I’ve decided to do a home run derby competition to determine who wins the Andrew McCutchen shirt.

I’m going to use the video game MLB The Show 2012 to simulate 32 different home run derbys.

The winner of each of those 32 home run derbys will move on to the next round, and so on and so on until we have a champion.

Here’s is how the draft ended up in order of 2011 Home Runs:

And here’s your groupings (4-5 players per group):

Check often on Sunday as I update this tournament.

Good luck!

I’m giving something away everyday leading up to Opening Day at PNC Park.

Today it’s this new, never worn Joel Hanrahan shirt:

A closer look:

To win, it’s simple:

Get the most points. You earn points by answer questions correctly. I’ll ask trivia questions. I won’t post them all at once though – that way you’ll have to keep checking back, and it will give other readers a chance.

Since most people check my blogs at different times of the day, I decided that it’s only fair to leave the contest open for at least 12 hours. Throughout the next 12-24 hours, I’ll post quick questions from my phone and compile standings from time to time.

Whoever answers correctly first wins. You must comment on this blog to enter. When you answer a question, you MUST put the question number with your answer.

For example: 11. What is the baseball team located in Pittsburgh? You MUST answer:
11. Pittsburgh Pirates

If you don’t put the question number, then people’s responses will get all jumbled and make it harder for me to sort through to find who’s first.

You may think you’ve answered first, but maybe not – because sometimes I have to approve new commenters’ comments. So, a new commenter may answer a question at 5:13pm, and you answer one at 5:14pm – the blog will show you as the first commenter until I approve the other person’s comment. At that time, the blog will show the comments in the correct order – with the new commenter winning the question if correct.

Sound confusing? Hopefully not. You may want to look at the comments so you don’t waste your time with duplicate answers because whoever is first obviously would get the point.

So let’s get it started. Post you answers in the comment section.

Round 1 Pirates Trivia.
1) Name the last TEN Pirates opening day starters (first game of season).
2011- kevin Correia, 2010 Zack Duke, 2009- Paul Maholm, 2008- Ian Snell, 2007- Zack Duke, 2006- Oliver Perez, 2005- Oliver Perez, 2004- Kip Wells, 2003- kris benson, 2002- Ron Villone – Philadelphia45

2) Who was last Pirates pitcher to strikeout at least 200 batters AND name the year he did it.
Oliver Perez, 2004 – Joey Orr

3) Name the Pirates last player to win a Gold Glove award AND the year.
Nate McLouth 2008 – Joey Orr

4) Who was on the mound for the Buccos when the Pirates won the 1971 World Series?
Steve Blass – Joey Orr

5) What rude comment did Joel Hanrahan say to me in Milwaukee in 2011?
“Don’t you get enough at home?!” -Philadelphia45

6) Besides shortstop Clint Barmes,  the Pirates projected starters are Barajas, Jones, Walker, Alvarez, Presley, Mccutchen and Tabata. Name the date of each of their first major league home runs and the stadium it was hit.
Rod Barajas October 3rd 1999 in Chase field
Garret Jones- September 23rd 2007 at the Metrodome
Neil Walker- June 1st 2010 at PNC Park
Pedro Alverez- July 3rd 2010 at PNC Park
Alex presley- June 28th 2011 at Rogers Centre
Andrew McCutchen- June 17th 2009 at the metrodome
Jose Tabata- June 16th 2010 at PNC Park -Philadephia 45

7) Name the last three Pirates flagship radio stations, beginning with the current home of the Buccos.
KDKA AM 1020, WPGB 104.7, KDKA FM (The Fan) 93.7

Round 2 – Name that ballpark (I’m not making it too easy, you get a tiny piece of the ballpark)
8)Petco Park-Philadelphia45

9)Progressive Field- TeenRedsFan

10)O.co Colisseum-TeenRedsFan

11)Citi Field-NYBisons

12)AT&T Park-TeenRedsFan
13)Citizens Bank Park – Philadelphia45

14) Nationals Park-TeenRedsFan

15)Three Rivers Stadium-TxRangersFan

16)The Polo Ground-Philadelphia45

17)Miller Park- TxRangersFan

18)Camden Yards -JBooher
Final Round – Name that Bucco.
19) Kevin Young

20)Doug Drabek

21)Jimmy Anderson

22)Mike Williams

23)Gary Redus

24)Jose Bautista -NYBisons

25)Brian Boehringer

26)Brad Eldred

27)Doug Mienkiewicz

28)Jose Mesa

29) (name both)Clint Hurdle & Jose Tabata-TxRangersFan

30)Pedro Alvarez-TxRangersFan

31)Sean Casey-TxRangersFan

32)Shawon Dunston

33)Al Martin

34)Jeromy Burnitz -TxRangersFan

35)#1 pick Gerrit Cole

36)#1 pick Jamison Taillon

37)Jason Grilli-TxRangersFan

38)Clint Barmes-TxRangersFan

39)Juan Cruz-TxRangersFan

40)Alex Presley

Congratulations to TxRangersFan on winning the contest!
Standings:
TxRangersFan 9
Philadelphia45 6
TeenRedsFan 4
Joey Orr 3
NYBisons 2
JBooher 1

