Results tagged ‘ Jason Hammel ’
“Gotcha” Macha
6/18/10 Brewers vs Rockies Game One
Weather: 81 degrees, partly cloudy.
Wind: 16 mph, In from LF.
Temperature: 2:43.
Att: 32,340.
First in line today, first into the pavilion. That was a good thing because as I was heading to my “spot” I managed to snag the first ball of the day after it took a nasty bounce off of a bleacher.
Here’s a shot of Gary X, Alannah X and Jay DDD.
Gary came up and introduced himself his daughter and JayDDD during batting practice.
Gary is a regular Rant reader and told me that reading the Rockpile Rant had inspired him to show up early for batting practice. Gary asked me where a good location for BP would be and I suggested over by Robert in the corner against the railing.
The fact that I actually inspired anyone to do anything blows me away so I gave his daughter Alannah the baseball I had snagg’d earlier. She later snagg’d a toss-up from Jorge De La Rosa and before they left the pavilion Alannah let me know how excited she was to have two baseballs because now she could give one to her best friend.
That is what it’s all about. Super nice folks. It was an honor to meet and chat with you. Thanks for reading, I really appreciate it…D
I also thought is was cool that Gary knew who Robert was through the Rockpile Rant and went over and introduced himself.
I mentioned to Robert later that maybe he should start a blog so he can make me famous…. I don’t think he got it?
I did have an opportunity to snag a Jeff Francis toss-up. In fact Jeff actually threw it to me but at the last second the dude in front of me stood up and barehanded it. As he caught it the dude’s hand smacked back into my glove and he acted like I was in his space?
I don’t think so. Thanks Jeff, I knew you were tossing it to me.
Mike and Geoff.
Batting practice ended and my final tally was one. One is better than none although I prefer catching ‘em.
Mike, Robert and I headed over to the Rockies dugout so we could see. You know sometimes you just gotta see stuff. So we stood there and watched and we saw stuff.
Wanna see what we saw? Here you see us seeing Jason Hammel the starting pitcher.
Ok, I’m sure you’ve noticed when the starting pitchers walk across the field past the crowd on their way to warm-up right?
Tell me why does it seem like they’re doing the “Walk of Shame”.
You know what I mean….Head down, no eye contact???
What exactly are they doing before they walk onto the field? ……….I dunno, but it does make you wonder though?
Remember, I’m just here to point out the obvious 
Here’s Miguel Olivo, Mark Strittmatter and Bob Apodaca.
Hey did you know?
Nice job Miguel !
Props to Coors Field Hosers for keep’n it wet.
Todd Helton, we need you brotha!!
Second baseman Jonathon Herrera.
While we were seeing stuff Robert let me know he had an extra ticket for the front row next to him and Mike and that I could use it if I wanted…Uhh yep!
I like this view….Photo by Robert Harmon
Thanks Robert.
It was just my luck as no home runs were hit into the pavilion. Can you imagine how funny it would have been if a ball actually had been hit anywhere near Robert, Mike and I.
The three of us trying to get out of those three seats in a row at the same time could have been interesting
Jonathon Herrera sliding into second.
Dan and family and Big Tom
For Nick the Happy Youngster in case he’s reading…Mr Prince Fielder.
No pictures of Tulowitzki today. If you haven’t heard Tulo got hit by a pitch and has a broken bone in his wrist. We’re looking at six weeks until he returns…Ouch
I call this “Dejected then Ejected”.
Bad call at first base….Umpire says safe… Jim Tracy comes storming out.
The Umpires meet, have a lil pow-wow and reverse the call….Out
Brewers manager Ken Macha flips his cookies it and gets to leave Coors early.
Here’s the video…You’re welcome
Stuff like this is fun to watch, especially when the call goes in your teams favor.
Another first for me at this game. Some idiot sitting behind me about 25 rows decided to make a name for himself and toss a baseball onto Coors Field. It wasn’t a game homer(I knew that because nothing was hit into the pavilion this game).
I guess he did it for sheets and giggles??
Here’s the video (ignore the first few seconds). The crowd totally pointed the dude out and he was escorted away.
I love it when I’m right there when stuff like this happens.
Jim Tracy decides it’s time for a pitching change.
Jason Hammel getting a standing ovation and a smack on the butt after a job well done.
The final score
Props to Jason Hammel for his well-roundedness and for helping the Rockies solidify this game one win over the Brewers.
Don’t know about you but I’m thinking Sweep.
Go Rockies…”D”
I like what I see, Rockies take two out of three
4/28/09
Other than losing to the Padres (I hate losing to the Padres), it was a good game and a great day on all kinds of levels. As soon as I arrived in the pavilion and saw those batting cages on the field it was game on baby.
