5/21/08 at Yankee Stadium

Let's begin with a look at the New Yankee Stadium from the above-ground "subway" platform of the No. 4 train:

new_yankee_stadium.jpg

Just before my train pulled into the station, I got a quick peek inside the stadium (you can see that peek here) and saw that the field WAS set up for batting practice. Phew! The weather was iffy. There was rain in the forecast. I had no idea what to expect, and I'd decided that if there wasn't BP, I wasn't even going to exit the subway. I would've just switched over to the downtown platform and gone home.

Of course, after I exited and walked halfway around the stadium and bought a ticket and walked back to Gate 6 and got on line and ate my egg salad sandwich, it started raining. Panic set in. But I stayed. And ran inside at 5:05pm. And crossed the concourse. And hurried through the tunnel for a look at the field. And there was...batting practice! Wooo!

Less than a minute later, I asked LaTroy "Headhunter" Hawkins to throw me a ball, and as soon as the words were out of my mouth, another fan asked him too. This other fan was taller and older and had a glove. LaTroy tossed it up between us. I jumped higher and made the catch, and that's a good thing. Check it out:

commemorative_ball_from_latroy.jpg

Okay...I have good news and bad news. First the bad: The Yankees ended BP ten minutes early, didn't hit a single home run into the short porch (one reached the upper deck), and only tossed balls to kids who appeared to be less than six years old. Now the good: Most of the balls were commemorative. I made a point of looking at the balls that other fans snagged, and I'd say two-thirds were the kind you see above. In addition, the one I got was clearly brand new. It wasn't rubbed up with mud like this ball from Shea, so in other words, commemorative balls are now going straight from the Rawlings boxes to the BP buckets. So in other words, there's no reason to email me and ask for one. Seriously, the season is barely six weeks old, and I've already gotten more emails than I can count from people who want one. These balls are not THAT scarce. It's only May. There's plenty of season left. Just go to ONE Yankees batting practice and catch ONE ball, and the odds are that it will be commemorative.

Forgive me if I'm being harsh. There's something about Yankee Stadium (even writing about Yankee Stadium a day after the fact) that puts me on edge. I can't quite put my finger on it. Maybe it's the fact that after the Orioles took the field for BP and I'd switched into my Orioles cap, a Yankee fan happened to bump into me from behind as he tried to work his way through the crowded aisle behind the right field wall.

"Whoop, sorry," he said.

"No problem," I replied as I turned around and gave him a friendly nod.

"Wait a second," he said, looking at my hat. "No I'm not." And he disappeared into the crowd.

He wasn't joking. No smile. No pat on the back. No "good luck to your team." (Not that I even have a team.) Just pure hostility. And THAT is Yankee Stadium for you. Two weeks ago, I got a random email from a guy in San Diego who wanted to know if I thought it'd be safe for him to wear a "Friar robe" to Yankee Stadium for the Padres series in mid-June. How sad is it that a fan would have to worry about his safety before rooting for his team? Equally sad, I had to advise him not to wear it. One of the best things about attending last year's All-Star Game was getting to see fans from all over coming together and representing their teams and celebrating baseball as a whole. At Yankee Stadium, that doesn't happen, and it's one of the many reasons why I don't like being there. To be fair, I don't like being at Shea either, and Mets fans are a different kind of lame for still being so bitter about last season's collapse and continuing to boo their team (and manager) into oblivion.

jeremy_guthrie_foul_line.jpgAnyway...
Once the O's took the field, I snagged my second ball off the warning track with my glove trick and used my keen observational skills to get ball #3. From my spot in straight-away right field, I saw Jeremy Guthrie head over to the foul line to sign autographs, and less than a minute later, one of his teammates threw/rolled a ball at him from a couple hundred feet away. The ball trickled to the base of the wall at his feet. Guthrie turned back to give his teammate(s) a dirty look, then picked up the ball and stuck it in his back pocket. I watched closely (while keeping an eye on the batter) to see what he did with the ball. I figured he was going to hand it to a kid, but he never did. Meanwhile, batting practice was deader that dead--the first home run ended up landing in the porch at 5:50pm--so I abandoned my spot and raced over to the foul line and stayed five rows behind the mob.

"Jeremy," I said loudly but politely, "is there any chance you could spare that ball, please?"

He looked up and saw my Orioles cap and said, "There's a very small chance."

"That's better than no chance," I said. "I'll keep my fingers crossed."

jeremy_guthrie.jpg He looked in my direction several times over the next few minutes, and I alternated between pointing at my glove and pointing at my hat. Finally, he looked right at me and flipped the ball to me over everyone's hands. It was beautiful.

