6/2/13 at the Oakland Coliseum
2nd game in 2 days! Let’s go!
I was thankful that I wouldn’t have to wake up early this time. Today, I woke up around 8am. Our family got out of the house by 9am and we were in Oakland by 9:30!
Once we arrived, I was shocked by all of the cars. I then realized it was LITTLE LEAGUE DAY. At this point, I was almost positive I was going to get shut out, so I set my goal for the day at 1 ball. I headed up from Parking Lot B to gate MM, where I set my stuff down.
Once my dad got in line, my mom, sister, and I headed down to Gate D, so that we could buy extra tickets for upcoming games. We got tickets for Root Beer Float Day (Where I don’t plan on ballhawking), as well as extra tickets for a few games in July.
I did a lot of walking back and forth between MM and the car, as I kept forgetting various things, but around 10:30, I was in line for good!
During the half hour leading up to the time the gates opened, this very cute kid kept everyone entertained with his dancing. I posted this picture on Facebook and the next day, Will tweeted it to his mom. I then got a Tweet from her, thanking me and my dad for the picture. Go ahead and give her a follow on Twitter!
10 minutes before the gates opened, this was the scene in line. It was Coco Crisp Cereal Bowl day for the first 5,000 kids 14 and under. (Yes I did end up getting one)
Will and I were ready to run in! As you can see, I’m wearing the 2013 A’s Memorial Day hat, which I had picked up after the game the day before.
At 11:05, we were in!
I actually wasn’t going to be sitting in the bleachers for this game. My high school team (Who I have mentioned before) had an amazing season come to an end, and to celebrate, one of the dads rented out the Right Field BBQ Terrace for the team!
This was going to be a fun day!
I knew it would be hard to snag a ball, so I got to work early, heading over to where the White Sox were playing catch.
No luck in the first 10 minutes. Promptly at 11:15, the Little League Day Parade started. The A’s have Little Leaguers parade around the warning track. In all, I would say it took 30 minutes to get everyone through.
Over the course of the parade, players were not allowed to throw balls into the stands, instead giving them to the deserving kids walking around the field.
After a certain point, I just gave up and headed over to the BBQ terrace to get some food before the game started.
Eventually, the parade ended (Around 11:45) and I ran over to where the A’s were warming up.
During the 10 minutes I was there, I should have gotten 1 ball. I called out to Casey Chavez, the A’s bullpen catcher, after he was done working with Grant Balfour. He went to toss the ball to me, and shortly before it hit my glove, a *Large* man in a Giants hat and jersey swatted the ball away, as it hit the ground. He then started laughing and said “You’re an A’s fan, you don’t deserve a ball!”
Yeah…
And people wonder why I hate Giants fans…
Chavez saw the whole thing unfold. He went over, picked up the ball, looked up and the man, and put the ball in the ball bag. Cool…
At this point, I decided to head back to the BBQ terrace to finish my burger and talk with some of the guys.
This was pretty much the setup. There were 2 sections that had about 45 seats in them, along with 3 benches that seat about 9 people each.
There was also a table full of desserts, chips, and other things! I took full advantage of the unlimited burgers and hot dogs, along with the free water and soda!
I was sitting on the asile of the section closest to the foul pole. I pointed out where my family was sitting to everyone.
They found us!!!
Around this time, it was 12:15, and Ryan Cook was STILL signing autographs. He is a class act.
Once he left, the grounds crew began to prep the field.
This was a view from the table that had all the foods. You can see the grill and beverage stand on the right side.
Now the game itself..
Jarrod Parker was pitching for the A’s.
Players slowly began to take the field.
We were all enjoying watching the White Sox warm up.
We were all yelling at the White Sox players along the foul line.
Chris Sale is SKINNY
He has a funky delivery too!
I was sitting to the left of these three guys (L-R: Logan, Zak, and Craig)
Oh, and it was HOT!
Oh and this car randomly drove around the warning track.
Chris Sale warmed up in the bullpen.
Like Pat Neshek, he is fun to take pictures of!
It felt weird seeing these guys from a different angle.
Yoenis Cespedes was one of the last guys that was warming up on the field before the first pitch.
I interacted with the RF Bleacher guys throughout the game.
There was a time where they started chanting “BAD-DERS! BAD-DERS! BAD-DERS! BAD-DERS!” I felt loved.
Every Sunday, the A’s have Little Leaguers take the field for the National Anthem with the A’s.
It always looks cool to see the team lined up along during the National Anthem.
Jarrod Parker was starting today for the A’s.
He got a quick out in the first.
But the White Sox were unable to capitalize.
The A’s went 1-2-3 in their half of the first.
The White Sox were unable to do anything either, as Jarrod Parker set them down in order.
Josh Donaldson grounded out to start off the inning.
And Nate Freiman singled.
But again, the A’s were unable to do anything with him, as the 2nd inning ended in a 0-0 tie.
The first 2 White Sox hitters in the 3rd inning flew out to Coco Crisp.
Again, the White Sox didn’t score any runs.
Derek Norris struck out in the 3rd inning.
And Adam Rosales singled.
But Jed Lowrie grounded out to end the inning.
The White Sox had a walk and double, but were not able to open the game in the 4th inning.
After Yoenis Cespedes was hit by a pitch, Josh Donaldson struck out.
And Nate Freiman popped out.
The game remained scoreless after 4 innings.
Everyone in the first row had their feet up on the ad right in front of us.
In the 6th, Josh Donaldson was able to connect, but he flied out, however it did bring in Coco Crisp, as he tagged up to come in and score.
Jerry Blevins came on for the 7th inning, relieving Jarrod Parker after his 6 shutout innings.
A lot of people stood behind the seats and talked.
Afre Jerry Blevins recorded one out Bob Melvin put in Ryan Cook.
Who struck out Casper Wells to end the White Sox half of the 7th inning.
One of the dads, Rick Flayler, was the one who organized this entire thing for the team.
We were all enjoying the game.
Before the 7th inning stretch, Rick told the crowd a bit about our team.
Then we all sang Take Me Out to the Ballgame!
The A’s went quickly and quietly in the 7th, keeping the game at 1-0.
Ryan Cook came out to pitch the 8th as well.
And once again, Chicago was set down 1-2-3.
Coco Crisp had a 1-out single in the 8th.
And he preceded to score on a Jed Lowrie single, then error by the White Sox center fielder.
This stretched the A’s lead to 2-0!
With 1 out in the bottom of the 8th, when Coco Crisp stepped to the plate, I headed out to the RF bleachers so that I would be able to rage. I sat down in my seat on the 1st pitch of the Jed Lowrie at bat, and on the 3rd pitch, he lined a screaming foul ball right down the line. It hit about 3 feet to where I had been sitting in the BBQ Terrace!!! WHAT. THE. HECK?????
Will, the inventor of the rage, had his usual Hulk gloves with him.
Everyone was raging!!!
This meant Grant Balfour was in!!!
The White Sox had a lead off single, but Balfour settled down to retire the next 3 guys.
And it was an A’s win!
My dad got a picture of the team.
Everyone had a great time!
So that foul ball that I should have gotten if I had actually been in my seat? It ended up here:
Also, prior to the game, I had noticed this ball.
Look again…
Yeah!
After the game, it was time for Kids Run the Bases.
And no, I didn’t participate…
The seagulls started to take over the Coliseum…
So we left…
Thanks for reading!!
- 13th Game this Year (10th MLB Game)
- 0 Balls at this Game
- 12 balls in 10 MLB games this season = 1.2 Ball Per Game
- 40 Lifetime MLB Baseballs
Nick Badders is a unofficial reporter for MLB.com. He writes the blog, 7000 Coliseum Way, and you can follow him on Twitter @nickbatters or his blog @7000ColiseumWay. You can also LIKE his blog on Facebook or follow him @nickbatters or his blog @7000ColiseumWay on Instagram. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
6/1/13 at the Oakland Coliseum
JERSEY DAY!!!!!!
We left the house just before 8am and got there around 8:25. This was the scene when we arrived…
The PARKING LOT hadn’t even opened yet. I was almost positive I would be one of the first in line at this rate.
That ended up not being the case. There were already 30 or so people in line when we got there, so we jumped in line right away. It was Yoenis Cespedes Jersey day. That’s why I was there so early.
Given the fact that the gates didn’t open for 2.5 hours, my sister and I decided to wander a bit. On the way towards Gate D, we passed Will, who was heading up towards MM.
When we stopped at the D Gate team store, my sister could not resist purchasing this:
It was pretty boring before the gates opened. My sister and I played catch in the parking lot. I picked up a new t-shirt (I ended up wearing it at this game- You’ll see it soon). That was about it.
When we stopped in the C-Gate team store, we saw this:
Jersey boxes were being opened!
Shortly before the gates opened- I spotted a familiar face. It was the man that goes by @CS_Darrow on Twitter. We had met up during the World Baseball Classic, and when he saw me this time around, he pulled out two things.
1) A ticket stub from a Rangers/White Sox game in Arlington.
2) A Dodgers 2012 50th Anniversary ball!
How cool is that? He thanked me for “spreading the ‘ballhawking’ word” and explained how he and I appreciate your efforts. Thank you again, very much!
The gates opened at 11:05, and I got in fairly quickly. I grabbed a jersey and ran down to my usual seat, but someone was sitting there, so I decided to go sit over where I had been sitting for most of the 19-inning game.
When I first entered the seating bowl, 1 things shocked me. THE CAGES WERE UP!!!
It was a DAY GAME AFTER A NIGHT GAME and the Sox were going to take BP. SWEEEEEET!
The A’s pitchers were the only players on the field at the time, so I headed over there.
Grant Balfour was playing catch with Pat Neshek. Something caused Grant to yell out “F**K!” At this point, this came to my mind…
What did I do? I yelled out “That’s 50 cents to the Aussie Swear Jar, Grant!”
He hear this, turned around, started laughing, and tossed me the ball!
The A’s players started leaving the field. White Sox players came on.
I put on my White Sox gear and headed down near the bullpen, as the bleachers were crowding up FAST.
Adam Dunn put on a hell of a show in BP, he was hitting the ball HARD and HIGH!
The Coliseum was filling up fast.
The bleachers were packed with Yoenis Cespedes gold replica jerseys.
Omar and his adorable daughter Rhema were there.
Oh, right. BP. BORING. Dunn and Alex Rios were the only ones that had any power- they hit every ball to CF. Nothing to the LF or RF bleachers as far as I can remember. My 2nd ball of the day was a toss-up. I had been standing a few rows behind a few little kids for most of BP.
There were a lot of balls hit down the line that stayed on the field. Every time, Matt Lindstrom would jog over and throw it in. There was a ball hit right to the wall that one of the kids called for, Lindstrom tossed it up, but it went right to me. I hadn’t even asked for it. I immediately handed it to the 7-8 year old boy that the ball could have been meant for. After all, he was in White Sox gear.
That was it for BP. It was BORING. And long. It was around 55-60 minutes, which was INSANE.
BP ended around 12:20. Yeah..
The grounds crew began prepping the field.
Darren Bush and Derrek Norris headed out to the bullpen to get ready.
They played some 2-ball to get loose.
The day’s starting pitcher, Dan Straily, began to get loose.
While this was all happening, I noticed this sign. Why is it important? That picture is from THIS blog entry!
Thursday night, Ian Sagabaen, the guy holding up the sign, and the MLB-proclaimed Greatest Sign-Maker in MLB History contacted me, asking if he could use the picture. Of course I said yes!
Dan Straily began to warm up with D-No, as Darren Bush watched on.
Jose Quintana, the White Sox starting pitcher began to get loose with Hector Gimenez, the starting catcher that day.
Several A’s players began to stretch and such.
ROSIE!!!
The National Anthem was performed.
The meeting took place at home plate.
And we were ready to go!
Dan Straily was on the mound for the A’s. Last year, he was a strikeout MACHINE in the minors.
This was my view for the game. Actually, I was sitting 2 sections over to the left. This was my dad’s view.
