The Home Opener was great for me in every way besides the final score and from a ballhawking perspective, there were WAY too many fans and it made it tough to navigate and outfield toss-ups were seemingly out of the question. Still I snagged four balls and it was a great start.

 I decided to make my goal for this game the exact same as the last game; four balls. This would be a tall task, as I was still under the weather and with the weather not being as great as it was during the home opener not many home runs would be hit.

 I got to the ballpark quite early and was close to the front of the line and threw with Nick Pelescak and Erik Jabs on the Clemente Bridge. Both were at yesterday’s lengthy win against the Colorado Rockies but neither even came close to making it the distance as the weather got quite cold and most likely unbearable.

 The throwing on the Clemente Bridge was the first time I was able to get a ball in my glove, so I knew that I would be ready for anything this game had.

 Things got off to a rocky (again, no pun intended) start as I entered the ballpark rather quickly but with Erik and Nick ahead of me searching for Easter Eggs in the lower deck, I again went up to the bleacher general admission area and unfortunately found nothing. Erik and Nick each found a ball, right by the bullpen so I almost certainly would not have had anything anyways.

 The Pirates portion of BP was rather slow for me, as all kinds of lefties came up. I always love a fellow lefty but myself and the other Pirates season ticket holders are only allowed in left field for the first half hour on weekdays and hour on weekends so this was bad. Pirates BP is likely not going to contribute much to my cause as only Matt Diaz really has the capability to hit the ball into the left field bleachers with much regularity. Hopefully Chris Snyder can come back soon so we have another reliable right presence to fill up our gloves.

 I got shut out during the Pirates portion of BP because of this as well as because there were lots of girls and kids and they got all of the toss-ups so quite a slow time for me.

 I quickly changed into my Rockies gear and sneaked up to the second level where I walked to the baseline box seating area. I actually could relax here, since the pitchers were only starting the long toss. I then realized that I had made another mistake, I had left my roster it home. It wouldn’t help anyways since almost all of the players had their numbers covered, but any little tidbit of information I can use is always appreciated.

 So there were a couple of reasons why I made the trek to the baseline area. For one, nothing really otherwise was happening. That night’s pitcher Greg Reynolds was hitting and he doesn’t have the power to hit it into the left field bleachers and no one was there to toss us baseballs. Also, when someone does a long toss, there is a great chance for an overthrow and a baseball so for me, the decision was obvious.

 Many of the Rockies pitchers were at different stages. I got into the wheelchair portion of section 1, and had my glove and waited for an overthrow.

 As this happened I ran into my buddy Matt Lindstrom who ended up getting the save later on in the game. I call him my buddy because he was responsible for two important and historic snags of mine. He gave me ball number 69 last season which allowed me to meet the fifth goal I had set for myself last season of 64 baseballs, and also was my last ball of the season. He also gave me ball number 71 which put me over 70 and was the first player I ever got two balls from in two different uniforms.

 Looking back at it now, I can’t help but realize how similar this moment felt to my 64th snag. The only possible difference besides the team was that I had the section entirely to myself.

 Lindstrom struck a conversation with me as he did with the other two snags and said, “You may want to move back, these balls are coming fast and you may get hurt.” This was the first time in three conversations that he was not sarcastic to me and my first worry upon seeing him was that he would remember me from Thursday especially since I had the same outfit minus my yellow Pirates themed shoes I had on because I didn’t have room for my blue ones.

 Lindstrom then told me, “Don’t worry, I will throw you a ball”. I found this all weird, because I did appreciate him telling me to be careful, but I had a glove and can catch and I would not have put myself that close to the action unless I was sure that I was safe.

 Still I waited and sure enough Lindstrom called me out and threw me a ball. The toss was terribly underthrown but with no one around me I walked forward and picked up ball number 1.

 I was still well behind the mark and needed to make at least one more snag. Enter Esmil Rogers. Rogers was the starter on Thursday for the Rockies and he was throwing with what looked to be Rafael Betancourt. When the two came to wrap up their session, Betancourt uncorked a wild and high throw which I fielded. Before Rogers had much time to think, I threw him back the ball. The toss was a little wobbly and feeble, but practically every toss is after you see how hard and accurate they throw the ball. After they finished, Rogers turned to me and fired ball number 2. The ball itself was my 75th career snag and put me only 25 more snags away from the century mark.

 I then played center field for the Rockies portion of BP. Nothing much came our way home run wise and no matter how hard I tried none of the toss-ups were going my way. I even started to try to ask Ubaldo Jimenez to throw me the ball in Spanish and my voice is shot.

 Frustrated mostly because nothing was coming my way, I decided to take on the challenge of right field. I was right about where I expected to be and figured a change of scenary could better things. There were quite a few homers hit to right so I figured why not give it a shot. The last ball of bp was a homer to right, but I was a couple of rows low and a section away and could not make up the ground fast enough. With that BP was over and I had to assess the situation.

 Things were not looking bleak for a four ball day quite yet as there still was potential. Colston, my friend who also went to the game did a full walk of the second floor. We said a nice hello to a family friend for a while and then continued on. The new main attraction is a store with Pirates memorabilia with Hunt Auctions. The prices were ludicris, seriously $60 for a Clint Hurdle signed baseball. $110 for a signed Andrew McCutchen? Really? I didn’t even give it a serious look after that, I find that to be so insulting and you would have to be a moron to overpay that badly. Ok, I digress, this is a post about my ballhawking.

