9/24/13 Tigers at Twins: Target Field

The day started off well with a trip to Gate 3:

I like Gate 34, but when it’s not freezing out, Gate 3 has a certain level of serenity to it. That said, I got to Gate 3 only after first taking a trip to Gate 34 for over thirty minutes to try to get a ball bouncing out on the flag court.

After I got in, I got my first two baseballs courtesy of Prince Fielder. The first was a ball that I had tracked, but got into a row too early, and so when I realized the ball was going a good sized distance over my head, all I could do was jump and hope to find the ball in my glove when I came back down. I didn’t. But since there was no one behind me, I just turned around, saw the ball rattling around in the seats, and picked it up:

And when I realized that Prince Fielder was getting warmed up, I moved back a little so I could run back on the flag court if he launched a ball back there. Well he did. So I ran back to the spot where I took this picture from:

But when I realized the ball was falling short, I stopped and kept my eye on the ball. At that point, the man you see in front of me also realized where the ball was headed. So as he backed up to the spot where the ball was headed, I went forward to that spot. We got there at the same time, but he was in front of me. Because of this, I dipped under his glove and then jumped up as the ball fell down to earth. As I came down, I had no clue who had caught the ball. My guess was that we had both missed it and the ball was bouncing away from us on the flag court. When I looked in my glove, I was both surprised and felt bad for robbing the man so badly. Had I been moving backwards instead of forwards, the man would have caught my glove in his glove. Although he congratulated me on the catch, I still felt I owed someone a favor, so I gave the ball to the kid in the lower right-hand part of the last picture.

And then it was time for some more poaching of sorts. Rick Porcello meant to toss the ball to the kid in this next picture:

But as you can kid of see by the arrow I’ve drawn, he tossed it short and it hit the railing and bounced in the flower pots. Since I was behind the kid in case of an overthrow, I quickly jumped down the rows and pulled the ball out of the flowers and handed the ball to him. I then snagged two baseballs from a Tigers player I didn’t identify. I do, however, know the kid I gave the second ball of the two to:

See the guy in the leopard print suit and golden glove? Of course you do. But do you remember him from my Opening Day entry? Well, if you read that entry, it should be no surprise that he’s a Tigers fan, which is why he was at this game. Anyway, I talked to him for a while, and it came up that he had promised the kid under the arrow I’ve included a ball. I responded with that I would give him a baseball if I snagged another one first. And I snagged a ball less than thirty seconds later, so I did.

And that was it for BP. So for the game, I headed out to left field and sat in the bleachers there for most of the game:

But towards the end of the game, I ran to the dugout area in order to get ready to run down for an umpire ball when the game ended. In that inning or two between me getting there and the game ending, something special happened.  Chris Parmelee hit a foul ball that was going straight over my head. Before it could even reach me, though, I started sprinting back. I then saw the ball land in a row, and so I immediately ran into the row and fell on the ball, much like an offensive lineman on a fumble. Yay!

While I’d have MUCH rather it been a game home run, with this being the last week of the season, I was just glad to have gotten my first game ball of the season period. Unlike last year, it wasn’t so much me being completely incompetent when it comes to game balls; I just didn’t have many opportunities. In 2012 I remember about ten home run situations where I feel I could have had a home run had I done *something* different once the ball was hit; even if I did the correct “textbook” thing. But in 2013, there was definitely less than five of those same scenarios, if not less than four. Anyway, it was really nice to finally get one.

After the game, I headed to the umpire tunnel and got a ball from home plate umpire Brian O’Nora:

And just like that, my day went from an average five-ball game to a pretty good seven-ball game. I then gave one of my baseballs away to a kid on my way out of the stadium. Two games down in the week, four to go.

STATS:

• 7 Baseballs at this Game (3 pictured because I gave 4 away)

Numbers 726-732:

• 286 Balls in 60 Games= 4.77 Balls Per Game
• 7 Balls x 25,541 Fans= 178,787 Competition Factor
• 122 straight Games with at least 1 Ball
• 27 straight Games with at least 2 Balls
• 170 Balls in 34 Games at Target Field= 5.00 Balls Per Game
• 32 straight Games with at least 1 Ball at Target Field
• 12 straight Games with at least 2 Balls at Target Field
• Time Spent On Game 3:32-11:04= 7 Hours 32 Minutes