Sports Legends Museum

Last weekend, we all went downtown to celebrate and enjoy the dollar days that all area museums were providing. The admission to the museum was one dollar for each of us. So we went down around 2, and spent a few hours in the museum. Over the past year, we have each become bigger O's fans, appreciating the rich history and of course all the great players and moments we have been involved in. We also love the rest of the sports in Maryland, so this is the perfect museum. Before we went into the museum we went over to the ballpark to see the place we spent so much time and this is what we saw:
Yes- some of the seats had been pulled out. They are replacing the concrete, and this is how they were doing it. It looked very odd, but it'll be nice to have new concrete and a good base.

The museum part of the day was amazing. There are so many pictures and since I can't share all of them, I'll show all the trophy's they have--(in order of the pictures) 1983 World Series Trophy, 1970 WS Trophy, Mens and Womens National Championship Trophy ( UMD basketball), and the Super Bowl V Trophy (Baltimore Colts).

This of course was only a small portion of the day, (we got to put on different jerseys, including a UMD and Navy Football jersey, we got to see the 2131 banner, and lots of different Orioles and Ravens/Colts memorabilia. It was a great day, and it was worth going out in the rain to see this. More on the offseason later and also keep checking with Avi's blog. Go O's!!

Day 2

Day 2 in Cleveland

http://picasaweb.google.com/thezman613/BaseballTripPart2#

Copy and paste the links, because clicking on them sends you to an error screen-- sorry

Day 1 of the Trip in Pictures

Day 1-- Day in Pittsburgh/ Falling Water

http://picasaweb.google.com/thezman613/Baseball2009Part1#

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21598730@N06/sets/72157622684833141/
(this one will have all the pictures I put on Flickr, so look at the descriptions, because it will be from a few different days)

Pictures and Update

Pictures are now being uploaded from the end of the season and also from the trip. I will link albums as they become available, so please look through them, enjoy, and we'll be back at Oriole Park soon.

There is big news about that though. We will now be season plan holders!! We have all bought the 13 game plan, so we get all the benefits and of course, we can now say that we are Season Ticket holders. Very exciting, and now we will be able to get into the entire ballpark at 5, so that means more experiences and more baseballs. FanFest will be on January 23rd, this year at the Convention Center, so there will be an update about that also. There is also a plan to go down to Spring Training and Opening Day in Tampa, which would be great. As we get closer, I will be able to let you all know how that starts to work out.

Go O's

Pictures

There will be a lot more pictures, all of the ones we have from the season, and in the posts, you can click on the picture to get a bigger one. Thanks for following, there will be more, and Go O's!

Old post: StL @ DC

Sorry this is so overdue, but I didn't think we should write about it because it was before the blog was started. Segev and I went down to DC one evening to see the Nationals play, and to hopefully see Albert Pujols play. We got down there about half hour after gates opened, so it meant that we would have to stay in the outfield, but since there was a drizzle, no one was there and we knew it would be a good day. About 5 minutes in, I got a Nats pitcher to toss me a ball hit by Adam Dunn, and right after that, a HR from him landed in the flower pot, and I snagged that one. I was on the board quickly, and we'd been there for 10 minutes. It got better, as I got a few more players to toss me baseballs from the Cardinals, and when we were able to move around, a pitcher, who's aim I thought would be better tossed me a ball, and I ran it down for my 3rd ball of the day. Segev also got a baseball and we had 4 on the day already, about an hour and a half in.

The bad part of the day was that it was raining and it looked like it was going to get worse. Right before the game, I looked down into the Cardinals bullpen, and of course there was a ball. Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina tossed it up to us, and Segev grabbed it. It was an amazing pregame performance: we had 5 baseballs and the game hadn't started. I was convinced that if we could grab a good seat in foul ground, we would easily get a ball. There was no one there. This was our view for the game:
It was amazing-- thats in the 10th row (we moved up) and it was right by the ball girl, where all the balls would roll. That's when the bad luck started. The skies looked great, we thought it would clear up, and it would be fine. However- we got stuck in 3 rain delays (the stupid Nationals ballclub will not cancel games) and each time, the crowd got smaller and smaller. And of course, because we were near the ball girl, she got zero, 0, balls the entire game. So we were stuck at 5, got stuck in the rain 3 times, and were soaking wet.

We did get free food during the last rain delay which was nice, but I seriously think we could have hit 7 or 8 if we had had any luck after BP ended. It was a lot of fun, and we did get to see a ballpark neither one of us had been to for a game (I've taken a tour, which was much cooler than watching a ballgame there).



Oh, and because this was a make-up game, late in the season, we didn't get to see Pujols play, and the scoreboard was a messed up for the first inning:
Yea- they had the Padres up, not the Cardinals. Oh well.

Bad news

Next year, Alan Dunn and Ronnie Deck will be back, which is good, but Ruben Felix, who we love so much and is very funny, will not be back. We will miss him, and hope he has good luck in the future!

