Results tagged ‘ Colorado Rockies Batting Practice ’
First in the Door and we take home Four
6/10/08
What a great day.
Hunter, I and Joe my father in law, went to the game today.
Rockies vs the Giants.
We arrived early and were first in line again. 
It was a hot one today.
Ninety+ degrees and the sun blaring.
That didn’t stop us from being the first into the Pavilion.
As soon as we entered the bleachers an Usher threw Hunter a ball.
Fifteen minutes after Hunter got his first ball Atkins hit a ball almost exactly where I was standing.
It landed a bit short of me but bounced into my aisle and landed at my feet.
I couldn’t have planned that any better.
Minutes later, Hunter was standing in left field by the rail and I saw another ball heading for him. The teenager standing beside Hunter let it roll through his glove and it dropped into the handicapped area. Dan picked it up and looked at the three kids and gave it to Hunter.
I asked him later if he knew it was Hunter he gave it to and he said “no”..thanks again Dan.
That made three.
I had to leave batting practice a little early to get Hunter over to his team so they could do their lap around Coors Field. That took me about twenty minutes. After he was set up I headed back to batting practice which to my surprise was still going on.
I was standing by my father in law and we saw a ball heading about thirty feet from where I was standing. I couldn’t get to it without running over some fans who were starting to pile in at this point. I let two guys wrestle for it and they both bobbled it. The ball landed one row above me. A quick leap and I was in the next row possessing that baseball.
You gotta be quick and the more I do this the quicker I get.
That made a total of two for Hunter and two for me. Both of Hunter’s baseballs had a practice stamp on them. Mine didn’t. 
We’ve decided that all the balls we use for autographs will be ones we snag at batting practice.
If they’re not good enough for a nice autograph I give mine away. 
Lets count now, that makes four games in a row I’ve snagged a ball.
Not bad for an old man. I’m learning how to master these bleachers.
Nice size batting practice crowd today too. 
Hunters baseball team ” The Scorpions” in green
2-1 this season.
Go Scorpions !!! 
That’s my boy. I found out later that he was wearing his protective cup.
He was the only kid on the whole field who wore his cup. That my friends…is dedication.
Words can’t describe the feeling of watching him walk on Coors Field, but proud would be a serious understatement.
Rockies win this one 10-5 over the Giants.
This game was actually over in the second inning but it didn’t matter. It was a beautiful evening for baseball!. A total of four balls snagged between Hunter and I.
Welcome back Matt Holliday….Todd Helton (the King) nice homer.
Go Rockies….D
Rockies come out ahead and Tulo signs in red
6/6/08
Well Friday finally got here and I hurried home from work, grabbed my backpack and headed out.
I managed to arrive at the gate first in line, but I wasn’t first through the gates.
Damn backpack.
I slid into my favorite spot and went into action.
There were a few players out in center field warming up.
The first ball I almost snagged was when the Rockies were batting. The ball was hit about four rows in front of me and I had the jump on it. Unfortunately I would have had to jump over a young boy to get it. The ball bounced, went left and I let the boy snag it.
.
Right after that I noticed that Tulowitzki had walked over to center field to catch some flys balls.
After a bit, he strolled over to the wall and started signing autographs. I went over and tossed him a ball (after waiting in a line of 20 kids), that I had snagged at a previous batting practice.
He signed it in red marker and tossed it back.
I’m not picky..Thank you Tulo !
The Brewers livened up batting practice and were hitting a lot more balls into the stands than the Rockies managed. I had a few more close calls but nothing went my way. Then as I was pulling out my camera, I heard the crack, looked up and noticed I had one coming right for me. Just like my other attempts today, I slightly misjudged the ball and it went over my head. I jumped up over four rows and hit the aisle, went up another three rows and lost it to a larger fella who only had to walk down four steps.
I was stunned.
I knew I had that ball. Was I slipping? Did I lose my touch? I didn’t even have time to ponder those thoughts for long when another ball was heading right for my area again. This one was two rows in front and a middle aged guy tried to catch it with his hat.
The ball went through his hat, and landed in my row and I fell on the ball…Gotcha
Got my ball.
Got my autograph.
Now lets watch some Rockies kick some Brewers butt.
A shot of Dan snaggin.
He said he got a couple of balls.
—
I like this view.
It also gave me a great shot of my favorite player Todd Helton.
Great game tonight. Nice double in the 8th.
Ubaldo didn’t blow the game early for us.
He only allowed three runs.
Shot of Herges in the 7th .
