Orioles VS Royals 7/27/09

I know this is a week behind, but I wasn't able to get it up until now. I also forgot to bring my camera charger on this trip, so the day of the game it died. Thanks to Zack for most of the pictures here.

I met with Zack and Jona outside of the Eutaw Gates at 4:15. The gates were going to be opened at 5:00, so I bought I ball in the gift shop to have a catch with Zack. Here we are outside of the Eutaw Gate:

 And Zack and I playing catch next to it.

When the gates opened I followed Zack to left field, since we had season tickets. I didn't notice until we started, that we had to run the entire stadium to get to left field. Thats pretty stupid. When we arrived in left field, I saw Zack Look a few seats in front of me, and not say anything. When I turned around, I saw a pearl easter egg lying on the ground. My natural reaction, I reached down and picked it up.

At that point i realized that I had just nabbed Zack's find. As I was about to start apologize, he said that that one wasn't even the one he saw. He went to the aisle across from it and picked up his own easter egg, and we were both on the board. Not knowing it, Zack had led me to my first of the day.

My second ball was thrown by coach Ruben Felix. He was warming his arm up against the outfield wall, and then threw it to me when he finished. That was ball #2.

Left field was snagging heaven, with homeruns peppering the seats. Zack ended up catching many of them, but I kept picking the wrong section, and didn't get one. O well.

I ran down all the way to the Orioles dugout on the first base side with five minutes left of bp. When I was standing over it, watching the last round of bp, I looked around at the few baseballs that had made there way to the side of the cage, about twenty feet in front if the dugout, on the first base line.

I wanted to see if somehow, one of them were commemorative. About the third one I saw, which was against another one, looked like it was a comm. The space were the mlb hologram is on the ball, was bigger and rounder than normal. YES! It HAD to be a Yankee commemorative.

When the bp ended, players and coaches started tossing the balls back into the bin. However, one coach of the Orioles picked up the two that were next to eachother. I called out and got his attention to throw me one. He then scanned the baseballs, which wasn't good. I was sure he was going to keep the Yankee commemorative, but when the ball hit my glove, I looked to see,,,,,,

IT WAS COMMEMORATIVE! YES!! It was just my second yankee one of the year, and the other one I had gotten was scuffed up. The logo on this one was nearly perfect. I also got one thrown to me by coach John Shelby, a regular ball, which was number four. I later learned the commemorative was thrown by coach Terry Crowley.     The rest of the day was awesome, but snagging point sucked. I ended up with nothing during royals bp, nothing before the game, and nothing during the game. I REALLY wanted a fifth ball, because that would average out the trip to 6 per day. That's above my five point something for the season.

I sat in a perfect seat for a foul ball. In the alleyway that stretches throughout the stadium, there are many *unoccupied* pull-out handicapped seats. I, along with Riley whom I'd met in D.C. two days before sat in them. It was a really awesome night, running freely from dugout to dugout, running for foul balls. Riley and I ran around ALL night attempting at foul balls, or third out balls. As for Zack, he was CRAZY! He ran half way around to the standing only section in right for lefties, and most of the time would run back for righties near our seats.

In about the eighth inning, with two outs I was above the orioles dugout going for the third out ball. Billy butler, a righty was up. The pitch before he grounded out, he fouled it straight back a few feet behind our awesome seats. I saw RIley go for it, but it ended up bouncing and going into the section above. I was SOO pissed.

When I got back to the seats, Riley explained that a guy with a beer was next to him, and an usher was in front. He was able to get around in time. He's not as into getting baseballs, he's more of an autograph guy.{He had gotten about ten autos that night, including Zack Greinke.  

      However, I asked if I were there, if I wouldve got it, and he said probably, since i was a seat closer, and immediatly got up when one was fouled back. O well.

Riley and I snuck down, or walked down to the royals dugout at the end of the game. We were on the side, and the usher was so slow getting his stuff. Riley came up empty, but I was able to get a worker to toss me a ball that was in the dugout. It was rubbed up in mud, so it was probably a gamer. That was my fifth of the day, my last of the trip, and it averaged the trip out to 6 per game. AWESOME!

I said good bye to Riley, then made my way up. Zack and Jona stopped to say goodbye, and my trip was over. Camden Yards was soooo good for snagging. I might have had double digits if I weren't extremely tired from running around the days before, and if I had different choices on where to stand in bp.

One last thing before the stats. The security at Camden Yards is the most laid back I have ever seen. To start, I didn't get checked AT ALL when I entered. I had my pretty big back pack, and they didn't seem to care. Also, DURING the game RIley and I were trying to pull out the handicapped chairs. About five security people saw us, nad not one said a word. It was pretty funny, because we couldn't open the second chair, and a senior citizen who was probably in his mid eightys came over and helped up out. WHY cant people in New York be that nice? 

 STATS:

Game: 5 Baseballs

Season: 61 Baseballs

Career: 89 Baseballs

Trip: 18 BAseballs, an average of 6 per game.

Here's a picture of the 16 baseballs I went home with. I gave two away during the trip.

There all in plastic bags, because I dont write on them, I put a little slip and a piece of tape, to say where/who I got them from.