October 3

This may come in parts, but its about time I post something about the most exciting weekend of the year. Saturday night the 3 of us all went to the game hoping to see cool things and collect lots of baseballs. We went down around 2 o'clock, for a 7 o'clock game, just to chill and have a good time. We went into California Tortilla for a quick bite for lunch and then walked around the ballpark a few times. We saw some people we knew and just talked for a while. Around 3:30, we were walking by the entrance to the offices in the wearhouse, and we stopped to look into the window. We saw a guy standing there, with a bike, in a Jeremy Guthrie BP jersey. We stopped to look, and after a minute or two, one of the ushers came out to see if we needed anything. Of course we were stunned, so we just told her to wish Jeremy good luck the next day. She said fine and went back inside. A minute later, Jeremy walked over to the door, and came out. He asked what our names were and we struck up a conversation. We talked for about 5-10 minutes, and then he offered to take a picture with us. It was all very cool and we were very stunned. I called my dad, Avi and Seg texted our friends, and we thought our day had peaked.
We all had season tickets for this game, so when the gates opened at 5, we rushed around to left field to try to get some extra baseballs. Seg and Avi both also were in CF to talk to Danys, but did come around after a minute or two. When I had run inside, it was between another kid and me to get any baseballs just sitting there. Unfortunatly, one of the ushers had been catching baseballs and so there weren't any. Right as we got there however, he caught another ball, and I asked him if he could spare one. He tossed it to me, and I had 1. Another few home runs came my way and both Matusz and Guthrie each tossed me a baseball. At this point, I had 4 baseballs. Avi and Segev each had been collecting baseballs themselves-- Segev had 3 and Avi had a few also. Then the day got even more interesting. While the O's were still taking BP, a shallow HR was hit, but i misjudged it, and was row to shallow. I jumped for it, but it glanced off my glove. Danys Baez yelled out that I should have made the play, so I asked him for another chance. He said ok, and I threw him the baseball. On target, but it landed just a bit short. Then after a little joking around, he threw it back. The one problem was that he had horrible aim-- it was about a foot short of the wall, and so I made a lunging catch, over the wall and made a spectacular catch. That got a big applause from the Orioles who were in Left Field, and Danys was also pretty impressed. It was great to be able to play "catch" with an O's player, and get to show my great reaction to the players.
The Orioles finished up Batting Practice, I had 7 baseballs and overall, the 3 of us had caught just about 17-18 baseballs. Our goal for the weekend was 23 overall. As the Jays came out, we started walking around. I got one of the Jays to toss me one of their warm up baseballs, which gave me 8 on the day and brought us very close to our goal. Then Avi came running to me, happ as could be, because he had been chosen to go on the field with a player for the Anthem. He was so happy, and I was excited for him also. I decided to walk around Eutaw St to see if maybe I could be chosen also. I was walking around, and I saw someone I knew was choosing people, so I walked up to him and asked him who was choosing people and how I could be chosen. He said that I shouldn't ask and should just hang out around Eutaw St. That was cool, and I knew that he was right. About 20 minutes went by, and I still hadn't been chosen. The same guy found me again, and asked if I had been chosen. I said no, and he said, "Well, I'm here to choose you!" I was so excited, and I had been chosen to go on the field to get a jersey. I went back to Avi who was very excited for me, and when it was time, we went down under the stadium and waited to walk onto the field. I was going to get Chris Lambert's jersey, which was very cool. When I walked out onto the field, the stadium seemed much bigger. With everyone looking at me, including every player in the dugout, it got pretty nerve wracking.
Chris came out and we talked about everything for a little bit, and I also said hi to Guthrie again, who of course recognized me, and also Nick Markakis who was right next to me. (pics later). Then he put the jersey on me, which was really really cool, and when the PA announcer said my name, and I heard the cheers from people I knew sitting very close to where I was, it was so crazy and my smile was huge. After all of this, we walked back into the dugout where I had to give the jersey back, and I told him that I was sitting out by the bullpen, and he should look out for me there. Leaving the dugout, I wished good luck to Dave Trembley, who was standing right next to me, and in the tunnel leaving the field I wished good luck to each of the umpires. It was all very cool. I got out in time to see Avi go out onto the field with Lou Montanez, who is an outfielder, so Avi got to run across the dirt, which he said was so very cool. After the Anthem, Avi got a baseball signed (a ball right out of the box) and he got to spit on the field.
We went back to our seats, talked with Ronnie and Ruben, and of course watched the Orioles pull out another great victory. It was a great game, and we still had one game to go.

Go O's!

Update

I would just like to thank everybody for following us throughout this Orioles season. We will be updating throughout the off season, so keep checking. I'm so sorry that I haven't put up any pictures (there are a lot and they will all be put up once I figure it out- I don't want to have to put them up one at a time) and since we went to the last 3 games, and a lot happened, I will be writing about that very soon. There could be a lot going on during the break- including, Ronnie/Ruben coming to visit us at school, Batting Practice with Ronnie as our coach, visits to Sprig Training, and much more we hope! Thanks for a great season, now lets count down the days until the first game in April (as of now, 168 days or so). Go O's!!

Quick Update

I will post a few entries about this past weekend soon, because this was one of the most hectic, fun, exciting weekends we will have in the near future. This season has been great, the O's finished with a big sweep, and of course, we got to chill with Ronnie and Ruben. Roberts finished with 56 doubles, a team record, and a new record for switch hitters. He was also named the Most Valuable Oriole.

Long Overdue post

So 2 Wednesday's ago, I went with Avi right after school, getting a ride from a girl in our school (her dad was nice enough to bring us to the lightrail). After catching the light rail as we got there, we arrived at the ballpark at about 5:10. We rushed inside and saw Errol standing alone at the entrance to the rest of the ballpark, where only Season Ticket holders are allowed. We went down to say hi to Danys, knowing that there would be a good chance Errol would let us by later on. Danys was happy to see us, and we talked to him about school and why we hadn't been there in a while. After he caught a few baseballs and tossed us one each, we thanked him and told him we would talk to him once we got to the bullpen. We had 2 baseballs overall, and we had set a goal of 10 baseballs. There was no one in the ballpark, so I knew we had a shot. We went over to Errol, and when he saw us, after joking around with us, he let us get to the rest of the park, because there was no one else there. Ronnie and Ruben had left, so we went to the dugout to see if we could get a baseball. As everyone was leaving the field, there was one ball on the field, which I got Mark Hendrickson to toss to me.

