The Baseball Collector - Chris Los

Yankees vs Royals - August 17, 2008 @ Yankee Stadium

2008-08-28T14:18:29Z

I arrived very early for this game because it was a Giveway Day. I was first in line!!!

I chatted with my friend Ronald from the previous day and he told me that he snagged 2 baseballs in the Upper Deck from the previous day. He told me that he found them as soon as he ran up there. Once the gates opened, I decided to check the Upper Deck first. I ran as hard as I could and ran up to the top in a couple minutes. As soon as I reached the Upper Deck and started to look through the rows, check out what I found lying there. BALL # 1!

I decided to run back down to field level to beg for baseballs. They Yankees stopped hitting and went off the field. The Royals were stretching and getting ready to take batting practice. A couple of Yankees were out playing catch and I decided to stand behind them and hope for an over throw. But there were none. Once they finished throwing, they started to walk towards the Yankees dugout, but did not toss the baseball to anyone.

Billy Traber came over to sign autographs for some of the fans along the RF foul line. He did not look happy while signing them for the fans and was grumpy. I had only brought index cards with me and decided to get 1 of them signed by him. Check out how he signed it!!! Not even in the middle. I only got his autograph because I wanted to keep my autograph streak alive. I would sell this autograph, if someone were to pay me.

Here is Billy Traber signing....

Here is another photo of him signing along the RF foul line.

Then the Royals took the field to start Batting Practice. They were not tossing any balls in the stands or hitting any in the stands. It was full in the outfield and I decided to move to Left Field.

Towards the end of the Royals batting practice a ball was hit and fell short and landed on the warning track. I was standing at the end of the "Canon" sign and Joakim Soria walked over to pick it up. I asked him nicely for the baseball and he tossed it to me. This was my last ball of the day. I decided to take more photo's after Batting Practice.

Here is the tunnel to the outfield seats.....

The concourse area behind. It is very small and I can see why they are building a new Yankee Stadium. There was not much space in the concourse area.

Here are the outfield seats in Left Field. I sneaked down there in the 4 inning of this game and tried to snag a homerun ball, but had no luck.

These were the seats I purchased for the 2nd game... Another Awesome view!

Here are some ticket stubs from both 2 games...

Here are some Final Season Cups. I got 3 of them.

I can't wait till the new Yankee Stadium is opened!

STATS:

• 2 Balls snagged at this game

• 1 Autograph (Billy Traber)

• 3 Final Season Cups

• 2 Final Season Lunch Box's

• 267 Photo's Taken

• Attendance: 54,114

*****I did one more thing while I was in New York and I will do a seperate blog entry about that this evening. I have also created a facebook account for my blog, so please let me know in the comments if you have facebook.******

Yankees vs Royals - August 16, 2008 @ Yankee Stadium

2008-08-26T15:36:30Z

I arrived in New York on the Friday and checked in to my hotel in Lyndhurst, New Jersey. I decided to take the local bus down to Manhattan and take some photos. Here is one in Times Square.

The next day, I woke up very early and took the subway to Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. It was very easy and took under 45 minutes to get there.

161 Street - Yankee Stadium Station!!!

As soon as I came up the steps from the subway, I seen this. The brand new Yankee Stadium!

Here is another view of it....

After taking photos of the new Yankee Stadium, I then started to take photos from the outside of the old one. This is the bleachers entrence. I did not get tickets to sit in the bleachers, but I should have. Many baseballs during Batting Practice where being hit there and alot of the players were tossing baseballs to fans there.

Gate 6. The gate which I entered for both of the games I attended at Yankee Stadium.

You must line up between the booths. Security was very strict.

The ticket office at Yankee Stadium. Luckily I bought my tickets months in advance!

The Yankees Team Store. I never ended up getting to go inside of the team store because there was a limit of the amount of people allowed in at once.

YANKEE STADIUM!!!!

Me infront of Gate 4 and the Yankees Team Shop...