I’ve been waiting for a good snagging day and today was no disappointment.
Ball 1: Within a minute I saw a BP homer hit to the right of me and I was off like herd of turtles.
It bounced off a bleacher back and landed underneath the bleacher. I reached through the gap and grabbed it.
I looked up saw a young guy who would have gotten the ball had I not snagged it and I tossed it up to him.
That guy later said “Thank you Ranter” as he was leaving the pavilion.
Your Welcome Brotha !
The Rockies were hitting All-Star baseballs today and I wanted one.
Ball 2: The next BP homer was again hit to my right. I was running full speed and noticed that the ball was going to hit just below the fence so I swung my glove down and swooped it up so smoothly I didn’t even know it was in my glove until I looked.
I kept that ball because although it was dirty, it was a Yankee Stadium commemorative baseball and a bad-azzz catch.
I had another opportunity at another BP homer to the left of me but I misjudged it and missed it by inches. At that point I removed my sunglasses as they were not helping matters.
Ball 3 was hit to the right of me and it was just a plain old running catch. I gave that ball to a little red head girl who was standing next to her little brother who was already holding a ball.
Ball 4 was hit to the left of me and was another running catch snagged cleanly. It was given to a little boy.
I decided to reposition myself higher up in the pavilion and when ball 5 was hit I ran down a few stairs and caught it cleanly with no competition. I kept it because it was a pretty one with only one hit mark on it.
On my next attempt I hopped over three bleachers and ran left down the row as I figured I was in the perfect row to snag this hit. About halfway down the row I stopped positioned myself for the catch then from my left some dude came into my personal space held up his glove with his left arm and held down my arm with his right arm..
At first I thought we were just stuck from his collision into me, but when I tried to forcibly lift my arm I realized this dude had a tight grip on it.
I was like ” What’s up brotha, you don’t have to cheat, I’d have given your son the ball” .
He told me he wasn’t cheating and that I was the cheater by climbing over the three rows of bleachers to get to this spot.
I told him that was bullsheet and I can run, trip fall all over these bleachers and that’s ok, what isn’t ok is contact or touching/holding someone.
I realized right away you couldn’t tell this guy anything. He was one of those dudes. He was wrong, totally wrong and he knew it. You catch a ball with skill not force.
I also mentioned something like it better not happen again
This dude was there with his kid and I didn’t feel like continuing to promote his fine example of fatherhood.
Next time I won’t be so nice
A freggin Rockies fan to boot. I just don’t get it. Anyways, his brilliant block/hold caused us both to miss the ball. I knew dudes like this existed but up until this point I had only met ball whiners. This guy was my first official ball blocker.
Going forward, five snagged baseballs was my best day ever snaggin. There would be no All-Star baseballs for the Ranter today.
While I was on the stairs an Usher came up to me and mentioned she reads the Rockpile Rant and that she really enjoys it. She was very nice and I appreciate when someone tells me that. To find out that people read your blog and then to actually meet those people is very cool. If you’re reading thanks for saying hi and please leave me a comment with your name and I’ll give you proper credit.
Did it start with an “E”?
I always bring a pen for autographs, maybe I should use that same pen to take notes.
After batting practice was over I headed over to the Rockies dugout to again see what I could see. I saw a lot of players warming up.
I busted out my camera and started warming up myself.
Dexter Fowler, a guy who single-handedly is making center field in Coors field look smaller. Props to you brotha for your excellent effort and results in this last home stand.
Jorge De La Rosa and Yorvit Torrealba
tossing the ball
Todd Helton was out warming up also. Today I had brought two baseballs in case I was able to get more than one.
As soon as Todd Helton finished his warm-up walked over to a group of people about
ten feet away from where I was positioned.
Usually that means I wouldn’t be able to squeeze that far over so I didn’t even try.
But to my surprise Todd was working his way left and in no time he was just a few feet away from my spot.
I pulled out my baseball and Pentel RSVP pen.
Todd took them both and proceeded to autograph it on the sweet spot.
Thanks Todd I didn’t even have to ask.
How about that? All these years of not being to snag Todd’s autograph and then BAM, twice in two days. Life’s crazy like that.
Here’s a shot of Helton at bat. This picture was taken from the pavilion.
Helton
Tulowitzki and Stewart
Clint Hurdle and Ryan Spilborghs
Garrett Atkins 
Barmes and Hammel
More dugout shots
Helton and Baylor
A shot of Dan and Emily during the 7th inning stretch singing “Heeeeey Baby” oooh ahh.
Torrealba was behind the plate.
Going for that out.
A shot of Belisle
I thought for sure we’d take game two but the Rockies lose this one 4-3 to the Padres.
