Week 18 wasn’t a very active week for ballhawks, as we cumulatively snagged 91 balls. 

Our winner this week is Erik Jabs.  Erik had several things that attributed to his snagging 22 balls in six games during week 18.  The Pirates had seven home games in week 18.  Erik attended six of the seven, sitting out the Sunday matinee contest.  Also, Erik’s chief competitors at PNC Park for batted balls, Nick and Bryan Pelescak, were absent this week.  Finally, a balky back had nagged at Erik all week, causing him to be more agressive in asking for balls and going for glove trick balls.

Below, Erik is shown with his 250th ball of 2009.  The ball was snagged from the top of the All You Can Eat Seats building using a collapsible ruler.  Erik also sports the back brace that he used to help him get through five of the six games attended.


Some notes:

• Happy
  Youngster
  hangs on to second place for another week.  Happy and Erik both have a lot of ground to make up if they want to catch Zack Hample.  They also both have a slim chance at 400 balls. 

• Nick Pelescak was absent from all seven Pirates’ home games, attending military training.

• Zack
  Hample snagged 14 balls at Citi Field this week (in one game, nonetheless), and caught up with Livan Hernandez, having him sign his 4,000th career ball.  Hample also has raised $8,500 with his snags this season.

• Besides the battle for second place, there is a showdown looming for 4th place in the division.  Alex currently is hanging onto fourth place with 176 balls snagged, while Greg Barasch (175), and Chris P (171) lag just a tiny bit behind.

• In total, participants in the ballhawk league have snagged just a shade under 2500 balls this year.  Could we snag 4000?  Maybe.

How the week played out:


2009 Season Leaders:

Total Balls Snagged:
1)  Zack Hample 346
2)  Happy Youngster 262
3)  Erik Jabs 260

Games Attended:
1)  Erik Jabs 55
1)  Nick Pelescak 50
2)  Chris P 46

Average Balls per Game:
1)  Zack Hample 8.65
2)  Donny Haltom 7.38
3)  Greg Barasch 7.00

Hit Balls Snagged:
1)  Erik Jabs 134
2)  Nick Pelescak 99
3)  Happy Youngster 98

Thrown Balls Snagged:
1)  Zack Hample 181
2)  Alex  150
3)  Happy Youngster 126

Device Balls Snagged:
1)  Zack Hample 69
2)  Erik Jabs 42
3)  Happy Youngster 38

Competition Factor:
1)  Zack Hample
2)  Alex
3)  Greg Barasch

Last week I broke down competitors ball percentages by hit/thrown/device.

This week, we’ll take a look at how many balls per game per category each ballhawk averages.

Week 17 Photos
Ballhawks were given the option to submit a photo for this and future
ballhawk league updates.  The photos could be of them making a catch,
posing with a ball, a picture of a ball snagged, or something strange
or interesting that they saw at a game.

Submitted by The Happy Youngster:
“Happy wants to know who gave the drunk guy a microphone?“

Submitted by Zack Hample:The Ballhawk League Archive:
Zack Hample poses outside the Mets’ parking lot at Citi Field with a homemade sign and his 4,000 baseball. He had just gotten it signed by Livan Hernandez, who had thrown it to him on May 18th at Dodger Stadium.

TOP BALLHAWK:
Week 1:  Happy Youngster 38  (Runner Up:  Zack Hample 31)
Week 2:  Zack Hample 27  (Runner Up:  Erik Jabs 21)
Week 3:  Zack Hample 30  (Runner Up:  Erik Jabs 21)
Week 4:  Zack Hample 40  (Runner Up:  Happy Youngster 39)
Week 5:  Zack Hample 31  (Runner Up:  Erik Jabs 22)
Week 6:  Erik Jabs 31 (Runner Up:  The Happy Youngster 26)
Week 7:  District Boy 40 (Runner Up: Greg Barasch 20)
Week 8:  Erik Jabs 18 (Runner Up:  Donny Haltom 17)
Week 9:  Donny Haltom 16 (Runner Up:  Erik Jabs 13)
Week 10: Zack Hample 27 (Runner Up: Shawn 26)
Week 11: Zack Hample 59 (Runner Up: Donny Haltom 23)
Week 12: Greg Barasch 36 (Runner Up: Nick Pelescak 22)
Week 13:  Chris P 24 (Runner Up:  Alex 17)
Week 14:  Greg Barasch 22 (Runner Up: Chris P 19)
Week 15:  Nick Pelescak 17 (Runner Up: District Boy 10)
Week 16:  Alex 21 (Runner Up: District Boy 19)
Week 17:  Joe Faraguna 18 (Runner Up: Happy Youngster 11)
Week 18:  Erik Jabs 22 (Runner Up:  Zack Hample 14)