tonight's so-weird-but-so-true A's game experience

by emperor nobody on Apr 19, 2006 11:40 PM PDT Comment 20 comments

Me and my roommate went to the game, $2 seats in section 244. In the third inning we moved down (a $2 Wednesday tradition)... on the way down I purchased a Pepsi because I wanted the 2006 A's schedule cup it came in. After a sip or two I dumped out the wretched excuse for a potable beverage and put the cup in the left pocket of my sweatshirt.

We settled into section 106 in the 7th row, halfway between 1st base and right field (near the visitors' bullpen) and took in the blowout of a game. In the top of the eighth Pudge Rodriguez, classically an off-field hitter, came up and hit a foul fly ball directly at us.

Now, 3 Sundays ago I severely injured my left foot ill-advisedly climbing a fence and it's healing but still damaged, so when the giant, not-so-slightly overweight guy across the aisle from us backed towards me and raised his arms to try to catch the ball, I backed up lest my foot get stepped on and reinjured. A bunch of people kind of converged and I didn't see where the ball went, but once no one seemed to have overtly caught it I had I feeling I knew where it had ended up.

That's right, a hole-in-one, right into the cup in my left sweatshirt pocket, on the fly. I never even raised my hands to get it, it just landed directly in the cup. I got a standing ovation from the sections around us and even got to tip my cap to the crowd.

37 years of going to games, my first foul ball, and in the strangest of ways... you could hit a million balls and not have it go right into the cup like that.

Sorry for the dumb diary but I wanted to share this most bizarre highlight from an otherwise lackluster A's loss. I hope Barry puts the big Z on them tomorrow.

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dumb diary my ass, that's a great story

Reminds me of my first foul ball. After hundreds of A's games I finally got one, but when I did I was all by myself in a sea of empty seats. How anti-climactic, not even one measily high-5. Feh.

I miss Bill King :(

by gojohn10 on Apr 19, 2006 11:51 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Never caught a foul ball

but even if I did, the story wouldn't be as good as this one. Thanks for sharing.

"Using technology to clean up the mess made by technology doesn't seem too intelligent." ~George Carlin

by haren4prez on Apr 19, 2006 11:58 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

kind of reminds me...

of the first time i saw someone get punched down the stairs in the cheap seats and fall all the way to the bottom.
or the time i saw a yankees fan slap an old security guard across the face only to then have an army of A's fans come and beat the living shit out of him.

Well, a little less painful.

Congrats!

YABU: You're always eating cheese. ...Is cheese good for you? . FISCHER: IT'S BETTER THAN SUSHI!!!

by ConditionOakland on Apr 20, 2006 12:04 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

That is so cool!

But every time I think of someone catching a foul ball in such a way, I think of my dad. When I was little, he chose to save his beer over catching the foul ball that came right at him. He had the beer in one hand and reached up with the other. It bounced right off his hand and down to the first deck. My brother and I still give him a hard time. In little league when he would tell us to catch the ball with two hands, or to use two hands to do something, we would say, "Why? You didn't!"

"I hope everyone here gets 450 at-bats, makes millions and millions of dollars and we win the World Series. That's my utopia." - Macha 3/29/06

by BobbyCrosbysGirl on Apr 20, 2006 12:30 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

reading between the lines ...

... you and your brother were drinking beer during little league games?

Those people aren't drinking the Kool-Aid, they're sucking it from a spigot! @('.')@

by monkeyball on Apr 20, 2006 10:48 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

That was s cool...

I lovew it !In all of the years that I have been going to games I have never come close to catching a ball.

But I hate the part where you snuck down ...it always bothers me when I have paid for the more expensive seats and somone who didn't pay sits right in front of me blocking my view a little.
That's one of my pet peeves.

by IM4Oakgal on Apr 20, 2006 12:59 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

I actually don't mind "sneakers"...

...as long as they stay put, shut up and pay attention to the game. The seat they moved into wasn't going to be used anyway. So, yeah, there's a little feeling of "hey, I could have just bought a cheap seat and snuck down too, instead of paying more," but overall I don't mind. MY biggest peeve is people who use Sections 212-215 as if it's the West Side Club's patio, and move in so they can be close enough to the bar to be getting up & down constantly for more drinks and bathroom trips all night long. I don't like it when people who actually paid for those seats do it, I like it even less when people who paid $2.00 do it.

But this won't be an issue in the new ballpark! There won't be any empty seats! ;)

Sig Mojo worked in Spring Training... so... *MaEl LuvR!*

by Poppy on Apr 20, 2006 11:34 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Right.

Because Wolff's economic analysis will show that all the seats in the new stadium will need a tarp.

Copernicus felt the same way about the geocentric crew.

by salb918 on Apr 20, 2006 11:38 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

SalB!

Stop!

by IM4Oakgal on Apr 20, 2006 6:03 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

that is very cool, I'm impressed

I caught a foul once, years ago. The ball sits in a place of honor on my dresser.

But your story is tops!

by OaklandSi on Apr 20, 2006 6:47 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

nice!

my favorite one is when my friend and I were in the beer line at the coliseum when a ball quietly rolls to my friends feet. he picks it up and said, i think i just got a foul ball. the ball came right through the opening. so funny. but for me never got one..yet anyway

by NYC on Apr 20, 2006 7:21 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Reminds me of the time

when Damon hit a double into a beer cup in 2001.

Copernicus felt the same way about the geocentric crew.

by salb918 on Apr 20, 2006 7:28 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

I was so mad about that!

It would have been a triple.

Sig Mojo worked in Spring Training... so... *MaEl LuvR!*

by Poppy on Apr 20, 2006 11:22 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

It would have done

wonders for his slugging percentage, which was .373 going into the game.

Copernicus felt the same way about the geocentric crew.

by salb918 on Apr 20, 2006 11:26 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

That explains it.

I was in sec. 110. I heard the sound the ball made when it hit your cup. At the time I thought it was odd. Most sounds are of the ball slapping against a persons hand, or thudding against the steps. But your ball made a sound like, like...a ball hitting plastic. One in a million. Mystery solved.

by Hang Man on Apr 20, 2006 9:19 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

This diary...

is definitely spongeworthy!

Great story!

"I think the Coliseum is... comfy. Not state-of-the-art, not trendy, not chic, just comfy. It matches my wardrobe." - poppy

by McFood on Apr 20, 2006 11:48 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

dude

you're way to old to be climbing fences.

Oakland, you know I go way back. -- Too Short

by mendelbob on Apr 20, 2006 2:51 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

thats all i was thinking

when reading this story too!

by StocktonJew on Apr 20, 2006 8:22 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I was sitting in 126

good to hear that someone actually caught one. The fans were doing almost as bad a job as our defense out there. I kinda felt sorry for the kid who dove over the empty seats behind us and didn't come up with the ball. That looked like it hurt.

death to myspace!

by malikot on Apr 20, 2006 5:09 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs