Heres a better look.

The day started with a catch down the street at about 4:30 in a wide open field. Here is a good action shot with my bro.

See the hat I’m wearing? Heres what it looked like from the front.

Yes it is a Pirates hat. But since i didn’t have and ‘Stros on Giants gear, i figured turning it backwards would make it seem like a hat for either team. As I approached the stadium, I headed for the outfield where I wanted to enter.

Above, you see the Astros home run train, a zoom in through the LF glass, and an object from the Astros Hall of Fame. (BTW, you’ll notice in this entry, and possibly through the year that some pics are great and some are just OK. Thats because some are with my ok camera and some are with my moms amazing camera.) 

I lined up first at the CF gates at 5 for the 5:30 opening (lame). It took forever, but the time finally came. I ran into RF, and this was my first view.

Here are some good BP shots courtesy of my mom.

I only saw the Astros for 15 mintes, and was shut out. But my brother wasn’t. He snagged his first lifetime baseball, and it had a H on it. 

I brought my glove trick to this game, and i saw a ball along the RCF track. I went over and knocked the ball closer, but knocked it under the wall, denying me of my first of the the year. 

A few minutes later though, there was one along the RF track. No Giant was anywhere near it. I put the glove over it, and realized it was in. I realed it up, and had my first ball and first of 2010!

Lets just say things were frustrating and I’d go on to snag less than I expected. I’ll give you an action shot of me though.

I came close to a couple of up in the air snags and Hr’s, but couldn’t come up. I say boo to Andres Torres and Nate Schierholtz, who were stingy to most people, and most of all me. 

But things would go good for some people would do good. My dad would snag his first two career balls, both throw by TIM LINCECUM. Yes you read that right. One seemed to be thrown to him, and one was thrown up and he was the talllest. And even more shocking, my brother snagged four balls. WHAT?! In his first attempting to snag game, he’d alreday broken my one game record, and had gotten a ground rule double. He wasn’t even wearing something of the other team. Wow.  

The Giants were running in, and I was so down and tried to run all the way to the dugout. I didn’t come close to making it, but the 0 more snags got a trade, and almost didn’t. I saw someone signing autographs down the line,and realized it was Lincecum. But then I realized all I had was my glove and ball snagged. I left my bag with a ball for autographs with my parents. I almost had no choice but to get my ball snagged signed. But then I remembered what was on my head. Not my first choice to get signed but it was a great way to get my first autograph from baseballs 2 time reingning Cy-Young winner.

Wow. That definetley traded for snagging only one ball. I went to my seats at around 6:45 in the upper deck. Heres the view.

Can you guess what this is?

See the line under the wall? Thats an approximation of where i snagged my glove trick ball. 

Todays pitching matchup was Barry Zito for the Giants and Wandy Rodriguez for Houston. Before the game, I went to home plate and I got my first ever behind the plate panormama.

The stadium is overall so nice. The outside and concourses aren’t that great, but you’d really apprieciete the view of the field. 

The first pitch of my 2010 season to Aaron Rowand.

Strike One! As the ump calls. Rowand would fly out to Hunter Pence. Using my mom’s camera, I got soem nice shots of Jeff Keppinger, Hunter Pence, Mark DeRosa(3), and Barry Zito.

It was a brillian
t pitchers duel. Zito and Wandy were tossing up 0-0 through five. Only around 24,000 had showed up for the game. Look how empty it was down the line.

From there, we decided to walk around. We went towards the Crawford Boxes in LF for a batter. 

We then moved to RCF behind the bullpen, and got Barry Zito batting.

And I got closer and got Jeff Fulchino in the bullpen.

I attempted for a ball down there, but the usher said I couldn’t go any closer. 

Meanwhile, the scoreless tie finally ended. The Giants three runs on hits by Huff and Molina, and lead 3-0. The Astros came back in the bottom of the sixth (sorta) and I thought we were gonna see the train moving. Jeff Keppinger hit one near the top t\of the wall and was ruled a double. But then came HR replay. I saw a replay on a TV, and it seemed like it had enough, but it didn’ and the Astros didn’t score. For the 7th and 8th, we sat down the line, as I just wanted another ball as a foul ball even knwoning it wouldn’t happen. 

I did get my first ice cream helmet of the year though.

A nice throwback helmet. 

No foul balls came my way, but I got a nice shot of DeRosa.

I knew my chances weren’t over, so I went to the dugout for the 9th. Heres where I sat.

I thought i was about to be back on the board. The Giants went down 1-2-3 in the 9th, and the warmup ball was tossed to 1B coach Roberto Kelly. He looked right at me and was about to fire it, but turned around to his right and flipped it to someone else. Things just weren’t going my way. 

From where my mom was, she got nice shots of Johnson…

…and Brian Wilson, who got a strikeout to give the Giants a 3-0 win.

The umps were at the other end of the dugout, so that was a no. I was looking at who had the ball just used. I saw Bengie Molina hand a ball to Roberto Kelly, who went out of his way to toss me my second ball and first thrown of the year!

It took me a second to realize that this was the final ball used during the game. Wow! It makes that my 3rd ever 3rd out ball and 1st ever 27th out ball. But that wasn’t it. The Giants equipment people were coming from the bullpen, and I saw a guy with a ball in his glove. So I said “Is there any chance I could get that ball in your glove?” And sure enough, I had my third ball! Wow. I’d tied my one game record in a horrible game. This felt great.  

Stats: 

3 balls today (2 thorwn, 1 glove trick, and 2 shown because I gave my third to my sister) 

13 career balls 

Autos: 

1 autograph today (Tim Lincecum) 

1 autograph this year 

12 career MLB autos 

Plaese leave a comment on your thoughts. My Rangers game should be up soon.