The White Sox were unable to score in the 1st inning.
The A’s scored a run in the first.
The bleachers were lively. (Not that that is a surprise to anyone)
Oh, and that run was doubled in my Yoenis Cespedes.
And scored by Jed Lowrie.
Josh Donaldson struck out.
Josh Reddick grounded out to end the first inning. 1-0 A’s.
The White Sox were unable to score any runs in the 2nd either.
The A’s scored a run in the 2nd inning as well. It started with a Derek Norris double.
Adam Rosales grounded out.
Chris Young singled, brining in the run.
That run was Derek Norris.
It’s 2-0 A’s!
Banjo Man showed up… Ew…
The broadcasters seemed to be doing well.
The White Sox scored a run in the 3rd on an Adam Dunn single.
The A’s went 1-2-3 in the 3rd.
The White Sox were the same in the top of the 4th.
Adam Rosales singled in the 4th inning.
But the A’s were unable to capitalize, sending the game to the 5th…
The White Sox went 1-2-3 again, in the 5th inning.
Then, the A’s came up in the bottom half.
Josh Donaldson singled…
The the BIG BOY Nate Freiman tripled.
JD scored.
Everyone was happy!
But it was a pain to watch him run! Watch for yourself. Oof.
The A’s were unable to do anything more in the 5th.
This made it 3-1 A’s after 5 innings in the books.
The White Sox were unable to do anything in the 6th.
Josh Reddick tossed up the 3rd out ball…
But I was cooling off in the concourse. Wiggi was the lucky recipient of the ball!
The A’s went quietly in their half of the 6th, despite a double from Jed Lowrie.
Sean Doolittle came on to pitch the 7th. Dan Straily went 6 innings with 8 strikeouts and 1 run allowed.
This is when things began to unravel.
The White Sox scored 2 runs on a single off the bat of Alejandro De Aza. This prompted a mound visit.
Sean Doolittle then quickly got out of the jam.
The A’s were unable to put anything together in their half of the 7th.
Ryan Cook got loose in the A’s bullpen.
As he was going to pitch the 8th inning, with the score knotted up at 3-3.
Oh, and check out Josh Reddick’s AWESOME socks.
Cookie set all 3 White Sox batters down in the 8th.
Jesse Crain, who was a very stingy pitcher during BP pitched the bottom of the 8th.
The A’s were not able to piece much together.
There were several pickoff attempts in this inning.
Daniel was visibly frustrated by them.
Despite a Jed Lowrie Single and Chris Young double, the A’s were unable to score, as Yoenis Cespedes struck out to end the inning.
Grant Balfour came in to pitch the 9th inning. Time to RAAAAAAAAGE!
He concluded his warm-up tosses.
And he proceeded to pitch a stellar 9th inning.
The White Sox were set down in order.
In fact, Balfour only needed 12 pitches to do so.
It was time for the A’s up’s in the bottom of the 9th!
Josh Donaldson led off with a single.
Then, the White Sox changed pitchers.
Josh Reddick then laid down a textbook bunt with 0 outs and runners on 1st and 2nd.
And he was SAFE at first. Bases loaded, no outs!
Everyone was on their feet, ready for some walk-off pie!
But Derek Norris grounded into a 6-2-3 double play, getting the outs at home and 1st.
Coco was intentionally walked.
Eric Sogard struck out with the bases loaded to send us to extras…
Pat Neshek came in…
And got two quick outs, at which point Jerry Blevins came in.
Adam Dunn promptly flied out to right field to end the inning.
Mostly everyone had stayed and was still into the game!
Jed Lowrie lined out to Alex Rios to start the bottom of the 10th.
Chris Young then doubled for his 3rd hit of the game and Yoenis Cespedes was intentionally walked.
This prompted another Sox pitching change.
Josh Donaldson then walked as well, loading the bases AGAIN with 1 out.
Brandon Moss then lined out for the 2nd out.
This brought in Josh Reddick.
He took 5 straight pitches, only the first one being a strike.
You know what this means?
WALK OFF VICTORY!!!
Everyone was excited!!!
And yes, Coco delivered the PIE!!
After the game, I got a picture with Ian and the sign!
Look closely in the bottom righthand corner.
It was my Twitter handle!!!
Free jersey, 2 balls, my Twitter handle on a sign, and walk-off pie. You CANNOT complain about that!
My next game was going to be the next afternoon. Oh boy!
- 12th Game this Year (9th MLB Game)
- 2 Balls at this Game
- 12 balls in 9 MLB games this season = 1.33 Ball Per Game
- 34 Balls in 12 Games this season = 2.5 Balls Per Game
- 40 Lifetime MLB Baseballs
- 77 Total Balls
Nick Badders is a unofficial reporter for MLB.com. He writes the blog, 7000 Coliseum Way, and you can follow him on Twitter @nickbatters or his blog @7000ColiseumWay. You can also LIKE his blog on Facebook or follow him @nickbatters or his blog @7000ColiseumWay on Instagram. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
5/27/13 at Banner Island Ballpark
Time for some more Minor League Baseball in sunny California!
Originally, I had tickets for the 1:05 A’s/Giants game in Oakland. Knowing how slim my chances of snagging a ball were, and based on my previous Giants game in Oakland, along with the fact that I don’t have the patience to deal with the stupidity of drunk Giants fans (Beer in cheaper in Oakland than San Francisco), I decided to sell our two tickets for the game on StubHub.
Since they were part of my season ticket plan, when I sell tickets on StubHub, I can choose to have my profit go towards my A’s account. That means that I won’t have to pay as much for my season tickets next year. I also sold my tickets to the A’s/Giants exhibition game in Oakland back in March, so between these two games, I’ve made $130. That’s $130 that we won’t have to pay towards season tickets next year!
All of a sudden, I realized that I wouldn’t be going to a game on Memorial Day. I headed over to the Ports website to look at tickets for a game in June, when I saw this…
I had been thinking about this game already, but now, my mind was made up!
I didn’t have school on Friday, so I had a 4-day weekend, and my parents told me that I had to finish my homework before they would buy the tickets. I finished it, showed them this, and it was a done deal!
My mom decided she didn’t want to go, but my sister did, so my dad went ahead and bought 5 tickets. Why 5? We got 3 seats where my dad and I have say for our last two Ports games, right next to the visitor dugout, so that 3 the of us could sit there, but my sister and I each individually purchased a ticket behind the Ports dugout, which would allow me to go for 3rd out balls over there as well.
My dad had to leave for his 3rd business trip of the month on Tuesday morning, so he wanted to get back before it was too late on Monday night. His goal was to be home by 9pm after the 6pm game, which would mean leaving around 8pm. If you know me, you know that that was the last thing I wanted. After all, I was hoping to grab the lineup card!
My hope was that given the fact Reddick was rehabbing, I wanted to get all of both Batting Practices. My though was that if the gates opened at 5pm, I would want to get there around 2pm, which would mean we would need to leave the house around 1pm. We were in for a LONG day!
Fast-Forward to Monday afternoon.
We left our house shortly after 1pm. Around 1:40pm, I decided to check the weather in Stockton, as it was raining when we left my house. What did the weather forecast say?
Rain until 4pm. WHAT THE HECK???
I was beyond pissed! We considered stopping at an outlet mall, but decided to tough it out and keep heading on to Stockton with hopes of BP.
We arrived in Stockton just after 2pm. I ran over to check to see if the cages just magically happened to be set up.
I didn’t get a picture, but THEY WERE!!! AND PLAYERS WERE HITTING!!!
My sister and I sprinted out behind LF just in time for the last hitter to finish up. Super…
We decided to just walk around by the marina and out behind RF to see if there were magically any balls. Nope.
It was starting to rain, so we headed back to the car. From there, we took a short drive down the street to a thrift shop. We spent 15 minutes there, before we all got bored. We decided to head back, as there was NOTHING else to do.
It was around 2:45 at this point. Pascale and I decided to go back out to the LF area, this time to play some catch.
Around this time, players started taking the field. Pitchers like Seth Frankoff began playing catch.
The position players were just arriving in the dugout.
Remember how I said Josh Reddick was playing? He was all suited up for BP!
The pitchers were playing catch in center field.
And the position players were stretching.
And they began to throw and play catch.
I only showed 2 pictures, but in all, it took about 30 minutes before they started hitting. I was getting anxious!!
The first guy to step into the cage was Wade Kirkland.
And I was on the board quickly!
He lined a ball over the bullpens, where it rolled under the fence and into my glove!
There was a mark on the ball, most likely from the bat.
The next guy to step into the cage was catcher Philip Pohl.
He then hit a ball in the same spot Kirkland had, and I had ball #2!
Next in the cage was Ryan Delgado.
He BOMBED one out of the stadium that hit off the Stockton Arena. I ran over and picked it up for ball #3 on the day.
After that, it was pretty quiet.
Rashun Dixon had some good hacks.
Then, came the real show of BP. Josh Reddick.
Between me, my sister, and my dad, there were lots of pictures taken!
He was BOMBING them out!
Then, he hit one that I saw roll hard through the grass of the CF berm. I ran over to check.
Sure enough, it was sitting right next to the fence. I grabbed it for ball #4 on the day! And it was a Josh Reddick BP homer!
That was honestly it for Ports BP. Nothing much exciting happened.
66ers BP was worse.
There were a few pitchers throwing bullpen sessions.
You know it’s bad when they don’t hit a single ball over the outfield wall.
I was pretty fet up.
Around 4:20, it got to the point where I knew that they wouldn’t hit anything out, so I headed to go get in line.
The gates were supposed to open at 5pm for the 6pm start, so I figured I would be close to the front.
I got there, and ushers were opening the gates… WHA???
I got my ticket scanned, and I was in at 4:30!!
I headed for a place down the LF line where I had seen a few balls land. No luck. I decided I wanted to try some ballhawking on the berms, so I decided to head out there.
Then, I looked up and a ball hit by Matthew Scioscia (the son of Angels manager Mike Scioscia) was flying my way. I looked up and after it bounced in the seats, I scooped it up for ball #5 on the day!
Then, I headed out to the metroPCS Home Run Hill.
Back where my dad was, this was the scene near the gates. It was 4:35. Un.be.lievable.
My sister was chilling out on the berm with me as well.
Then, someone on the 66ers hit a ball that bounced off the roof of a private seating area between the RF and CF berms. I was on the CF one, so as soon as I saw it off the bat, I took off running. I sprinted over to where it was rolling, but some guy that was walking by scooped it up.
There were a lot of balls that were just a few feet away from the wall. If only I had a retrieval device!
You can see it in his hand in the picture below.
The 66ers were hitting like crap…
But I was enjoying running around!
Eventually, BP came to a close, just before 5pm.
That’s when I saw these people show up!
In the #3 jersey is Will MacNeil, then the guy in the A’s hoodie is “famous” Jorge. Over Jorge’s right shoulder is Anson.
Why were they here? For Reddick’s rehab of course!
Once the 66ers finished BP, they took infield practice.
When they were done with that, Zach Wright tossed me one of the balls they had used. It was my 6th ball of the day.
After that, my sister and I walked around the concourse a bit. We got some food, sat in our seats, talked, and were REALLY bored!
As the 66ers started walking towards the dugout, I caught a few of them and was able to get my ticket signed.
At this point, I headed over to the walkway, where players were coming out, hoping to catch Josh Reddick at some point.
This is the tunnel that the players walk out of.
As you can see, there is a special walkway just for them.
Everyone was crowded, waiting for the players to come down.
See those costumes in the corner?
This is what they looked like…
Stockton is the asparagus capital of the world, so those would be the asparagus heads for the “Asparagus Race.” Like the Brewers sausage race. Except not sausages…
It was around this time, that I spotted Omar Gutierrez, with his kids known as “The Champ” and “Super J.” They were able to get Addison Russell’s autograph.
This ball is for sure a keeper!
They got a few other players to sign their program.
Then, Super J got Splash to sign his mask!
And yes, of course, Josh Reddick did come onto the field.
