8/5/12 at the Oakland Coliseum
This was my 2nd game in the past 6 days. Let’s go!
We left the house at 8:40 for my dad to drop my mom and I off at BART. My sister had like a sleepover or something the night before, and she was going to come later with my dad.
My mom and I got to BART at about 9:00 and the Coliseum at about 10:30.
Once we exited the BART ramp, we headed towards Gate C, where I figured I would get in line. There was nobody in this line, or the 2 up at the BART ramp. (B and A were closed) Then, my mom reminded me that we needed to get tickets to another game, so we headed over to gate D to buy the tickets. I then remembered that the cast of Nitro Circus 3D was going to be greeting people at Gate D, so I jumped in line while my mom went ahead and purchased tickets for Scott Hatteberg bobblehead day.
Now, let me say right now, it will be hell for ballhwaking. Not only is there a bobblehead (With a sound chip) giveaway, but before the game, there is an on-field reunion 30 minutes before the game starts of the 2002 team that won 20 consecutive games. Then, after the game, if you pay an extra $12, you get to go on the field and watch the movie Moneyball on a huge screen above the center field fence.
I don’t expect to snag many if any at balls, but for me, this is such a great opportunity, that I can’t pass it up.
I was the only one is line
I started talking with this security guard at the gate
He thought I was about the coolest person ever. I talked about baseball, my blog, and stuff like that. He was kind enough to show me the schedule for the day, as I had told him that I snag baseballs. On it, it said that the A’s and Jays were supposed to take BP. If this was true, I was pumped!
He was under the impression that I was an All-Star baseball player. (Not close) This may have had something to do wit the fact that I had an 2 baseball glove, one being a catchers mitt. I also told him I am a 2nd baseman and short stop. That may have led him on to believe I was a leadoff hitter that will be drafted in the first round after high school. I guess his cousin was drafted 6th overall in the last NBA draft, which I think started the whole discussion. If you ever get in line at Gate D and see him, tell him Nicholas Badders sent you.
He ended up walking away when kids starting filing out of the coliseum from some class that A’s players were giving.
This lady was walking around, saying that Chevy was giving away free sun glasses. All you had to do was sign up for a chance to win a car. I sent my mom to investigate, and she ended up getting me some green A’s sunglasses.
Right after she got back, this pulled into the parking lot.
Nitro Circus! This is who got out…
If anybody can identify them for me, that would be great!
One of the things on the myGameBalls.com photo scavenger hunt involved getting a picture of you that had a celebrity in the shot. I complied this picture to submit that I hoped would be worth 6 points.
Those pictures were taken my dad. He arrived with my sister and joined us in line 15 minutes before the gates opened.
When the gates finally opened, I grabbed the giveaway of a Jemile Weeks drawstring backpack and headed to check if there was BP. The cages were up and the Blue Jays were on the field stretching! I ran up to the concourse, threw on my Blue Jays hat, and took off my A’s jersey to reveal my MLB Fan Cave shirt. I was running all over the place.
I ran down towards the Toronto dugout, where there were some players stretching. I called out for a ball, but had no luck. BP got under way, and knowing that the Jays don’t have a lot of lefty power, headed down behind their bullpen. I quickly got a toss-up from their bullpen catcher Alex Andreopoulos.
I am very glad that I didn’t go into the bleachers. There were 2. Yes, 2, balls hit into the bleachers in all of BP. They were both off the bat of Rajai Davis, the speedster that isn’t known at all for his power and jump-started his career with the A’s. The first one bounced into the bleachers from the steps between the foul pole and seats in LF, and the other was hit into the 2nd deck, bounced out, and into the bleachers. The same guy got both. Jose Bautista didn’t hit, and guys like Edwin Encarnacion hit balls out, but ones that didn’t go into the seats.
In total, I guess about 6 balls were hit clear over the wall by the Blue Jays.
There were a decent amount of other people with me down the right field line, and almost none of them had gloves.