After taking photos around the stadium, it was then time to head back over to Gate 6 to start waiting in line.

While waiting in line, I seen that Verizon Wireless was giving out free stuff. I walked over to the table and got some free stuff. They let me take as much free stuff as I wanted. I got 2 free 2008 All-Star game hats.

While waiting, I also bumped in to a reader from this blog named Ronald. He leaves comments in my blog comments under "ronald.o@lh.com". We chatted until the gates opened. This was his 9th time going to Yankee Stadium this year and he snagged a total of 11 balls in those 9 games. I knew that it was going to be tough and I was ready to snag!! I did not bring a backpack with me because I heard that backpacks are not allowed in Yankee Stadium. I decided to bring a very small drawstring bag with me. This was the amount of fans in line 5 minutes before the gates opened.

I got through security very quick and ran through the tunnel and then saw the inside of Yankee Stadium. I knew that I had to get a ball quick because it was going to be packed in there for BP in minutes. Then I saw a ball get hit into the Right Field foul pole seats and I ran quickly to scoop it up. Check out what the ball looked like!!!! YES! A Yankee Stadium commemorative ball!

Check out the amount of fans 5 minutes after the gates opened.. Then several balls were hit and fell just short of the warning track. Robinson Cano was shagging fly balls in the outfield and came over to pick up a ball on the warning track. I ran over to the spot were the ball was on the warning track. There were about 5-7 kids asking for the ball also, and they had gloves too. Cano did not look up, but just threw the ball in the direction of the crowd and I jumped up and snagged it. This ball was not a commemorative ball, but It felt great to snag 2 balls at Yankee Stadium. I decided to stand in the same spot and beg for more balls.

I was happy to snag one more ball in that particular spot. I got Edwar Ramirez to toss me a ball there. That ball too was not a commemorative ball. I decided to then move back down to field level along the RF foul line and ask some of the Yankee pitchers for balls. Just as I moved down there Billy Traber finished throwing. Other fans asked for the ball that he had in his glove. I asked too and I said "Hey, Billy is there any chance you could please toss me that ball please? I am a big fans of yours" and he said " NO, Stop asking me for the ball". "I am only going to give this baseball to a kid who is not even asking" and that is what he did. He walked up to some kid and gave it to him. I can not understand why he did not toss the baseball to the other fans and myself who were asking nicely. I would still have not cared if he tossed it to one of the other fans asking. He has such an attitude and is so rude to the fans. I am placing him on the "Chris Hex" for what he did.

After this incident, I decided to move to Left Field and stand beside the foul pole. The Royals were not tossing too many baseballs and they were not hitting many out. Towards the end of there batting practice a ball was hit in the foul seats and went up 10 rows and bounced back down and I just caught the ball before it fell back on the field. I had to jump very high to catch it. Here is me and the ball.

This is the view from the RF foul pole to homeplate. Yankee Stadium looks like a very small stadium in person, but on TV it looks huge!!!

I just waited in the same spot for the rest of batting practice. I could not get near the dugout's because of Yankee Stadium security.

That was it for Batting Practice. 4 Balls snagged is great in my books. After BP, I walked up to the Upper Deck and started taking more photos. Here is one behind home plate.

This is the Yankees bullpen....

This is the view from my seat in the Upper Deck. I was in the 3rd row for the game! The Yankees won the game 3-2.

STATS:

• 4 Balls Snagged at this Game

• 1 Yankee commemorative ball!

• 231 Photo's Taken

• Attendance: 54,180

*****I attended 1 more game at Yankee Stadium and will be blogging about that game soon. I am going to be attending more games soon!!!*****

This is me and the 3 plain MLB baseballs I snagged at this game.

Braves vs Diamondbacks - August 9, 2008 @ Chase Field

2008-08-25T00:53:17Z

This was my last day in Arizona and I wanted to get atleast 2 balls and a couple of autographs. I walked over to Friday's for the last time on this trip.

And walked on the terrace............

