kind of smelly and ugly (especially back when the seats were yellow/orange/red in the upper deck, too) but hey, it was home.

-deanna

JOHN-
Thanks for checking out the blog and finally leaving a comment. Good to hear from you. I'm not sure if there are any KC fans lurking in comments section, but I can tell you that it's easy to catch foul balls at Kauffman during the game. When i was there, the ushers were really nice about letting me hang out behind the plate on the field level. I think there's a big aisle that runs right through the seats, so if you can find a spot there, slightly shaded to the 1st or 3rd base side, you should do pretty well. Batting practice there is tough because the seats cut off just past the foul poles, so most homers land in no man's land. Overall, it's a great stadium. Perhaps the most underrated in all of MLB. I'm dying to get down to Atlanta. Maybe within the next year or two...?

DEANNA-

Say no more. I completely understand how you feel. Shea is a barn, but it's like a second home to me. I'll be sad when it's gone.