This probably was the most I had ever moved around in BP. I was running up and down between the Jays’ dubout and bullpen the entire time. There were no balls that were hit foul into the seats, so I mostly followed balls that were weakly hit. There was one where I leaned over the railing, and even though the usher was holding my legs, I was unable to get it.
It also didn’t help that there were about 50 kids in a roped off area that were getting balls rolled, thrown, and hit to them. About 3 had gloves. Oh well.
It turns out, before BP had started, my dad took a bunch of pictures of A’s pitchers warming up. He also got a cool picture of Casey Chavez, the A’s bullpen catcher rubbing mud on the bullpen baseballs.
Lets start off with Sean Doolitle
Pedro Figueroa:
Casey Chavez (Again)
Travis Blackley (And his awesome glove)
He got some great shots of Blue Jays hitters during BP
The security guard’s sheet was wrong, but that was no big deal. The A’s didn’t hit, but the Blue Jays did. They did end pretty quickly, though. I would guess they hit for 25 minutes. Considering the fact that they had started at 11:15 and ended at 11:40, I was somewhat disappointed. I was also excited that this gave me time to get some more things of the scavenger hunt checklist.
The first picture that I checked off after the one before the gates opened was this hopefully 10-pointer. Todd, Tim, and Kellan Cook took a picutre of Tim sitting in the Orange seat at Camden Yards, holding up Todd’s phone with a picture of Cal Ripken Jr.
I took a photo imitating it. But, I was sitting in the seat, where David Ortiz’s 400th HR had landed.
Then, my dad decided to get this picture.
After this, we headed up to the 3rd deck, as I wanted to try out a cool new iPhone app I had found call 360. It is a 360 degree panoramic picture app. It free, and cool. If you have an IOS device, you should get it. I went to the last row and took this.
I also got this picture on my phone’s regular camera
Then, we headed to get another picture off the checklist. For 2 points, you need to get a picture with a statue in/at the stadium. Right by the Westside Club, I complied this picture
3 statues. From left to right, the 2008 Statue of Liberty All-Star Game A’s statue, the A’s giant piggy bank statue, and the 2010 Mickey Mouse All-Star Game A’s statue.
Then, we headed into the Westside Club, which I believe I have never mentioned before on this blog. It is basically a restaurant/bar in the Coliseum. They even have a custum sandwhich place called Deli 215.
From the Westside Club, we headed back to our seats. I there realized that we didn’t have aisle seat. Other than catching a foul ball, my goal for the game was to find an aisle seat a few rows up.
Shortly after I got back, I went with my sister to get an ice cream helmet, which she thoroughly enjoyed.
When we got back, I grabbed my glove and headed over to where Derek Norris was playing catch with bench coach Chip Hale
When Norris was done, I called out to him for a ball, but it turns out Chip Hale had all of them, and he tossed all 3 of the balls that he had to deserving little kids with gloves.
At this point, Tommy Milone was just about done playing catch with Casey Chavez, and was headed to warm up in the bullpen.
halfway through his warm up tosses, Stomper in his “Smiling Chevron Car” and his “herd” ran around the warm-up track with all of their “goodies.” They had the usual bead necklaces and Ryan Sweeney jerseys that were giveaways in 2010 or something like that.
I got a yellow necklace and gave it to a kid who was sad because he hadn’t gotten anything.
As the A’s relievers started to walk in from the clubhouse, everyone (Minus Pat Neshek) was signing for fans down the line. I got my ticket signed by Pedro Figueroa and then Jerry Blevins.
My family always seems disappointed when I sit by myself at games and go for balls, so at this game, I made a point to make sure to sit with my sister, who utterly hates me ballhawking. This my view for the game.
As usual, my dad got some amazing pictures. Like, really good pictures. As usual, I am going to share them with you.