We rallied in the 8th scoring five runs and Brian Fuentes did what he does and finished off the ninth. Rockies beat the Brewers tonight 6-4. The Rockies now have won three straight.
What a great game. Three games in a row now snagging a ball and Tulo’s autograph. Bronco’s Fan Fair tomorrow. Life is good right now.
Oh and last but certainly not least
THE MOST OBNOXIOUS OPPOSING FAN AWARD goes to this guy:
Actually he wasn’t that obnoxious, he just looked like a dork…Go Rockies…D
Hawpe goes down, Smith’s back in town
5/25/08
All morning long I was thinking about the game today, the tiebreaker with the Mets.
I was also thinking about those Mets fans at the game yesterday that heckled the Rockies ALL game long right behind me.
A win today would be sweet justice.
I had the chance to attend every Rockies game last week while my wife and kids were in Phoenix.
I didn’t dare even ask if I could go today.
The hard part is that it’s Autograph Sunday and I hate missing the chance to adding a new autograph to the collection. Hate it.
Brad Hawpe has an injured hamstring so welcome back Seth Smith.
Seth had some timely pinch hits in the World Series run last year. Yesterday was the first Major League game he has ever started and today Smith hit a homer and drove in 3 runs. Nice way to make an entrance Smith, keep it up brotha. I’m impressed.
Props to Aaron Cook, nice job pitching the Rockies first complete game this year.
Rockies win this one 4-1 and take 2 of 3 in this series against the Mets.
Jorge De La Rosa will be on the mound tomorrow against the Phillies.
This kid is amazingly calm and poised. I have high hopes for this guy. Tomorrow will be a really good opportunity for him to make us believers…Good Luck Jorge!
Matt Holliday, Willy Taveras, Clint Barmes…Heal up quick…we need you guys healthy. Last thing we want to do is start to slip too far behind. Should be an interesting 10 game road trip.
I’m excited about the next set of home games because Hunter will get to walk around the track on Coors Field June 10 with his baseball team the Scorpions.
He and probably 1000 other little baseball players.
All of them in their baseball uniforms. I really think that is cool of the Rockies to let the kids do that. That’s a memory that will stick with him forever.
I was able to do the same thing inside Yankee Stadium when I was in Grade 3 in New Jersey for being a Safety Patrol all school year long.
Hunter and I will be at batting practice for the game against the Giants on June 10th.
Go Rockies….D
What the Hey…I Guess I’ll Stay
5/23/08
Wow, I was the featured Blog on MLBlogs.com for a couple days. What an honor. Pretty strange logging in to Mlblogs and seeing my mug on the front page. I was really starting to get discouraged from the lack of Rockie fan love(comments) on this blog.
MLBlogs thanks for noticing and giving me the inspiration to keep doing this. A pat on the back does wonders sometimes. I hope I can do MLBlogging proud.
I’m heading to the Rockies game today and in my possession are some serious tickets.
Section 144 ROW 1.
Look for me on TV. I’ll be wearing my trademark green hat and a big a-ss smile.. I’m on the third base side about thirty feet past that big tarp they use on the infield.
I’m hoping a few more balls get hit foul along the third base this game than did last game. I had the same seats on Wednesday’s game and saw exactly one foul ball along the third base line in ten innings.
That really sucked. I was so excited about possibly snagging a game ball I could hardly focus on the game. Any other snaggers out there feel me on that one? I didn’t move out of my seat for the entire game.
I have the serious sunburn to prove it.
At Wednesday’s game I saw an older fella about forty feet to the right of me get clocked by a foul ball crushed by Todd Helton in the side of his head.
(The picture is not of the old guy it’s just a prop used for dramatic effect)
The staff helped him upstairs to administer first aid, Amazingly the dude was back about 15 minutes later, down but not out.
He’s tough, he must have been prior Army (shameless plug).
Later the Ushers brought him the ball that clocked him with a fresh autograph from Todd Helton.
Hard price to pay for an autographed ball, but what a story this guy has to tell his grandkids.
Hit me Todd, please ! (I’ve yet to get Helton’s autograph)
Me sitting in Section 144 Row 1
I’ll be at batting practice today. It’s been a really good day for me,..and I got a good feeling.
Go Rockies…D
Everything’s fine when you get Ubaldo to sign
5/19/08
What a perfect day.
Every once in a while you have one of those days where the planets align and everything just goes your way.
Today was my day. I’m going to every game this week except for Sunday.
I figured there would be batting practice today since neither team had a late game yesterday.
I arrived early and was the first person in front of the Rockpile gate. I would have been the first through the gate except for a young boy who didn’t have a backpack managed to sneak in before me.
