8-20-09 Nationals Park
With the Pirates having an off day, and Cleveland facing a 60% chance of storms, I decided to take a trip to a stadium I had yet to visit. Nationals Park.
I recruited several ballhawks from PNC Park to make the trip with me - Nick, Andrew, and Jamie.
After four hours and twenty three minutes, we were at the park.
And were the first ones in line at the Center Field gate, which opens at 4:35.
The plan was to run into the stadium and scoop up as many Easter Eggs as possible. Unfortunately, the Nationals hadn't begun to hit yet, and were taking infield. We had to wait patiently until about 4:45-4:50 for batting practice to begin.
When it got under way, I managed to get shut out for the entire first group. I ran over to right field for the second group, which contained slugged Adam Dunn. Dunn was disappointing, so I ran back to left field to cut my losses. It was about 5, and I still hadn't snagged a single ball. I was beginning to get nervous.
Soon, Ryan Zimmerman came to the rescue and blasted a home run towards the bullpen. I ran over and made the catch off to my side, as I was coming perilously close to the bullpen railing. Had I not caught the ball, it may have sailed into the bullpen. From some folk's angle, it must've looked like I had reached over into the bullpen and snagged the ball - and for that, a few people congratulated me on the catch. It was ball #1.
I had been hoping that there would be several balls hit into the visitor's bullpen, which takes up a large portion of the left center field area.
I was planning on glove tricking a few balls today.
The next time Zimmerman came up, he hit a ball into the bullpen that was in a perfect spot for the glove trick.
As I sat down in the area directly above the ball and rigged my glove, a second ball landed moments after I snapped this photo. It was a little underneath an overhang.
I easily glove tricked the first ball, for ball #2 on the day, then swung my glove underneath a few times and knocked the second ball directly beneath me. I then reeled that one up, for ball #3.
While I was snagging these balls, a few of the Nationals pitchers were watching through the chain link fencing. They seemed amazed when the ball disappeared when I began to raise my glove up. "He got it!" one of them said. Another asked how it worked, and I told them about how the weight of the glove forces a rubber band around the ball, which then holds the ball in place as it's being raised up. They gave me looks of approval.
Another ball landed in the bullpen, but had some obstacles involved - little bushes.
I attempted for about 60 seconds, but couldn't get the rubber band over the ball due to the obstructions. If I can't glove trick a ball in a minute or less, I'll abandon the attempt.
Luckily, I noticed a home run hit into the entrance area of the visitors bullpen.
It was ball #4. A guy standing near by said, "If they see you doing that, they'll take your glove and not give it back." I couldn't tell if he was trying to be helpful, or if he was trying to scare me into not getting any more balls from the bullpen.
The Rockies then began to hit. I managed to track down a home run by Clint Barnes. The ball hit in a section to my left, and I was able to get over and snag the ball on the ricochet. It was ball #5.
At this point, thoughts of #300 entered my head. If I could just snag one more ball, I would have a 2009 season total of 300 major league baseballs snagged this season alone. It is a lofty mark that I had set as my goal prior to the season.
I was hoping that #300 would be a home run catch on the fly, or possibly a toss up from a top player. As I was thinking about all of this, a Rockies batter hit a ball that landed in the bullpen.
I hesitated. Did I really want to snag #300 via the glove trick? I let the ball sit there for about two minutes before deciding that I had to go for it.
After setting up the glove trick, I reeled up #300, #466 career, and ball #6 of the day.
The Rockies next group to bat contained Brad Hawpe and Todd Helton. I made my way over to right field, where things got real interesting.
I got ball #7 tossed up from Dexter Fowler.
He had ran over to snag a ball at the wall. I called down to him, "Dext! Could you please toss up a ball?" Without looking, he tossed the ball up. The ball landed several rows back, hit a chair, and shot off sideways through a row. I chased it down, and grabbed it as it rolled underneath a seat.
Todd Helton and Brad Hawpe began putting on quite an impressive show of power. They may have hit 15-20 home runs during their rounds in the cage.
It really helped that right field was virtually vacant.
There was plenty of room to run. One setback was the second deck, where five or six of the home runs ended up landing, right above our heads.
I got ball #8 off the bat of Todd Helton. The ball was hit well to my left, so I ran over to where I predicted the ball was going to land. However, I had misjudged the ball, and had to backtrack about five to ten feet at the last second. I reached back to my right and made a backhanded catch. It was a nice recovery, but I nearly blew that one.
Another home run, hit by Brad Hawpe, landed in the garage/driveway area in center field.
I peered over and saw a maintance man walk over and pick the ball up. I called down to him and surprisingly he tossed up ball #9.