I walked on the terrace and found this..... Ball #1, just sitting there. D-Backs players were on the field tossing and must have thrown this ball up.

I scanned the whole terrace for balls. But this was the only ball that was up there...

Here are some seats near the terrace. Some balls were hit up here during the Braves BP the previous day.

I did not get any more balls from there and it was time to go to my gate. I got my 2nd ball of the day from Randy Johnson as soon as I ran in. I got my final ball from the D-Backs from there ballboy in front of the dugout.

Then the Braves took the field. It was packed for batting practice because it was a giveway day. I was lucky to catch a grounds rule double in LF though.

I got my final ball of batting practice in front of the Braves dugout from a player who I could not identify. 5 Balls in BP. I decided to sneak around in the 100 Level behind the dugouts for foul balls for the rest of the game, but did not get lucky.

At the end of the game, I went to the Umpires exit and got Jim Wolf to throw me a baseball across the dugout. I was the only person there and I knew his first name. Here is me and the baseball that he had tossed me. I was pumped to get this ball at the end of the game!

STATS:

• 6 Balls snagged at this game

• 1st ball of the season tossed by a MLB Umpire

• 1 Ball found, (Fridays)

• I LOVE CHASE FIELD!

Here is all of the balls and autographs I got on my Arizona Trip!!!

***I will start blogging about my Yankee Stadium experience tomorrow and try to have it up by tomorrow evening.** Keep commenting and sending emails to me. I will respond to comments and emails ASAP.

Braves vs Diamondbacks - August 8, 2008 @ Chase Field

2008-08-22T16:14:06Z

I got to Friday's just as the D-Backs were about to start taking Batting Practice.

I decided to make a special sign to get the players to throw me baseballs on Friday's Terrace. "AIM HERE." This took me under 1 hour to make and boy did it pay off.

I got my first baseball of the day thrown by one of the Diamondbacks' coaches.

Tony Clark started to take his cuts. He cranked each baseball in batting practice and hit most of them to deep center field. He did hit one my way which fell on Friday's Terrace and I ran over to pick it up. Two balls in under 10 minutes!!! Then, it was time to go to my gate. The gates opened a couple minutes earlier and I ran inside and got Randy Johnson to toss me a baseball. It was really cool to get a baseball thrown to me by the BIG UNIT.

Mark Reynolds was shagging fly balls in LF and I also called out his name and got him to toss me my 4th ball of the day. Reynolds is one of my favorite D-Backs and I also have his batting gloves in my collection. I got ball number 5th and 6th in RF during batting practice. They were homerun balls that bounced right to me. I hung around the pool and tried getting baseballs that bounced in there and went into the bleachers. A couple balls were hit in the pool. There were no fans in the pool during batting practice, but there was a security guard standing there. I asked him for the baseball in the water and he went over to the pool and grabbed one of the 4 balls that went in the pool. He gave me the ball and it was soaked. I did not care if it was water logged. It was a dream for me to get one that fell in there. It was unique!

At the end of Batting Practice. Mike Hampton threw me my 8th and final ball of the day in front of the Braves dugout. I watched 4 innings from the upper deck and took some photos. There were not a lot of security and they let you sit any where you wanted up there. The Braves won the game 11-6.

I also was lucky to snag a rally t-shirt during the 5th inning.

I also got 3 autographs after the game from some Braves. I got Julian Taverez, Mike Gonzalez and Jeff Francoeur to sign some ticket stubs.

I got Tony Clark to sign my baseball card after the game too. He stopped in his car and signed for everyone that wanted his autograph.

Here is a scan of the signed card from him.