Five minutes later, I was back in right field and had another chance to use the glove trick. As I was lifting it slowly from the warning track, Guthrie starting sprinting toward me, presumably to knock the ball out of my glove, so I tugged the whole thing up a quickly as possible. I was sure the ball was going to slip out, but I had no choice. Somehow, though, the ball stayed in the glove as Guthrie lunged and jumped for it. I'm telling you, it was JUST beyond his reach and he went all out to get it. This was my fourth ball of the day and 100th of the season. I got the sense that Guthrie was just being playful, and because he'd already given me a ball, I wouldn't have put the Hample Jinx on him even if he'd denied me from getting this one.

I came close to catching a home run toward the end of BP, and even though I didn't get it, it's still worth mentioning. The ball was hooking into the gap between the grandstand and the bleachers, so I moved five or ten feet to my right, and at the last second I jumped up onto the slanted side wall so that I was briefly balancing on my stomach, and I leaned way out into the gap and reached as far as I could. The ball tipped off the very end of my glove. So frustrating.

RF_from_LF.jpgI stayed in left field for most of the game, hoping once again to catch an A-Rod homer. The Man is locked in. He's in The Zone. He hit everything hard. It was like Yankee Stadium was his personal playground, not nearly big enough to contain him. Bottom of the third? A-Rod got under the ball and still hit it out to the deepest part of the yard. It was a lazy 410-foot fly ball (if there IS such a thing) that kept carrying and carrying and landed on the center-field side of Monument Park. The next inning? Line-drive double down the right field line. Two innings later? Another home run which was hit so hard to right-center and ricocheted so fast off the side of some concrete steps right above the wall that the helpless umps ruled it a double.

And that was it. The Yankees scored enough runs and had had enough base runners for A-Rod to get a fifth at-bat in the bottom of the seventh, but no, with an 8-0 lead, Joe Girardi took him out of the game and sent up Morgan Ensberg instead. What a waste.

For the last nine outs, I sat in the third row behind the Yankees' dugout and enjoyed watching Joba Chamberlain up close. He topped out at 100mph. His fastballs were exploding out of his hand and reaching the batter in such a short amount of time...it was almost comical. And then he dropped a few shin-high pitches at 88mph. I don't know if it was his change-up or slider--I couldn't see lateral movement from my view from the side--but all I know is that he looked as dominant as any pitcher I've ever seen. I don't even like the Yankees and I'm excited to see what this guy's gonna do in the starting rotation.

STATS:

• 4 balls at this game

• 100 balls in 11 games this season = 9.1 balls per game.

• 507 consecutive games with at least one ball

• 111 consecutive games at Yankee Stadium with at least one ball

• 11 consecutive seasons with at least 100 balls

• 3,377 total balls

18 Comments

Interesting that they have so many Yankee Stadium commemoratives in use. In March, I was at the Braves' Spring Training games and Rawlings had a shop set up with commemoratives for sale including 2008 YS and the 2007 World Series. I'm not big on buying Official balls, but I did buy the YS since I won't be in NY anytime soon. No Shea balls were being sold for some reason.

4 balls is better than none...and thats cool about guthrie with the first and second ball for that matter


anyway though he is a very wierd guy...he wont sign any cards of himself other than orioles cards...i mean i kind of understand that but i had a "trio prospects" card of him, daniel cabrera, and ian snell from like 2004 or so. snell signed it, cabrera signed it, and it was the only card i had of him at that time...he wouldnt sign it at all...he didnt even have an orioles card! "i only sign my stuff on baltimore" he said. another grapher told him that he didnt have any cards yet on baltimore..."yet...none yet" he responded "i have to move on...blah blah blah...god has asked that i move now to a new team and therefore i must leave those moments of his glory in cleveland."


yea okay whatever...this was last year but i heard he still does that


anyway nice commemorative...im off to shea and the hotel monday, maybe even tuesday or wednesday


anyway, weird guy

Zack,
Put your famous jinx on the yankees.
AC

Hey Zack,

You may remember me from Baltimore last year on June 15th. I went down to Baltimore on Saturday to see the Nationals and Orioles. I managed 6 Balls and none of the players were throwing any into the stands. I had a season ticket so I got to go to left a half-hour early before anybody else and the Orioles players were denying my requests and one (Lance Cormier) faked like he was going to throw one to me. None of the O's players were hitting any out either. When the Orioles were done hitting I had none. The nationals started hitting and warming up so I switched to my Nats hat and asked John Lannon for a ball. He threw it 6 feet over my head and other fans got it. I was hoping to get a commemorative Nationals Stadium ball since you and Cooper got one at Shea. I was completely shut down and the Nationals were starting to finish their BP When I saw one of their pitchers throw one up to a group of fans and it was dropped into the gap between the wall and the seats in center behind the Southwest Airlines banner. I quickly ran over and when I got down to the wall I looked over and there were 5 baseballs between the gap. I had a cup trick and got all 5. All 5 were practice balls. Some of the fans were really obnoxious and one said that 1 of the balls was supposed to be thrown to him and offered my $5 for it. I tried not to laugh out loud. HAHA. I was told that my cup trick was gay and that I go "way to hard" to get baseballs. I could have easily had 3 more that landed in the top bullpen but I guess for this year they are having a gated off picnic area and I couldnt get back behind the 'pen to use my cup trick. I got Randy St. Claire to throw me one of the one's in the bullpen after BP was over. Another Practice Ball. I did not really go for balls during the game since I wanted to sit down and watch it with my Dad and I was happy with 6.