Anthony Gose bunting in the top of the first inning
Coco Crisp fouling off a pitch
Josh Reddick at bat in the bottom of the first inning
Tom Milone pitching
Derek Norris at this dish
Brandon Inge rounding the base on Norris’s double
Coco Crisp swinging
Yoenis Cespedes swinging
Somebody on the Blue Jays hitting
Evan Scribner in the bullpen
Tom Milone releasing a pitch
Coco Crisp at the plate
Birds on the tarps on the 3rd deck
Rajai Davis swinging
Sean Doolittle in the bullpen
Pedro Figueroa warming in the bullpen
So I bet you are all wondering about foul balls during the game. There were 2 into the seats within 10 yards of me. There were 5 or so that the ball boy could have handed to me, but didn’t. So the two that landed in the seats… 1 bounced on the field and into the second row in the section to my left.
The other I should have caught. I am hitting myself over this. The ball was hit right at me. I lost it in the sky, but I eventually found it. It bounced softly 2 rows behind me and iI ran back and stuck my glove on the ball, which was in a cup holder. I held it there for a few seconds, then pulled it off. I grabbed it with my hand, but some lady yanked it out of my hand. Good going lady. An usher came over and asked if everyone was ok, so I told him that I was emotionally wounded. He chuckled and asked why. I explained. The lady offered the ball to me, but I told here to find a little kid to give it to.
I tried to stay happy, but I was just frustrated about the ball. I should have been able to hold onto it, but it left my hand. There isn’t anything I can do about it at this point.
Tommy Milone just wasn’t on his game, and allowed 6 runs over the course of his 6 innings. Going into the bottom of the 9th, the A’s had RBI doubles from Derek Norris and Coco Crisp, and a 3-run home run from Josh Reddick.
Norris stepped to the plate in the 9th, hoping to extend the game.
Just foul! By just a few feet too! He fouled off 2-3 pitches barely foul, eventually striking out. The A’s would lose 6-5. No Pie. No Kool and the Gang. But overall, it was a fun day!
Before we left, there was one more thing I wanted to do. I had seen a ball under the advertisement board by the bullpen, and something came to my mind. One more thing on the photo scavenger hunt list was to retrieve a ball from the field using items strictly from concession stands. I found a cardboard tray, and after a little modifying, tried to retrieve the ball. This is the photo I submitted.
And on our way out, I saw this sign, which the A’s took down the next day. I miss Kurt Suzuki. I hope he does well in our nation’s capitol.
BALLHAWKING STATS: 
• 1 ball at this game
• 9 balls in 9 Major League games this season = 1 ball per game.
• 18 balls in 12 baseball games this season = 1.5 balls per game.
• 14 Lifetime Major League baseballs
• 23 total balls
• 3 consecutive games in Oakland with at least 1 ball
• 4 consecutive games with at least 1 ball
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.
6/24/12 at Oakland Coliseum
Time for another game! This game would feature the Oakland Athletics and San Francisco Giants. Great, you would think, right? Yes and no. If you are a ballhawk, it is miserable. The Coliseum is already bad enough for ballhawking and then you give it a sold out crowd. Yeah. But overall, I was looking forward to it. I had never been to an A’s/Giants game and I figured it would be a fun challenge. Let’s do this.
Originally, I wanted to get to the Coliseum around 9am for the 11am gate opening and 1:05 start time. Well my dad didn’t exactly enjoy getting there an hour early on Thursday and my mom and sister didn’t enjoy a waiting in line for an hour and a half on Wednesday. So my mom proposed that she and I take BART to the Coliseum to get there at the time I wanted. Then he and my sister would show up around noon. That was fine with me.
So my mom and I got to BART around 9:50 and the Coliseum at 10:30.
We got in line at gate C and were the first ones in line. Again. It was awesome.
I didn’t think there’d be batting practice. The game the day before had been at 4:15, so I was overjoyed when I ran into the stadium and saw this
The cages were up and I was excited! I was feeling so good. I figured since there was nobody on the field only the Giants would be hitting. They took the field at 11:30ish and I was excited to say the least.