But he didn’t stop to sign autographs.
After most of the players had taken the field, everyone began to stretch and warm up.
Then, they all started playing catch.
It was funny. The entire time, Josh Reddick was doing something different than the rest of the team. He was off in his own little world!
Since it was Memorial Day, there were special people there to present the colors.
A veteran threw out the first pitch.
And we were ready to go! The umpires took the field!
And the lineup cards were exchanged.
And the players took the field.
The National Anthem was played.
And it was time to go!
Does this face have any significance to you?
His name is Mike Huss. Why is he special? Well a week before, Will MacNeil had been at the Ports game, which had gone into 17 innings. In the 15th inning, he yelled something out ‘Terrible strike zone, midget!’ to Mike Huss, who was the home plate umpire. Obviously, it was nothing inappropriate or vulgar, but the umpire took it the wrong way. What did he do? He EJECTED Will from the game!
Now, keeping that in mind, read this article. How funny is that?!?! Also check out this article on MiLB.com about the incident Quite amusing! I seriously recommend reading both articles, they will be well worth your time!
Josh Bowman was on the mound for Stockton.
The first inning was a bit rough for him.
Zach Borenstein singled to left field, scoring Eric Stamets.
This made it a 1-0 game.
Josh Reddick was hitting 2nd in the lineup for the Ports.
In the top of the 1st, he grounded out for the 2nd out.
Then, Max Muncy flied out to LF to end the inning.
I still find it amusing that Mike Huss was umpiring!
The 2nd inning was the killer inning for Stockton.
After a walk, hit by pitch, Sac bunt, and strikeout, the 66ers had runners on 2nd and 3rd with 3 outs.Then, they strung together 2 singles,a home run, and a double, bringing the score to 6-0.
Brandon Efferson was pitching for Inland Empire in this game.
For those of you who don’t know, Webster Garrison is the Ports manager, and he is very good friends with Will and Ross.
The Ports have this 2012 A’s AL West Champs banner in the stadium, listing all of the former Ports on the team.
In the Ports half of the 2nd inning, they had 2 1-out hits, one of them from Antonio Lamas.
But they were unable to capitalize on the 2 hits.
Remember this game when my high school played at Banner Island Ballpark? Well this is the dugout that we had been in.
In the top of each inning, I sat behind the Ports dugout, hoping for a 3rd out ball. There was a lot of competition.
The 66ers catcher in this game was Abel Baker.
In the 3rd inning, with 1 out, Dusty Robinson stepped to the plate.
He lined out to the 3rd baseman.
Addison Russell ended up grounding out to end the inning.
The 4th inning was quiet for Inland Empire.
Josh Bowman had settled down, retiring them in the 4th, despite a 1-out single.
In the middle of the 4th inning, the Ports do this thing where they pick 10 or so kids to chase Splash around the field.
Yeah…
BUT… Super J was lucky enough to be one of the kids that gets to do it!!
Cool stuff!
In the bottom of the 4th, Josh Reddick led off.
He fouled off a lot of pitches…
And had a tough at bat…
But he ended up popping out to the SS.
This was the inning where Brandon Efferson was shaken up a bit.
While the Ports were hitting, someone (Either Max Muncy, Tony Thompson, Antonio Lamas, Bobby Crocker, or Dusty Robinson) lined a foul ball down the RF line.
Guess who came up with it?
It was Wiggi! She leaned over the railing, making a nice snag on the hard-hit foul ball.
After having already scored 2 runs, Dusty Robinson decided to drive in another.
He singled in Antonio Lamas.
The 66ers tried to pick him off a few times at first base.
But it was pretty easy to read the pitcher’s move.
After the single, Efferson settled down, getting Philip Pohl to ground out to end the inning.
Josh Reddick took his spot in RF.
At this point, my sister and I headed over to the RF berm. Given the fact I hadn’t had any luck with foul balls or 3rd out balls, I decided to go for home runs for an inning or two.
In the top of the 5th, the 66ers continued to tack on runs, scoring 2 more on a triple off the bat of Andy Workman.
That was it for Josh Bowman. 8 runs allowed, with a runner on 3rd base he is responsible for.
The infield gathered on the mound as T.J. Walz came in to pitch.
The runner on 3rd scored on a single, then after another single, he got 3 quick outs to end the inning.
In the middle of the 5th, the Ports had a game where 3 members of the Ports “Promo Squad” used a slingshot to shoot 3 playground balls in the air. The contestant on the field has to catch them in this net.
Always entertaining.
In the 5th, B.A. Vollmuth was called out on strikes, bringing Addison Russell to the plate.
He ended up grounding out, bringing Josh Reddick to the plate.
Josh singled on a ground ball to right field.
This put him on first base.
Max Muncy then struck out to end the 5th inning.
Reddick was back out in right field.
And T.J. Walz was back on the mound. Can you say awesome mustache?
He retired the 66ers 1-2-3.
In the bottom of the 6th, Inland Empire pitcher R.J. Alvarez struck out the side, with 1 walk.
After the strikeout of Dusty Robinson to end the inning, I called out to catcher Abel Baker to toss me the ball, which he did!
Ball 7 on the day!
After I got this ball, Vanessa Demske called out to me, I turned around to see she was sitting just a few rows behind me! I moved back to talk to her, as well as Twitter friend Jamey Van Dyke.
At this point, it was well after 8pm. My dad had wanted to leave at 8pm. He was letting us stick around for the final out!
My dad is awesome, isn’t he!?!?
In the 7th, the 66ers went down 1-2-3 again, but Myrio Richard came into the game in right field for Josh Reddick, as he was only slated to play the first 6 innings.
With 2 outs in the 7th, Max Muncy doubled to center field, scoring 2 more runs to make it 10-5.
Between the 7th and 8th innings, they held the asparagus race.
The green one lost it’s head…
Yep…
The 7th inning, as well as the first 2 outs of the 8th inning were pitched by 240-pound Tony Pena.
Around this time, Will, Vanessa, and Jamey wandered off, but I found them quickly, talking to this woman.
Wiggi, Ross, and Drew were still over down the RF line.
Back to the other group. In the top of the 8th inning, my sister and I had been headed over to the Ports dugout, when Will and Vanessa stopped me and introduced me to Bess Frankoff, the wife of Ports pitcher Seth Frankoff, who at the time was on the DL. Bess is the one in the teal.
I guess they had all been interacting on Twitter for a while and had gotten to know each other.
I spent the next inning talking with the group.
We also were able to get Bess to take this group shot of us.
In the bottom of the 9th, I temporarily parted ways with everyone, as I was hoping to get a broken bat. Earlier in the game, someone on the Ports (I CAN’T FIGURE OUT WHO!!!) broke his bat someone (I DON’T REMEMBER HOW) and the Ports bat boy brought one of the halves to the 66ers dugout.
The Ports went 1-2-3, sealing a 10-7 win for Inland Empire.
I tucked my head into the dugout.
A player walked by, and I simply asked him for the broken bat, and he told me yes, as long as I was careful with it!
I handed it to my sister, in hopes of getting the lineup card.
It had already been handed out… BUT STILL!
My dad wanted to leave, but I had to say a quick goodbye to everyone first.
Everyone loved the broken bat! In my last Ports game, I got a lineup card. This time I got a broken bat. COOL STUFF!
QUICK NOTE: I think out of everyone, Vanessa thought the lineup card and bat were the coolest. This past week, she took it into her own hands to end up with a souvenir, and after Monday and Tuesday’s Ports games this past week, look what she ended up with! (This is not my picture)
We all parted ways, at which point I got this picture with the bat.
It was a great game! 7 balls, 1 broken bat, and lots of new friends!
- 11th Game of the Year… 3rd MiLB Game of the Year
- 7 balls at this game
- 19 balls in 6 games this season = 3.16 Balls Per Game
- 22 MiLB Balls in 3 MiLB Games = 7.33 MiLB Balls Per Game
- 9 Consecutive MiLB Games with at least 1 Ball
- 6 Consecutive MiLB Games with at least 3 Balls
- 37 Lifetime Minor League baseballs
- 75 total balls
Nick Badders is a unofficial reporter for MLB.com. He writes the blog, 7000 Coliseum Way, and you can follow him on Twitter @nickbatters or his blog @7000ColiseumWay. You can also LIKE his blog on Facebook or follow him @nickbatters or his blog @7000ColiseumWay on Instagram. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
5/18/13 at the Oakland Coliseum- BallhawkFest: Bay Area: 2013!
Today was going to be a long, fun filled day!
Do you remember back in March when I mentioned BallhawkFest: West Coast? Well shortly after, it was approved by Alan Schuster, the Admin at MyGameBalls.com, and it was all set to go, on May 18th in Oakland, for the A’s to take on the Royals.
There was A LOT of planning involved on my part, finalizing details and other such things…
ANYWAY… My family left for Zachary’s Pizza in Oakland around noon, getting there around 12:40. Spencer Sanborn, Dave Edlund, and Kelly Byrnes and his wife Leah were already there.
We were soon seated and shortly after, Rick Gold showed up. Today was looking to be a good day!
We all finished up around 2:20, where we grabbed a quick group picture before heading out.
Starting with me going clockwise: Me, Dave Edlund, My Mom (Anne), My Sister (Pascale), Leah Byrnes, Kelly Byrnes, Spencer Sanborn, and Rick Gold.
From there, we parted ways and headed off to the Coliseum. I was the first one there and arrived around 2:40, where it was near empty, but PERFECT weather. I was a little excited!
This was the scene when I got to Gate MM. As you can see, only the flags were laid out and there was nobody else there!
After walking around the stadium once, I headed out to the parking lot to meet up with Kelly Byrnes. He and I are both participating in the MyGameBalls.com Photo Scavenger Hunt this season, with one of the items on the checklist being “You swinging a bat at the BallhawkFest softball game.” Both of us were disappointed because nobody else wanted to play, so we decided to play a HR Derby-Style Wiffle Ball game in the EMPTY parking lot.
I was first up and the first to pitches I hit were both at one of the few cars in the parking lot…
I kept pulling the ball!!
We shifted our angle, and that’s where the fun began!
I would say my farthest hit went 200 feet maybe. Then, it was his turn to bat.
I felt bad because my pitches were not in the strike zone much.
But when they were, he got ahold of them!
Based solely on most hits, I won. If I had given him enough good pitches, he would have won in a landslide!
Once we finished up, he was very kind in giving me one of his blog’s shirts, we chatted for a bit, then parted ways.
I headed up back to Gate MM, where I saw Dave Edlund and his friend “Splash Hit” Steve Garrison in line at Gate LL, so I walked over there to talk with him.
Soon after, Leiming Tang, or Tang, as he is better known, showed up!
We talked for 20 minutes or so, before I headed to get back in line at MM.
Dave and Steve tossed and bounced a ball around for a bit.
They also played a bit of catch.
But I was in line! Kelly and Leah joined my dad and I in line, where we were soon joined by Will, Ross, Santiago, and a few others.
10 minutes before the gates opened, Ben and Vanessa showed up and Ben had an AMAZING hat for Will.
You know how the Brewers had the Design the YOU-niform contest
Around 4pm, I was all ready to go!
BUT THEY WOUDNT LET US IN because it wasn’t 4:05…
When I did finally run inside, Seth Smith was hitting in the cages.
So was Nate Freiman
Dave headed to left field. He’s in the blue.
To his right is Ryan Dalton, one of the ballhawks that joined us for BallhawkFest!
To his right is Rick Gold!
Rick Gold, as I am sure most of you know, ballhawked at the Coliseum in the 1990′s. He actually competed with Ryan’s dad, who was also a ballhawk for balls during that time!
It’s a small world, huh?
I started out the day near my seat in Right Field, where two ball boys were patrolling the area, tossing back everything to the infield.
Within 10 minutes of no baseballs, the Royals came onto the field.
Then, a ball was hit off the wall, landing in the grass.
Jerry Blevins walked off, picked it up, and tossed it to a random guy a few feet away from me.
The ball boys were throwing EVERYTHING back to the infield.
