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!