I graduate high school on June 2nd and then on June 3rd my dad and I will be driving across the Midwest hitting five stadiums in seven days while seeing six games.  That’s ten teams, two hundred and fifty players, ten foul poles, 221,708 seats, five national league teams, two NL DH’s, one first place, and two last place teams.  Oh yes, it’s going to be fun.

June 3rd, San Francisco @ Philadelphia, 1:35 P.M.
June 4th, Los Angeles @ Pittsburgh, 7:05 P.M.
June 5th, Kansas City @ Cleveland, 7:05 P.M.
June 6th, New York Yankees @ Chicago White Sox, 7:11 P.M. (what a gimmick)
June 7th, Drive to Minneapolis, all day.
June 8th, Washington @ Minnesota, 7:10 P.M.
June 9th, Washington @ Minnesota, 7:10 P.M.
June 10th, Drive home.

We are skipping Detroit because we have already seen it and frankly, don’t like the Tigers.  Other than H.H.H Metrodome, I’ve never seen any of the parks we will be going to, so I really can’t wait.

As for my baseball collection, I finished last season with a total of 30 balls.  I’d like to get to 50 by the end of the trip, but it will be difficult because I don’t have a printer on the road, so I’ll either have to print all of the rosters before I leave or go without them.  This trip is definitely more about the fun of traveling around the country from stadium to stadium than collecting baseballs, though.  So I won’t be upset at all if I don’t come home with a single baseball.

Wow. I can’t remember the last time I posted. With college applications, baseball, baseball conditioning, and high school itself, I’ve found no time to stay updated with my blog… Ah.

I’ll see what happens… but hey, only a few more months until spring training.

Go Wild!

The Minnesota Twins took over the American League Wild Card lead yesterday with a victory over the Chicago White Sox.  The Twins played excellent come-from-behind baseball with everyone in the lineup contributing.  Ozzie Guillen was quoted in saying:

"If we don’t wake up, they will sweep us in the weekend."

Oh, how sweet a sweep would be.

By the way, Detriot…

Only 5 games back…

I walked into the park around 5:30, 25 minutes late.  Why?  Because around 3:25 my dad realized he had forgotten his license so we had to turn around, go back home, and get it.  Oh well…

As we (my dad, my brother, and I) were walking up to the ticket booth to purchase seats, a man approached us about selling our Melvin Mora bobbleheads (it was the second promotion this series! first Miguel Tejada bag night, then Melvin Mora bobblehead night! Oh my!).  This man said that he works in Baltimore but he can’t go to the game but his kids at home NEED these bobbleheads.  We didn’t really care for Melvin Mora bobbleheads, so we sold him three for $20.  That’s a few hot dogs.

Once I was in the park I went straight to the left field line where the Twins pitchers were warming up.  Only Twins fan in sight.  Easy ball from Matt Guerrier (it’s nice when the Twins come to town because I don’t need a roster to recognize them).  Dennys Reyes was still long tossing with Juan Rincon once the Twins BP started so I figured I would get another easy one from him.  I asked him politely if I could have it when he was done.  He didn’t acknowledge me, but I’m sure he heard me because he was only seven feet away.  I noticed Matt Garza was standing about 20 feet away on the left field line.  I congratulated him on his first win and he pointed back at me.  He wouldn’t come over and sign the ticket stub though because he was protecting Reyes from being hit by any baseballs.  Too bad.  The Twins will be back in September.  Back to Reyes-Rincon.  Rincon overthrew Reyes and the ball was caught by a man sitting in his seat next to his girlfriend.  Reyes said he would give the man the ball once he was done.  Darn.

I still hadn’t gotten a ball from Joe Nathan this series, so I went to right center (where my seat was) to try him out.  He usually rewards Twins fans.  The problem with him was that he was standing more in front of the scoreboard, so he would never field a ball and then flip it to me because he was too far away.  I had to readjust.  I ran up the stairs, across the standing room only, into the right field foul line seats, down the steps, and stood on the railing.  I needed someone to hit the ball to right field.  Cue Torii Hunter.  It was work-on-hitting-the-ball-the-opposite-way round in BP, so he was hitting everything to right.  Joe Nathan came over to pick one up.  I yelled his name.  He looked up and floated me one.  Green stamped Training Ball, ewwwwww.  That was the conclusion of my snagging for the day, so I’ll tell some stories now.

Story One:
Back when I was on the left field line, my brother came over to me from right center to tell me how he got a ball.  He was eating his hot dog in his seat, not trying to get any baseballs (he has 9 total) when a homerun was coming his way.  He ducked.  The ball landed in the seat next to him and stuck there.  How lucky is that?!  Here I am working for some balls and he gets one just eating a hot dog.  I told him to go away and buy another hot dog.

