A powerful thunderstorm rolled through Pittsburgh around 4PM, knocking out power and backing up traffic at every intersection.

I knew there wouldn’t be batting practice, but I went anyway.  Things had cleared up by 5PM and the sun was shining at least.

I thought I may get shut out, but managed to get a ball from Chris Carpenter as the Cardinals finished throwing.

He rolled three balls from right center field to the fans along the right field fence in foul territory.  One ball was out of reach for everyone, so I went over and used my long arm to reach over and grab it just over the four foot fence down the right field foul line in right field.

Unfortunately, that would be the only ball that I got prior to the game.  My newly minted girlfriend of one day Amy was working this game, so I decided to stick around for the game.

There were virtually no fans at the game.  Seriously.  Check this out:

I thought for sure I could get an Andrew McCutchen warm up ball.  But it didn’t happen.

However, my luck changed for the better in the 2nd inning.  John Bowker stepped up to the plate and hit a home run to right center field, right in the area where I was hanging out talking to fellow ballhawk Ian Weir.

I knew I had a chance to make the catch.  However, at the last second, the ball started to die, and almost didn’t have enough carry to reach me.  I had to reach over a handicapped railing and make a basket catch.

Once I did, I raised the ball in triumph.

Here’s a screen by screen replay:

Here’s the VIDEO of the catch.

Here’s my posing with the home run ball.

Amy heard the crowd roar when Bowker hit the ball, and turned in time to see me catch the ball on the fly from her post.

Another cool fact is that the Bowker home run ball was Ball #1,111 of my career.  That would be the last ball I’d get for the night, but what a snag!

Here it is:


STATISTICS:
Game:  2 balls ( 1 hit, 1 thrown )
Season:  533 balls (253 hit, 131 thrown, 72 device, 77 found)
Games: 84 games
Average:  6.35 balls per game
2010 Game Balls: 6
Career:  1,111 balls
Streak:  180 cons
ecutive games attended with at least 1 ball snagged.
Attendance: 11785
Balls needed to break single season record: 11