Hagg’n Stats for this game
1 point for showing up.
15 points for 5 snagged balls
2 points for Todd Helton’s autograph.
Total Points = 18
<—Actual Coors Field crack.
Well my friends, thanks for visiting the Rockpile Rant and remember to just say no to crack.
Spare the world a shot of your great divide and buy your T-shirts a little longer…D
Photos by the Rockpile Ranter
Could it be…The Ranter on TV?
4/26/09
After it all happened I figured I might be on TV. Props to Robert for snaggin Spilborgh’s home run ball in the third inning. Spilborghs is his favorite Rockies player.
Robert was sporting Spilly’s Jersey and immediatly after he snagged that home run ball Spilly’s dad called Robert on his cell phone.
Don’t believe me,… look how happy this old man is.
Robert asked me later how close I was to him when he snagged that ball and I told him if he had stopped any shorter we’d have known each other too well.
Good job Robert, the dude is quick. Next time I’ll sit on the other side of him.
Click on the link below and check out the video of it all:
Rockpile Ranter on TV/ Roberts snag of Spilly’s home run
I know I didn’t get the ball but at least I didn’t look like a chump my first time on TV 
Today I was the first in line at the Rockpile gate and things were as they should be in Rockie land.
First in line at the gate puts me first into the Pavilion.
When the batting cages are out it gives me an extra few minutes before the place starts to crawl with people.
As you can tell from this picture, first didn’t mean much today.
No cages = No batting practice
Here is a shot of Dan and Robert politely discussing one of yesterday’s batting practice snags
Something about somebody stepping on somebody’s foot if I remember correctly?
I was lucky again today and Dan hooked me up with a Row 1 ticket. This enabled me to go onto the field during the autograph session. I’ve never done this before and let me tell you it was beyond cool.
Check out the video of me entering the field:
I love this picture of the field this is from the roped off dirt area we were in behind home plate.
Here’s one with me in it.
I managed to get four autographs today.
On the left is Jason Hammel and on the right is Ryan Speier.
Manny Corpas came out and signed for a few people then split.
Ubaldo Jimenez also came out and signed for the whole group.
I skipped Ubaldo because I have him already. I was able to give him a knuckle bump and wish him good luck this year. Nice guy.
The other two autographs I snagged were Franklin Morales and Jason Grilli.
I got to see Todd Helton and Tulo, they popped out to say hi to a few kids and take some pictures.
Ubaldo took a few pictures before he signed autographs.
Here is Jason Hammel coming up to sign for us.
Looks like Jason will get his first start for the Rockies on Monday’s game against the Padres.
Good luck Jason!
Here’s what the Rockpile looks like essentially from where the batter stands.
Here is Jason Grilli signing my baseball, check out the lady in the background
Todd Helton making one lucky kids year.
Manual Corpas signing the baseball of the little boy next to me
Here is the video of me leaving the field and walking back inside of Coors Field.
In the video below Robert and I were almost to the Pavilion when I heard someone call out “Rockpile Ranter”. That someone was Missy from “View from the Rockpile”.
Missy is an Usher at Coors Field and was on her way to Gate E when we ran into her. This was the first time her and I have met and it was really cool to finally run into her at a game.
Back in the Pavilion. Here was the view to the right of my seat. Thank you Dan!
A shot of the field from my seats
Dan’s daughter Emily playing kickball with Dinger
A little Rockie history for you.
Here are a few of the Rockies warming-up
Chris Iannetta signs before every game. Rumor has it he does it because he’s superstitious. Superstitious or not he’s a good guy and I believe he’d sign anyway.
He signs for about 5 minutes then goes over to stretch and work out.
Spilly and Hawpe
Jeff Baker and Brad Hawpe
Krista made me put in this picture. She said it summed up the Dodgers lack of excitement in this game. I just don’t get it??
Captain Earthman, business as usual entertaining the masses
Tulowitzki
I call this picture…”Brat with a view”
I really like our new pitcher Marquis, the guy has been a superstar for us.
This game was just what I and all Rockies fans needed.
An in your face, blue bashing, get out of town, you got lucky on the last one, Rockies win.
I especially love beating the Dodgers.
Days like today are special. How often does a person get to go underneath Coors Field, then stand on the field and get autographs? I’m glad I could share some of it with you.
I’ll be at Coors tomorrow for batting practice (weather permitting).
Who knows what whill happen? Stay tuned…D
Hagg’n stats for this gameShowing up for the game = 1 point
4 autographed baseballs = 8 points
Eating a foot long brat = 1 point.
Video of me and an Usher (Missy) = 1 point
Grand Total = 11 points.
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