Kelly had headed over to one of my usual spots, over down the RF line.
My dad got a lot of cool pictures during BP.
Once their stretching had concluded, the Royals players began to play catch and warm up.
One of the players out there was Mr. Bacon Friday himself, Jeff Francouer!
Around 15 minutes into BP, a ball was hit off the wall right above where my dad was standing. A player walked over, tossed it up, and…
My dad snagged his 2nd lifetime ball!
I have to give major props to Dave and Steve for this game. They rarely go to games INSIDE the stadium, and both of them rarely go to the Oakland Colisuem, so as Spencer said, it’s like “They are fish out of water.”
Rick had a successful BP himself.
A few minutes after my dad got his ball, a player on the A’s hit a ball off the wall that A.J. Griffin fielded, then tossed up to me.
Once I got this ball, I headed over to the RF line, near where Kelly was.
Shortly after I got over there, his wife Leah hot a ball tossed up to her. It was her first lifetime ball!
She ended up giving it away to a kid nearby her.
I didn’t see it, but about halfway though batting practice, if I am not mistaken, a ball was hit Dave’s way. In the following picture, you can see the ball in his hands.
My dad got a lot of great pictures from the bleachers, despite being crowded in.
The pitchers did a lot of running durin BP.
BP was pretty quiet in regards to hit balls, so I had a lot of time to stand around.
It AMAZED me how many toss-ups there were. JC Gutierrez tossed up at least 10 balls to the RF Bleachers.
Why was I not there? The area in which he was tossing them up was packed. Bruce Chen and Luis Mendoza also had their fair share of toss-ups.
Can you spot the ball that Luis Mendoza is tossing up? Let me know in the comments!
Royals coaches were getting in on the act.
Bruce Chen tossed more balls into the stands…
Some time after that, Jeff Francouer lined a ball foul that if I remember correctly either was bobbled by some fans or hit a seat.
Long story short, Kelly came up with it!
Doy you see the kid in the black A’s hat and grey shirt, to the left of Kelly? Well, when I headed over to the RF foul pole, where a ball had just been hit, the boys called out to the trainer, asking for a ball. He didn’t have one, telling them all he had was water. So, that boy and his friend asked for a bottle of water!
Remember that kid and his friend, ok?
Around 5:50, Jeff Francouer hit a sharp ground ball just foul. It ended up landing here.
Bruce Chen went over to pick it up, in the process accidentally kicking it towards the RF corner, as you can see it is in a different location in the next photo.
I called out to him.
And he flipped it up!
Can you spot the ball? Let me know in the comments!
It’s easier to see in this photo.
Since my dad and I usually don’t touch base much during Batting Practice, I thought it was cool that he got a series of photos like this.
Dave was easy to spot in LF, wearing his royal blue BallhawkFest shirt among a sea of green and gold.
Shortly after I got that ball, once Chen had gotten back to his spot in the outfield, a ball was hit to him. The other of those two boys I mentioned earlier, asked if he could play catch with him.
STORY TIME!!! I had seen this video filmed by ballhawk Bobby Crosby, who films videos of himself snagging balls on the YouTube channel DodgerFilms. The video is of Dodgers pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu playing catch with a young fan during Dodgers BP, and since it was posted on May 13th, has over 2 Millions Views! 3 days later, the same boy was back at Dodger BP again and AGAIN played catch with Hyun-Jin Ryu. That is really where it started. Zack Hample has done it not one, two, or three, but four times on video. Mateo Fischer has played catch with Derek Lowe. The day after the first video of Hyrun-Jin Ryu came out, there was a video of Gio Gonzalez doing them same thing.
As soon as I saw this taking place, I pulled out my cell phone and recorded this video:
My dad took notice and also got a short video as well. I edited his video and my video together to make this:
Hands down, that was one of the highlights of the day for me!
As soon as I finished recording the video on my phone, I immediately went to upload it to YouTube. It finished around 7pm, and I then tweeted it to Alex Espinosa.
He is the MLB.com Cut4 Real Time Correspondant for Oakland, and I’m sure most of you remember him from past entries.
Later that night, I found my video on Cut4, in this article:
Then, I saw this tweet from the MLB Fan Cave:
I replied to the Tweet, then they replied to my tweet!
There were multiple blog posts written about it at the MLB Fan Cave website. The MLB Fan Cave posted a quick entry with my video, Mateo’s video, the Hyun-Jin Ryu video, and the Gio Gonzalez video.Then, Cave Dweller April Whitzman did a post herself.
On Monday, I walked into Mr. Hahn’s class and told him about the experience and video. He then told me he had read an article on Yahoo over the weekend about players playing catch with kids during BP. On Monday May 20th, it was the top headline at Yahoo sports! He showed me the article and lone behold…
Wow! I did not expect all of this attention at all!
Here is a picture my dad snapped of him lying on the outfield grass
I would say that in total, at least 30 balls were tossed up, if not closer to 40, mostly due to these two guys.
Once BP came to a close, I had finished with two balls. All of the ballhawks met up in the concourse behind the bleachers for a group photo.
Top Row: Spencer Sanborn (3 Balls), Ryan Dalton (3 Balls), Kelly Byrnes (2 Balls), Rick Gold (4 Balls)
Bottom Row: “McCovey Cove” Dave Edlund (1 Ball), Nick Badders (2 Balls + My Dad’s 1 Ball), “Splash Hit” Steve Garrison (1 Ball)
Not Pictured: Dan Badders (1 Ball held by Nick Badders), Leah Byrnes (2 Balls- Gave Both Away), Leiming Tang (3 Balls)
So, between the 9 of us, 22 balls were snagged! Even though that is only an average of 2.44 balls per person, it is still crazy for me to see that it all came together and was successful!
After we got that group picture, I also got a picture with Rick, who has snagged the most lifetime balls at the Oakland Coliseum. This picture gave me 2 points in the MyGameBalls Photo Scavenger Hunt.
Kelly was in the picture, as he is also competing in the contest!
Between our two families, 5 balls had been snagged, so we both wanted to get a picture for the scavenger hunt. For 6 points… “You and another myGameBalls.com member standing in an empty row of seats in which each cupholder contains a baseball.”
Mission accomplished!
We then parted our separate ways for a little while. My dad and I headed back to our seats.
After a little while with no action, Ervin Santana, the Royals starting pitcher for the day came out to warm up.
I can’t identify the player stretching in this photo.
The grounds crew watered the infield dirt.
Then, I noticed this guy!
Omar Gonzlez wore his graduation robe, as he has just finished his undergrad studies in college! Why don’t you all, as the readers of 7000 Coliseum Way, go over and give him some love on Twitter. Sound good? Cool!
Back to the warming up?
It was “Star Trek Night,” so the A’s had all of these gimmicks going on, including Stomper’s “outfit.”
This was the only A’s logo shown on the scoreboard that day…
Yep!
Jeff Francoeur WAS getting the start in Right Field today!
“Tommy Gun” Milone was on the mound for the A’s in this game, my dad got a few pictures of him in the bullpen before the game got underway.
Ervin Santana warmed up in the Royals bullpen.
The ceremonial first pitch was thrown!
The national anthem was played!
The people in the bullpen finished up their work.
The meeting at home plate took place.
And we were all ready to go!
Chris Young was in Right Field for the A’s.
Eric Sogard was in his usual second base position.
It wasn’t too hard to spot Dave and Steve in LF. Can you?
Coco Crisp lead off in the bottom of the 1st for Oakland.
Yoenis Cespedes lined out to RF to end the inning.
Tommy Milone took the mound in the second, down 1-0, after giving up a first inning run.
I thought this was a randomly cool picture.
Along with this one…
And this one…
Lorenzo Cain was called out on strikes to end the second inning.
However, the 2nd inning didn’t come without a cost. *38* pitches in the 2nd inning for Tomaso, with 26 pitches in the top of the first inning, prompting Jesse Chavez to start to get hot.
Early into the game, the A’s will show the Pepsi Sports highlight during an inning break. It’s always MLB Action or something random.
Nobody ever wants to see MLB Action.
Like I mentioned earlier, Jeff Francoeur was in RF for KC.
The ball boy down the RF line tossed a lot of foul balls into the stands.
John Jaso was the 2nd out of the 2nd inning, striking out.
Milone was back out for the 3rd inning, this time, with 12 pitches.
My dad enjoyed using the extension on his monopod to get photos like this.
In the top of the 4th inning, Frenchy struck out swinging for the 2nd out.
This day was Social Media night, which my mom and sister particpated in. They each bought a ticket to the “Tweetup,” where they also got a special ticket in a section with all of the other tweeters. I used the zoom on my dad’s camera to find them quickly.
In the bottom of the 4th, Josh Donaldson took a mighty hack, but…
Popped out to end the inning, with the score still at 1-0 Royals.
Over the course of the day, we got lots of pictures of Section 149. I love Tony’s pose here.
After his first few wild inning, Tommy Milone settled down A LOT!
Chris Young was starting to get the hang of keeping track of outs with the RF Crew. He’s not 100% there yet, though.
Alcides Escobar at the plate…
Brandon Moss was at his usual first base spot in this game.
I thought this was another really cool photo. (I took it! 
)
4 of the guys on my school’s Varsity baseball team: Ryan Flayler, Jordan Thrailkill, Justin Cash, and Dan Whitney, told me that they were going to be at this game, sitting fright behind the dugout. Guess who I found using my dad’s extreme zoom?
In the 6th inning, Jed Lowrie hit a sac fly with no outs to bring in the game tying run.
WE LOVE YOU OAKLAND, WE DO! WE LOVE YOU OAKLAND, WE DO! WE LOVE YOU OAKLAND, OAKLAND WE LOVE YOU!
Then, Brandon Moss tripled in Coco Crisp to put the A’s ahead 2-1.
High fives all around!
It was around this time that I attempted to create my own panoramic shot. I took 4 pictures, Photoshopped them together, and BAM!
In the 8th inning, my dad and mom headed up to where she and my sister had been sitting. Pascale stayed with me in RF, my dad took the camera and loved getting pictures from a different angle.
This was their view.
And no, they did not have any foul balls come close.
In the top of the 8th, Sean Doolittle came in to pitch.
He pitched a 1-2-3 8th inning.
Coco Crisp was called out on strikes to lead off the A’s half of the 8th inning.
Jed Lowrie flied out to center field.
Like I mentioned earlier, my sister and I were sitting in RF. Kelly is to her right, to his right is his wife Leah.
I thought it was awesome to see RF from this angle.
Guess who pitched the 9th inning for the A’s? It was 2-1. They were winning…
(In case you are wondering, yes, my parents came back to the bleachers at the start of the 9th, to join Pascale and I)
Despite a leadoff walk, Balfour got none other than Jeff Francoeur to fly out…
To end the game!
And it was the A’s 2nd consecutive 2-1 win!
Immediately after the final out, these people came onto the field…
And my family got in line along with Kelly and Leah to get onto the field to watch the fireworks.
It was PACKED!!
My sister and I were both happy to be there.
The fireworks were spectacular, as always.
My dad and I got a picture with our BP balls.
I got one last picture. I’m sure you can notice how tired I am.
- 10th Game this Year
- 2 Balls at this Game
- 10 balls in 8 MLB games this season = 1.25 Ball Per Game
- 25 Balls in 10 Games this season = 2.5 Balls Per Game
- 38 Lifetime MLB Baseballs
- 68 Total Balls
Nick Badders is a unofficial reporter for MLB.com. He writes the blog, 7000 Coliseum Way, and you can follow him on Twitter @nickbatters or his blog @7000ColiseumWay. You can also LIKE his blog on Facebook or follow him @nickbatters or his blog @7000ColiseumWay on Instagram. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
2 Years of 7000 Coliseum Way
All-
Today is the 2-year anniversary of 7000 Coliseum Way. 731 days ago, I clicked “create blog” not really knowing what to expect. I started out writing previews and reviews of A’s games. At this time, I had no clue how to blog or really what I was going to write about.