No worries, I’m ok with that.
Anyways, I was also the first to arrive at the left field pavilion and as luck would have it I was correct. Both teams were on the field and Rockies were full into their batting practice.
I brought a baseball with me that I had snagged at batting practice a few games back. I was hoping to get that ball signed because I didn’t have any more of the Rockies emblem balls that I had been using up to that point.
On the field standing directly in front of me were Manny Corpas, Willy Taveras, and Ubaldo Jimenez.
I waited for the perfect opportunity to ask Manny for his autograph because I had seen him sign from that exact spot before. He looked at me and shrugged his shoulders at me like he couldn’t do it.
That’s not true.
The players do sign autographs from that spot, I’ve seen it before.
Your still ok in my books Manny, but you need to spread some cheer. Think back to when you were a kid.
Luckily, I saw Ubaldo coming over to get a ball that had hit the wall and a guy in row one hit him up for an autograph. 
He signed it and then I made my move.
Before he turned around I said “Ubaldo will you please sign my ball”, and to my surprise he motioned for me to throw the ball to him.
I threw it right to him and then tossed him my pen. He signed it, and threw back the ball and my pen.
Ubaldo, THANK YOU man!
You really made a fans day
Manny..take some notes here.
I’m standing in the pavilion not even two minutes and I hear a loud CRACK.
I looked up to see a ball heading directly for me. I didn’t even have to move.
I started to get the feeling of people surrounding me.
I stood on my toes, leaned over, reached out and
POOF
The ball landed perfectly in my glove.
That was the second batting practice ball I’ve straight up caught
Ok now I’m a freggin Rockstar.
Suddenly I’m surrounded by a mob kids that think I have the magic spot or something. I decided to try another location but wound up with just that one ball..
Autographs this year so far-8
Autographed Rockies baseballs so far-7
Clint Barmes, Tulo, Ryan Speirer, Franklin Morales, Ubaldo Jimenez, Jorge De La Rosa and Jonathan Hererra(both on the same ball) , Micah Bowie, Jonathan Hererra.
I really wanted Jorge De La Rosa to have a great night.
Hunter and I each had baseballs autographed the day before by him. I really thought Jorge seemed like a young guy who had his act together.
Guess who threw out the first pitch tonight?
The Maytag repair man .
That was different. Better him than some CEO I don’t know.
I really think they should pick a fan from each game to throw out the first pitch.
How cool would it be if you were chosen?…A guy can dream.
In the end. Rockies pull this one off and win 4-3.
De La Rosa gets the win. Rockies have now won three in a row.
Baby steps but this feels good.
I’ll be there tomorrow and we’ll go from there.
Go Rockies…D
Autograph Day Two…Like in Tulo
5/4/08
Hunter and I showed up early as usual for batting practice, but neither team was on the field and no practice cages were out.
As anyone who attends batting practice on a regulr basisknows, at that point
you almost want to go home. It sounds silly, but seeing a game without first seeing batting practice is like eating a Rockies Dog with no bun.
Yea its a hot dog, but it just needs more.
Maybe it’s just me.
On the bright side, Sundays are special at Coors Field. Yup, thats right because it’s Autograph day.
I really dig autograph day. To be honest, one of the things I didn’t have in the Army was a lot of patience. It’s something I’ve been working on and believe me trying to get autographs will teach you some patience.
Loooong lines. There’s lines to park, lines to buy your tickets, lines to get in early for batting practice, lines to take a whiz, lines to wait for the rope be released so you can run to get in line to wait to get your autograph and lines to leave the parking lot.
![Patience SIGN[1].JPG](http://mlblogsbaseballsnatcher.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/patience20sign5b15d.jpg)
Well my newfound patience served me well on Sunday because an injured Troy Tulowitzki was rumored to be one of the players signing.
Hunter and I waited in a massive group of some Tulo hungry Rockies fans for that yellow chain to be dropped.
When it was finally lowered it was mob rules and Hunter and I were big and bad right in the middle of it.
It was awesome, we were both running and laughing. Shoot,…were both in good shape so we smoked most of them.
We managed to get in Tulo’s line and had about six people in front of us. Hunter got a batting practice ball signed (a dinged up MLB official ball), and I got my cheap World Series ball signed.
Tulo charges $25.00 for his autograph (then donates the money to charity), so I think it was cool that he was out there signing.
He was a class act.
<—Left is a picture of the ball he signed.
Thank you Tulo !!
That made the day worthwhile.
Go Rockies…D
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