San Francisco ballhawks

Very interesting links. I'd love to do something like that on the computer full time or have an MLB Blog. The problem is that I am 40 and technically challenged. I'd need to get some more computer education. Great sites though. Good luck at Yankee Stadium.

Leigh

OooMmmmm...I will become one with the balls..Ooommmmm

WHAT? You're going to Yankee Stadium tomorrow! I was planning to go as well! Should I still go? Hmm...

In other news, I'm planning a roadtrip to Pittsburgh for Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Nothing's final yet, but I'm pretty excited already.

Wow the first and second websites are nice! the guy in the first one has mad skill and knows where to go and what to do when the balls in the air. anyways good luck tomorrow, but i hate the fact that as usual, the yankees are having another run in august to catch up to the red sox :(

those are pretty interesting websites...
aug 29th my 1st trip to citizens bank planned, so excited! have you ever gotten a lineup card from charlie manuel? and who are some good phillies throwers/signers? just curious, ive been looking through your old blogs on citizens bank and im assuming i should get there around 4 to ashburn alley gate...any other info would be awesome! also ill be at shea aug 23,25, and maybe 24. are you planning to be there?

Greg and Zack: C'MON!!!!!!

You guys are gonna ruin me tommorow!! Whatever, i'll get there at 5:30 anyway. Can't take the subway by myself. (Stupid kidnappers.)

Hope to finnaly meet you Greg!! And if you buy tickets from a season ticket holder in Pittsburgh, you can enter the stadium through the center field gate 1/2 an hour before anyone else, but be there VERY early because the line forms about 45 minutes before the gates open. That would help you more on Friday, because the other gates dont open til 5:30 on weekdays, but not so much on the weekends cuz the field opens 2 hours prior to game time, but you could still get on the riverwalk 1/2 an hour early. And try to but tix for field level behind the doughouts, cuz the ushers check for tickets, so there is no way you could get into field level without a ticket.

Hope you understood that.

Hi Zack....

Here's a question for you. It's a "what if" question. What if you're sitting out in the outfield somewhere with a "Watch with Zack" client having a good old time. Suddenly, a deep drive off the bat of Arod is hit right at you and your client. What are you going to do? Let him have a shot at it? Catch it yourself and keep it? Catch it and give it to your client? What a condundrum!! Just curious...

Leigh

Zacker:

It's a good thing that you will be attending a Yoga class with your girlfriend as you really need to do something to calm down your (nerves of steel) before all the action starts in the fall classic.

Wow, I never thought the day would come . . . yoga + Zack = must-hear story! :)

zack
I bought your book and i was wondering if you think your book would be good for a little book report.

EVERYONE-
I'm running out to lunch with a friend and then heading to Yankee Stadium, so I'll answer comments tonight.

Puckcollector - Cool. When the Orioles are taking BP, I'll be wearing a blank orange shirt and a black Orioles cap. If you see me, tell me who you are.

Zack -

I don't know about you but if my list included the ones that got away or were dropped there would not be enough space on the internet. Plus one embarassing moment on the web is enough. You can see it in this interview done in Texas about me. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJ6-H-_mYMo

The second link of the Ballhawk Navy was ok but when they asked the guy about the authentication I think he had no clue that the guy wanted to know what the blue numbers put on the ball by MLB were.

Anyway, I am back in Southern CA now and will get to go to more games now that my job in baseball has ended!

If you get bored why don't ya fly out to Anahiem for a day or two and we can go to a game! Maybe LA at the end of the season because they play Bonds and the Giants!

Later

John

http://majorleagueballhawk.mlblogs.com

Stupid Yankee Stadium. I made the dumb mistake of not buying a ticket ahead of time for tonight's game, and the whole place was sold out before 4:00. Only in New York. Meh.

Thanks for providing the link to the video - pretty cool. I wanted to let you know that my husband and I have been practicing Hatha Yoga for over a year now. It was my husband's idea when he got back from a year's deployement to Iraq. No surprise there. I go twice a week.

Greg, there's always a decent amount of scalpers at Yankee Stadium. No interest in haggling with them?

Gotta love a night when the Yankees get shutout and the Mets win!

Well Zack, it looks like we should hear some rambling in your next entry and speeches on how NOT to jump for a ball! :)

Sorry you couldn't get in the stadium Greg, but have fun in Pittsburgh. Are you staying in downtown, or in the suburbs?

And the tribute to Scooter made me think about the day Jeter dies. New York (and maybe me)will be in tears.

LEIGH-
I would love to read about your snagging adventures at PETCO. I think you should take a computer class and learn how to do it. As for the "what if" question...I'd have to go for the ball, and actually, when I post my next entry, you'll see how I dealt with that issue last night.

CEETAR-

Yeah, basically.

GREG-

Whaaaat?! The attendance was under 53,000. How could it have been sold out? There were LOTS of empty seats at the top of the upper deck. That's weird. Anyway, be glad you didn't go. It was a mighty struggle.

RAMONES-

Glad you like the sites. No run for the Yankees last night against Daniel Cabrera.