As Avi and I changed into our blue shirts for the Rays, we noticed that there were almost no people behind the pitchers warming up, so I knew I had a good chance to get a baseball. After they were done, most would not throw it to us, because they didn't want to give baseballs away and some decided not to hear us. There was no one else there, so you think they would award us with a baseball. They didn't. When David Price was done, he flipped me the ball, and when I realized it was falling short, I leaned over the railing to try to get it, but it bounced right before and nailed me in the cheek. Avi grabbed it, so it was ok, and when I asked David for another baseball, he pointed at a foul ball coming my way, which I did get a few rows up. Before he had come over, I may add, another player had thrown me a baseball, but he rolled it over, and when I realized, I couldn't get my glove down to field level and it rolled away. The usher said he couldn't get it, but he did come over and then throw it back towards the players-- what?! He says he can't get it, but yet he just throws it back in. I know they are told to do that, but it annoyed me that I could have 4 baseballs at this point. Oh well-- Avi and I each played different parts of the outfield, and he did alert me of a baseball in the Orioles bullpen, which, when I went over was still there. When the police officer came over to throw his water bottle away, I asked him if he could toss me the baseball, and he did. Very nice guy and I wished him a good evening. After that, Grant Balfour came out to the bullpen to throw with Jim Hickey and another coach, and before they started I asked if there was any way I could have the ball when they were done. He nodded, so I stuck around. No other baseballs came my way, while Avi did manage to get baseball number 3 for him. After a while, when they were done talking, I asked Grant if I could have the ball, and the coach I had talked to got the ball and threw me a strike, down the middle, right into my glove. Until Avi and I left, we managed to get a few more baseballs, and our final one was number 10! We thought it was 9, but it did end up being number 10!!!

We decided to see if we would have any luck around the Rays dugout, and when they came in, I asked David Price if I could have another baseball. He told me that I got one, and when I told him my friend had gotten it, he told me I had one also. Jokingly, I said- No- Avi has it! and he, with a big smile, yelled, "You have one, Don't Lie to Me!" He left and we were cracking up. Another pitcher came over, and when we asked him, he told me that I had 100 in that bag, and I don't need another one. I jokingly asked him, Why can't I have 101? They all left, and right as they were going in, one of the coaches reluctantly threw us a baseball because there was no one else around. That was baseball number 11 (7 for me, and 3 for Avi). I decided to stick around to talk to Alan Dunn when he came out, and Avi went back. Avi called me and told me that while we were gone, someone had stolen 3 of his baseballs, and he was left with none. I told Alan about that, and he said that he'd see what he could do. He had told us that he would try to get us some Yankee Stadium commemorative baseballs, and so we were excited to see if we would get them. I went back to Avi, who had gotten 2 from Alan because he couldn't find any NYY baseballs. (Cla later explained that they didn't use them for BP, and so he couldn't get them for us.) Avi would end up getting another baseball from the Rays, which gave us 13 baseballs overall- an amazing performance!! Ruben did talk to us, and we worked it out that they would try to come in the week after the season ended, before they all went back home. The game was great, and we had to leave at 10, because we had school the next day, and for the most part, it seemed like they would get the game in by 9:30. Danys told us that he would give us his jacket at the end of the game, and we joked with him the entire time, until he was called on to pitch. Miss Kelly was great, and we had friends come to the game, and so we had fun with them. All of a sudden, there was rain, and there was a rain delay. We ended up leaving, talked to Joe when he could get out of some party that the Tavern was hosting, and so that didn't work out. We ended up going back home, and of course, in the 10th inning (after losing the lead in the 9th), Matt Wieters gets up and hits a walk-off Home Run to the first row of our section. We would have caught that ball, because there were 3 people in the section, and we would have moved down to talk to Ronnie. The O's won, so it was ok, and our next game would not be until October 2-4th. We'll write more then, and Let's Go O's!

Brian's Doubles

With a big double on Tuesday night, Brian Roberts inches closer to the mark of 60 doubles.

56 doubles!!

Go O's (please snap this 11 game losing streak)

Updates

I'm very sorry that I have not added a new post in a long while, but there has not been to much exciting going on. I went to one game, last Wednesday, with Avi- and it was an empty game. We collected 13--yea, 13 baseballs that game (personal and group records) and a full recap will be added very soon. I will also now be adding a countdown to 60 doubles for Brian Roberts, a mark that has not been reached since 1931 (Earl Webb- Boston Red Sox, with 67). It would be an amazing mark to cap a great season for Brian Roberts, so we will watch him and hope he gets 60+ doubles.

