6/2/08 at Citizens Bank Park

I attended this game for ONE reason: to catch Ken Griffey Jr.’s 600th career home run.

When I reached the ticket window, I learned that there wasn’t a single seat available anywhere in the lower deck in right field. This wouldn’t have been a problem at most other stadiums, but at Citizens Bank Park, there happens to be an usher or two at the top of every staircase; once the game starts, it’s almost impossible to enter the seats without a ticket for that section.

Then, out of nowhere, as if sent by the snagging gods, a young man dressed in business attire walked up to the next window and asked if he could exchange his two tickets for another game. It just so happened that his seats were exactly where I wanted to be, in section 104 in straight-away right field. (Check out this seating chart.) I bought his tickets at face value–one for me and the other for Jona (who’s now technically my ex-girlfriend, although we’re still super close…long story…don’t ask). I thanked the man, then said a little prayer for No. 600, and headed around the stadium to the left field gate.

Citizens Bank Park is normally great for catching home runs in batting practice, but it was surprisingly dead yesterday, so I focused on using my glove trick for the balls that rolled to the outfield walls.

First I got one in left-center field:

Shane Victorino had tried to mess me up by playfully throwing his glove at mine just as I got the ball to stick inside. Luckily he missed, and since he was more than 50 feet away, I had time to reel in the ball before he jogged over.

“Don’t be hatin’,” I said to him.

“Hatin’ on what!” he demanded.

“Hatin’ on my glove trick,” I replied. “Don’t be hatin’.”

“I’m not hatin’,” he laughed and jogged back to the spot where he’d been shagging in left-center field.

Two minutes later, another ball rolled to the wall even further out toward center field. Shane didn’t see it, which was a good thing. The ball was about eight feet out from the wall, so I had to toss my glove out onto the warning track (while holding onto the string) and carefully pull it back to knock the ball closer:

Right after I reeled it in, two more balls rolled to the same spot, and as I was getting ready to lower my glove for a third time, Shane jogged back over.

“Go ahead,” he said, “let me see how that thing works.”

“Are you really gonna let me get the ball?” I asked.

“Go ahead,” he repeated.

“If you let me get it,” I said, “I’ll give it to the fan of your choice.”

He didn’t say anything, so I started explaining how the trick works. I tilted the glove toward him so he could see me setting up the rubber band and Sharpie. Then, when the contraption was ready, I began lowering it. He even moved one of the balls closer to the wall for me, but then, at the last second, just as my glove was about to lower over it, he grabbed both baseballs and tossed them back toward the infield.

“That’s just wrong!” I shouted.

He shrugged and kept jogging away.

“Shane!” I shouted again. “I taught YOU something! Now you have to teach ME something!”

He turned around. “Like what?!” he asked.

“Teach me something about baseball!” I said. “Teach me how you run so fast! I could use some extra speed!”

“That’s something I was blessed with!” he yelled, and that was the end of that.

I got a third ball with the glove trick in the left field corner…

…and got a fourth in straight away left field. This one was the toughest of all because I had to lean over the flower bed just to see the ball…

…and then once I saw it, I had to lean/reach ever further to actually get it:

As you can see, I had to support all the weight of my upper body by balancing on a thin metal railing with my elbows. Meanwhile, the back railing was digging into my knees, whi
ch are now quite bruised, and it was totally worth it. As I’ve always said: the pain goes away but the ball lasts forever.

Cole Hamels tossed me a ball a few minutes later (ball No. 5 on the day). He lobbed it high in the air, and I reached up and caught it bare-handed over a few fans. Then I realized that one of them was a young boy (maybe six years old) with a glove.

“Did you get a ball yet?” I asked him.

He answered so quietly that I had to lean down and say, “What?”

“No,” he said a little louder, this time shaking his head.

“Well, this one’s for you,” I said before handing it over and heading to the right field seats.

I got my sixth ball tossed by Gary Majewski and got another from Jeremy Affeldt soon after. Affeldt didn’t look at me. He just grabbed the ball off the warning track and flipped it up randomly into the seats, so he didn’t know that I already had one (or seven) when another ball rolled to the wall in right-center. Before he could get there, I started lowering my glove, and when he arrived, he just stood back and watched:

Jona later told me that one of the fans near her (a high-school-aged kid) was saying that the glove on the string was the stupidest thing he’d ever seen–that is, until I actually got the ball to stick inside.

I used the trick for a SIXTH time for a ball near the right field foul pole, and at the end of batting practice, I got Reds bench coach Chris Speier to toss me my 10th and final ball of the day.

Before the game started, I got Brandon Phillips to sign a Phillies-Reds ticket from last year. I was in such a good mood…so excited for the game and chance to catch a piece of history.

But then?

The starting lineups were announced, and Griffey wasn’t playing!

Nooooooooooo!!!

Jona pulled out her iPhone and searched for Griffey on rotoworld.com, and we learned that he wasn’t playing because of “general soreness.”

Was there a chance that he might end up pinch hitting late in the game? Yeah, I suppose. But I had no interest in staying, given the circumstances which included the fact that I had to drive 100 miles back to NYC and then drive back early the next day, so I left with Jona after the second inning.

STATS:

? 10 balls at this game

? 80 lifetime games with at least 10 balls

? 135 balls in 17 games this season = 7.9 balls per game.

? 513 consecutive games with at least one ball

? 116 consecutive games outside NYC with at least one ball

? 830 lifetime balls outside NYC

? 3,412 total balls