Wow. BP was boring. Very boring. Only ONE ball was hit to the right field bleachers and that was in the very front corner of the bleachers. I talked with multiple ballhawks, including one that I met on Wednesday. I talked with a Giants fan that makes it out to this game every year. He is the guy in the Orange afro in this picture…
The only toss-up that I saw during batting practice was from Sergio Romo to some lady that had screamed at the top of her lungs. Sigh. It was very frustrating. I put on my catcher’s mitt, with no hope of catching a home run, and focused on toss-ups. I had no luck.
And before I knew it, BP was over, and I was without a single ball. I am starting to wonder if the RF line would be a better for BP than the bleachers.
I went straight to our seats between the Giants bullpen and foul pole to meet up with my family. I stayed there until the game started.
After Matt Cain finished warming up with bullpen catcher Bill Hayes, I asked Bill for the ball. He flat out said no and tossed it to someone to the dugout side of the bullpen. That was the last chance I had for a ball before the game started, because ushers start to check tickets right after batting practice is over, and it is almost impossible to get into another section.
Now for those of you that have ever been to an A’s game on a Sunday, you know that before the first pitch, Stomper will drive around the warning track in the “Smiling Chevron Car,” followed by some girls and a guy that have bags filled with things like bead necklaces and logo baseballs. For this game, I ended up with this
I guess this time, they had necklaces, Bay Bridge Series baseballs, and t-shirts, when I opened it up, this is what I saw..
MLB Fan Cave! I was surprised that they had t-shirts, and I was figuring it would just be a Chevron shirt or something like that. Cool!
A.J. Griffin had been called up from AAA Sacramento to make the start, in place of Brandon McCarthy, who was placed on the DL. This game would be Griffin’s debut. In the last game I went to, I saw Derek Norris make his MLB debut, and he would do the catching in this game. A.J. struck out the first batter of the game on 3 pitches, which was really great to see.
I only came close to two foul balls during the game. The first one was hit right to the other end of my row, but because it was so crowded, even though I tried my hardest to get to it, I was unable to get the ball. The second time came in the bottom of the 3rd inning, when Cliff Pennington fouled a ball in my direction. I had a hard time tracking the ball, but when I realized it was going to go a little over the rail, I reached over to position myself. I heard an usher yell “No!” very loudly, so I backed away as he ran down the steps. Gregor Blanco caught it and came crashing against the wall right in front of me. When I was watching the game over on my TV, you can see me behind the Comcast SportsNet logo.
There were some very obnoxious Giants Fans sitting right in front of us
There was only one other ball in the entire game that I cam relatively close to, I wouldn’t have had any chance of getting it, but it was very controversial. In the bottom of the 6th inning, Seth Smith came up with runners on first and second. He drew the count full and he fouled a ball down the line. It hit the line and rolled into the corner. Gregor Blanco pointed to foul territory, as if to say the ball was foul. And guess what? Todd Tichenor, the first base umpire, called it foul. Josh Reddick, the runner on second had already scored, and the hit would have given the A’s a 3-2 lead. But no. He called the ball foul and the count remained full.
In the replay, you can clearly see chalk fly up, so the ball is fair. But I guess the umpires didn’t see it that way.
They zoomed in on me looking down the line to see Bob Melvin arguing with first base umpire Todd Tichenor
Here, you can see Blanco running after the ball. I circled my mom and I in red.
In this shot, you can see me about to ask Gregor Blanco for the ball
Here, there are two things you can see, and I have labeled them for your convince
1) Nicholas Badders (Meeeee!)
2) The ball bouncing off of the line and chalk flying up
So I asked Gregor Blanco for the ball, and he said “Yeah, sure.” I was relieved not to get shut out for the third game in a row! Right when he went to toss it to me, I heard a loud “NO!” from the Giants bullpen, so he rolled the ball to Sergio Romo. Great. I had a feeling that they were worried that there was paint that you could see on the ball, and they didn’t want me to have it.
A.J. Griffin did allow 2 runs in the first on a home run by Buster Posey, but at the end of the inning, when he came in the dugout, he said he wasn’t going to allow any more runs for the rest of the game. Fro the next 5 innings, he matched Matt Cain pitch for pitch. Bob Melvin put in Sean Doolittle to pitch after A.J. walked Buster Posey to open up the 7th.