Roberts doubles- 55

Go O's

Summer Experiences

There was a recent write up done in our schools E-Newsletter about the summer and Avi submitted something about our summer. Here is what he wrote:
"So far, I’ve gone to a total of 46 Orioles games with lots of friends, but mainly Zevi Lowenberg, ‘11 and Segev Goldberg, ’10. My goal is 50! It is the best feeling when I go to the Orioles games and see how many people know me like the cashier and cook at California Tortilla, since I always go there to get some chips; the waiter at the Diamond Tavern across the street from the stadium at the Hilton gives us free sodas and fries every game; the usher who opens the gates; the ushers who run the line for the box office; the Orioles staff lady who goes around conducting surveys; the usher who works right behind home plate (Joey); the usher who protects fans from getting into the ballpark early without season ticket passes(Errol); the usher in my section loves me and is the one who lets us sit in the seats that we do even though they are way more expensive than what we pay (Kelly); the 4 people working at the food stand outside of section, along with the cashier; and the whole bullpen basically knows me. I have caught 2 home runs in games this year, so I have been asked by 4 people if I was the guy who caught the home run! When I say they know me, most of those people know Zevi and Segev also. Between the 3 of us, we were able to collect over 50 baseballs also and over 25 autographs too!
Avi Miller, ‘10"

Sunday's game

It's been a while and I know that this is more than a week late, but it is well worth it. The three of us went to the game with a few friends that we hadn't been to a game with and thought it would be fun to show them what a game with us was like. So we went with Shachar and Bailey, both classmates of Avi and Segev in Middle School. We got down to the park right before gates opened, and so the few of us who were there held a place in line right for Shachar who had gotten food, and Segev and Bailey who weren't there yet. They came after we had gotten in, so I didn't see them until around 5:15. The reason was that I ran into the ballpark to see if there were any baseballs around, but instead I saw that the place where Errol (an usher that we talk to every game) stands was empty and I was allowed around. The only problem was that he was walking up that area and he stopped me. He saw who I was and let me through because there were no other people around. SWEET!! There was no Batting Practice, so I went down to the field level to talk to Ruben. Because I was the only one who had gotten through of our group (Avi got stuck and had to wait) he came over when he saw me and we talked for a little bit. We talked about the Ronnie Deck t-shirts we had all gotten and about him visiting our school. It was a lot of fun and the people around me just watched us talk and were amazed that a player was that cool with just coming over and talking. So Ruben had to go help out with the pitchers warming up, so when Ronnie got back from the bullpen, he came over to talk to me. We talked for a little bit, he loves the t-shirts and he thought it was cool that it was a birthday present and that we had thought of him first. That's pretty cool. The pitchers from the bullpen started to warm up, so I figured that I had a very good chance at getting a baseball from the first group done. I stood right behind Danys Baez, who of course knows me, and when he turned around, I waved to him, and he said Hey. I asked him if when he was done if I could have the baseball and he said, "Yea no problem" I got to talking to some other people around me about the season and about the Orioles and also how I knew all the pitchers. Eventually I got the lady next to me a promise of a ball from Matt Albers since it was her birthday. When Baez and Dennis Sarfate finished, Dennis, who had switched sides with Baez ended up with the ball, and since no called out to him, I calmly asked him for the baseball and he tossed it to me. That was cool and that was baseball number 30 on the year. WOW! I honestly never went into the season thinking about collecting baseballs, but it has been a lot of fun, and 30 is a lot of baseballs. Eventually I went back up to Errol who told me to get my annoying friends, (Avi, who had been bugging him about getting through since he saw me) and when I brought Avi back, we were let through and we waited until 5:45 when everyone else came back to start walking around. There was no BP, so Avi and I stayed around home plate and chilled there with everyone else. Avi and I had a lot of fun just talking on the side, with no one to bug us and nothing really to do. It was a lot of fun, and it was good to be at the ballpark, close to the field, with good friends, on a sunny day. Avi did ass Brian Bass for a baseball after he was done warming up, so we each had a baseball. After that, Avi and I went over to the dugout and managed to get Chris Tillman's autograph, which is pretty cool since he is one of our great rookie pitchers. Segev and Avi found the survey lady who gives out tickets, and so Segev took the survey and we got 2 tickets to a game. After that we stood and talked for a little bit until we went down to the first row behind home plate and when Alan Dunn was done talking, we called him over and talked with him for a little bit. He told me that he was going to pick up some of the New Yankee Stadium commemorative baseballs for us. That's very cool and very nice of him. That was about it before the game other than talking to Miss Kelly and joking around with Shachar and Bailey. We eventually went back to our seats, and talked to some people we had seen at previous games. It was very hot out, so only a few of us sat out in the sun, while everyone else was a section up under cover. In the fourth inning, Segev, Bailey and I decided to go get a free sandwhich (from a coupon we had gotten from a guy we see a lot who had given us season tickets to the last few games of the season- regular seats, but we can get around the ballpark early). So we went out onto Eutaw Street and got the sandwhich. It tasted amazing and it came with a big drink which was great in the heat. After that we decided that we were going to go see an old teacher of ours and her young (1st grader) son, who had seats next to the dugout. When we went down to see them we sat in the top of the section until the middle of the inning, and after a great play, I looked over and there were 6 nuns standing and cheering. That got us laughing, because its not everyday you see a group of nuns at an O's game. So middle of the inning we went to say hi, had lots of fun and then went back to the nuns. So for that entire inning we had great seats and wanted to stay, but we continued to explore. At this point we were just finding random places to go because we were having a lot of fun and laughing a lot. I decided that we were going to go look at the most pointless seats in the ballpark. Located on Club Level, all the way down the 1st base line, they are facing towards Eutaw St. (away from Home Plate) and when you do turn to see the game, you are under the seats that are in front of you. Its a very odd location, and no one ever sits there. So we went to see the seats and pretty much we were right on top of them. The regular seats, the seating area extends out over Eutaw St and pretty much it extends a little to far. That was crazy, and there was really no one there, and its about a foot over, so its a very easy jump. We weren't going to do that, but it's possible. After all of that, we found the fan of the game, and the guy who gives the pretzels away to the fan of the games row, and after some debating and some avoiding it, Segev went up to the guy and he managed to get 2 coupons for free pretzels. Those pretzels were amazing. The salted one was one of the best I had ever tasted and it was worth every step I had taken to get it. We did a lot more walking and exploring, and tried to get some more free food, but at that point, we had run out of free food. At this point it was the 7th inning so we went back to the seats and chilled with everyone else for the rest of the game. I got an autograph from Former Oriole Davey Johnson, who was doing the post game show, and did have his World Series ring on. That was a lot of fun, and very cool. The entire game, Bailey had been asking when she was going to get her Red Bull, since I had told her that the night before, I had gotten a free one from the bullpen. So after the game, Ronnie couldn't stay, and so all we had was the guys in the bullpen. I asked one of them for an extra Red Bull, and he did a half-nod. When they emptied out the cooler, there was one left, and I was so excited. Of course, the guy threw it to us-- o wait- no he didn't-- he put it in his pocket. WHAT!?! I had been asking and I wasn't shouting or anything. UGH. So I felt horrible and I was determined to get Bailey a Red Bull. After that we went across the street to the Tavern to see Joe, but when we got there we were told he was on break and then that he had left. We decided just to stay and have some water, and we sat down in a big booth. Amazingly, Joe was still there, and he came down and saw us and waved. He had to go do some things, but when he got back, he did come talk to us for a little bit. It was a lot of fun, and even with the times he had to go work- I know, right, it was still a lot of fun. We got free bread from one of the guys that knows us and we told Joe we were all set and we didn't need anything, but I did ask him for a Red Bull. He told us that he couldn't get it for us because that was at the bar, and he couldn't just take something and not have an explanation. Bailey had some mixed reactions about that and when I was joking around with her about it, she was laughing and crying. Eventually everyone noticed, and including her, we all had a good time with that. Everyone else gave up, but Segev, Avi and I were going to make sure she got a Red Bull. So knowing that Joe would be cool with it, we went to the window, and while Segev and Avi asked outside, where Joe was, I got his attention and was playing around with him, inside. Then we all went outside (the 4 of us) and joked with Joe and the people he was helping, who were cool with all of it. We told Joe that Bailey had cried over it, and so we got it down to a $3.50 for the Red Bull (which we will pay eventually). Bailey told us she was going to the bathroom, but when Joe came out of the kitchen, she rushed over and grabbed Joe to see if he had it. There was one problem- I had taken the Red Bull from Joe at the top of the steps, and she was at the bottom with him. Everyone played into it amazingly and she had no idea I had it. She was ready to kill Joe- she was yelling that they had a deal, and then Segev stepped aside, and she looked up at me. I was holding the Red Bull like I was going to drink it-- I hadn't opened it, and her face went from anger to happiness to complete joy when she saw it. We all got a kick out of that, and headed over to the train. Bailey was overjoyed and hopped up on sugar, and she couldn't figure out when to drink the Red Bull.
The train is a whole other story. We got on, and there was a drunk O's fan and a drunk Yankees fan. The entire time the O's fan was yelling at the Yankees fan to just shut up and eventually, about halfway through the ride, he got up, yelled at the Yankees fan that there were 6 O's fans and 1 Yankees fan, and that he was going to get (jumps up and down) stomped. We all laughed at that one and were amused by all the yelling that went on after that. Eventually the O's fan tried to sit in the row with the Yankees fan, but according to the Yankees fan, "This seat is Tooken!" WOW-- we were really laughing now and that pretty much finished up the most amazing day we had had all season. It was the funniest, the Orioles did win 7-0, and we all seemed to enjoy ourselves. And as always, Go O's!

