8/13/11 at O.co Coliseum

August 19, 2011

Another baseball game with my really, really (did I say really?) awesome family.

Today was Ray Fosse Bobblehead day. Oh Yeah!

Before we could head to Oakland, we had to make a few stops so, we left our house at 9:00 and got to the Coliseum at about 10:50. Ugh. We got our tix and then got in line. it freaking went halfway around the stadium! So, we finally got in at 11:15 or so. When I got in, there was batting practice.

Yes! I gave all my stuff to my mom, except for my glove, pen, string and rubber band (to be explained soon) and ran to the LF bleachers. I just couldn’t believe my luck. This was completely unexpected. Well I got out there and got ready, unfortunately, nobody on the Rangers was hitting dingers to LF, until I ran to RF. Oh boy!

Well, I stood in the aisle, ready for anything, but everything was heading to RF, CF, or the BBQ terrace in LF, just not the LF bleachers.

I knew everybody on the field, and tried my best, but had no luck at all. One guy to my left was sandwiched in the first row and snagged 7 balls. 2 were home runs. And, yeah. And some other little kid could have gotten 9, but we dropped about 7 of them. 2 of those landed on the Out of town scoreboard.

Ready to hear about that pen, string, and rubber band. Here we go.
Well, if you have not hear of Zack Hample, shame on you. He has this awesome “secret weapon” called the glove trick. This is what it says on his blog:

1) The materials. Tie the string to the handle of your glove and keep it tucked away in the palm when you’re not using it. It’s a bit uncomfortable at first, but you’ll get used to it.

2) Hook the band under the flap on the outside of your glove’s pocket. (If there’s no flap, you have two choices: improvise or get a new glove.)

3) Stretch the band over the tip of your glove and prop the glove open with the Sharpie. (Without the Sharpie, the glove won’t stay open. Normal pens don’t work as well because they’re thin and sometimes slip through the spaces between the fingers. When you have everything set up, the space between the band and the tip of the glove needs to be slightly smaller than the ball.)

4) Lower your glove over the ball. (At this point, you’ll be dangling the glove by the string. I’m just holding the glove itself so I could take a decent pic. Anyway, the glove’s weight forces the band to stretch around the ball. But first make sure that the band is not too tight or the ball won’t go in, or too loose or the ball won’t stay in. This takes practice.

5) It’s a delicate operation. Lift the glove slowly so the ball doesn’t fall out. (This is the view from below, complete with the ceiling light in the hallway outside my apartment. Notice how the band has stretched back to hold the ball in place.)

Oh, and don’t tell anyone how the trick works. It’s a secret.

I did all of this, everything, perfectly, having practiced it on the stairs at home, everything. so I was ready and yeah. So i get all set up ready to do it, and these two guys next to me are encouraging me a lot. Everyone else, was telling me no, how I would get ejected, how there were secret camera everywhere, how it is trespassing onto the field, and a little kid like me (i am 13!) doesn’t need any balls when i don’t have any to begin with. (Ouch!) Well, I never did get those two balls. Because I kinda didn’t want to get ejected.

Here is the out of town scoreboard. Its a random pic I found, but the yellow line above all the scores is the line the ball has to pass for it to be a home run. Would lowering my glove down onto that platform be ejection worthy? Let me know in the comments. And for the record, this scoreboard is behind the wall.

Anyway, I decided to come back for those two balls after the game. I mean, I can’t get thrown out after the game, right? I’ll get back to that later. Well, I get back to my seat, and according to my mom and sister, If I had gone to our seats, I could have gotten 3 balls during BP great! Just great!

Well, other than that, the game was boring. The A’s lost 7-1. Jemile Weeks lead off the bottom of the first with a triple.
And yeah, before the game, cause it was rotary appreciation day, Boy Scout Troop 103 presented the colors (flags) and I am now trying to see if my troop can do that. We are pretty awesome.

That aside, I was still determined to get those to balls on the scoreboard. so, after the game, I started to make my way over there, only to see that some lady had *JUMPED* down on top of the scoreboard onto the platform and tossed the two balls back up into the bleachers. That really set me off. And then she needed 4 people to pull her back up. What BS!

Well, let me know what you think in the comments. Yeah. Down there.

Written by Nick Badders Posted in A's, Athletics, batting practice, rubber band, sharpie, Weeks, Zack Hample