As a perk for being a full season Cleveland Indians season ticket holder, I am entitled to a suite for 16 people to a game of my choice.  Since I am near the bottom of the seniority list, all of the marquee games were already picked over by long time season ticket holders, so I settled on a game that should still be a great matchup:

Indians vs Tigers, May 23rd.

The suites sell for $2,200 each from the Indians.  Here’s a picture of a similar suite:

And a picture I found on the internet that’s a bit bigger in size:

The suite has one row (row A) of 10 seats to sit and enjoy the game, along with 4 SRO tickets, so 16 tickets total.  It also comes with 3 parking passes.
Looks pretty awesome:

I am losing money on the Indians tickets because weekday games that I can’t attend sell for less than face value on Stubhub, so I’d like to make some money back by selling this suite.  If anyone has a group that would like to see the Tigers and Indians, let me know!  I’ll sell for a drastic discount.  If you don’t need all 16 tickets, that’s fine, I can split them up if you don’t mind sharing a suite with another group.

Anyhow, there’s only 7 more days until Opening Day.  A week!  Don’t forgot to check back often for daily contests, and a weekly comment contest for this Andrew McCutchen Shirt.

By the way, here’s your updated Opening Day forecast:

They upped the precipitation to 20% from 10%, but its still looking good.

Check back in a bit for a contest, I think I’ll give away another shirt today.

If you read this blog regularly during the baseball season, you often only read about my glove work and snagging. That’s only part of what I love about baseball. I also love hitting. Ever since I was little I loved hitting, I would often go to an empty field and hit off of a tee or throw balls up and hit them just to practice my swing and try to hit balls over fences. Hitting home runs is something I’ve always enjoyed.

Today was a rather nice day in the Pittsburgh area, so Amy, Olivia and I headed to a park.

I brought along my bat and 17 baseballs to practice my home run swing and try and hit some deep flies. I did ok in the first round until I tweaked my back because my front foot slid while I was swinging, thanks to a ridiculously wet infield.

I was still able to swing ok with just a little discomfort, so I decided to continue with my hitting.

The field that I hit at is a large space where three little league fields converge. I moved to the right field corner of this field to hit with the intent of hitting the balls over the backstop and dugout opposite me on the third baseline:

This was the view that I was looking at:

I stationed Amy ( who was holding our daughter Olivia) on the hill up above the dugout. I made sure that she was about 400 feet away or so and out of the range of getting drilled with a baseball. I then asked her to film me hitting my 17 baseballs.

This is the view from the fence that I was trying to hit it over. I stood at the base of the right field score board.

I measured the distance to be 275 feet from where I was standing to the backstop.

The contest is this: Guess, by posting a comment, how many baseballs (0-17) I hit over the fence on the fly for home runs.

Let’s give you some biographical info so that you can make your best educated guess.
Height: 6’4″
Weight: 240 pounds
Bench press max: 285 pounds (I’ve been working on this all winter)
Bat Length: 33 inches
Bat Weight: 30 ounces
*Bat is BBCor standard.
If you need to see my swing, you can watch a video in this blog entry.

So, how many of the 17 balls ended up being home runs? Post your guess!

Contest overview:
-One guess per person
-There can be more than one winner.
-Guesses should be a number between 0-17.
-At the end of the contest, I will post a youtube video for you to watch the results – it’s under 5 minutes long.
-The winners will be contacted by me via email, so make sure the email you use when leaving a comment is current.
-If you won and you don’t get an email, check your spam folder.

So what will you win?

You’ll get an unopened pack of vintage baseball cards from 1985-1995, AND a Dave Matthews Band DVD. The DVD is not a copy, its an actual pressed DVD! Why? Because I love Dave Matthews Band too, not just baseball.

Leave a comment to enter!

Good luck and thanks for reading!