STATS:

• 8 Baseballs at this game

• 4 Autographs

• 1 Free D-Backs T-Shirt

• Attendance: 27,996

• 163 Photo's Taken

• 38 ticket stubs found (PostGame)

***** 1 More Chase Field blog entry to post and then I will be blogging about my Yankee Stadium experience. I went to 2 games there and I am going to a lot more coming up*****

Braves vs Diamondbacks - August 7, 2008 @ Chase Field

2008-08-22T02:49:12Z

I arrived to Chase Field around 2:00 pm and saw some Atlanta Braves running on the warning track. I immediately saw one baseball lying on the warning track. Then Mike Gonzalez ran to the spot where the baseball was and I got him to toss it to me while I was on top of Friday's Terrace. His throw was right on the money. Ball # 1 came with ease.

Then the D-Backs came out early to start their batting practice. I got a player on the D-Backs to throw me a baseball when I was on Friday's Terrace. I could not identify who the player was because they did not have a number on the back of their jersey. Later on the ushers started to go to their sections. An usher below looked in the bleachers for baseballs and he found a homerun ball. I got his attention and asked him for the baseball. He tossed it up to me, but it took him 2 attempts to throw it up.

This is a photo with me and the ball that Mike Gonzalez threw up to me for my 1st ball of the day.

I snagged my 4th ball of the day with ease too. I found this baseball in one of the cup-holders in the bleachers when I ran inside.

I caught my 5th baseball of the day on the fly in LF and then got Jon Rauch to throw me another baseball during the D-Backs BP. Shortly after I noticed some other boy had snagged a ball but he left it under his seat and just left it there. He didn't even stay for the game! I took the ball because apparently he didn't want it. I also got the D-Backs ball boy to throw me my 7th ball of the day in front of the dugout.

I decided to go to the Braves side of the field and got Blaine Boyer to throw me my 8th ball of the day. The Braves did not hit many homeruns during Batting Practice and I caught no balls on the fly or any bounces. I did get lucky to get one more ball at the end of BP from the Braves bullpen catcher in front of the dugout.

The Braves won the game 6-4 and took the first game of the 4 game series. I went to 2 more games during my Arizona Trip.

STATS:

• 9 Baseballs at this Game

• Attendance: 27,787 at this Game

• 130 Photos taken this day

Pirates vs Diamondbacks - August 6, 2008 @ Chase Field

2008-08-21T15:55:58Z

The first thing I did when I arrived again to Chase Field was attempt to snag the baseball that I had seen below Friday's terrace the previous day. In order to do so I needed to buy some supplies. I had to purchase some duct tape and some thin string. I also had to purchase a little weight to attach it to my cup trick. Here were the supplies I used:

Here is a photo of the weight that I used..

This is what the final product looked it. Then it was time to try and snag the ball.

I had difficulty getting the cup through the gap, but eventually I was finally able to get it through. I lowered my cup to the platform and then put my cup trick over the ball. The ball went inside the cup perfectly. I lifted the cup with the baseball inside and then slowly dropped the cup back down to make sure that the baseball was snug in place and that it wouldn't fall out. I placed a lot of tape in side the cup. I then started to bring the baseball all the way up and it got halfway until it dropped out. I was very mad at this! I realized that even if I had brought it up I would have to overcome the challenge of getting it through the gap opening. Unfortunately, when the ball fell back down I did not see where it went to. I went to all that trouble and ended up not snagging it. I would have to say though that it was still fun and a good experience for me, because the next time something like that happens I will be more prepared.

A zoom in on what the ball looked it.

After my attempt to snag the baseball on Friday's terrace it was time to head to my gate. This game was a 12:45 PM start. I knew that it would be very tough to snag baseballs this day because it was a day game and there may not be batting practice.

As soon as the gates opened, I ran inside and over-heard an Usher say ,"There is no Batting Practice today." I was very upset, but I did not let this stop me or ruin my day! I saw 3 D-Backs in the bullpen and one of them was Danny Haren. He had finished throwing and happened to be looking at me. I took this opportunity to ask him for a ball. He tossed me my first baseball of the day. YES!!! I had my first ball of the day in under 2 minutes of me entering the stadium. There were no other baseball players who came on the field, so I stood infront of the D-Backs dugout. Players started coming on about 20 minutes later.