GJK2212-

You can check out my full collection of lineup cards here:

http://www.zackhample.com/baseball_collection/photos/bonus_items/lineup_cards.htm

Last time I was in Philly, Ryan Howard was signing along the first base line, right before the game started. Not sure who else on the team is good about signing, but three good ball throwers are Antonio Alfonseca, Jimmy Rollins, and Jayson Werth. There might be others, but I'm not sure because most of the balls I get during Phillies' BP are hit. I don't have any other info about the ballpark. It's ALL in my various blog entries...and you're right about 4pm. I think I'll be at Shea on the 23rd.

PUCK COLLECTOR-

Good seeing you yesterday. I don't think I ruined you. I think the fact that you missed the first half hour of BP ruined you. Thanks for taking that excellent pic and being a witness to my rant. Heh.

MIKE.LOS-

After being at Yankee Stadium last night, NOW is the time for some meditation.

TOWNCRIER18-

I hope the story lived up to your expectations.

ANDRE-

Thanks for buying it. I think it'd be great, but I suppose that depends on the assignment itself. If you're allowed to use any book, then yeah, go for it. But if your book needs to have a plot...then perhaps not.

JOHN-

Oof! I think I remember that video from your blog. Didn't you link to it a little while back? Not sure if I'll be able to make it out to LA. I'm not too crazy about that ballpark anyway, although it would be great to finally meet up.

SURFNUSA-

Hatha Yoga? Huh. I'll ask the girlfriend if she knows about that.

PSU532-

That wasn't just a shutout. It was a blowout.

EVERYONE-

It might take me another day to post my entry about last night's Yankees game. Sorry for the delay. Check back soon...

Hello Zack and everybody...

Had a good day and a bad day at PETCO last night. I'm actually pretty ticked about what happened, but it's over now and there's nothing I can do about it. Got to the park kind of early to get a full BP in. I was only going for BP homers and balls thrown up from players. No dugout action for me today. Anyway, got Termel Sledge on the Padres to throw me one right away on the batter's eye platform. I was so CLOSE on about three balls Brian Giles hit into the "Beach" in center field. Too many tall people catching above me. What I wouldn't give to be 6'2" instead of 5' 9". When the gates to the rest of the park opened the Padres of course were done and ran off the field. I hate that the gates open at 5:30 instead of 5. During the Rockies BP NO ONE was throwing any balls up. I got a BP homer from Brad Hawpe that went over my head, but rolled back to me as another guy chased it. Two balls for the day when BP was over. I was happy enough with that. Now, for the bad stuff. I sit in left field in row 2 on the aisle. In the bottom of the first inning Morgan Ensberg smoked a line drive homer right at me. I knew it was gone off the bat. It was hooking to my right so I ran across the aisle to row 2 on the other side. No one was sitting there and I was set up PERFECTLY to catch the homer. There were two guys in the front row that had their hands up going for the ball but it was a little too high for them to get a hand on it. It flew through them and just when I went to squeeze my glove around the ball....This Rockies fan(complete with Rockies hat) in the row behind me totally PUSHED ME forward on purpose. The ball tipped of the top of my glove and off the hands of his friend standing next to him. It riccocheted to his right and into the lap of some random Padres fan. I was so mad. I turned around and was like "what's up with that pushing $#@& ?" All he said was, "You were blocking me." Like there is some kind of rule about blocking someone from getting a homer. I gave him a few more expletives and went back to my seat not willing to go to the downtown county jail over his breach of snagging etiquette. Needless to say, I was not happy the rest of the night. The Padres did win 8-0 but you don't get too many chances at game homers. Has anyone else that posts on here ever have anything similar happen to them?

Leigh

Psu532: I wasn't that invested in going to the game, so I wasn't too disappointed about not being able to get in. If I had cared more, I definitely would have haggled.

Puckcollector: Thanks. I'm staying in the suburbs of Pittsburgh.

Zack: Yeah, I couldn't believe it either. But when I went to the ticket booth at 4:00, I was told the upper deck was completely sold out, so whatever. By the way, I invented a brand new ball-retrieving device. It's more like a cup-trick than a glove-trick, but instead of a cup, it utilizes ... a porcelain flower. It's amazing. The opening is the perfect size of a baseball, so if you place it over one, the ball just sticks inside. This discovery was a complete accident, but I love it.

How much does this flower cost, and does it break easily?

I don't know how much it costs; it was one of those tacky gifts your great grandparents send you from Kansas. I saw it the other day and thought, "Wow, a baseball would fit perfectly in there", and inspiration struck. It's surprisingly durable. I've been banging it on things all day to make sure it doesn't break, and it hasn't yet.

Puckcollector, do you have any specific tips for PNC Park? (I was there last year, but it was when I didn't have a clue about collecting baseballs yet, so I only got two balls.)

LEIGH-
That's just awful. I'm sorry to hear it. I once got shoved forward while trying to catch a Kevin Maas (remember him?) homer at Yankee Stadium, and not only didn't I get the ball, but the announcer didn't see me get shoved so he said, "Give an error to the fan."

PUCK-

Crazy. I love it. Hope I get to witness the FlowerPower before long.