At the time, I had been following Zack Hample’s blog, The Baseball Collector. I read of his adventures and journeys ballhawking and I knew right away I wanted to give it a shot.
On June 28th, 2011, I ballhawked for the first time, when the Florida Marlins came to town. It was a rainy day and I hadn’t even brought my glove! In the top of the 7th inning, I moved down behind the A’s dugout, where Tye Waller tossed me the infield warm up ball that the A’s had been using. That turned out to be my first of many lifetime snags.
From there, I knew what I wanted to blog about. I made a point to go to as many games as possible that year, attending 6 more over the course of 2011 season, snagging 4 more balls. After attending that last game of 2011, where I met Zack Hample, I really didn’t know what I wanted to blog about.
In the year of 2011, I had 854 views. That’s an average of 4 per day.
In 2012, I continued writing, attending A’s FanFest in January. On April 5th, I attended Opening Day in San Deigo, to see the Dodgers beat the Padres. I didn’t snag a ball that day, but a few weeks later, I snagged my first lifetime Minor League Ball at a Stockton Ports game. In late April, I went to my first A’s game of the year, snagging a new all-time high 3 balls.
I continued going to games throughout the school year. In July, I went to Municipal Stadium, home of the San Jose Giants, where I snagged 6 baseballs, the most I had ever gotten at a baseball game, Major or Minor League. About a month later, in August, right before school started back up, I snagged 6 balls at an A’s game when the Twins were in town.
At the beginning of September, I found out that my blog had made it to the top 50 MLB Fan Blogs of August. I was BEYOND ecstatic finding out that my 868 views on the month was enough. In September, the A’s were in the heat of the pennant race. In October, they won the AL West, and I attended Game 3 of the ALDS.
My blog continued to stay in the top 50 for the remainder of the year, rounding out in the #67 for the 2012 year.
In December of 2012, I started hosting BlogTalkRadio shows. for 30 minutes every Sunday, I would talk baseball. I’m hoping to bring this back sometime this summer.
In January, I went to A’s FanFest, where I was granted a press pass, in order to participate in A’s BlogFest, where I was able to do a press-conference style interview with Bob Melvin, David Forst, and Mike Gallego.
In March, I attended the first game of the World Baseball Classic Semis in San Francisco, and even though I didn’t snag a ball, it was one of the best games I have ever attended.
I was at Opening Day in Oakland, where I made lots of new friends. A few days later, I went to Banner Island Ballpark in Stockton, where I met even more people and snagged a new high of 10 baseballs, 5 of them during BP. At the end of the month, on April 29th, I attended hands-down one of the top 3 games I have ever been to, if not the best.
It started off being a game I didn’t plan on attending. I was given free tickets at the last minute, getting to the stadium minutes before the gates opened. I snagged 3 BP balls, then during the game, the Right Field Bleachers held Josh Hamilton Appreciation Night. It was an amazing time, but turned to get better. It ended up being the longest game in Oakland History, lasting 19 inning- 6 hours and 32 minutes.
At the beginning of May, I found out that 7000 Coliseum Way was the 3rd most-read blog on MLBlogs, which completely blew my mind.
In May 2013, I went to Bacon Friday in the Right Field bleachers in Oakland. A day filled with bacon, bacon, and more bacon. The next day, I hosted BallhawkFest (entry to come this weekend), where ballhawks from up the Pacific Coast as well as a few ballhawks from other parts of the US gathered in Oakland to snag as many balls as possible. There were around 10 ballhawks there who combined to snag over 20 baseballs!
A week later, I attended a Stockton Ports game (Entry to Come), where after the game, I got a broken bat!
That now brings me to today. May 29th, 2013. It is been 2 years since I started, and I have come amazing far. I never expected to be where I am. 83 Facebook likes. Over 400 Twitter followers between my 2 accounts. Endless Memories. I look forward to continue to blog, and I hope the next 365 days can be even better than the last.
Thank You very much to all, the support means more than you can imagine.
Sincerely,
Nicholas Badders
5/17/13 at the Oakland Coliseum- BACON FRIDAY!
This was a much different day than I’ve had in the past few years ballhawking-wise. It would be the first game since I went to Nationals Park in 2011 that I didn’t try to ballhawk at!
NICK!!!! HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND????
Yes.
No, but in all seriousness, I knew from the start I wouldn’t be able to ballhawk this game. My high school’s baseball team (Remember this game?) was 22-1 going into today, with a 4pm game against our cross-town rivals, so I couldn’t miss it!
I considered leaving around 5:30 to “beat” the traffic and get there at the end of BP, but it didn’t come close to happening. As much as I wanted to go to the A’s game, I really wanted to stay for this game!
I left around 6:30pm for the 7pm A’s game. Traffic was horrible! My dad and I listened to the pregame show on the radio on the drive up and pulled into the Coliseum parking lot just after the first pitch.
I ran in Gate MM and headed up to the 3rd deck? Why? I had purchased a Value Deck seat. Every Friday in the Value Deck in Oakland, they have a giveaway of some sort, this time it was a T-Shirt. Look for me to be wearing it in my next entry!
I ran up, grabbed my shirt, and slid into my seat just in time in the bottom of the 1st inning. Everyone was wearing their Bacon Friday T-shirts!
Wait? What is Bacon Friday, you might ask?
Watch this video…
Or this video…
That was just 2011. That was the first annual Bacon Tuesday.
In 2012, they brought it back for the 2nd Annual Bacon Tuesday. Read this article at Cut4 and this article at the Royals website.
It was back in 2013 and bigger and better than ever! How big? Jeff Francoeur AND Josh Reddick stopped by before the gates opened to tailgate with them!
I have to give MAJOR props to my mom! In the days leading up to Bacon Friday, she baked DOZENS upon DOZENS of Bacon Chocolate Chip cookies. I don’t know exactly how many she made, but they were AMAZING!!!!
Even the people running the scoreboard knew it was Bacon Friday!
They even showed some action of Sizzlin’ Bacon! Everyone in RF chanted “Go Bacon Go! Go Bacon Go!
They knew of the awesomeness that is Bacon Friday.
When I slipped into my seat, Yoenis Cespedes was at the plate…
But Brandon Moss grounded out to end the first, stranding Jed Lowrie at first.
Jarrod Parker was on the mound for the A’s
Daric Barton was playing first.
FYI, I am a member of the Daric Barton Fan Club. WE GOT YOUR BACK BRO!
While Lorenzo Cain was batting in the 2nd inning, Eric Hosmer was picked off.
After a short pickle, he was out at first.
You could tell everyone on the field was happy about it!
Cain ende up grounding out to first base to end the top of the 2nd.
Like I had mentioned earlier, everyone was wearing their Bacon Friday shirts.
And yes, I did get one!
I was 7 rows back or so, but I still had a great view!
Will was not wearing a jersey like he usually does, but his Bacon Friday shirt!
In the bottom of the 2nd, with 1 out and Josh Donaldson on first, Derek Norris walked.
Then, Daric Barton stepped up to the plate.
He ende up grounding into a fielder’s choice, Derek Norris was thrown out at 2nd base.
With a runner on 2nd in the top of the 3rd and 1 out, Elliot Johnson was called out on strikes.
Then, Parker allowed the first run of the game.
David Lough doubled to Center, bringing in Salvatore Perez.
In the 3rd inning, I headed over to LF to go hang out with Rick Gold for an inning or so. He was in town for the homestand and planning on attending BallhawkFest the next day, so I thought I would stop by and chat for a little bit.
Right after I left, this happened…
Yep. Omar, Anson, and a few other people did a live interview on the Royals TV broadcast.
Everyone got pictures with him.
This is a close-up shot of the back of the T-Shirt.
Jarrod Parker pitched a scoreless 4th, despite a single and walk.
I came back in the 4th inning, around the time that my mom and sister showed up!
Why were they so late? My sister had soccer tryouts that ended around 7. She went home, changed into her A’s gear, and she and my mom immediately took BART out to Oakland so they could catch at least part of the game.
FYI, here is Rick. He’s in the new BP hat with the green jacket- right in the middle of the picture.
James Shields, who tossed me a ball last year when the Rays were in town, was on the mound for the Royals.
On the 4th pitch of the bottom of the 4th, Brandon Moss singled to right field.
But he tried to stretch it into a double…
Out or safe?
He was called out trying to stretch his single into a double for the first out of the inning.
Everyone was pumped about the game!
Throughout the game, they showed bacon facts on the scoreboard.
Omar Gutierez’s son, known as The Champ took lots of pictures during the game!
He’s one awesome kid!
And he had BACON MINTS!!!
The other Omar G, Omar Gonzalez was very excited!
Coco Crispy Bacon!!!
Jorge was getting into the action, despite his sleepiness.
Daniel and Keith were chilling in the front row on the other side of the section.
Ross was taking lots of pictures.
As was everyone else.
Can anyone guess what year bacon was invented?
If you guessed 1500 BC, you are correct!
The scoreboard routinely showed this for the entire game.
Through the top of the 6th, the A’s had allowed only that 3rd inning run.
Jorge was having a good day!
Ready for more bacon trivia? What percentage of men ranked bacon as their favorite smell?
23%!
More bacon facts and trivia. BACON CURES HANGOVERS!!!
Omar had these three signs at this game.
Everyone was getting into the spirit of Bacon Friday!
Daric Barton stepped to the plate for the A’s in the 7th, but he was called out on strikes…
But it wasn’t before Josh Donaldson hit a game-tying home run to left field!
Bob Melvin really wanted to score a few more runs.
Sean Doolittle came in to pitch the 8th inning for Oakland.
Did you know there is a world record for bacon-eating?
Doolittle pitched a scoreless 8th
Adam Rosales stepped to the plate to lead off the A’s half of the 8th.
On a 1-1 pitch, he hammered a ball to left field to put the A’s ahead 2-1!
Rosie did his usual sprint around the bases.
RUN ROSIE RUN!
This meant it was time for Grant Balfour to get loose in the bullpen.
No more runs were scored in the 8th inning.
I don’t know what it is, but security hates sections 148 and 149 this year. They had a huge problem with a lot of people on Friday.
Everyone was excited that the A’s had taken the lead!
In the top of the 9th, it was time for Grant Balfour to come in to close the game out…
This meant it was time to RAGE!!!
After getting 2 quick outs, Eric Hosmer stepped to the plate!
And struck him out swinging! Everyone was happy!
Slowly, we all filed out.
We all met up in the concourse after the game, I handed out some more cookies, and Ralliney had someone take this picture of us.
Wow! It was nice to to have any pressures of ballhawking, and for those like me who don’t care about streaks or such, I would highly recommend that you go to a game and purposely not ballhawk. Very relaxing!
Thanks for reading!
- 9th Game this Year
- 0 Balls at this Game
- 8 balls in 7 MLB games this season = 1.14 Ball Per Game
- 23 Balls in 9 Games this season = 2.55 Balls Per Game
- 36 Lifetime MLB Baseballs
- 66 Total Balls
Nick Badders is a unofficial reporter for MLB.com. He writes the blog, 7000 Coliseum Way, and you can follow him on Twitter @nickbatters or his blog @7000ColiseumWay. You can also LIKE his blog on Facebook or follow him @nickbatters or his blog @7000ColiseumWay on Instagram. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.baco
Harvey Codde
Does that name ring a bell? If so, you’re lying.
A short while ago, I was approached by Mr. Hahn, and he told me that he had some cool stuff related to baseball that he wanted me to see.
After school one Friday, I headed with him into the office to meet up with Ms. Getgen, our school’s secretary.
We went into her office and she pulled out this box, filled with papers.
Her father was Harvey Codde. He was a Minor League pitcher with the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1940′s. Are there any names that you can think of that were baseball players in the Brooklyn Dodgers organization in the 1940′s? Try Pee Wee Reese. Or Jackie Robinson.
If you click on his name above, you can check out his page at Baseball Reference.
Ms. Getgen was given a box by her mother filled with papers that had to do with his baseball career. I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to look through them with her and Mr. Hahn!