I thought it would be another good opportunity to snag a baseball because they had all of their baseballs right there. I thought I would ask one of the players for one of them but a ball boy came out and brought them in. I wasn't able to get anything.

After Denny Bautista finished throwing he tossed me my 2nd baseball of the day. There were no other kids around with gloves - I was lucky.

When he tossed me the baseball he walked into the Pirates bullpen with Romulo Sanchez and got some water. Romulo Sanchez then started to head back to the Pirates dugout and I asked him if he could autograph my ticket stub and he came over to sign it. While he was signing my ticket stub, I saw that he had a baseball in his glove. I decided to ask him for it and he gave me the baseball. I was really happy to get an autograph and a baseball at the same time. That was my first time this season.

3 Baseballs for a day game is great! All I was expecting was to only snag 1 or possibly get shut out. Here are the 3 baseballs I snagged.

This is me and the 3 baseballs I snagged. The Pirates went on to win the game 2-0.

After the game I decided that I would visit another Spring Training park and go and check out Scottsdale Stadium in Scottsdale. I just wanted to take some photos outside of the stadium.

While walking around the whole stadium I discovered that one of the gates were open..... So I decided to walk inside to take some photos.

Here is a banner that you can see when walking in.

The tunnel to the field...

The view from the 3rd base side.

This is a photo of one of the dugouts....

While taking photos in the dugout, check out what I found!!! This baseball was just sitting there and I picked it up. It was an Arizona League baseball. I decided to take the baseball with me because I did not have one of these balls in my collection.

A view from the 1st base side....

I walked on the field and here is a photo on the warning track.

Here are some photos from inside the bullpen.

When taking photos inside the bullpen, I found this baseball in it. This time it was a Major League baseball. I picked up the ball and it was completly soaked. I chose to take this one too and count it in my collection.

This is the view from homeplate...

This is the scoreboard at Scottsdale Stadium.

An Elevator...

This is another practice field that is connected to Scottsdale Stadium.

This is the view from the other bullpen. This one is bigger and also has a hitting area beside it.

This is a photo from LF. It is a picnic area with a lot of picnic tables.

Beware of flying balls & bats!!

STATS:

• 3 Baseballs Snagged at Chase Field this day

• 2 Autographed Ticket Stubs

• 234 photos taken

• 1 Arizona League Baseball

• 1 Soaked Major League Baseball from Scottsdale

• Attendance: 28,556

• 5 Baseballs snagged to add to my collection

****I only have 3 more Chase Field blog entries to post up here on my blog. I will try and post another one late tonight and then hopefully post the other 2 tomorrow. I want to blog about my Yankee Stadium experience and other games that I will be attending**.

Live Snagging With Chris Pt. 2

2008-08-20T22:52:26Z

Check it out! I just uploaded a brand spankin' new video to my YouTube channel! Please SUBSCRIBE!

**** ALSO: I will be having my First LIVE CHAT WITH CHRIS! TONIGHT!!!!!

Go to -----> SNAGGINGBASEBALLS.COM <----- 11:00 PM eastern time.

Click on the "FORUMS" on the left hand side navigation bar. When you get there, click on LIVE CHAT WITH CHRIS, click on Hi Guys, and we will begin our chat from there. If you have any questions, please email chris@snaggingbaseballs.com ! I am looking forward to talking to you guys. Also, just make sure you agree with the TERMS OF USE listed below the forum.

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Pirates vs Diamondbacks - August 5, 2008 @ Chase Field

2008-08-19T17:11:44Z

On August 5th, I visited the Arizona Diamondback's team store for the first time. It was a great day to visit it and purchase some souvenirs. Here is a photo taken inside the store.

Me inside the team store.....

This is where some memorabilia is and can be purchased. There were lineup cards, signed photos, game used bases and even signed jerseys.

