Pitchers, Pitchers, and more Pictures!

I'm just getting around to posting from the Saturday game.  

Sat in the bleachers for the first time this year.  Forgot how brutal the sun can be, so now I am a lovely (and painful) shade of lobster red.

I love sitting at various spots around the park which is one reason I never buy season tickets.  But I have to say, the bleachers are the best for fan camraderie and interaction.  I love it.  And with Nick Swisher out there, there's just no reason to sit anywhere else.

So, in some ways, let this diary be my tribute to the awesomeness that is the Left Field Bleachers.  No matter where I sit in the park, you are appreciated.

Okay, so I previewed that and the picture is totally huge!  So apparently photobucket is not resizing today and I am not at home, so I can't resize with my normal software.  I'm not sure how this will affect this diary.  But here goes.

Potholder day!  Yay!  I really needed new potholders and I must say, those were darling.  Free is always good.  

I was a little bummed to see that there wasn't going to be any BP.  I'm one of those who loves to just hang out at BP and take tons of pictures, walk the park, sit in a random seat and listen, etc.

I love the zzzzip/thud sound the ball makes when a pitcher is really throwing and I'm standing by the bullpen.  

I'm a bit like Nick Swisher in that I talk to almost anybody who talks to me.  So I struck up a conversation with one of the ushers and she mentioned that Eric Chavez' glove with sitting on the bullpen bench.  Not sure if it was really his glove, but it has his name on it.  

Regardless, I thought it made for a cool picture anyway.  Brandon Buckley took it into the dugout later.

We hung out for a bit and watched (and listened) to Joe Kennedy's bullpen session.  Any word on how it went?  He looked pretty good.  No telling from this group though.

Then we had to walk over to the D'Backs dugout to see if Byrnse was out.  He wasn't but the cutest "cutip" was walking around hollering "Where's my Byrnsie?"  

As we made our way back to the home side, oh JOY o' Joy!  Pitchers!  I love pitcher work out days.  Now I'm not upset about the lack of BP anymore.

Pitchers talking, stretching, having a good time.  

Here's a topic for a poll...how do you prefer your Danny Haren?  Mountain man?  Clean shaven?  Plucked eyebrows?  Well, today he had mountain man going on.  Still looked pretty hott though.  

Sorry that's a little blurry.  This one's better.

There's a reason Zito is so good.  

He worked as hard, if not harder, than any pitcher out there.  Here, Saarloos and Haren provide a strike zone for a game of long toss.

Kirk was also working hard.  And looking pretty good while doing so.  

Halsey was very difficult to get a good picture of.  This one was blurry...

While the (semi)action shot was much better.  Go figure.  Must have been operator error.

What was that?  You want another Zito butt shot?  Okay, how can I refuse?

But the view from the front is just as sweet.  Oh that gorgeous hair!  I wish mine looked that good.  

Barry was just awesome.  I have never been so proud to be a Zito fan that I was on Saturday.  And that's saying a lot because I absolutely admire Barry in many ways.

Next to the bullpen was a rather rambunctious team of kids.  Their uni's said "Ports" on them.  Towards the end of the pitcher's workouts, they started calling "Mr. Zito! Mr. Zito!"  A lot.  Barry looked over at one point and gestured at them to calm down while saying "settle, settle".

The kids heard something different.  A round of loudly whispered "he said he'd come sign!" and "he said he'll come over" followed.  

To his credit, Barry finished his workout and then did come over to sign.  A lot.  He signed forever.  Not just for the Ports, but of course anyone else who could get close.

But the thing that really got to me was hearing Barry lecture a little boy on lying.  I didn't hear the child's claim, but as Barry walked up, the kid said something and one of his teammates said it wasn't true.  Barry asked the kid if he was lying.  The little dude sheepishly admitted that he was.  Barry responded, "Lying's not cool, dude."

The coach  heard the exchange and complimented Barry on talking to the kid.  Barry ignored the coach and kept on talking to the kid while he signed, impressing upon him that lying was something he should not do.

The kid promised his hero that he wouldn't do it anymore.  Another kid asked if Barry had received the letter he had written.  Barry asked when he had written it and when the kid responded with "two weeks ago", Barry told him that he would check his locker for it.

I like this picture because the autograph seekers are reflected in his glasses.

I waited around just to get a picture of Zito smiling and was rewarded towards the end.  A few minutes after I snapped this and wormed my way out of the crowd that had gathered, Barry called it a day.

With that, we took our seats in the bleachers.  

As always, players showed their love for the bleachers.  

Then it was time for the national anthem.  Loved the accapella group.  They did an excellent job.

It was wonderful to see Eric "I'm no oil painting" Byrnse in center.

And our center fielder ain't bad.  Cute butt too.

I wouldn't kick this butt out of bed, either.

Pitching change.

And I'll finish up with this (BCG might appreciate this a little more than the rest of us):

Another not so good day at the plate for Nick, but at least I got that cute picture out of it.

(There are a bazillion more pics from the game on my webshots page.  http://community.webshots.com/user/Luvsthecurveball  )