Mike

i want one of those commenmorative balls SOOOOOOOOOOOO BADLY and im begging my mom to bring me to yankee stadium but she says i have to go with someone else cause she scared to go there. but, i might be going on june 6th against the royals. and zack, how do you sneak down behind the dugouts at yankee stadium? i tried but theres a little gate with a security guard there at all times.

Hey nice comemmorative ball there Zack! that looks just like my Shea Stadium one I got down here in AZ. Looks like my next game will be on Tuesday when the Giants come into town. Man we are really slumping right now, Byrnes and Reynolds can't seem to hit anything. They'll break out of it though so I can't really worry about it too badly, it is only mid-May.

Hey,

I was hoping that they would stock commemerative balls for bp and now I will probably go to 1 or 2 yanks games vs the Jays.
Remeber how I told you about that minor league game I was going to, well it got rained out... but I still got 1 ball tossed to me by the Bisons pitching coach. Might be heading to see the Royals on Saturday hopefully there is bp and its good

zack,

whats goodie my dood? yeah, i went to yankee stadium on tuesday thinking it was going to be rained out and rescheduled for a late july double header but, no. that didn't happen at all. .

the orioles bullpen coach rick kranitz responded to my mentioning for a ball with a wave back and a smile. i asked several other players before the game in the bullpen but just got ignored. i can't seem to come up with a, "can i get a ball" phrase. eh, whatever. boring you am i? sorry.

it was nice seeing the orioles take a 9 - 0 lead before Arod got up to bat but, it was nice seeing him belt # 523.

i got a homemade panorama if you care to enjoy it amongst yourself...

peace.

greg-

i completely know what you mean...when i don my write ups on the wall it takes me a good 60 mins cause i dont have the capacity to sit on a comp and write for that long...but i think im gonna do one anyway for kicks and giggles


zack-

i agree no more rain...but how about a rainy saturday afternoon on yankees kids t-shirt night? does that work for you?


also-on july 8th i will be going to the yankees and mets games. 1:05 at yankee stadium versus TB...prob leave at like 3ish and head over to shea for BP there vs the giants

Man that is a crisp YS Comm ball. I sent you a pic of the one I snagged at the COPA on 5/10/08..
Mike (SnagFan)

Hi Zack. I still check in to read about your adventures from time to time, and you managed to remind me exactly why I love being over here in Japan watching baseball rather than back in America -- the respect people here have for the game and for the fans. You never have to worry about wearing a jersey and cheering for the away team here -- we always have a specific cheering section set up for away fans, and usually the stadium is sort of separated into "home" and "away" (depending on how popular the home team is, though, the "home" section might be 90% of the stadium, or might just be 50%). Fans cheer madly for their team and sit quietly while the other team is up to bat. It's fantastic. I get more comments about being an American than about being a fan of the away team.

I had forgotten what it was like to support the away team in the US and the kind of crap people would say. I just don't hear that stuff here. Few weeks ago, the most popular player on Hanshin got beaned, and what were the fans yelling? Swearwords? Death threats? Boos? No... they were yelling "Go home!" at the opposing catcher. (Since they were the away team at the time I thought it was pretty funny to yell go home to the home team, but hey, whatever.)

I love the story about Cooper, too! You should have played catch outside the park a bit to prepare him for the game :)

-deanna

Hey Zack...

The good news is that I caught a Ken Griffey Jr. home run. The bad news is that it was during batting practice. Ha ha. That was my third Griffey BP homer all time. I also caught one from Brandon Phillips and found one Easter Egg. The Easter Egg was in a cup holder. I bunch of people were already in the LF stands for about 15 minutes when I came over from RF and there it was. No one saw it I guess. Have you ever found one in a cup holder like that? That's about the third one I've found in a cup holder in the last 10 years.

I wasn't in RF for Griffey's game homer (#598). I was going to go over but got tied up talking to someone. He came up in the first and boom, right away....HR. Darn!! I went over to RF for his next 3 AB's but no joy. There wasn't hardly anyone near where he hit it. Some older people got the ball. Security and the usher came over with the MLB authenticator and took the people out to authenticate the ball. It's weird they did it for Griffey's #598, but not your Bonds #734. Griffey's ball was one section over from your catch. Your catch was in the early innings too huh? I'll be over there earlier tonight. Take it easy.

