I had seriously considered going to Cleveland today rather than dealing with the sellout crowd at PNC Park.  However, I decided I just didn’t feel like driving four hours round trip for the fourth day in a week.

So, I gave PNC Park another try.  One small thing going in my favor would be that the gates would open at 4:30 today, as is the PNC Park policy for Saturday games.

Upon entering, batting practice hadn’t yet begun and the pitchers were throwing in left field.

Evan Meek noticed Nick and I hustling around looking for easter eggs and shouted, there’s one up there, gesturing towards the upper general admission bleachers.

After a lengthy search, no ball would be found.

After batting practice finally began, I would get ball #1 tossed to me by Pirates starting pitcher Brad Lincoln.

During the second group of Pirates hitters, I would snag a Garrett Jones home run in left field.  It was an opposite field shot that was a row in front of me, and I ended up trapping the ball against the bleacher on a short hop here:
I do believe that I will attend over 85 games, but so will Nick Pelescak, so the question may end up being who attends more?

As for the Total Balls in one season – its too early to tell if I’ll be able to continue to average over 6 balls per game.

I won’t be in action on July 4th, but have several trips lined up for next week.