Doolittle, a former first baseman, pitched a solid 7th and got the first two out of the 8th.
Jim Miller got the last out of the 8th and pitched a 1-2-3 top of the 9th.
I forget when in the game it was, but Jeremy Affeldt came right in front of my seat and on his way back to the bullpen, I gave him a fist bump. It was pretty cool.
Going into the bottom of the 9th, Yoenis Cespedes, Seth Smith, and Brandon Inge were due up. Cespedes singled to left and Jonny Gomes came on to pinch run for him.
Seth Smith struck out swinging and Brandon Inge singled and there were runners on first and second with Brandon Moss, one of the A’s hottest hitters at the plate. He struck out.
Now due up was rookie Derek Norris. Keep in mind that he was without an extra-base hit, home run, walk-off hit, or walk-off home run in his career.
He brought the count full. There were runners on first
And second.
With 2 outs, the runners would be going. And the pitch…
A’s Win!
Here are some pictures from the home run and celebration
The Swing…
Watching the ball…
Jonny Gomes jumping on his way to the plate…
Players running in from the dugout…
Derek Norris running home…
Look how high Derek Norris is jumping…
Derek is somewhere in there…
They did end up ripping his shirt off…
This is his post-game interview with Comcast SportsNet California. I felt bad for him because he got a shaving cream pie to the face along with tubs of Gatorade and water dumped on him. I think he may have had contacts on too
Josh Reddick came to his rescue with some towels
That he promptly used
And his interview with MLB Network
After all of the celebration had died down, I began to wander the stadium for any loose balls while the kids run the bases thing was set up
So if you guys don’t already know, on Monday, July 2nd, Zack Hample is going to be doing something pretty cool. He is going to attempt to set a world record. And it has nothing to do with video games. He is going to attempt to catch a baseball dropped from a helicopter 1000 feet in the air. This is the entry he wrote on his blog about it. This is an entry on his blog about practicing for it. Ballpark Digest wrote an article about what Zack is doing. And finally, the Lowell Spinners wrote an article about it, because their ballpark is where the whole event is taking place.
This brings me to the fact that I will be off next week because I will be at Boy Scout camp. I get back July 7th, and am hoping to go to the A’s game July 8th. I guess we will have to wait and see because I have no games written in stone for the month of July.
BALLHAWKING STATS:
• 0 balls at this game
• 4 balls in 6 Major League games this season = 0.667 ball per game.
• 7 balls in 9 baseball games this season = 0.778 ball per game.
• 9 Lifetime Major League baseballs
• 12 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.
6/28/11 at O.co Coliseum
First of all, I want to thank my dad for a) taking time off of work to do this with me; b) buying tickets for thr Doubleheader; c) waiting out the rain delay; and d) being generally awesome in supporting me in this.
I left my house at 5:00 to be there for the 7:05 game, despite all the rain in the Bay Area. My dad and I got tickets for another game and then entered the Coliseum. I mean the O.co Coliseum, sorry. And it was a Free Parking Tuesday. Sorry, I mean Chevy Freey Parking Tuesday…
Well, when I got inside, and looked on the field, this is what I saw:
Oh, Joy! The tarp was being put on the field.
A few minutes later, the tarp is on:
The tarp was on the field and it was 6:15. Thing were not looking good for me and my dad. Nobody was on the field except for the groundscrew, so no chance toget any ball or autographs. I headed to hte team store to get a 2011 A’s yearbook, this was my first A’s game of the year, and then went back to check on the field. Still, a tarp.