This is an entry with very few words! Why? The pictures really tell the story. There are no words needed to describe this entry. Remember you can click on any picture to enlarge it and take a closer look at it!
Here is the actual box itself:
Here is the first thing I pulled out of the box:
An envelope from the Brooklyn Dodgers, addressed to Harvey Codde!
I opened it up to find these two letters inside:
Here is the first one of them:
That is a letter informing him that he would be playing for the Montreal Royals, receiving a salary of $200 a month!
The second:
That is a letter from BRANCH RICKEY inviting him to Spring Training with the Dodgers!’
I first pulled out a few photographs out of the box.
A majority of the contents of the box were box scores and articles. Here is an article that details him reporting to camp.
When he would pitch in a game, the box score and accompanied article were cut out of the newspaper.
Clearly, he had some serious talent!
The arrows direct you to where you can read about specifically him.
There were lots of articles written about him. When these articles appeared in the newspaper, they would cut them out and glue them onto a piece of scrapbook paper.
I found this page just absolutely nuts!
If you click on any of the pictures, you can enlarge them. Reading some of the names in the box scores is truly amazing.
Here are a few more pages…
A 1944 team photo of the Montreal Royals.
Lots of box scores here!
He was making headlines often!
Here are some more pictures and stats.
Here is the last page that was in the box.
Here is an overview of the box and its contents.
Here is one last final and close look at the envelope.
How cool is that?
I hope everyone enjoyed this different kind of entry! When I heard about this all, I knew I wanted write a blog entry about it!
Thanks for reading!
Nick Badders is a unofficial reporter for MLB.com. He writes the blog, 7000 Coliseum Way, and you can follow him on Twitter @nickbatters or his blog @7000ColiseumWay. You can also LIKE his blog on Facebook or follow him @nickbatters or his blog @7000ColiseumWay on Instagram. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
4/29/13 at the Oakland Coliseum
Boy oh boy! Today was a long day!
First off, today was Josh Hamilton Appreciation night. Basically, Wes, out in RF (@RFWes on Twitter) came up with the idea of holding Josh Hamilton Appreciation night, in honor of Hamilton dropping the ball in game 162 to allow the A’s to pull ahead, winning the game and AL West division. Over the course of the next day, there were a lot of articles about the event. The Dallas Morning News, Sports Illustrated’s Swingin’ A’s blog, Fox 4 in Dallas, Fox Sports Southwest, NESN, ESPN Dallas, NBC’s Hardball Talk, the MLB Fan Cave, MLB.com’s Cut4, and NBC Dallas all covered the event! WOW!
When I got home from Reggie Jackson bobblehead day, Adam Olson, who designed this blog’s logo and is famous for his A’s Shirts, posted on Facebook that he couldn’t make it to Monday’s game, and he was offering his tickets for free to the first person that messaged him. I took advantage, and he was more than willing to give me his 2 seats in Section 124 for the game.
Over the course of the day, I captured some pretty cool moments on video, which you can check out here:
Conveniently, on Monday, I had a doctor’s appointment nearby his place, so after school got out at 3:05, my entire family headed out to pick up the tickets. Once we had picked up the tickets at around 3:45, we made the quick drive to my doctor’s office, for the 4pm appointment.
It took a little longer than expected, as I was hoping to catch the 4:35 BART Train to Oakland, but the appointment ended around 3:35, so my dad dropped my mom and I off at 4:45, just in time to catch the 4:50 train to Oakland.
After getting off and transferring to a different station, we made it to the Coliseum BART station at 5:25, just 10 minutes before the gates opened. I ran from the station to the Coliseum, to find a VERY short line. Here is a bad shot of the line in front of me.
I’d say that by 5:35, maybe 10 people were behind me.
There was only one person checking bags, and one person scanning tickets, but once I got inside, even though my ticket was not for the bleachers, I sprinted out to RF. It appeared as Pujols, Trumbo, Trout, and Hamilton had all finished taking their hacks, as I didn’t see any of them during Batting Practice.
I was on the board quickly. After getting to the bleacher around 5:40, I got my first ball almost immediately As soon as I ran into the bleachers, I saw a ball hit the wall in Right-Center. I ran over there, Michael Kohn walked over, picked the ball up, and tossed it up to me after I called out for it.
Ball #2 was the next pitch hit by the same batter, fielded by former Atheltic Joe Blanton. I called out to him, and I had two balls within 30 seconds, less than 6 minutes within the gates opening.
My 3rd ball of the day came 3 minutes later, it was hit to dead center field, Jerome Williams fielded it, and after noticing and identifying his pink glove thanks to my memory of Mateo Fischer’s blog entry, I called out to him, and he tossed it up!
3 balls within 10 minutes of the gates opening, all within 5 minutes of each other!
By this time, most of the players in RF and CF had seen me call out for balls, and considering nobody was hitting it to LF, BP was “dead.”
I focused my attention on this man:
That would be Mr. Josh “Butterfingers” Hamilton!
Why? I noticed that he had struck up a conversation with the RF bleacher folks!
They tossed some Butterfinger candies onto the field for him.
Which he enjoyed! He had a very long conversation with the 20-or-so folks out in RF;
And they all loved it!
I think he loved the fact that they were doing this!
And they loved the fact he was so willing to participate!
At this point, a majority of the balls being hit were hit down the RF line, so I headed to the RF corner, in the BBQ Terrace.
This was the scene to the right.
CJ Wilson (Right) and Ernesto Freiri (49) were patrolling the RF area.
This camera was right below me.
Then, I noticed this guy in RF.
That would be Alex Espinosa, of MLB.com’s Cut4. Go ahead and follow him on Twitter here.
He was busy taking pictures and filming.
Here is the video from the night that he got:
Hamilton was enjoying the Butterfingers.
And he posed for photos.
Alex got busy taking notes on what was happening.
I got a chance to talk with him, along with Wes (Right) and Ralliney (Middle)
I saw this coach on the Angels toss this ball up to a young fan in the first row.
As you can see, Left Field was PACKED!
Welp. There was nothing hit out there. Very few toss-ups.
While I was wandering around the BBQ Terrace in Right Field, I looked down to the stairs behind the Right Field wall.
I ran back and forth between the Terrace and Bleachers A LOT.
But the cages broke down…
And I got a picture of Wes and “Dreamkiller” (Left) with their butterfingers.
Ralliney got this shot of me with my 3 balls and my AMAZING shirt.
As well of this photo of me taking pictures:
Ross was out in the Bleachers, as always, with a pretty awesome shirt!
Everyone was having a great time!
WITH THEIR BUTTERFINGERS!!!
There were lots of All Star Ballots in the Bleachers. REMEMBER. VOTE GREEN AND GOLD IN 2013!!!
Then, I decided to head off to my ticketed seat, where my mom got this photo of me with my 3 BP balls.
This was my view. Not too bad!
To my right…
And my left…
Around 6:40, I headed back to the bleachers.
Everyone was shuffling in.
And Ross held his #ReddickRallyHair.
Confused? Watch this video…
Now watch this video…
Now you are all caught up to speed!
Everyone was posing with their Butterfingers!!
You know how I was wearing my “He Dropped It” shirt, designed by Adam Olson? Well… He updated the design, and many people in the bleachers were wearing it!
Alex got this photo of the two of us. Alex actually writes a blog as well called BayMode, and he has an entry up about this game, including lots of pictures from the bleachers! You can check out his blog here and his entry about this game here.
Vanessa got it from this angle:
In the words of Will MacNeil, “CURSE YOU PAPARAZZI!!!”
Arlene got this photo of Vanessa and I
Don’t ask me about my eyes. I don’t know.
Anson (one of the RF Die-hards that I haven’t mentioned much on this blog) showed up shortly after I did.
This may be the best prop I saw all night.
Seriously. How amazing is that?
Satoshi and Keita were wearing these awesome hats.
I had to pose wearing one as well.
The ceremonial first pitch was quite entertaining.
And Tony started distributing bags of the #ReddickRallyHair
Remember that video of Alex Interviewing Tony? Here he is doing so. Cool camera, huh?
Here is Tony explaining everything
Remember… You can watch the video here.
The umpires met at home plate…
And we were ready to go!!
Right before the first pitch, my camera battery died. Of course, the second battery was in my backpack on the COMPLETE opposite side of the stadium… So I *SPRINTED* to my seat, grabbed the battery along with another spare, and sprinted back. I got to the bleachers just in time to see Josh Hamilton’s first plate appearance.
Alex LOVED it!
When Josh came out in the bottom of the first, you could tell he did too!
Tracey was flashing here sign and glove!
You could tell Hamilton loved it all.
After the first inning, I went over and spent the 2nd inning with my mom by the dugout before heading out to the bleachers again. I grabbed a seat on the left side of section 149, right behind Omar Gonzalez and his daughter Rhema.
He has a lot of pretty awesome signs!
Meanwhile, Tommy Hanson was on the mound for the Halos.
Okay, okay. I know you all just want pictures of everyone in right field.
Shin was just in front of me.
Ready for a story?
Every night, the sun sets in Oakland. Every night game, the sun sets right behind the 3rd base dugout. Eventually, it is directly behind one of the staircases int he 3rd deck.
And the Sun Hole was born.
I still can’t get over how amazing Tracey’s glove was!
Like I went back and forth during BP between the Terrace and Bleachers, I went back and forth between 124 and the Bleachers during the game.
While I was sitting with my mom, she got a lot of awesome pictures!
It was weird to be on the other end of the stadium, watching the bleachers.
But like I said, my mom got some AWESOME shots.
Early into the game, there was a fielder’s interference of some sort… It was quite frustrating to the Angels…
The Umpire was clapping…
ERIC SOGARD NERD POWER!!!
Strikeout machine Dan Straily was on the mound for the A’s.
Jed Lowrie also got hit by not just one pitch….
But two. Can you find the ball? FYI, I took this picture 
While I was sitting over there, you know what I was thinking? It must be awesome to be the A’s bat boy down the LF line. You get to warm up Yoenis Cespedes every inning.
Soon enough, I was back out in Right Field.
Sam was holding up this AMAZING sign.
Like… Amazing!
Omar was enjoying the game with his daughter Rhema.
When Hamilton came out to Right Field, he tossed up a ball. Everyone was taking pictures of it…
The ball had been tossed to Wiggi…
And she seemed pretty excited about it!
Here’s a slightly closer look…
There was something written on the ball!
More than just something!
Every side of the ball had something written on it!
Will seemed to be having a good day!
Same with Tony!
After spending another inning or so in the bleachers, I headed back to my mom so that I could take some more pictures.
Of Eric Sogard…
Then I handed the camera to my mom so that she could take some pictures of Pat Neshek.
Seriously, it is fun to take pictures of him!
Brandon Moss was at first base
Josh Reddick in Right Field
Coco Crisp in center.
Yoenis Cespedes in left field.
Jed Lowrie at shortstop
Mike Gallego is the A’s third base coach.
Mike Trout making a catch at the wall.
Third Base…
Josh Donaldson stepped to the plate.
Derek Norris was due up after him.
At this point, I headed out to right field again.
Grant Balfour was beginning to get loose in the bullpen.
Along with Sean Doolittle.
In the top of the 9th, Sean Doolittle came into pitch. At this point, my mom joined me in right field, as I was hoping to catch a walk-off home run.
‘
The A’s had a 4-run 8th inning, so they were down by one run coming into the bottom of the 9th.
With two outs, Yoenis Cespedes singled to center field, bringing in Coco Crisp to tie it all up at 7!
You could tell Omar was pretty excited!
The 9th inning ended in a tie, and we were ready to go into extra innings!
Grant Balfour came in to pitch the 10th inning.
Time to RAGE!!!
Balfour shut the Angels down in the 10th.
At this point, I was amazed that Omar and his wife had stuck along with Rhema.
Vanessa enjoyed playing with her!
She was pretty excited about free baseball!
Picture-taking-ception!
Nobody had any clue what was so special about this game.
Rhema was getting very tired!