I now had set my sights on double digits. Since there was so much action in this particular group, I was feeling confident that I could reach it.
Todd Helton lifted another home run towards me. I moved a bit to my right and made an easy catch for ball #10. A guy nearby remarked, "Wow, that's four! You have the magic touch." I didn't tell him how many I had actually snagged, I just nodded and smiled.
After heading back over to left field for the last group, and deciding to change course and revisit right field, batting practice ended. I would go on to snag one more ball. It was after batting practice was over.
I was checking the bullpens and gaps between the fences for balls, and happened upon this:
I glove-tricked it for ball #11 on the day.
After BP was over, we walked around for a bit, and then took some seats in the front row behind the handicapped seats.
We watched Nyjer Morgan warm up. Morgan was a fan favorite in Pittsburgh, and I'm still not a fan of the Morgan/Sean Burnett for Lastings Milledge/Joel Hanrahan trade.
This was our view for the game:
We had an even better view of the Presidents' Race, which George Washington won.
They are disturbingly tall, over 8 feet.
We left the game mid-way though, since we had a long drive back ahead of us. Before leaving, we managed to take a few photo opportunities out in front.
Here I am posing with ball #300 of 2009:
And a shot of three of us, displaying the balls we snagged today. (Jamie was behind the camera)
Today's baseballs:
Sweet spots:
STATISTICS:
Game: 11 balls (4 hit, 1 thrown 6 device)
Season: 305 balls (155 hit, 91 thrown, 59 device)
Games: 63 games (7 of which didn't have BP)
Average: 4.84 balls per game
Career: 471 balls
Streak: 78 consecutive games attended with at least 1 ball snagged.
Attendance: 18,036
I recruited several ballhawks from PNC Park to make the trip with me - Nick, Andrew, and Jamie.
After four hours and twenty three minutes, we were at the park.
And were the first ones in line at the Center Field gate, which opens at 4:35. 
The plan was to run into the stadium and scoop up as many Easter Eggs as possible. Unfortunately, the Nationals hadn't begun to hit yet, and were taking infield. We had to wait patiently until about 4:45-4:50 for batting practice to begin.
When it got under way, I managed to get shut out for the entire first group. I ran over to right field for the second group, which contained slugged Adam Dunn. Dunn was disappointing, so I ran back to left field to cut my losses. It was about 5, and I still hadn't snagged a single ball. I was beginning to get nervous.
Soon, Ryan Zimmerman came to the rescue and blasted a home run towards the bullpen. I ran over and made the catch off to my side, as I was coming perilously close to the bullpen railing. Had I not caught the ball, it may have sailed into the bullpen. From some folk's angle, it must've looked like I had reached over into the bullpen and snagged the ball - and for that, a few people congratulated me on the catch. It was ball #1.
I had been hoping that there would be several balls hit into the visitor's bullpen, which takes up a large portion of the left center field area.
I was planning on glove tricking a few balls today.
The next time Zimmerman came up, he hit a ball into the bullpen that was in a perfect spot for the glove trick.
As I sat down in the area directly above the ball and rigged my glove, a second ball landed moments after I snapped this photo. It was a little underneath an overhang.
I easily glove tricked the first ball, for ball #2 on the day, then swung my glove underneath a few times and knocked the second ball directly beneath me. I then reeled that one up, for ball #3.
While I was snagging these balls, a few of the Nationals pitchers were watching through the chain link fencing. They seemed amazed when the ball disappeared when I began to raise my glove up. "He got it!" one of them said. Another asked how it worked, and I told them about how the weight of the glove forces a rubber band around the ball, which then holds the ball in place as it's being raised up. They gave me looks of approval.
Another ball landed in the bullpen, but had some obstacles involved - little bushes.
I attempted for about 60 seconds, but couldn't get the rubber band over the ball due to the obstructions. If I can't glove trick a ball in a minute or less, I'll abandon the attempt.
Luckily, I noticed a home run hit into the entrance area of the visitors bullpen.
It was ball #4. A guy standing near by said, "If they see you doing that, they'll take your glove and not give it back." I couldn't tell if he was trying to be helpful, or if he was trying to scare me into not getting any more balls from the bullpen.
The Rockies then began to hit. I managed to track down a home run by Clint Barnes. The ball hit in a section to my left, and I was able to get over and snag the ball on the ricochet. It was ball #5.
At this point, thoughts of #300 entered my head. If I could just snag one more ball, I would have a 2009 season total of 300 major league baseballs snagged this season alone. It is a lofty mark that I had set as my goal prior to the season.
I was hoping that #300 would be a home run catch on the fly, or possibly a toss up from a top player. As I was thinking about all of this, a Rockies batter hit a ball that landed in the bullpen.