Story Two:
While I was making my way to the right field seats to get the Nathan ball, my dad stopped me in the standing room only section to tell me this story.  There was a guy running around catching every ball that was hit up there.  He caught four or five in a row on the fly.  He collided with my brother, knocking my brother down causing him to scratch up his leg, while making a catch.  My dad had one hit his hands and fall to the ground, where the guy picked it up.  Eventually, an usher told him he had to leave the standing room only area.  My dad asked the usher why he made the man leave.  The usher had two points: One, he is stealing balls from little kids.  Two, he already has nine balls.
Those are stupid reasons.  One, there are no little kids in the standing room only section because it’s really dangerous for them.  The balls come flying in really, really fast.  Plus, the kids would probably get trampled by the mob chasing after the ball.  Two, who cares how many balls he already has.  There is no rule saying you aren’t allowed to catch this or that many balls and it’s not up to the usher to decide how many is enough.

During the game, we had some fun interaction with Michael Cuddyer carrying over from last night.  Whenever he would come back to right field after picking up an RBI the inning before, we would go to the wall and tap our noses at him.  He would smile and tap his nose back.  It’s nice to have players acknowledge and interact with their fans, it is proof that baseball is the best game on there is.  Can you see T.O. chatting up with some fans before the game on how his hammies are feeling?  I talked to Rondell White about his injury and how he was feeling two days in a row.  He remembered me from the day before and he told me he was DHing today and is happy to be back and playing (he ended up getting a single).

Stats:
2 balls
30 lifetime!  I reached my goal for this season.  Next up is 50.
I’m averaging 1.8 balls per game this season… just above the snagging Mendoza line.  18 balls over 10 games.

Goodnight, Camden Yards… see you in a month.

It was nice to remember how to snag.  After getting shut out last night I knew I needed at least three balls to make up for it.  But even if I didn’t get any baseballs, I would still be happy because I was watching the Minnesota Twins.  And Matt Garza was starting.

My dad, my brother, my friend, and I decided to buy right center field tickets for $15 in row AA — right on the wall.  We bought our tickets at about 5:02 and the gates open up at about 5:05 (ahh… I love Camden).  For the second straight night, I stuck to the standing room only area to catch some homeruns.  Nothing.  At Camden, only season ticket holders have access to the entire park at 5:05; the rest of us have to wait until 5:30.  Once the clock struck 30 past five, I headed down to the Twins dugout where Ron Gardenhire was throwing with Steve Liddle (bench coach).  Next to them, Mike Redmond was throwing with Michael Cuddyer.  I called out, "MIIIIKE!" He looked over at me. "YOU GOTTA SMELL EM! (as I tapped my nose).  He laughed along with Gardenhire.  If you don’t understand what I’m talking about, click this link and scroll all the way down to the last question and read it.  Once Gardy and Liddle finished throwing, Liddle tossed me the ball — number 26th ball all time.

I left the dugout and went to the left field line where some pitchers were warming up.  I asked Carlos Silva if he could toss me the ball after he was done, but he stiffed me.  Dennys Reyes was throwing with Juan Rincon and Joe Nathan.  Joe finished up and tossed his ball into the left field seats.  Behind Dennys there was me, my brother, two other Twins fans, and a little kid in a black Orioles hat.  The black hatter wouldn’t leave Dennys alone.  "Hey, Twins pitcher, pitcher pitcher pitcher, pitcher, give me that ball, hey, listen to me, I want that ball, Twins guy, hey man, give me the ball, ball, ball!"  After about three straight minutes of this, Dennys turned around, looked at the kid, and said: "Hey man, chill out, I’ll give it to you when I’m done."  I really hoped that little kid didn’t end up with that ball.  Fortunately, I wouldn’t have to stick around to find out.  Someone had laced a line drive into the corner where Boof Bonser was standing.  Boof picked it up… surveyed the crowd… and tossed me the ball.  After that, I went out to left field so Thomas (my brother) could work on that Dennys Reyes ball.

I saw that Pat Neshek was standing by himself in left center and there were no Twins fan behind him.  Yay.  I walked over behind him and called out: "NESHEK (pronounced knee sheck or knee shack)… LOVE THE WEBSITE MAN!"  He smiled and waved.  The next ball he got, he tossed to me.  That was the conclusion of my snagging for the day, but I was happy.  I talked to Rondell White for about a minute about how he was feeling.  He told me he gets of the DL today and is happy to be back.  He really is a nice guy, too bad he can’t hit the baseball this year.

Matt Garza started warming up in the bullpen, so I went over to watch him.  He looked good.  Check out my view.

That is Josh Rabe standing in like a batter for Garza.  Garza was mostly whistling in 95+ mph fastballs until he mixed in a curveball which started out going right for Rabe’s head and then took a 90º turn into Mauer’s glove.  Sttttttttriiiiiikeeee.  After the pitch, Rabe turned to Mauer saying: "I told you I’d flinch [at that curveball headed for my head]."

Garza looked good and he was good.  He went 6 innings with ZERO earned runs picking up his first Major League win.  Ticket stubs everyone.

Stats:

3 balls
28 total balls

I’ll be back today for the third game of the series.  Hopefully I won’t get recognized.

These are my first 25 Major League baseballs.  It took me 16 games over two seasons and three ballparks to get them.  I got 11 balls at RFK, 12 balls at Camden, and 1 ball at the Great American Ballpark.

Wait.