Here’s the video:  Remember, whoever guessed it dead on wins, if not, the next closest guess wins:
Count ‘em up!  (You may want to make it full screen, I’m like a spec off in the distance)

I realize now it’s a little tough to tell.  I hit 12 out of 17 for homers.  Connor picked 13, Casey Ward 11, so you both win!  Check your email.

Every now and then there will be a lull in batting practice and I’ll ask a player to sign a ball for me. This is especially true on Sunday mornings when sometimes only one team hits and we are waiting for a team to begin hitting. Another good chance to get an autograph is when there isn’t batting practice and you can get a pitcher to sign along the sideline after he’s finished throwing.

Some fans take autograph collecting too far, running around with jumbo trapper keepers filled with multiple cards of the same player. That’s too much for me. I don’t even feel comfortable really asking a player for his autograph, I only do it when they are signing for everyone and I just have to stick a ticket or ball out and they will sign it as they work their way down the line towards a dugout. My best autograph last year was former MVP Joey Votto.

Anyhow, I do have some autographed stuff that is collecting dust that I can give away.

The first item that I will give away is an official MLB baseball that has been autographed.

The contest is simple.

Be the first to guess the player that signed the ball and you win it.

However, you only get one guess per round.

What’s a round?

I’ll give more specific clues as to who the player is every 15, 30, 60 minutes or so. Each time I give a new clue it will be more concise so you can make a better educated guess. Eventually it may come down to giving you the player’s position, team, biographical or statistical data, etc.

So, let’s start with the most general question of all:
1) The player that autographed this ball is a CURRENT MLB player (not retired).
2) The player has never made an All Star team.
3) The player doesn’t play for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
4) The player is a pitcher.
5) The player pitches in the American League.
6) The player plays for a team in the AL East.
7) He is a right handed pitcher.

Let’s see if we can give it away soon:
8) He plays for the Boston Red Sox!
9) He spent time on the DL last year.
10) Due to his injury the pitcher became ambidextrous, learning to throw left handed as well to throw the ball back in to the ball boy during batting practice.
11) This pitcher has thrown me more than 1 ball since 2006. To find out who’s thrown me balls, poke around on my profile page on mygameballs.
12) He was drafted by an NL West Team.
13) He attended an ivy league school.

We have a winner! It’s Txrangersfan! The answer is Ross Ohlendorf!

Now, I’m off to bed so I can be up earlier than normal to watch the Mariners and Athletics.

By the way, expect a contest everyday until the Opener. I can’t wait for Opening Day, and it seems like you all enjoy the contests, because we’ve been getting around 2,000 hits a day! Thanks for reading!

The Pirates sent out an email inviting their season ticket holders to come out and watch as the Pirates and Phillies take batting practice and run through drills the day before the Home Opener, April 4th.

Admission will be free.  There is no actual game, the game will be the next day.   Kudos to the Pirates for doing this.  I know that the Reds also open up their gates the day before the opener for their fans, and always thought it was a great idea.

Anyhow, the gates open at 2:30, which poses a problem to me, since I am still working at that time.  I should be able to make it down to PNC Park in time to catch part of the Pirates batting practice and all of the Phillies BP.  Therein lies a potential problem for me.  Should I could the balls I get at the workout in my official stats or not?

Here’s why I shouldn’t:
1)  There isn’t an actual game

Here’s why I should:
1)  Almost all ballhawks count the balls they snag at the Home Run Derby in their collection.  That isn’t a game.  If I remember correctly it’s All Star ‘work out’ and Home Run derby.  I don’t see much of a difference between this and that.
2)  The balls are hit by major league players
3)  The balls are snagged at a major league park, hit by MLB players
4)  Other fans will be in attendance, creating competition
5)  Spring Training is over, so these wouldn’t be considered spring training balls
6)  I’ve seen other ballhawks count less than credible balls such as ball found on tours when no game was taking place, balls that were purchased or won in a team store raffle, balls that were found by another person and held until the ballhawk could claim it, etc etc.  Some ballhawks even count spring training balls in their stats.  I’ve been to spring training.  I once snagged about 10 balls and I was literally the only person standing there.

I don’t see why I shouldn’t count these balls in my collection, so I think I’m going to.

What do you think?  Should I?  Should I definitely not?

Also, I’m doing a contest tonight.  I’m so pumped for the season that I may just do a giveaway every single day leading up to Opening Day.  So check back soon.  Tonight, the first correct answer wins!

There’s only 9 more days until Opening Day, and you have until Sunday to win this Andrew McCutchen shirt.

In case you’re wondering, here’s the forecast for Opening Day, April 5:

Not good – 60% chance of showers.  What else is new in Pittsburgh?