Saturday's game

On Saturday the Orioles were scheduled to play not only on FOX, but also they were going to be wearing throwback uniforms from the Baltimore Elite Giants Negro League team. They were celebrating the 1939 and 1949 championship teams from Baltimore. Very cool and we couldn't wait to see the uniforms. We headed down to the park around 1:30. Gates opened at 2, and we made it down right around then, and got in around 2:15. When we got into the park, there was BP, even though it was an early game, but by the time we got in, the Orioles had already left. Pretty upsetting, considering Danys Baez pretty much got at least one ball per BP, and I had missed him. So without the Orioles, I headed over to Left Field to see what I could do over there. For the first 20 minutes of BP, no balls came my way, but Avi did have much better luck. He had managed to grab a baseball even with other people around him, and that was just the start for him. So at this point, Avi had one, and I had none, even though I was standing with no one around me. O well, but Avi did make a nice catch. I moved over to say hi to some friends, and just as I left, a ball landed right where I was standing. Damn- that should have been number one. I moved back to see if they would hit more my way, and even after a lot of running, I still had none. Avi and Segev had the same kind of luck, all of us missing a few balls that we had a play on. Segev ran into a seat, and Avi got robbed. Then finally I caught a break. I was talking to a guy behind me, and he shouted that there was going to be a big bounce. I turned around and rushed to the aisle, just to see the ball hit the seats about 6 rows up and bounce into the aisle, one row up from me. I dove up the stair, and landed my glove right on top of the ball. All in all, it was a nice play, but it should have been much nicer if I had been watching. So now Avi and I each had baseballs. The rest of BP was just as boring as the beginning, and all the balls that came to the wall, I should have gotten, but the players seemed to want to give it to attractive women that they saw. At that point, I walked around for a little bit, and then when I headed over to the bullpen, there was a ball lying in the Orioles' bullpen and the Rangers' bullpen. Ruben came out and talked to us for a little bit, and when he went to pick up the baseball he teased us with it and finally flipped it to Avi who made a nice save to make sure the ball didn't go onto the field. I looked at Ruben and asked him why he had thrown it to Avi, and he went back to the bench, grabbed me a baseball, and then teased me with it. He did end up throwing it, pretty short, and so I had to make a over the railing, snow-cone catch. Another great play on the day. At the end of the throwing session for the Rangers, Segev was thrown the baseball from the bullpen, and so we each had at least one baseball for the day. The uniforms were beautiful, and they had a pregame ceremony celebrating the Negro Leagues. It was all very cool, and if I had the money, I would try to buy one of the jerseys. During the game, we talked to some of the guys in the bullpen, and when Melvin Mora stepped to the plate and hit a HR, it headed right out towards us. It landed one section over and Avi and I both tried for it. I couldn't get to it, because there was a handrail in the way, but Avi managed to grab it right before some other fans. Extremely exciting, and it was his second HR ball this year. We were on national TV and going crazy. Fans told us to throw it back, but being huge O's fans, that would be silly. So we sat and watched the game, walked around a little bit, and talked to some other fans. The game was great, our pitching was alright, and the offense finally came through. The Orioles won, and we went home happy. After the game, Ronnie had to leave, so we headed out with the rest of the fans, (after a grounds crew guy in the bullpen tossed me a Red Bull, which tasted great) and we headed over to see Joe. But Joe wasn't there. Ugh- maybe tomorrow. At this point we went to California Tortilla to get a snack/dinner, since it was only 8 or so. After sitting down to a nice small meal, we went back and spent the night at my house. Played some video games and what not, and had a fun night. It was an early wake up call for the game on Sunday, so we didn't stay up late. That's it for now, so Go O's!