After a while, I was starting to get hungry - I was about to head over to Friday's Restaurant to grab some lunch. But just before I was about to go eat, I saw a tour guide walk inside the team store with a Major League baseball in his hand. I was wondering what he was doing.. I later learned he was apparently looking for a kid to give this baseball to. I was right there and he looked at me briefly but didn't say anything. Instead he walked over to this other kid and handed him this baseball. The kid told this guy that he did not want it, but he still let him have it and told him ,"No, keep it." I was a bit disappointed but I guess he gave it to this boy because he saw he was young and probably never had a baseball before. Anyways, I walked over to Friday's and grabbed a bite to eat and happened to see the kid from the team store with the baseball. After they had finished eating they walked outside to Friday's terrace and this kid accidentally dropped the baseball the tour guide had given him over the edge and the ball landed in the bleachers. In case your wondering, an usher later picked it up and threw it back on the field. This kid obviously isn't a serious baseball fan. If I had been given the ball I would have treated it like an egg. But whatever, that's not my problem - he was an idiot.

While I was on Friday's terrace, I was looking over the edge and discovered this... This baseball was on top of a platform below. I knew that I had to try and snag this baseball. There was not enough time before the gates opened, so I decided to leave this baseball there and try to snag it the next day. I will tell you what happened in my next entry.

The D-Backs came out and took their batting practice. I got my first baseball of the day thrown to me by Jeff Motuzas who was walking to the D-Backs bullpen. I asked him for this baseball that was hit in the bullpen in Left Field. I also later got a baseball thrown up to me by Rick Schu. I got my last baseball of the day thrown to me by a player that I could not identify. I had 3 baseballs before entering the gates. I knew that there was a strong possibility that I could reach double digits!

I ran inside and instantly found a baseball in the first row above the D-Backs bullpen. I got another baseball thrown to me my Jon Rauch. Later on I snagged a baseball thrown to me by the D-Backs ball boy! Snagging came very easily to me. Then, the Pirates took the field. I caught my first baseball from the Pirates caught on the fly in Left Field in 4 rows from the field.

After the Pirate's pitchers finished throwing, I got baseballs tossed to me by Denny Bautista and Romulo Sanchez. Romula Sanchez walked over to me and placed the baseball in my glove. Also, during the Pirates batting practice I got John Grabow to toss me a baseball on the warning track in Right Field.

I got my final baseball of the day thrown to me by a groundscrew worker who was raking the dirt in the bullpen and I had asked him for a baseball that was hit there during BP.

The D-Backs won the game 3-1 against the Pirates. Here are some more photos that I had took.

STATS:

• 11 Baseballs Snagged

• 26 Baseballs Snagged in 2 Games at Chase

• 3 Baseballs on Friday's Terrace

• 150 Photo's taken at this game

• Attendance: 25,109 at this game

• 36 Ticket Stubs collected at this game

SNAGGINGBASEBALLS.COM UPDATES

2008-08-16T23:20:44Z

Hi guys! I just wanted to give you all a quick update that I have been adding updates to my website and I am inviting you to check them out, if you haven't already done so.

I have updated the following things:

» Forums

» Fan-Mail

» Update to FAQ's

AND THERE'S STILL MORE TO COME!

Anyways, that's all for now, I will have another entry up very soon. Thanks you guys!

snaggingbaseballs.com

Chase Field Stadium Tour

2008-08-14T16:56:24Z

I decided to take the Chase Field Stadium tour on the Tuesday because I had lots of time and thought I would see some cool behind the scenes stuff at Chase Field.

There were only 2 other people that were in my tour group and that made things alot easier. The first thing they showed us was the rotunda. Here is a photo of it below.

Here is a view from CF and alot of baseballs were hit there during Batting Practice. The baseballs would fall in the walkway that goes behind the scoreboard.

Here is a view of the bleachers. It is very hard to snag baseballs out here because of the bounces they take off the bleachers.

I am not sure why they place tarps on top of the seats here.....

This is a view behind the scoreboard...

Here is a view from the suites in the 200 level.. Nice View and I seen a couple fouls balls go up there during the games.