Leigh

This MLBLOG thing might get addicting but, check mine out from time to time if you are looking for somebody else's game time stories to peruse:

http://donnieanks.mlblogs.com/


yes!! im going today and a comm, would be great.

EVERYONE-
I went to Yankee Stadium again last night, and I'm going back tonight as well. Get ready for two more entries within the next 26 hours...

LSTHRASHER04-
I figured that by the end of the season, there'd be a lot of these commemorative balls floating around. I didn't think this would be the case in May.

JONELI24-
Whoa, I had no idea about Guthrie being so weird. Then again, who am I to talk?

AC-
I don't think I can do that to an entire team. Not sure if the Jinx would work. And anyway, there are a few guys on the Yankees that I *really* like (Jeter, Mariano, A-Rod), and I wouldn't want them to suffer as a result of a team-wide Jinx.

MIKE-
What's up?! Good to hear from you again. I can't believe that there were FIVE balls just sitting there, waiting for you to come rescue them. That's incredible. I've never seen anything like that, although I did find five easter eggs in one day last year in Phoenix, you may recall. Congrats on your half dozen. I hope to make it down to Camden within the next month or two. Maybe I'll see you there.

GOISLANDERS4-
Have you considered taking a road trip to see the Yanks? That might be an easier way to get one of those balls. Go to Fenway or Baltimore or...hell, even Kansas City. As for sneaking down to the dugouts, you have to ask people for their ticket stubs late in the game as they're leaving. Just make sure you don't ask right in front of the security guards. Follow the fans out through the tunnel and THEN ask.

DNESBITT14-
Oh please, you know your team is going to finish in first place. The two New York teams are the ones that need to worry.

JIMMYJOEJOEJRCHABADU-
That's cool that you still got a minor league ball even though the game wasn't played. I hope Bud Selig read your comment and saw that...thanks to my blog (and my stories of snagging commemorative balls), you are now motivated to attend more games.

DONNIEANKS-
You're not boring me. You'll have to try a lot harder if that's your goal. :-)
What's this panorama of which you speak? I'll check out your blog soon.

JONELI24-
Saturday afternoon rain will always work. Bring it on.

MIKE (aka "SnagFan")-
Nice pic. Yeah, I feel really lucky to have snagged a clean one.

DEANNA-
Good to hear from you! The more I hear about baseball in Japan, the more I want to go and check it out. Are you living in Japan now? Or just visiting? How does one go about getting tickets in the cheering section? I would love to be able to get into the outfield seats for BP in Japan, but I hear that's almost impossible...and that they make you return the balls anyway?! Maybe if I were there to see two MLB teams open up the regular season, I'd be allowed to keep the balls. As for Cooper, I would've loved to play catch with him, but he arrived with his family AS the stadium was opening, so we didn't have a chance.

LEIGH-
I was wondering how you did last night with all those balls leaving the yard. Very cool about the cup holder. I don't think I've ever gotten one like that. (I once found a "fake" ball in a cup holder and didn't count it.) Shame on you for getting held up in the first inning, but at least you caught one of Griffey's BP blasts. My Bonds homer was #724, and yeah, it was his first at-bat of the game.

PUCK COLLECTOR-
See you soon. I hope we each get a commemorative ball today.

I was gonna go to YS tonight. But now that you guys are all going, I'm not sure if I will...

I'm still working on my comment about my trip. There's so much crap I have to mention.

no zack youre not weird...you have a hobby, obsession and alot of friends, a gf...i think thats completely normal, i would love to still be able to do it in 10 years like you and still come home with 10 balls or so a night


jeremy guthrie is WEIRD


case closed

I've been living in Japan since last summer. And yeah, you have to return balls caught during BP, and you have to return foul balls during the game (well... sometimes. Not everywhere) but you can keep anything hit fair to you. In 2006 I was sitting next to a guy at Seibu who got a ground-rule double ball, and in 2007 I caught a home run ball (on a bounce). It was pure awesomeness. Next ball I got was given to me by Bobby Valentine, but that's another story...

Getting seats in the cheering section isn't hard as long as it's not a super-popular matchup and not on a Sunday. The only catch is, they are REALLY STRICT at some stadiums about where you can stand during BP and during the game. At some places, like Jingu, the outfield part of the stadium isn't even connected to the infield part, for example. So your usual tricks probably would not work very well most places here... although you could try the "I'm a stupid foreigner" act and see how far it gets you.

If you ever decide you want to come visit here and see a few games just let me know, it wouldn't be hard for me to get you tickets to whatever. I can even teach you the cheer songs for a few of the teams :)

-deanna

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