Today's game may be my final batting practice of the season - I may only attend one more game, and it's a day game after a night game. You know what that means...
Meanwhile, I had been watching the weather, and decided that I would not attend tomorrows (Saturday's) game. It is a Skyblast date, and the chance of rain is 100%. That means no batting practice, large crowds, and an all around tougher time snagging balls. I would need to have a huge day - I wanted reach the 400 balls snagged in one year benchmark.
Chaos had broken out in Pittsburgh the night before due to the G20 summit. I was hoping that this would scare people away from coming out early to batting practice - even if the Pirates were giving away Bobbleheads to entice folks to watch a potential 100 loss team.
I was second in line at PNC Park, arriving an hour and a half early. Helicopters hovered over my head, regiments of soldiers passed on foot patrol

and there was even the cavalry passing by.

Pittsburgh had transformed into a military state.

Hopefully people would stay home.
Around 4PM, I went down to the riverwalk with my friend Nick. While there, an usher would pop his head over the wall and ask what I was doing.

I told him I was trying to catch a ball, and that I had just seen one hit two rows from the top of the right field wall. The usher disappeared, and emerged minutes later with the ball in his hand.
He tossed it down to me - it was
ball #1, and I was on the board before the park even opened. Nick meanwhile, had better luck, snagging two balls on the riverwalk.
When the gates opened, the man who was first in line, a man known as Baseball Joe, caused a log jam. He had brought the wrong ticket to the game. To make matters worse, he is deaf and mute, so there was some confusion when the ticket taker tried to explain that he had brought Saturday's ticket. There is only one ticket scanner during the first half hour, so I had to wait a few seconds that seemed like an eternity. The scanner scanned my ticket, and I ducked underneath the railing to get around Baseball Joe. The maneuver allowed me to get into left field and have the place to myself for at least a good 45 seconds.
There were no easter eggs to be found, but while I was searching, a Pirates batter hit a home run into section 136. Neil Walker attempted to scale the wall to prevent the ball from leaving the park, but didn't quite possess the vertical leap to do so. I walked over and picked up
ball #2 from the third row after it hit in the bleachers.
Typically, I try to average 2-3 balls during the Pirates portion of batting practice. Since they only hit for 10-15 minutes after the gates open, I consider that I good start.

I would get
ball #3 off the bat of Steve Pearce. He hit a home run toward section 136. Nick had settled underneath the ball, and I was standing in the row directly behind him, in the third row of the section. The ball was carrying well, and I had to jump at the last second to make the catch. Unfortunately, I didn't make the catch. The ball hit off of my glove and bounced directly to a man in the first row. He bobbled it, and sent the ball back in my direction. Reflexes took over, and I grabbed the ball out of the air. I was rather mad at myself for not making the clean catch. Its a bit difficult to jump in the air in the bleachers without banging your legs up. Typically, I quickly get up on a bleacher to catch these types of balls that are carrying just out of my reach.
The Pirates then wrapped up their BP, and the Dodgers came out to hit.
The entire first group was all left handed batters. Normally, this would be awful, since I was confined to left field. However, coupled with the fact that Manny Ramirez was snagging in left field (he's rather lazy), this created the perfect storm for the glove trick.
I noticed
ball #4 roll into the "North Side Notch" in left center field.

It was right up against the wall, and an easy ball to pull up with the glove trick. I was happy to see that the ball was stamped "Dodgers Win" in bright blue ink. This was the first Dodgers win ball of my 2009 season, as I haven't been to any games with the Dodgers yet.
Moments later, another ball rolled to the same spot. Seconds later, I had
ball #5.
I stayed in sections 137 and 138 near the bullpen, waiting for balls to roll to the wall. I watched as Manny Ramirez fielded a ball within earshot of me. Myself and another fan asked for a ball in Spanish.

We were standing directly next to each other. Manny turned and lofted the ball at us. It was no contest. I had longer arms, and made the catch about a foot in front of the other guys glove. It was
ball #6. I also think it may have been the only ball that Manny threw into the crowd in his time in left field.
Another few minutes passed by, and two more balls rolled to the wall. I reeled up
ball #7 with the glove trick, and did the same with
ball #8. Randy Wolf was coming over to pick up ball #8, but realized that I had it covered with the glove trick, and let it go, turning back to left field.
The ballpark had only been opened for 25 minutes, and I had already snagged 8 balls. Could I challenge the Jabs/Pelescak PNC Park record of 14?
No, as things slowed way, way down. The Dodgers' batting practice approach reminded me of the Cardinals' in that the hit many balls to the opposite field.
I was getting frustrated. The place looked like this around 5:30:

Which is nice, but there were still some folks clogging up rows, making me readjust my routes to any ball that was potentially coming into the stands.
These people got in my way a few times:

And this guy was the worse, because he stayed in virtually the same spot, but kept moving up or down one row, so I had to keep checking on his location.

I try to always familiarize myself with my surroundings almost before every BP pitch so I don't crash into anyone or get blocked off from going for a ball.
In the last group, Ronny Belliard lofted a high fly ball that bounced on the warning track. I moved over a section and positioned myself perfectly to catch the high bounce. It was
ball #9.
I only needed one more ball to complete my quest to get 400 balls. I had began the 2009 season with a goal of 300, but after reaching that last month on
August 20th, I had made 400 a new goal for the season, to keep me motivated for the last five weeks of the season.
It was about 6:05ish, and batting practice was about to end in a few minutes. I was then faced with a tough decision. Stay in left field, which looked like this at 6:00....

or head over to center field to try and glove trick a ball that had rolled to the wall.
I decided to go give the ball a try. I rigged up the glove trick on the way over to center field, and non-chalantly made my way down to the front row. (I didn't want to draw attention from the ushers by sprinting in there).
I looked around at the Dodgers players. No one was in a hurry to come get the ball, which was directly below me at the base of the wall.

With that in mind, I lowered my glove down over the ball, and reeled in
ball #10.
Ball #300 and #400 of 2009 had both come via the glove trick. Snagging 400 balls in a season is quite an accomplishment. I believe only Zack Hample, myself, and probably the Happy Youngster (who will likely do it soon) have snagged 400 or more regular season balls in one season.
After snagging the ball, I asked my friend Nick (who is closing in on 300 balls in one season) to snap my picture.

I then got 25 extra tickets scanned, and lugged the bobbleheads back to my car. Noticing a large crowd waiting to get in the stadium (due to all the extra security measures), I decided to leave and not stay for the game.
If I end the season on an even 400, that would be a pretty cool thing anyway.
Today's baseballs:

Sweet spots:
STATISTICS:
Game: 10 balls (3 hit, 2 thrown, 5 device)
Season:
400 balls (211 hit, 119 thrown, 70 device)
Games: 79 games (9 of which didn't have BP)
Average: 5.06 balls per game
Career: 566 balls
Streak: 94 consecutive games attended with at least 1 ball snagged.
Attendance: 19,452