I hesitated. Did I really want to snag #300 via the glove trick? I let the ball sit there for about two minutes before deciding that I had to go for it.
After setting up the glove trick, I reeled up #300, #466 career, and ball #6 of the day.
The Rockies next group to bat contained Brad Hawpe and Todd Helton. I made my way over to right field, where things got real interesting.
I got ball #7 tossed up from Dexter Fowler.
He had ran over to snag a ball at the wall. I called down to him, "Dext! Could you please toss up a ball?" Without looking, he tossed the ball up. The ball landed several rows back, hit a chair, and shot off sideways through a row. I chased it down, and grabbed it as it rolled underneath a seat.
Todd Helton and Brad Hawpe began putting on quite an impressive show of power. They may have hit 15-20 home runs during their rounds in the cage.
It really helped that right field was virtually vacant.
There was plenty of room to run. One setback was the second deck, where five or six of the home runs ended up landing, right above our heads.
I got ball #8 off the bat of Todd Helton. The ball was hit well to my left, so I ran over to where I predicted the ball was going to land. However, I had misjudged the ball, and had to backtrack about five to ten feet at the last second. I reached back to my right and made a backhanded catch. It was a nice recovery, but I nearly blew that one.
Another home run, hit by Brad Hawpe, landed in the garage/driveway area in center field.
I peered over and saw a maintance man walk over and pick the ball up. I called down to him and surprisingly he tossed up ball #9.
I now had set my sights on double digits. Since there was so much action in this particular group, I was feeling confident that I could reach it.
Todd Helton lifted another home run towards me. I moved a bit to my right and made an easy catch for ball #10. A guy nearby remarked, "Wow, that's four! You have the magic touch." I didn't tell him how many I had actually snagged, I just nodded and smiled.
After heading back over to left field for the last group, and deciding to change course and revisit right field, batting practice ended. I would go on to snag one more ball. It was after batting practice was over.
I was checking the bullpens and gaps between the fences for balls, and happened upon this:
I glove-tricked it for ball #11 on the day.After BP was over, we walked around for a bit, and then took some seats in the front row behind the handicapped seats.
We watched Nyjer Morgan warm up. Morgan was a fan favorite in Pittsburgh, and I'm still not a fan of the Morgan/Sean Burnett for Lastings Milledge/Joel Hanrahan trade.
This was our view for the game:
We had an even better view of the Presidents' Race, which George Washington won.
They are disturbingly tall, over 8 feet.
We left the game mid-way though, since we had a long drive back ahead of us. Before leaving, we managed to take a few photo opportunities out in front.
Here I am posing with ball #300 of 2009:
And a shot of three of us, displaying the balls we snagged today. (Jamie was behind the camera)
Today's baseballs:
Sweet spots:
STATISTICS:
Game: 11 balls (4 hit, 1 thrown 6 device)
Season: 305 balls (155 hit, 91 thrown, 59 device)
Games: 63 games (7 of which didn't have BP)
Average: 4.84 balls per game
Career: 471 balls
Streak: 78 consecutive games attended with at least 1 ball snagged.
Attendance: 18,036
Congrats on double digits.
Do you get disappointed when you snagged a practice ball rather than an official ball? I notice you snagged four.
Report any abuse or spam
That ball on the bottom right is beautiful! It looks like it rolled through a puddle of melted green crayons.
Report any abuse or spam
Hey! Double digits is an impressive feat for anyone in any stadium! Congratulations, dude. That stadium looks like a great place to run around and chase baseballs. Hopefully I'll get out to DC someday...
~Matt
http://bloggingboutbaseball.mlblogs.com/
Report any abuse or spam
Graham,
I was expecting the training balls from the Nationals. I really didn't mind. I was more excited to get those first few balls out of the way. My goal for the day was 6 - to get to 300 - so I didn't think twice at the time if it was a training ball or not. I know a lot of people absolutely hate these balls though.
Greg,
That last ball was ball #11 that I glove tricked from the gap. It must've picked up that paint off of the back wall. You're right though, it does look nice - I like getting unique balls like that.
Matt,
Thanks a lot. Nationals Park is a great park to ballhawk in. I'm lucky enough to have a few great ones within four hours or less for ballhawking: Camden, Nationals, Progressive and PNC (for the first 30 min of STH time)
-Erik
Report any abuse or spam
Security wouldve given you a warning before they took the glove away.
And in the picture of ball 11, there was probably another ball under the wood, after i botched the glove trick in the same spot ( i had already been warned about using it, so i brought my glove up too fast and it hit the bars on the left side of the pic, and the ball fell out, and bounced under the wood)
Good job though, but im surprised you couldnt get anything during the game.
Report any abuse or spam