Recap of Tuesdays game

Sorry for the delay, but here we go. We all went to the game last Tuesday, vs the New York Yankees. It was T-shirt Tuesday which means that there is going to be a much larger crowd than normal. Luckily Avi was already there and he was in the middle of the line so we could get in in the first few minutes. It was a lot of fun, and when we went out to the bleachers, no one was really there. There were a lot of little Yankee fans, which meant that being out there for New York BP would be horrible. Luckily, it was still the Orioles turn, so we spread out and tried to get baseballs. Towards the end of the Orioles BP, Chris Ray threw Avi the ball he had grabbed, which was the first ball any of us had gotten. During that time, Segev was trying different parts of the outfield, all with no luck. I was over in the corner by Danys Baez that I like, because whenever he gets a baseball he makes sure that I have a ball, and if I don't, then he throws it to me. On this day however, none came to him. He was standing with Alberto Castillo, who was getting all the balls near them. Alberto threw one ball into the stands, about 15 feet over my head, to a crowd of people. I then asked Danys if he could grab me a baseball, to which he said, " You catch homer" I told him I would try but not to many were coming out to us. After a while, he said that if one came to him, he would make sure to give it to me. I asked him if he could grab one and then give it to me in the bullpen, but he told me "it is illegal" Ok Danys. Oh well, not to bad and it could be worse. At that point, BP ended and the Yankees came out. I moved over to the Left Field line, no people around and if any ball hooked foul or bounced into the stands, there was no way I was going to miss it. There is one issue though. No one hit it down the line. One ball was thrown into the crowd, about a section over, and that is the closest I came to a ball during BP. None of us got anymore baseballs, so Segev and I moved over to the dugout to see who would sign for us. Closer to game time we had a good talk with Rick Kranitz about the pitching staff (Bergesen will not be coming back this year). After he left to go out to the bullpens, Ruben came out, and even with our shouting, he didn't want to come over. Finally he decided to come over to say hi, and he said he wouldn't be able to sign and he would make the kids upset. We were joking around with him, talking, and then people came up and made him sign autographs. He signed happily, and then a NYY fan gave him a t-shirt that had been given out that night, and no kidding, he signed it across pretty much the entire front over the Orioles wordmark. It was huge and the funniest thing he could have done. No one else signed, we went out to the bullpen, and enjoyed the game. For the first few innings we did sit with the principal, her brothers, and the dean of our school over by the Yankees dugout. A lot of fun, and we later moved into the corner for an out, all the way at the top, last seats in the ballpark. The O's lost, and after the game we talked to Ronnie for a while, and he decided that he would be our hitting coach if we could find a time to get together with him. That is very cool and we are very excited for that to happen. After the game, we talked to Joe, who was stuck outside, and that was that. A good night at the ballpark, right before school, and it'll be good to get back on the weekend. The Rangers come in for the weekend, Avi will be there Friday, the rest of us Saturday and Sunday. Go O's!

Update

I would just like to say that I will be adding pictures, I don't know if I will be able to do it before the end of the season, but at the end there will be a full slide show, from the season and my trip. Keep reading. Go O's