11 + 12 + 1 = 24

I clearly have 25 baseballs, though.  I just noticed this today: I have more baseballs than my records show.  And it’s really bothering me as to why.  I went back to through my posts of this season and checked to make sure I didn’t snag one more ball than I recorded, but they all check out ok.  I guess the only explanation would be that last season I recorded one of my games wrongly.  Oh well.

The Twins come into town next week!

8/22/06: Twins @ Orioles 7:05 P.M.
8/23/06: Twins @ Orioles 7:05 P.M.
8/24/06: Twins @ Orioles 7:05 P.M.

I don’t get to see Santana, Radke, or Liriano, though.  Garza, Silva, and Bonser will be starting for the Twins.  Hopefully I will see Garza’s first career win.

C’mon, Twins.  1 game back.  Let’s do this.

JULY STATISTICS:

• 4-1
• 1.34 ERA
• 5 ER
• 33.2 IP
• 43 SO
• 19 H
• 10 BB
• .873 WHIP
• 11.66 K/9
• 5.15 H/9
• 2.70 BB/9

Of the 102 outs Liriano has recorded in July, here is how they break down into strikeouts, ground outs, and air outs.

• 42% SO
• 35% GO
• 23% AO

Almost twice as many strikeouts as fly outs.  It would be an accomplishment to fly into an out at this point.

Keep it up, boys.  Let everyone keep writing you off, we know who the true champs of the AL Central are.

Santana v. Contreras tonight.  Let’s make it three straight losses for JC.

This is Twins territory.

Forget Rookie of the Year, Fransisco Liriano should win the Cy Young.

I decided to look through the league leaders in pitching statistics to see which ones were being led by Liriano.  Here’s what I came up with:

• ERA: 1.94
• K/9: 10.15
• H/9: 6.26
• Opp. Avg.: .196
• WHIP: .95
• SLG: .296
• OBA: .251

Liriano leads SEVEN pitching statistics.  Did I mention that in his twelve starts he is ONE win behind the wins leaders (12)?  That’s right, Liriano has only STARTED the same number of games as the wins leaders, yet he is only ONE win behind them (11).  Liriano is 9th in strikeouts, but he has pitched less innings than every player ahead of him.  He has thrown 102.0 innings while striking out 115.  There are only two pitchers ahead of him with less than 130.0 IP.  Scott Kazmir has pitched 121.2 innings while striking out 129.  Jake Peavy has thrown 113.0 innings, fanning 125. 

If Liriano keeps up his torrid pace for the rest of the year and does not win the Cy Young, we can blame Ron Gardenhire.  Gardy kept Liriano out of the rotation at the start of the season.  Who knows what the Twins record would look like if Liriano had been inserted earlier.  It is pretty obvious that he would be leading every pitching statistic by now.

The Twins are now only 5 games behind the White Sox and 2.5 behind the Yankees for the Wild Card lead.  Watch out AL, here we come.

(The Twins have the second best record in the NL and the fifth best record in the AL)

This is Twins Territory.

Since yesterday was my 17th birthday, my parents gave me a plane ticket to go down to Florida.  So, I probably won’t have another post until next week sometime.  The past few days have been extremely busy for me, which is why I haven’t been posting, sorry.  There is still a lot of baseball left to be played and to be written about.

Peace.

Fransisco Liriano needs you’re vote.  Liriano is not only the most dominant player on the Final Vote ballot, but he might be the most dominant pitcher in the Major Leagues.  He is 9-1 with a 1.99 ERA in this his rookie season.

Now, go vote for Liriano.

In other news…
The Twins lost their first game in twelve contests last night to the Royals.  Boof Bonser was the pitcher who will carry the L in the boxscore.  To be honest, if I had to pick one of the Twins pitchers to take the loss, it would be Bonser.  The winning streak couldn’t last forever and everyone knows that.  But it is still hard to take it.  Brad Radke takes the mound for the Twins tonight with hopes of starting another long winning streak.

The Tigers, Red Sox, and Yankees also lost yesterday, they all extended their losing streaks to two games.  Their losses are bittersweet, however, because the Twins also lost.  No one lost ground, but no one made any ground either, except for the White Sox.  The only team in contention for the AL Wild Card that won was the White Sox.  They pounded the Orioles for 13 runs.  Enough said.  Oh, yeah, the Blue Jays won too… but who cares?

Results-

7/3: 4-10 .285 (looks like a Royals winning percentage)
Season: 85-84 .503

AL East: 4th              NL East: 2nd
AL Central: 4th          NL Central: 3rd
AL West: 2nd             NL West: 4th

Predictions for 7/5/06-

American League:

Detriot v. Oakland
New York v. Cleveland
Boston v. Tampa Bay
Baltimore v. Chicago
Toronto v. Texas
Minnesota v. Kansas City
Los Angeles v. Seattle

National League:

Florida v. Washington
San Diego v. Philadelphia
Pittsburgh v. New York
St. Louis v. Atlanta
Chicago v. Houston
Cincinnati v. Milwaukee
San Fransisco v. Colorado
Arizona v. Los Angeles