I arrived at Progressive Field early enough to be first in line, however, it wouldn’t matter, as BP wouldn’t even end up beginning until 4:50PM.

I had to wait as the Indians stretched, threw, and took a few rounds of infield.

Additionally, the cages hadn’t been set up early due to thunderstorms that moved through just south of Cleveland around 3-3:30 (the Indians likely took a wait and see approach – it ended up not raining in downtown Cleveland.

So, upon entering, I looked for an easter egg halfheartedly out of force of habit.  There was nothing in the seats, so I went over to Heritage Park, where this was waiting:

It was a damp, wet baseball that had likely been there at least a few days.  It also was very badly worn, and didn’t look like it was a major league baseball.  It may have been hit into the trees sometime during the last week and a half when the Indians were out on the road.  After debating on whether to count it or not, I decided to – it is a baseball snagged in an MLB stadium.  I reached in an was just able to grab ball #1 without using my ‘Cleveland Stick.’

My second ball came from Shin Soo Choo.  He turned and threw a ball to a group of kids in the front row.  The ball sailed over their heads and into an empty row about six rows back.  I bent over and picked up ball #2.

None of the kids asked for the ball, but I could feel Choo staring at me.  I looked, and sure enough, there he was, looking right at me. 

I tossed ball #829 to one of the kids in the front row.  Choo saw this, whistled at me, took a ball out of his back pocket and fired a ball at me.  It was ball #3. 

He then ran off the field before I could get his picture to go hit.

I would get ball #4 off the bat of Travis Hafner.

The ball bounced around and went into the tunnel next to the deck.

No one else was in the area, so I raced over to grab ball #10.  It turned out that was the last BP home run of the Blue Jays batting practice, because as I returned to my spot, the Blue Jays were running off the field.

Today’s baseballs (9 pictured because #829 was given away):

STATISTICS:
Game:  10 balls (4 hit, 3 thrown, 2 device, 1 found)
Season:  259 balls (136 hit, 63 thrown, 25 device, 35 found)
Games: 39 games
Average:  6.64 balls per game
2010 Game Balls: 3
Career:  837 balls
Streak:  135 consecutive games attended with at least 1 ball snagged.
Attendance: 11,577