Still tarped on. I went to get a burger from thsi awesome place at the coliseum called the Burger Shack. Best double cheeeseburger ever! (Other than In-n-Out, of course!) I watched from the LF foul pole. Then, off for the fish n chips for my dad. By that time, it was 6:45 and the game stars in 20 minutes. We went to sit in some random seats adn watched them start to take off the tarp:
Then, we went over to our real seats and watched them take the tarp off. Eventually the tarp was off, sometime around 7 o’clockish:
Then we spent 75 Minutes listening to 2 men siting a few rows behind us yell at the groundskeepers for not doing their job and how they were fired and a bunch of other crap. THe groundskeepers were doing 3 main things: 1) shoveling water out of the outfield; 2)spreading dry dirt on the infield and mixing it in with the wet dirt; and 3)standing next to the tarp for no good reason, as seen in the picture above.
Finally the game started at 8:17 or something like that and the first batter of the game, Emilio Bonifacio singled, and it was the ONLY hit the Marlins got in the entire game! Because of my seats, I was in a horrible ballhawking spot. Then, I realized in about the second inning that there were about 7 foul balls that had landed in the section 2 sections away. Of course no more foul balls came to us there for the rest of the game.
In the bottom of the the 7th, some kind man came up to my dad and I and asked if we wanted to sit in the first row right behind the A’s dugout. He was some awesome old guy that was leaving. My dad and I took the tickets and SCORE! We sat behind the dugout for the rest of the game.
Our view was amazing, we were sitting on the aisle and I was pounding on the top of the dugout. Gio was pitching amazing and yeah. After the A’s finished warming up in the top of the 8th, and Tye Waller threw me a warm-up ball.
Waller
The game ended and the A’s won 1-0. Good day. I stayed around to see if I could get an more balls or get Kur Suzuki’s autograph, he was doing a postgame interview with Comcast SportsNet California. It was so cool, we could hear Kurt Talking, answering questions and it was awesome. 
Then the ushers got mad at us for still being there and made us leave. Overall, good day!
A Loose 5-0 to Bronx Bombers…
Bartolo Colon
Perfect weather on memorial day in front of a sell-out crowd of 35,067 at the Overtock.com coliseum in Oakland. There was just one thing missing. The A’s bats completely disapeared as they were shut out by Bartolo Colon and the Yankees 5-0.
Trevor Cahill only allowed four hits, inculding a home run my Mark Teixeria, but allowed 4 runs and tied his season high with 5 walks. Colon never strayed from a steady supply of strikes — 71 out of 103 pitches — that consistently found the mid-90s zone on the radar gun all the way through the last pitch in his first complete game since July 5, 2006, at Seattle. The beating followed a healthy stretch of offensive production, as the A’s entered the contest batting .286 over their last eight games, five of which resulted in victory. Aside from doubles off the bats of Josh Willingham and Cliff Pennington, the A’s couldn’t manage much in the hit column. And the walks were missing, too, as Colon refused to offer up a free pass. Cahill’s location was just as good, but only in innings not named the first. The young hurler admitted to losing sense of his mechanics a touch, as he did in his last outing, and noted that adjusting his arm slot when necessarily has presented the biggest problem. Previously, Cahill had allowed just one first-inning run for a 0.82 ERA and .139 opponents average in the first frame this year, and he had surrendered just six total in 41 first innings in his career.
One possible bright spot for the A’s was to see Mark Ellis 
contiue is fantastic defense as he made a brillinat play in the fourth, snagging a Brett Gardner line drive to end a Yankees threat.
Josh Willingham doubled in the second, but the A’s just couldn’t bring him home to score a run.In the bottom of the 6th inning, Kevin Kouzmanoff singled to start the inning, but was thrown out at second on a Coco crsip ground out. The A’s failed to score Coco, as Daric Barton grounded out to Robinson Cano. Kurt Suzuki singled to lead off the eight, but was erased on a double play grounded into by Mark Ellis. Cliff Pennington doubled to lead off the bottom of the ninth, with the A’s hoping to aviod being shut out. Coco crisp grounded out to second base and advanced Cliff to thrid. The A’s had a runner on third with one out, but Daric Barton popped out to Alex Rodriguez in foul territory. They had two outs and a runner on third, but David DeJesus flied out to Brett Gardner to seal the shut out for Bartolo Colon. 
This could have been a winnable game for the A’s only if they had been able to score some runs…
Nick Badders