The Weekend- Part 2

On Sunday the three of us went to the game. It was dollar dog day which was good, but of course there was no batting practice....ugh. Thats not to bad, because we don't need to go to games and get a baseball, but it would have been nice to have batting practice, especially because we didn't the night before. So we waited around before the game, saw some people we know and talked to them, and all around just sat there in the hot sun. What a way to spend my Sunday afternoon. Once Ruben walked out we sat down and talked to him for a little bit. Always a funny conversation with him, and since he doesn't stay in the bullpen until the end of the game most of the time, its nice to be able to talk to him before the game. Once Matusz came out to warm up it was quiet time so Ruben left and we talked to some people we knew from one of the previous games. We had brought a friend with us who didn't know Ronnie or Ruben, so we introduced him to them, and he seemed to have a fun day. When all the guys in the bullpen came out we talked to one of the Indians pitchers, Tomo Okha, who we had joked with the night before about a huge bug that was just sitting on the fence. He told us to eat it, and when it flew away, we told him that it tasted good. So when he came out we told him that we were going to find another one today. He smiled and that was it with him. The game got off to a normal start, great pitching on our side, and the O's won. Great game, good to see the development and good to get a win. After the game we called Ronnie over and he gave me a baseball (my first and only one of the weekend) and we talked to him about the game and how late he had gotten home the night before. At this point it was mid afternoon so we went over to say hi to Joe, who was there, and we talked to him a little bit before going back home. A great day, good to get a win, and of course good to spend another afternoon at OPACY!

Recap of the Weekend Games, Part One

There will be a full report of Friday's game later on- waiting on the full recap from Avi, since he was the only person that went. The O's won, which is good, and Felix Pie stayed very hot.
On Saturday, the three of us went down to the game. Seg and I go down pretty early, and before the game talked to a kid that was at the gate with us. He was cool, and we would catch up with him later. When the gates opened, I rushed in to try to find a baseball just laying in the bleachers. There were none there, but right then, I saw a ball roll up to Jason Berken, who of course would not throw it to me. I'm the only guy standing there, but no. Cla Meredith, who heard me ask, pointed up to a home run ball coming right into the stands. I moved over and grabbed the ball right ahead of the kid I had been talking to. When I looked down at the ball, I was amazed with what I saw. There was a HHH Metrodome stamp on it. The ball was from Minnesota. I asked Cla where they had gotten them, and he said that when they were in Minnesota, they took back a full bag of the balls to use during BP. So cool, and it was my first commemorative baseball. A few minutes later, with a few more people in the bleachers, a ball rolled right up to Danys Baez, who recognized me, and when I asked him for the ball, he looked down at it- examined it, and threw it to me. I looked down, and sure enough, another HHH ball. The rest of BP went pretty slowly. The bleachers never filled up, and since I didn't move over to Left Field, I knew that to get another baseball I would have to get a players attention. The O's left, and when the Indians came out, only a few guys came out towards me. There were 2 balls in the ivy in Center Field, but the police officer, would not pick it up for me. So I stuck with the players. About 20 minutes in (it was a shortened BP, because it was the Hall of Fame induction day), Kerry Wood grabbed a ball, and when I asked him for me, he tossed it to me. One problem though...he threw it over my head. It took a bounce off some peoples hands, and bounced back to the gap between the field and the stands. Ugh-- no one would come out there to pick it up, so I waited. Later on, one of the pitchers shagging baseballs made a leaping catch to rob a home run, and when he came down, he saw me and flipped it up to me. Sweet! The lady standing next to me was quite annoying, and she started to instruct me on how to get baseballs. I wasn't going to tell her I had 2 already that day, because I knew she would just make sure I didn't get the baseball that I had missed. At the end of BP, a ball was hit right into the same gap, so I knew that when someone came over, I had a very good chance at one of the balls. Segev came over towards me, and when the police officer came over, he threw me the Kerry Wood baseball, and Seg got the other one sitting there. So there we go-- thats 4 for the day (I kept 3 of them and gave one of my HHH balls to Seg because he didn't get one. He did however snag a baseball in BP also, so we each had 3. The HOF ceremony was fine- Cal Ripken Jr was there, which made it all the better, to see him, and other great Orioles. They inducted Harold Baines into the O's HOF. The game started off alright-- both teams doing what they needed to to keep it close. Adam Jones was back which was great, and he did make an amazing catch in CF right in front of us to rob a home run. The Indians took the lead, then we tied it, and in the 5th inning, the O's had men on and it started to rain. Cesar Izturis stepped to the plate, runner on, and Cesar hit a triple. The O's took the lead, and the game went into a delay. There was a downpour, so all we could do was walk around. We walked to the dugout once the rain stopped to talk to someone we knew over there. There was one surprise- the dugouts were flooded. There was a drainage issue, and there was 4ft of water just sitting there. Wow. The game resumed, the Orioles lost in the 9th, and of course- Adam Jones made another home run saving catch. Matt LaPorta made a diving catch into the crowd in Left Field, down the line, which made Top 10, along with Jones. After the game, which ended at midnight, we went to say hi to Joe, and then after a long wait got picked up downtown because the light rail didn't run all the way to the end- even 10 minutes after the game-- crap!

Recap of Thursdays game

Avi and I(Zevi) went to the game on thursday together- nothing to much to report. We got there pretty early, and stayed for BP. Nothing to fun happened, especially during BP. No balls were thrown to me, which sucks, and so Avi and I moved around to our seats out by the bullpen. Miss Kelly was there which was good, b/c its not a baseball game without her. We moved down to talk to Ruben who came over and talked to us about life for a few minutes before Hernandez had to start warming up. Then he left us because it was time to be quiet. Avi got a baseball tossed to him post game from a guy in the Indians bullpen (Dan Williams). During the game we saw where the fans of the game were, so we moved over and got the free pretzels they give out. It was worth it, and it kept us from being to hungry. Not to much exciting happened this game, the Orioles lost after making a few errors, and post game, Ronnie couldn't come over to say hi to us. Thats it for that game, more about the rest of the weekends games later on.