This is a photograph of the pool that is also included at Chase Field.

A view from the media area....

On the tour we were not allowed to go inside of the clubhouse, but this is a photo of it from the outside. As you can seen, the players have to enter a special code for the door to open. There is also police that stand's beside the door closer to game time.

A view of the D-Backs dugout....

Here is a photo of me inside the D-Backs dugout.

This is the walkway from the clubhouse to the dugout.

Me standing on the field at Chase Field. As you can see I am wearing my 2006 All-Star game t-shirt. In case you wondering if they have ever had the All-Star game at Chase Field. The answer is NO. They will most likely host the all-star game in 2011.

This is the spot where the tour ended. It only cost $6.00 and it was worth it. I know that it costs over $15.00 for a tour at other stadium's.

**********************

Just to let everybody know that:

• I am leaving for New York in 2 hours.

• I will return Monday evening.

• New YouTube Video on the way, within the following week.

• I will be posting the rest of my Chase Field blog entries on Tuesday.

More to come!

Pirates vs Diamondbacks - August 4, 2008 @ Chase Field

2008-08-13T21:16:09Z

I woke up at 6:30 AM and got a bite to eat at my Super 8 Motel. At 7:00 AM I walked over to Chase Field and started to take photo's from the outside of it.

I walked over to the Box Office and purchased 1 ticket for the 300 Level for that evening's game.

Here is a photo of me infront of the box office.

These bats are infront of Chase Field too!!!

Gate K, the gate that I entered to most of the games that I attended there.

I also took a photo of a Arizona license plate.

After walking around the whole stadium. I discovered that there was a restaurant built inside the stadium. I took the elevator up and saw a whole bunch of memorabilia and baseballs.

I decided to eat inside Friday's and the food was great!! Here is a view from the restaurant to the field.

This is the door to Friday's terrace...

As soon as I opened the door and walked down the steps. I knew that I was going to snag a couple baseballs even before I entered the stadium because I could call out for baseballs on the terrace.

While I was on the terrace at Friday's and taking lots of photos with my camera, I found this baseball sitting in the seats on the terrace. It was kind of weird because the batting practice gear was not even on the field yet. There were Pirate players running laps around the field tho. I will take it tho!!

This is a picture of me sitting on Friday's terrace with my first baseball snagged at Chase Field and waiting for batting practice.

I decided to sit on Friday's restaurant until the gates opened. It was 2pm and some of the Pirates came out to take early batting practice. I was pumped!! I was also the only person in the stadium too.

Luis Rivas was shagging baseballs in left field. I had on my Pirate hat and t-shirt and started to yell "Go Pirates, Go Pirates Go" on the terrace. I had to do this to get the attention of the players. They all looked up and Rivas saw me with my glove on. A baseball went over his head and fell on the warning track. He then looked up at me and threw the first baseball too short and landed in the bleachers below. Then his second try was even lower. Then in his third throw, I was able to knock the ball down on the ledge and reach over to pick it up. If I did not do this, that baseball would have also went into the bleachers. Craig Hansen also tossed me a baseball because he wanted to test his arm to see if he could make the throw and Yes his THROW was right on the money. So 3 Baseball snagged before I even entered the stadium.

This photo was taken 5 minutes before the gates opened.

As soon as I ran inside, the D-Backs were taking Batting Practice. I got Jon Rauch to throw me my first baseball from the D-Backs. I then took out my player sheet to call out some of the D-Back players when all of a sudden a baseball was being hit in my direction. I quickly let go of my sheet and ran down 2 rows and reached over and got the baseball. If I did not reach out with my glove, then it would have fell on the field. I also got a bad scrape on my leg from the cup-holders. More baseballs were hit, but fell short on the warning track. I got 2 more baseballs that way, but I could not identify who the players were. Then near the end of BP, I also got a baseball thrown to me by Doug Davis. I then got my last baseball from the D-Backs in front of the dugout by a ball boy. The D-Backs BP finished and I had already snagged 9 baseballs so far. I knew I had lots of more chances to snag more during the Pirates BP.