Grant Balfour pitched the 11th inning as well.
Moss was still at first base.
Everyone was enjoying the free baseball!
I took a lot fo random pictures like this one…
As you can see, the crowd was starting to thin out.
Omar was rocking the Coco sign.
In the 12th, Ryan Cook came in to pitch.
Then, in the middle of the 12th, they played Call Me Maybe
Nobody likes that song in Oakland.
Around 11pm, this message was shown on the scoreboard.
My mom and I had taken BART…. CRAP!!!!
In the bottom of the 12th, this message was shown on the scoreboard. A starter was in the bullpen!
This was about the time my phone’s battery died…
Everyone in the right field bleachers was still here.
Will was moving around with his flag.
Brandon Moss moved to right field in the 14th inning.
Around this time, it was about midnight. At 11:50, my mom told me it was time to go, but I did not want to leave!
We called my dad and he offered to come pick us up! WE WERE STAYING TILL THE END!!
Omar was pretty excited to be there!
This is what the back of Wes’s head looks like…
I spent a lot of the extra innings talking with him and Vanessa.
Omar was having some fun with his drum.
Around the 14th or 15th inning, my dad showed up!
Anson was getting his moves on.
Around this time, it was the 17TH INNING!!!
It was the 17th inning. I was pretty happy!
Thanks to Arlene, we can all see our RALLY FACES!!!!
It was EMPTY
We were having FUN FUN FUN in Right Field.
I got to try some of this delicious green and gold Lemon Bar
In the top of the 18th, Brett Anderson left the game with an injury.
The infielders chatted during the pitching change.
IT WAS RIDICULOUSLY EMPTY!!
The person that runs the out-of-town scoreboard in right field was watching the game.
Everyone was having a great time!
It was 1:14. MIND BLOWN.
Earlier in the game, the A’s starting DH for the game, Seth Smith had to move to Left Field, after Coco Crisp Cape out, Chris Young replaced him and subsequently was injured, so Yoenis Cespedes had to move from LF to CF, and with Brandon Moss already having replaced Josh Reddick in RF, Smith had to leave the DM spot, meaning a pitcher would have to be in the lineup.
Jerry Blevins stepped to the plate. This gave me 3 points in the MyGameBalls.com Photo Scavenger Hunt!
He actually made contact. FOUL BALL!!!!
The stadium was almost empty at this point.
Vanessa got this picture of Her, me, and Wes. We were DELERIOUS!!
The A’s couldn’t come up with anything in the 18th inning.
Right field was loud, as usual.
Blevins pitched the 19th inning as well.
We were all having lots of fun! It got to the point where I think most of us just wanted the game to be over.
We were all chanting the names of the broadcasters, from what I hear, they enjoyed very much!
Basically, just like “Ray Fosse!” *Clap Clap ClapClapClap* “Glen Kuiper!” *Clap Clap ClapClapClap* “Ken Korach!” *Clap Clap ClapClapClap* “Vince Catroneo!” *Clap Clap ClapClapClap*
Remember how I mentioned that my phone’s battery had died? Never to fear! My dad has a smart phone too!
(Arlene took that photo)
Here is the Tweet I sent out on his phone…
Then… after a Seth Smith walk, Jed Lowrie grounded into a fielder’s choice, with Seth Smith out at 2nd base.
After that, Yoenis Cespedes struck out swinging, bringing Brandon Moss to the plate with 2 outs.
Following a first pitch strike, this happened.
After 6 Hours and 32 minutes, we were finally going home!
EVERYONE was happy!
After we had all been mulling around, someone suggested that we get a group picture of everyone in Right Field that had stayed all 19 innings. Given the fact that my dad was the only one there who hadn’t been at all 19 innings, plus he had his camera, he took the picture.
Later that night, I tweeted the picture out, posted it on Instagram and Facebook, and over the course of the next 24 hours, it received 80 retweets and 55 favorites on Twitter; 268 Facebook likes, 33 Instagram likes, AND it was featured on Intentional Talk!
Thanks to Alex Espinosa for tweeting that to me! I probably wouldn’t have seen it without your help!
Then, I got a photo of me with the 3 balls and an empty stadium.
And it was SO LONG from the Coliseum.
KEEP READING!
Around 10:30am on Monday, I got this Tweet.
Then, later that evening, I went on with 89.3 KPCC in Southern California to talk about the game. It was my first radio interview! I talked about what it was like to be at the game, how I managed to be there for the entire time, and some of my memories from the day. Go check out their website here. Thank You very much to Rob for inviting me on!
Finally, you know how Adam Olson hooked me up with the tickets to this game? (Thank You again very much Adam!) Well later Tuesday afternoon, he tweeted out this picture…
He is going to make those shirts available, and YES, I did purchase one! Remember to check out his A’s shirt store here , his Around the League store here, and website here.
There is one more topic that I would like to address I thought about it long and hard. With so few people left in the stadium, I probably could have snagged A LOT of foul balls, third out balls, and infield warm-up balls. Why did I not?
1) I wanted to enjoy the 19-inning game, rather than run around and be dissapointed every time I didn’t snag a ball.
2) The idea of catching a walk-off home run or a late-inning home run was just too much. I would trade in 10 3rd out balls for a walk-off homer in the 19th inning any day.
Lastly, there was a lot of coverage of the 19-Inning Game, Josh Hamilton Appreciation Night, and a few other RF Bleacher-related things on MLB Network’s Intentional Talk. I compiled it all into this video…
That is all for this entry. WOW! What an incredible day!
- 8th Game this Year
- 3 Balls at this Game
- 8 balls in 6 MLB games this season = 1.33 Ball Per Game
- 23 Balls in 8 Games this season = 2.875 Balls Per Game
- 7 Consecutive Games with at least 1 Ball
- 5 Consecutive MLB Games with at least 1 Ball
- 36 Lifetime MLB Baseballs
- 66 Total Balls
Nick Badders is a unofficial reporter for MLB.com. He writes the blog, 7000 Coliseum Way, and you can follow him on Twitter @nickbatters or his blog @7000ColiseumWay. You can also LIKE his blog on Facebook or follow him @nickbatters or his blog @7000ColiseumWay on Instagram. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
4/27/13 at the Oakland Coliseum
On this particular day, I got out of bed late. I had set my alarm for 6am, with the hopes of being in Oakland around 8 or 8:30, but I woke up around 8am. For me, this reminded me of this game last year.
We left at 8:25, and arrived at the Coliseum around 9am. This was going to be my first Orioles game since Last September, and I was hoping that they would still be using commemorative balls.
Like my last game, I made a video with behind-the-scenes and vlogs, so check it out!
Once we had pulled into the parking lot, I headed to get in line at Gate MM.
The line was LONG!
But, believe it or not, this was the shortest line!
I walked around the Coliseum a bit to check out the scene, but I decided to get in line at 9:15.
Around 9:30, I decided to walk around the BART Plaza area and take some pictures.
The line at Gate LL was getting pretty long!
But I was in line at MM.
The A’s have these ticket kiosks everywhere around the Coliseum.
And of course, this banner! 4x > 2x (Just saying Giants fans)
Lines were just getting LONGER and LONGER.
I was chatting with a bunch of the bleacher folks, like Will.
When Will runs in to the bleachers, he carries these flags and banners.
I noticed these boxes… BOBBLEHEADS!
Around 10:30, Arlene invited Pascale and I to jump in line with the bleacher folks. Thank You!
Once I joined them, I noticed Ross’s shirt, which I absolutely LOVED!
Oaklandish is an Oakland-based clothing company. You can check out their website here.
Daniel, one of the bleacher guys had this little speaker.
Great sound quality for a device that small!
Guess what it was playing…
BERNIE LEAN!
At 11:07, the gates opened, and my sister and I sprinted inside, grabbing our bobbleheads along the way.
I was one of the first people in the bleachers, after of course, Will.
The run is actually somewhat tough, but it is MUCH harder for him, as he is carrying everyone’s flags and banners.
I headed over to the A’s bullpen, where the most action was taking place.
The players were all getting loose.
Stretching and such. (S/O to my sister for taking those last two pictures)
I was over there because Jarrod Parker was throwing a bullpen session.
Eventually, I decided to head over to the Orioles bullpen area, since the pitchers were arriving and the nearby stands were almost empty.
They started off stretching.
As the A’s players began to throw.
Pictured below are Grant Balfour (Upper Left) and Jesse Chavez (Lower Right)
Even though they were playing catch, it was getting a bit crowded.
And the Orioles began to toss.
I was all ready in my Orioles gear.
A’s pitchers that were running interacted with Orioles players when they were in that area.
Soon enough, it was 11:45 and there were only two guys playing catch, so I headed over there.
My parents were soaking up the sun in the RF Bleachers.
As the last two guys finished playing catch, I called out to Darren O’Day “Hit me here Darren!”
With that, he submarined me the ball!
If you want to know why I am smirking, I have NO clue at all.
Here I am with my Reggie Jackson bobblehead.
BTW, remember when I mentioned the RF bleacher shirt in my last game entry? That’s the one I’m wearing! Do you like it?
After grabbing a quick pizza lunch, I got back to notice Rollie Fingers in the bullpen. Oh yeah!
There were lots of players from the 1973 A’s gathered around the dugout.
Each current player or coach walked out with the player or coach that held the same position in 1973. Curt Young, the A’s pitching coach walked out with the pitching coach of the 1973 A’s.
Nate Freiman,the A’s first baseman is HUGE! 6 foot 8 inches.
Brandon Moss and the 1973 first baseman.
I seriously got chills watching it all.
Brett Andersosn
John Jaso was out in the bullpen, warming up with AJ Griffin.
Ray Fosse was on the field with Derek Norris.
The 1973 team started to line up.
Soon, Norris walked out with Ray Fosse and the Coliseum exploded!
I could tell all of the current and past players were enjoying it!
Eric Sogard walked out with Dick Green.
Vida Blue and Blue Moon Odom were standing out by the pitching crown.
Josh Donaldson walked out with then-3rd Baseman Sal Bando, along with manager Bob Melvin, who wears the number 6 in honor of Captain Sal.
Jed Lowrie was going to walk out with Bert “Campy” Campaneris.
Chris Young was out in LF with Joe Rudi.
Coco Crisp was out in CF with Billy North.
Do you recognize that name or face? Check out this photo. I got my picture with him, Sal Bando, and the 4 A’s World Series trophies at 2013 A’s FanFest.
As this all was taking place, AJ Griffin and his golden locks of hair were warming up in the bullpen.
There was a large group of photographers gathered on the field.
Almost all of the players were on the field.
Except for 1. Mr. October, Reggie Jackson, as presented by Josh Reddick.
It gave me chills. I could yell Josh was soaking it all in.
The field was now full with the 1973 World Series Champion Oakland A’s!
Everyone was taking pictures.
The coaches were gathered up behind home plate.
It was crazy to see such a talented team on the field.
There was a presentation of a check of some sort on the mound area.
As this was all taking place, players were warming up and mingling.
There was a group photo on the mound.
Then, the National Anthem was performed.
The people holding signs representing players that are no longer with us walked in the CF tunnel.
They gathered for one last group picture.
And then I took my focus to the players warming up.
As usual, the LF Bleachers were rocking. (Not like Right Field, but still cool!)
At 1:05, they all took the field!
The home plate meeting look place.
And we were ready to go!
AJ Griffin was on the hill for Oakland.
Adam Jones got to the plate in the top of the 1st.
And flied out to right field.
Coco Crisp led off for the A’s.
And popped out to the catcher…
John Jaso was due up after Coco…
And singled to right field.
Seth Smith was hitting in the 3-hole for the Green and Gold.
With a runner on first, the bleachers were getting pumped up.
After Jaso advanced to 2nd base on an error, Agent Smith flied out, bringing Jed Lowrie to the plate.
I can’t tell who this hitter is, but I LOVE his face!
This person had a ticket from the 1973 WS in Oakland.
