Oh boy, another day at the happiest place on earth!

Mk, seriously, if you couldn’t tell, life has been rough mentally. At least as of recently. And since I went TWO WEEKS without the single thing that makes me happy (that being ball hawking), it felt good to be back at it.

As for the game itself, the Rochester Red Wings came to town for the first time this season. Considering it was a school night, I didn’t plan on staying the whole game, and wanted to keep it pretty laid back as far as snagging balls. It was sorta just a way to get me out of the house.

Like usual, I started making my rounds as soon as I got in. It was the first game of the series, so they definitely took BP. And as if knowing that off hand wasn’t enough, I think the batting cage being left out was a dead giveaway.

What’s weird is that usually the cage is the FIRST thing they put away after BP. Today? It was the LAST. It stayed out until like 10 minutes before first pitch.

Anyways, after left field, I quickly headed over to the right field bar where I knew some people. And as expected, said friends had a little something, my first ball of the day.

It’s nice having connections like that. Not only is it handy to get me on the board, but it’s also nice having people to socialize with about my nuts hobby. I can’t do that with many people at all, maybe one or two at most.

Upon leaving the bar, I headed back to left as the pitchers began warming up. Out there as well was my buddy and fellow ball hawk Gary. Super great guy, snagged over 400 balls at PNC Field ALONE. As I was chatting with him, Railriders starter Will Warren was finishing playing catch with catcher Carlos Narvaez. Apparently, Carlos was trying to get my attention to toss me a ball, but I was too busy talking to Gary to notice. Oh well.

Once I noticed that the position players were beginning to warm up, I ditched the bullpens and headed for the 3rd base side. There, Jeter Downs tossed up my second ball of the day once he finished playing catch.

The game itself went kind of slow. I couldn’t stay in my seat as usual, so I was all over the place. First inning, I stayed in foul territory, where to my surprise, I saw this guy step to the plate…

It completely crossed my mind that Joey Gallo was on a rehab assignment with Rochester, and he wouldn’t be the only MLB name in the building.

The bats woke up pretty early with Rochester banging in 4 quick runs, including a home run that would have been extremely easy to catch. So, naturally, I went to the outfield.

Remember how I said Gallo wasn’t the only MLB player on the rosters? Well to my surprise, out of the bullpen came…

Yea. That’s Richard Bleier. As in, MLB reliever Richard Bleier. For those who don’t know, Bleier is a really good friend of Zack Hample, the guy who’s the main reason I ball hawk. Bleier was just as cool and friendly as he was in Zack’s videos, so it was super cool to see him in person.

I don’t know what happened after that, as the middle of the game came a lot faster than i expected. Maybe it was because I was in the outfield the whole time? Considering I wasn’t staying the whole game, and that my ball total was still stuck at 2, I figured I’d try for one more 3rd out ball in the 7th inning and then head out. So, I did just that. I headed back to my seat just in time for the Railriders to finish the 7th with a strikeout. That ball, as seen in the picture, ended up in my hands. It was tossed up by Yankees pitcher Nick Burdi who was on rehab with the Railriders. He airmailed me by a row or two, but luckily nobody was there and it rolled right to me.

I knew Burdi would be there, so I was really happy to get a ball from him. Technically, it’s a MLB ball from a MLB pitcher, who happened to be 1/3 MLBers in the house.

So that’s all I’ve got for this game. Like I said at the start, life has been all over the place and not in the most favorable ways, so it felt good to be doing something I truly enjoy.

STATS FOR THIS GAME:

* 3 balls total:

– Handout by usher pregame

– Toss up by Jeter Downs pregame

– 3rd out toss up by Nick Burdi to end 7th

LIFETIME TOTAL: 259