5/15/2009 – Brewers at Astros

June 16, 2009

If there’s one thing I love about batting practice more than anything
else, it’s taking someone who’s never been before.  I’m often amazed at
number of people who don’t even know what batting practice is, let
alone that you can go watch it and catch a ton of balls.  Such was the
case with my friend Kevin.  All of his boys play baseball and he’s a
pretty big sports fan, but he’d never gone to batting practice in his
entire life.  It doesn’t help matters much that he lives in Oklahoma
City and is hours away from any MLB team.  Today he happened to be in
Houston for the Brewers game so I told him I’d introduce him to the
fabulous world of BP. 

I went to get the cheapo tickets and
was bummed to find that the normal $7 cheapies were being sold only
with a PowerAde label for $1.  That made the cheapest seats available,
without going to get a PowerAde, five dollars more at $12.  To top it
off, once the game was underway, the cheap seats were empty.  I’m
pretty sure that the club made more money off the extra money paid for
the “new cheap seats” than they lost on the promotion by giving them
away for a buck to the folks with labels.  Lesson learned, because I
now carry PowerAde labels in my wallet.

We saw the last two or
three batters of the Astros batting practice.  It sucks because the
gates only open an hour and a half before game time during the week so
you only get about five or ten minutes of Astros BP before the visitors
take the field.  Nothing from the Astros today.  I set Kevin up along
the front rail and gave him my roster so he could call out to the
players.  I am pretty familiar with the Brewers so I felt confident
giving up my cheat sheet.  We waited around a bit and Craig Counsell
hit one that sailed over my head and bounced into the seats two rows
behind me.  I had time to climb one row before a group swarmed where
the ball landed.  I looked down in time to see that it had rolled down
to my row and was about to roll to the one I had previously occupied. 
I quickly and quietly gloved Ball #1 on the day and no one
noticed.  I just walked over to the aisle and stood waiting while about
6 people searched in vain for the ball.  It took them a good minute or
two to give up and I never let on that I had snatched it.  No one
around ever noticed, it was sweet. 

The Brewers write witty
sayings on their practice balls.  Some are comedic, some are poetic,
and some are philosophical.  Ball #1 read “Reach For The Stars”. 
Interesting, but lazy.  I wanted to find one that really moved me.  I
later noticed Mitch Stetter was checking each one that he caught before
tossing them to the bucket.  I asked him what the best one he found
that day read and he said, “Lumberjack”.  I tossed him the one I had
snagged earlier.  He read it and tossed it back with a chuckle.  A
minute or two later he caught one, read it and tossed it to me. 
“Effort Knows No Score”.  Deep stuff.  Sounds like a halftime speech by
a small town six-man football coach.  I wasn’t sure if he was tossing
it to me just to read or to keep, so I wound up to throw it back and he
motioned for me to keep it.  Cool.  Ball #2. 

Meanwhile,
Kevin was having no luck.  I walked down to him to make sure everything
was going well.  He said he was calling to all the players, but no
luck.  It doesn’t help his cause that he’s about 6’4″ and is a full
grown man in a crowd of kids.  I told him that he just needed to get
creative.  That’s when I spotted Corey Hart.
I’m not sure what it is
about Corey Hart, but he always throws me a ball.  Every game.  He sees
me, recognizes me, and tosses me a pearl.  Just like that.  I can’t
explain it, I’ve never met him or talked to him.  I guess he just
appreciates the ballhawk, who knows.  I knew today would be another
sure thing because I had my “Happy Youngster” shirt on, so the Brewers
in the know, like Corey, would recognize that.  Anyway, I figured I’d
aggravate Kevin a bit so as soon as I saw Corey was going to catch a
fly I said, “You’re doing it wrong, watch.”  Then I yelled to Corey and
flashed my glove.  He turned and fired it right into my glove for Ball #3 of the day.  I thought Kevin was just going to leave right there, but I ended up letting him in on it. 

We
waited a while longer with no action nearby.  Then a ball rolled up
below Kevin on the warning track.  The security guard who has it out
for me and the glove trick was no where in sight so I lowered my glove
down and reeled in Ball #4.   Another “Reach for the Stars”
ball.  I guess the assistants were getting lazy.  As I finished winding
up my string, Prince Fielder hit a book rule double right at us.  It
was coming to my right so I reached across and grabbed it… right in
front of Kevin.  Ball #5 on the day, but I actually felt really
bad about it as soon as I caught it because my glove was literally
inside of his and had I not been there he surely would have caught it. 
I tried to give it to him but he wouldn’t take it so I gave it to a kid
nearby.  It didn’t say anything witty and was pretty banged up anyway.  As I made my way back to my spot in the aisle one section over, Prince hit another one to the wall that someone flipped up to Kevin.  At least my interception didn’t cause him to get shut out.

The rest of BP went on uneventful with only one close one hit to either of us.  We moved over to the third base line where Dave Bush was warming up with Mike Rivera.

  After they were finished Dave tossed me Ball #6 on the day.  It was rubbed up nicely and didn’t have a single scuff.  ( I would later get this ball autographed by Andy Pettitte at a Yankees v. Rangers game in Arlington ).  Not a bad take today.

We ended up just sitting down where we were along the third base line, even with Ryan Braun and Carlos Lee in left field.  We spent most of the game here.   

Kevin left around the seventh inning and I moved down to the dugout again and was shut out by the umpire. 

SNAGGING STATS:

• 6 balls at this game (3 thrown, 2 hit, 1 glove trick) 

• 29 balls in 5 games this season = 5.8 per game

Written by mlblogslonestar Posted in Dailies