In the bottom of the 2nd, Josh Donaldson doubled in Brandon Moss, giving the A’s a 1-0 lead.
Josh Reddick walked in his at bat in the 2nd inning.
Everyone was feeling good!
Coco Crisp then grounded out to end the inning.
Griffin took the mound in the top of the 3rd and he was dealing!
The bullpen was enjoying the game.
Around the time, my dad gave me the camera, and I had some fun taking pictures.
Here is the ball smacking into Brandon Moss’s glove on a foul popup.
Donaldson had another RBI hit, bringing the score to 2-0, before Reddick popped out to end the inning.
In the 4th inning, Chris Young doubled. But, it wasn’t before the Orioles scored 4 runs in the top of the inning.
Like I mentioned earlier, I had a blast taking pictures.
Jed Lowrie flied out in the 5th inning.
Josh Donaldson singled in the 6th for his 3rd hit of the game.
Even though the A’s were down, everyone was still confident.
This row of fans did a mid-inning trivia contest, where everyone got shirts.
Ross was drumming it out.
In the 7th inning, Ryan Flaherty grounded out first baseman Brandon Moss to pitcher AJ Griffin.
Sean Doolittle started to get loose in the bullpen. Note the balls above and below the bullpen phone on the left side of the picture.
Brian Matusz came into the game for the Orioles in the bottom of the 7th.
Josh Donaldson and Chris Young were sitting at the top step of the dugout.
Throughout the day, both the A’s TV and Radio booths brought in players and coaches from the 1973 A’s team to talk.
For those of you who don’t know… Josh Reddick makes a LARGE mess of seeds in RF. This photo doesn’t do it justice.
Jerry Blevins came on to pitch in the top of the 8th.
This is where things got interesting…
If you didn’t click the link, Nate McClouth hit a home run to Right Field. Shin, one of the bleacher folks caught the ball. He then tossed it to Jorge.
Guess what he did? He threw it back!
Believe it or not, that did not go over well with security. He got up on his seat and the ENTIRE stadium started chanting “LET HIM STAY! LET HIM STAY!”
He was getting everyone riled up, everyone was on his side.
Except for security…
Ross (Left) and Anson (Green Shirt) were pleading their case to security to let Jorge stay.
Then the cops showed up and more or less led him out of the bleachers.
He DID NOT want to leave.
But this guy meant business.
You could tell everyone was pretty pissed about the whole situation.
Like I said, the police officer “led” Jorge out of the bleachers.
Everyone was entranced.
I could tell the players were kind of confused.
Oh… And there was a game going on. The solo home run made the score 5-2. Then, a Chris Davis sac fly made it 6-2.
Jed Lowrie came up in the bottom of the 8th.
Then guess what happened?
Jorge was led back!
That made everyone pretty happy!
I think he was pretty happy.
Spencer got a picture with him.
You have to give the man props though.
Oh, and it was a ROCKET throw! He threw it from 3 rows back in the RF bleachers, in the middle of the row, to 2nd BASE! It was like I was watching the movie Rookie of the Year!
Everyone was cheering for him.
In the 8th, Josh Donaldson doubled for his 4th hit of the game.
Josh Reddick stepped to the plate.
He then flied out center field, but Brandon Moss came in to score, making it 6-3.
Not many people were paying attention to the game though.
Then Chris Young stepped to the dish.
Where he struck out…
Jorge was getting into it. Everyone had a good feeling about the game!
Omar Gonzalez was spending quality time with his young daughter Rhema.
Chris Resop took the mound for the A’s in the 9th.
Rodrigo was enjoying the game.
So was Anson!
The Orioles scored another run in the 9th, brining the score to 7-3.
Adam Rosales stepped into the box to lead off the 9th for Oakland.
And on the 6th pitch of the at bat, the pitch was thrown inside.
Hitting him in the head, causing him to dive to the ground.
Wow. Look at the reactions of the people sitting right behind home plate, on the right side of the picture!
The training staff and Bob Melvin came out to check on him.
He was walked to first base.
But… He stayed in the game!
This brought Coco Crisp to the plate, where…
Pedro Strop threw a wild pitch juuuuuust a bit inside.
Coco Crisp showed off his sweet dance moves.
Adam Rosales advanced to 2nd on the pitch.
Then, Coco walked.
This put runners on first and second, with no outs, putting the tying run in the on deck circle. The stadium went nuts!
The Orioles brought in closer Jim Johnson as John Jason stepped to the plate.
After 5 pitches, he slapped the 6th pitch of the at bat to left field to load the bases.
Rosales was on 3rd, Crisp on 2nd.
Seth “Agent” Smith stepped to the plate with no outs and the bases loaded.
Where he flied out to right.
With one out, Jed Lowrie came up, representing the tying run.
He found a pitch he liked…
Made contact with it…
Ran the ball out…
But he grounded into a game ending double play.
And that was the ballgame. 7-3 L to Baltimore.
Ah frustrations…
I got a picture with the 1 ball and my bobblehead.
And then Spencer photobombed me!!’
W
We gathered everything up.
And everyone started to file out.
Drew, one of the right field bleacher guys has an AWESOME mustache. Appropriate facial hair and shirt for the day.
After gathering our stuff, everyone filed out of the bleachers and gathered out in the concourse.
I was planning on attending the A’s game on Friday, May 17th, which is the 3rd Annual BACON FRIDAY, and I was planning on ordering a shirt, so I needed to give Omar Gonzalez, one of the RF Bleacher folks, my money for the shirt.
While I was talking with him, Rhema was being awfully cute!
I got one last picture of the field before we left the stadium.
We exited the stadium.
And we headed back to our car.
Overall, it was a great day!
BALLHAWKING STATS:
- 7th Game this Year
- 1 Ball at this Game
- 5 balls in 5 MLB games this season = 1 Ball Per Game
- 20 Balls in 7 Games this season = 2.86 Balls Per Game
- 6 Consecutive Games with at least 1 Ball
- 4 Consecutive MLB Games with at least 1 Ball
- 33 Lifetime MLB Baseballs
- 63 Total Balls
Nick Badders is a unofficial reporter for MLB.com. He writes the blog, 7000 Coliseum Way, and you can follow him on Twitter @nickbatters or his blog @7000ColiseumWay. You can also LIKE his blog on Facebook or follow him @nickbatters or his blog @7000ColiseumWay on Instagram. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
It all Started in 203…
So I’m sure you all have noticed the February, March, and April MLBlogs Latest Leaders, right?
February was an amazing month to say the least! Then came APRIL!
Towards the end of February, my math teacher decided it was his mission to get my blog to #1. He told EVERYONE in the school about it, telling everyone to check out 7000 Coliseum Way!
My view count EXPLODED when he did so!
In March, he did not do this, but in April, he picked back up again, making sure EVERYONE was reading EVERY post I put up!
After finding out that he was such a huge baseball fan, I talked with him a little bit.
Quick Intro:Room 203 is my math class. My math teacher is Mr. Hahn. And he is kind of a bad-ass.
Warning. This entry has nothing to do with Math and my performance in this entry does not have any affect on my grade in Math or any other classes.
First, his math classes have a Facebook and Twitter page. As readers of the 7000 Coliseum Way MLBlog, I request that you go follow him on Twitter and Like his page on Facebook. I know you guys don’t care about my math HW, but I think it will startle him enough to all of a sudden get a lot of followers!
Oh, and Hahn, WHY HAVE YOU NOT SUBSCRIBED OR COMMENTED YET????
He’s also a baseball fan. Actually, he is a HUGE baseball fan determined to make it onto my blog! He has supported my blog so much this year, THANK YOU to him for supporting me and being VERY determined to get my blog to #1 at MLBlogs.
I talked with him a few days ago to understand just how much he is into baseball. He had some great stories to share and is a really interesting guy!
3) Are those the only games you make it to each year?
I love minor league baseball. I go to probably 5-10 Minor League games a year and maybe 5-ish MLB games a year.
4) What is your favorite stadium that you have visited?
My favorite MLB stadium is definitely PETCO. There are a lot of little nuances throughout the stadium that a casual fan wouldn’t even bother looking for. My favorite MiLB stadium would be Greensboro Grasshoppers (the ball boy is a dog named Babe…how can you not buy a tickets just to see that?!)
6) Of all the games you have been to, can you think of one MLB and/or one MILB game that stands out to you as a favorite game?
No question here. I was at the A’s streak game where they won, I think; it was their 20th in a row. Another game(s) that stuck out to me was the games we saw Mike (now Giancarlo) Stanton play in Greensboro. He was 18 and already a man amongst boys. He was HUGE and his numbers were ridiculous compared to others.
7) When you do go to a Major or Minor League game, at what time to you try to get there?
It kind of depends on who I am with. If I am with my cousins we always get there early especially to MiLB games because you can actually talk to players and coaches. If I am with my family it is usually an hour before the games starts.
9) Now tell me about these two balls that you were VERY KIND in giving me.
My cousin was a minor league umpire and he umped in the Southern Atlantic League and the Northwest League. Two of our baseball trips was out the see him work and I caught both of those at games. I have a few others from those leagues so I could spare a few to give to an avid fan.
10) How many balls have you snagged in your life?
Combining both MLB and MiLB balls I probably have close to 50. I have caught a ball at Safeco Field, AT&T Park, the Oakland Coliseum, PETCO Park, Dodger Stadium, Angel Stadium, and also Bank One Ballpark in Arizona. It is easy to get balls at the MiLB games and now I leave that to my sons who love to interact with the players before, during, and after the games. And of course they have come home with their share of their own balls.
11) Do you remember the first ball you caught?
I can’t specifically remember my first ball, but one of the first is when I was a beginning teacher and I saw a few of my students in the front row behind the visitors dugout at the A’s game. I went down there to say hi and I was there for about an inning. The last out we were there a right-handed batter with a very late swing hit a ball very fast at us. I stood up and caught it with one hand and sat down very quick. I was in amazement I caught it and kind of embarrassed by all the cheering afterwards. I was with a few of my buddies and they didn’t believe I caught it, so I had to drag my students up there to tell them the story HAHA
12) I have an account at MyGameBalls.com and MyGameBalls.com Minors, where I have logged all 68 baseballs that I have snagged. Now that I have told you about these websites, you could see yourself creating an account?
I am definitely going to look into it.
The other is a success is off of a homerun by lance Berkman during BP at PETCO. It was coming to the sandy part of PETCO when I and this old gentleman dove after it after it hit the sand. I came up with it. yep yep!14) Of the close to 50 balls that you have caught, would you say that more of them have been BP Home Runs, Player Toss-Ups, Easter Eggs (Random Balls in the seats), or In-Game balls?
I would estimate about 8-10 of them being foul balls or batting practice balls and the rest are player toss ups. I get a lot of player toss-ups!! I have seen the A’s in a few stadiums so it is always good when you are wearing an A’s hat and player walks by
16) Can you share with me some of your most memorable moments from going to baseball games?
My most memorable times were times when I was with family. Going to games with my uncle, dad, brother, grandpas, and now my family and sons is great. It is a game that just keeps on giving
17) I shared with you on the first day of class that I write a top MLBlog. What was your first thought when you heard that?
My first reaction was “we have something in common and I will definitely connect with that student.”
18) A few days ago in class, you were having people go to my blog for a majority of the period, and throughout the day. What was your motivation for this and if my blog did get to #1, what would you do?
I am very competitive. SO if there was a way that I can help someone get up the “ranks” I will do it. Having kids go to your blog is just one of those ways. If you got to be #1, it would be great!!!
Wow! I am constantly amazed with the support that I have been given! Thank You very much to Mr Hahn for giving me endless support and Thank You to everyone in my 1st Block Class in Trimester 2 and 4th Block Class in Trimester 3!
Nick Badders is a unofficial reporter for MLB.com. He writes the blog, 7000 Coliseum Way, and you can follow him on Twitter @nickbatters or his blog @7000ColiseumWay. You can also LIKE his blog on Facebook or follow him @nickbatters or his blog @7000ColiseumWay on Instagram. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
Nick Badders