I ran over to RF to the Pirates bullpen and got a baseball tossed to me by Pirates bullpen catcher Heberto Andrade. I did not even have to ask for this one.

I got a baseball thrown to me from Denny Bautista when he finished throwing. Then I got a security guard on the field to toss me a baseball that he had in his hand. I got my last 3 balls of the day by catching them on the fly in LF. I had to run through the rows and got bad scrapes, but atleast I have the baseballs.

Overall a BIG day at the ballpark. 15 Baseballs in 1 game is my season high and I am happy that it happened in Arizona.

Here are the 15 baseballs snagged in game 1.

I also did some autograph hounding at the players parking lot after the first game and got a whole bunch of D-Back's autographs.

STATS:

1) 15 baseballs snagged at this game

2) 6 Autographs

3) 3 Baseballs before entering the stadium (Thank You Friday's!)

4) 3rd Stadium this season (Rogers Centre, Comerica Park, Chase Field)

5) 97 Photo's taken at this game

6) Season High in Baseballs (15)

**I went on the Chase Field stadium tour and I will be doing a blog entry about that next. I am going to be going to lots and lots of games coming up, so I am going to post the rest of the Chase Field blog entries every single day.** Feel free to email me any questions you might have about Chase Field to chris@snaggingbaseballs.com. Also leave them in the comments.

Municipal Stadium - August 3, 2008

2008-08-12T02:55:16Z

I arrived in Arizona at 9:30 AM and arrived at my hotel for 10:30 AM. I quickly checked in and dropped off my bags in my room.

I decided that I would walk all the way down Van Buren to Municipal Stadium. It was a LONG walk. Here is a photo of me infront of the stadium.

I walked around the whole stadium and took lots of photos with my camera. I was hoping that there was a gate that would have been unlocked.

Here is another view outside of it near the Box Office.

Here is a view of one of the practice fields that is also include in Municipal Stadium.

As soon as I walked around the whole stadium, I discovered that no gates were open and I could not enter the ballpark. Until, I seen a pickup truck drive to the groundkeeping entrance. The man got out of his truck and un-locked the gate, I asked him if it would be possible to go in and take a couple photo's and he said "Sure." He told me that I would only have 15 minutes because he was just there to water the field and then leave. Here is a view from home plate.

I went in the dugouts and took photos. I also looked in the dugouts for broken bats or baseballs but there were none.

Here is a view from the RF wall along the warning track.

Here is a view of the scoreboard.

By the way, I found 1 Minor League baseball outside of the stadium and this is what it looked like. Yes, I am including this International League baseball in my collection!!

Here is another photo of me infront of the cactus near my hotel.

Here is a photo of me infront of Chase Field.

**I will post the blog entry from the game on August 3 tomorrow. I just thought I would break it down into parts to show you guys on my blog. Also, I am planning another trip and I will be definitely seeing 4-5 games. More game-entries on the way!** Also: I just wanted to let you guys know I beat my snagging record a few days ago and reached a total of 15 balls snagged in 1 game!! More to come.

Arizona Trip

2008-08-10T17:12:44Z

That's right! I went to Arizona and checked out some Arizona Diamondback games. I went to many spring training parks in Arizona. I will have my first blog entry from my first D-Back at Chase Field tomorrow. Here is a video of Orlando Hudson hitting a Double at Chase Field against the Pirates.

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Up-dates

2008-08-08T05:59:36Z

I attended some Major League baseballs games this week and also checked out some Minor League baseball stadiums. I will be flying home late Sunday night and will try to blog about all of the games that I attended throughout the week. Stay tuned...

FanPack Success

2008-08-05T13:41:28Z

I just received a Boston Red Sox Fanpack in the mail and below is a video of me opening it up and showing the items I got.

I will be attending another baseball game today! I will also start working on writing a entry about it when I get back later on today.