A Trip to Remember

Recently, Segev and I(Zevi) took a road trip with my dad to 4 different cities to see 5 baseball games. We had been planning a much larger trip, but when it came time to really plan it we had to cut it down to a reasonable trip. My dad told us that he would take us if we kept it under a week and somewhat close. So we headed out to Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Detroit. It was a lot of fun, we saw some amazing games, met a lot of people, and of course in Detroit we saw the Orioles, and so we also saw Ronnie and Ruben. Ruben, who likes to joke around with us and hide from us behind some of the taller guys on the team, (Ruben is 5'9), so when he saw us in Detroit, he had to hide from us. Here is a summary of our trip:
Day 1:
Falling Water is amazing! Holy Shit! EVERY OTHER EXCLAMATORY THAT DENOTES AMAZINGNESS!!
Why is there so much damn traffic in Pitt?
FREE HAT!
Nationals and Pirates both suck horrifically!...
Nats 5 Pirates 6
Steve Pearce's first career HR

(For me, I got 1 baseball that game from the Nationals bullpen coach, since i had a DC hat, and I had seen him before the game, and he said that if he had any left at the end of the game, he would give me one.)

Day 2:
WHY IS CLEVELAND CLOSED FOR THE WEEKEND?
Cool Boat
Still closed
Victor Martinez Bobblehead: Check...
Victor Martinez: Absent!!!
Jacobs Field did not turn those seats very much
Congrats to Indians Hall of fame class of 09
Haha no Cliff Lee either
Toregas's (VM's replacement) first career hit
12 innings!!
Tigers 4 Indians 3

Day 3:
Drive across OHIO
dude our hotel is right across from the ballpark (w/ a river in between)
IDK 10 towns near Denver
but another city in CO we can do!!... (so I got a baseball from the Rockies bullpen coach)
Way upper deck seats!!
Jay Bruce Mesh Jersey: Check
Jay Bruce on the field: Absent
11 innings!!!
Rockies: 6 Reds: 4
THAT MAN HAS A RACOON ON HIS SHOULDER!!!!!
Awesome Apartment Building!!!!
Uncle Dan! Kentucky's First Pedophile?
Zevi gets sick :(
"If this were Taken, you'd be fucking dead!"
Funny People
Oh shit we missed the curfew!!!!

Day 4:
Happy Birthday Zevi!
US Air Force Museum= Awesome and I wish we had a full day there!
Meeting Mr. Milner!
Awesome outside of Comerica Park!!...
HI RUBEN AND RONNIE!!
Baez: "Happy Birthday"
Dunn: "Happy Birthday"
Kranitz: "Happy Birthday"
Mickolio: "Happy Birthday"
Ruben: "You should get a broad!" *Splash*
Holy shit we got to Verlander!!!
EPIC WAVE FAIL!!!!
Damnit Baez!!
Go that way as far as we want, but if you see Ford Field turn and run!!!!

( I got 3 baseballs from this game, all from guys from the bullpen that recognized me. And also Segev. My dad got hit on the arm with a ball, along the foul line- his arm was fine, and I made sure to grab the ball to give to him.)

Goodyear World of Rubber (no not that rubber)
more traffic in Pittsburgh!!
lots of cops downtown but there was actually stuff open!
Doubleday's! (good burger and fries)...
Ball b4 gates open! (from the usher who liked me)
Ball from ARZ bullpen coach (who saw that I was wearing an old style DBacks polo- so we joked around about how I need to get a new one)
Free Hat cause im 18+!!!
Free Hat cause Zevi's dad is 18+!!!
Free Tix cause im 18+!!!
Zach Duke is amazing!!!
Free Ball from Pirates catcher: "I don't owe you anything"
Damn strict ushers!!
Free Hot Dog from a cannon!!!!
Plastic falling from a sign!!!!
Yusmeiro Petit is more of a beast!!!
7 inning NO-HITTER!
Damn you Ronny Cedeno!!!
1- hitter still pretty damn good!
ARZ 6 PIT 0

BIG MAC MUSEUM!!!!!!!!!

Home. This was an amazing trip, we had a lot of fun, and its good to be home.

The 2009 Season- Recap of what has happened

So this blog is going to be about three guys(Avi, Segev, and Zevi) who go to the Baltimore Orioles games pretty much whenever they are home, and sit out by the bullpens, and no joke, talk to the pitchers and everyone else in the bullpen. We have become pretty good friends with both of the bullpen catchers, Ronnie Deck and Ruben Felix. Because they do not truly have their own fans, we have become their fan club, and every game we go out to see them, and when they come out into the bullpen, they make the effort to talk to us before and/or after each game. This all started one game, vs the Mets, when we wanted to cheer for someone in the 'pen, and so a friend looked up what the catchers name was, and we came up with Ronnie Deck. We cheered for him, and on his way back, he gave us a wave. Thinking that was pretty cool, the three of us went the next day and cheered for him again. After that game, there was a road trip, so we decided that the first day they come back, we would go out and cheer for him to see if he would say hi to us. Much to our surprise, Ruben Felix, the other catcher, came out pregame and told us that some of the guys from the bullpen had been getting on Ronnie's case about his new fans, and how he now had people that knew him. He gave us tips and pointers for cheering for them, and from then on we have been cheering for both of them. Over time, the bullpen coach, Alan Dunn has come to know us and talk to us. Also, pitchers Danys Baez, Kam Mickolio, and Cla Meredith, and pitching coach Rick Kranitz have all come to know us and talk to us. This blog will be about us at the games, what goes on, some of the stories from the bullpens, and also our collection of baseballs that we sometimes get at the games. Keep reading, and Go O's!