I was so excited to get to this game early that I set my alarm for 8:00am. I thought I'd get to the stadium at around 9:00, wait in line for a few hours, and get a bobblehead for sure. But of course, I stayed up late again, was so groggy this morning that I accidently reset my alarm, and then didn't wake up until 10:50am. I begged my dad to take me to BART, arrived at the stadium at around 11:45, and saw tons of people walk out of colosium carrying not one, not two, but BAGFULS of bobbleheads. Some people literally had at least 10 bobbleheads!

I thought I had missed them for sure, but there were still a few boxes left when I got in. I was told that I was "really lucky" as they handed me a bobblehead.

By the time I got there, the batting cages were already down [batting practice ends at 11:45 I think], and only a few A's pitchers were hanging out around the bullpen area. Saarloos was on the mound when I got there.

Zito warmed up for a bit, before heading over to throw a few pitches.

Hmm... He's looking good.

Harden then went up to throw a few pitches as well. His pitches looked really good, so that's great news because he's probably going to be back soon. I didn't really get any good pictures of him pitching though.

Then to everyone's surprise, he actually started signing autographs! There was this huge mob around him... I don't know how I managed to make my way to the front, but I got him to sign my bobblehead. He was seriously really cool about signing stuff, he was there for a good half hour just talking and signing and signing...

I don't have any interesting game photos because I was sitting far away and I felt kind of lazy about moving up. After the A's scored 12 runs in the first three innings, the atmosphere was completely relaxed.

After the game, they pulled Bobby Crosby aside to interview him. He uniform was about as dirty as any I've ever seen.

Oh yeah, and Adam? Okay... Before the game, I tried to go down to section 128 and ask for an autograph, since I saw him come onto the field. But as soon as I walked down to the bullpen, I saw him run off to the dugout. I started talking to the Guest Services guy in 128, and he was like, "Well, I don't think Adam signs stuff, but you should try asking him after the game."

After the game ended and all the players left, Adam walked back out to the dugout. Everyone around me apparently knew who he was, and they were all asking him for balls. He threw his hands up and he was like, "I don't have any balls! I'm sorry!" And I was like, "Adam, can you sign this picture for me?" But he just walked away. And then this other ballboy was like, "Here just give me the picture, and I'll give it to him for you." So I did, but as that ballboy and another guy who joined him both tried to convince Adam to sign, he just refused to! They were like, "Oh come on Adam, it's just one autograph, just sign the picture for her." They must have asked Adam at least five or six times. And each time, he was just like, "I can't." And then he left.

So the ballboy who offered to give my picture to Adam actually seemed really disappointed that Adam flat out refused to sign for me. He said, "I don't know why he refused to sign, does he think he can't or something?" The other ballboy was like, "Heck, I'll sign the picture!" I dropped my pen cap [it rolled down the dugout roof] and they threw it back to me and they were really nice about it in general, so it just was really sucks that Adam wouldn't sign.

So this is my new favorite ballboy, and I'm going to at least get his autograph next time. Real sweet kid, he is :) And he's cute too, isn't he?