 We finally made it to the bullpen and waited for Charlie “Electric Stuff” Morton to grace us with his sinker and his presence. After a while he did and although I tried I did not get any toss-ups from either him or the seemingly always reliable Herbie Andrade.

 Defeated, I went to my seat and re-assessed my situation. I was still at two balls, an average fan has not snagged two baseballs in their entire time yet in less than two short years, my outlook on this has drastically changed. I was going to have to snag an Andrew McCutchen toss-up and then get some help from the bullpen. The centerfield sections were all packed which meant that being in section 141, I had only one chance to get the toss-up.

 McCutchen had the toss-ups in the odd innings, and I paid close attention to where he threw the baseball both times so I could position myself properly.

 Before the fifth inning toss-up though, I tried my luck at the bullpen and that did not work so well. The bullpen was never crowded at all that entire night which I have never experienced, and sure enough I always was given the best spot I possibly could have, I just was dealt every bad card in the deck. I came over twice before the McCutchen toss-up, and left again sprinting to center to choose my position.

 Erik had already chosen his position and the spot I was eying actually was still there. It was directly behind the last row before the two steps leading to the section. There was not anyone in those seats so I was in the clear. When it came time for McCutchen to toss it up, I had a good vibe. His throw sailed to my right and was short and it was going to take a miracle. I tracked the path of the ball and at least two people bobbled it. For once, the ball bounced right into my waiting glove for the luckiest ball number three that I will ever have.

 I still have not gone to bed yet, and as I type this part of the blog it is 1:25 AM here in Pittsburgh and I am running on empty. As a journalist it is something that I am actually quite used to.

 There is a reason why I am probably not fast asleep right now. Outfielder Seth Smith hit a home run to right center to give the Rockies a 3-2 lead in that top part of the fifth and it was very close to where I was standing. It would have been a rather easy catch, not nearly as easy as the Hunter Pence home run I described in a previous blog post, because this one was on the fly, but there would have been no competition for it. As it stands, the ball two hopped into the river where it hit either a boat or a raft or something like that.

 As the night continued, it got colder and colder and I only had a Pirates t-shirt and Pirates Dugout Jacket to warm my body. I was by the bullpen as I had no chance to snag another toss up as right field was packed, left field was packed and Jose Tabata just throws it without much care and center was still packed. I was trying to snag a ball, when a lot of noise came from the bleacher general admission area.

 Earlier a few people were thrown out of the ballpark in that area and were escorted by police. This time a man was not cooperating after a few police took him down the stairs and they beat and tased him before arresting him. This led to a lot of people in that area chanting many things such as “U-S-A! U-S-A!”. The police threatened to beat others who interfered with them and I saw a lot of this happen as I was close by in the bullpen area. The police took a good handful or so of people to the Riverwalk where one woman was arrested and a man who took a couple of steps to oppose the decision and defend her was almost beaten himself. The section in general was just drunk out of their minds and it impaired their decision making abilities. It was quite sad to watch especially after a fan ran onto the field on Thursday’s game. As an aside, one woman was so drunk that when she was arrested, she couldn’t walk and thus had to be taken out on a wheelchair.

 I still had business of my own to tend to. The Pirates would go on to lose the game 6-4 despite a nice attempt at a rally in the ninth inning against my “buddy” Lindstrom. After the game was over I wanted to snag my fourth ball to meet my goal. I had already given one ball away and saw a very young kid and immediately wanted to give this ball away too. I saw a ball in Euclides Rojas’ glove and neither Rojas nor Herbie would initially throw it despite calling their names. The kid was still there and I assured his mother that I would try my best to get it.

 I finally got a hold of Herbie, and explained to him that the ball would be for the kid and sure enough he underhanded it to me for an easy ball number four. I immediately made sure to give it to the kid and he was so excited and had the biggest smile on his face. His parents seemed just as happy as he was and it clearly was his first ball. Thanks Herbie!

 Just like that, I reached my goal for the game. Every second literally counted as it took until after the game was over to get there. There was potential for more snags of course but through two days of snagging while ill, I had snagged four balls on both days for a total of eight baseballs. Last year I started with four in two games and already I am well ahead of that margin. I likely need to get 21 by the end of the month, so this is a good start and I am more than 33% of the way there.

 My next day of ballhawking will either be on Wednesday or Thursday and I am not sure as to which one. There is a chance that I will be a media member on Wednesday and if I am, then obviously I will not ballhawk. If I am not, I will purchase a ticket to that game and ballhawk. Then on Thursday, I can ballhawk from 5:00 until 5:30 and then I will be whisked away and be named Season Ticket Holder of the Month. Also on Tuesday, I will snag on the Riverwalk outside of the stadium. This takes a lot of focus and luck, but if I get lucky, then I could end up with a baseball or two. Here’s hoping that Prince Fielder hits the cover off of the ball.

Total Baseballs Snagged: 8

Total Baseballs Given Away: 3

Games Attended: 2