04/20 - First Street Homer!

Finally... some warm weather. Lots of sunshine, temp in the low 60s. Not a great wind, so BP was poor (only one out) but no one seemed to mind. Ballhawks were out in full force today - Rich B. and Wes making their first appearances of the year, to join Moe, Dave, "Old School" George, Rich R. and myself.

Game moved along rather quickly - scoring only one run through six innings will have that effect. So with the Cubs nursing a 1-0 lead, we head to the seventh inning when things got interesting.

Wes scored a ticket so he was in the bleachers, near the left-field line and I was shadowing him from the street. Preston Wilson up for the Cardinals with a man on. Cra-a-a-ck! I see Wes start to run to his left along the back concourse, so I follow suit out on Waveland. Then I see Wes put the skids on and turn back to the right, so I try to do the same. By this time I can finally see the ball and it's hooking big time towards the left-field foul pole.

Thankfully the ball is hit high enough, so I've got a chance to catch it on the fly, but I lose sight of it behind one of the poles for an instant, and when I pick it back up, it's coming right at me. Hits my glove, bounces off my chest and down onto the street rolling away from me. I look up; not too many people around but I'm not taking any chances so I toss my glove ahead of the ball, slowing it down enough so I can pick it up.

I look around and the closest person to me is the Hot Dog guy - if you've been to a game, you know who I'm talking about. He's out there almost every game, dressed up in this hotdog costume, walking up and down Waveland handing out coupons for a local establishment and every now and then he raises both hands and does this little dance that cracks me up every time I see it.

I suppose if I had to lose the ball to someone because of my misplay, I'd want it to be to the Hot Dog guy. And I am somewhat embarassed that I didn't catch it on the fly. But George says "Hey, it's not an error if you end up with it." I like the way he thinks, so I hereby do appoint "Old School" George as official scorer for the ballhawks.

Unfortunately, that homer proved to be the game-winner for the Cardinals, as the Cubs lose another one run game, 2-1. Maybe this will get Lou ticked enough to schedule early BP tomorrow.

UPDATE: YouTube strikes again - someone actually recorded my throwback of the Wilson homerun. Kind of hard to make it out, but clearly not one of my finer efforts. Only got about two thirds of the way to the infield. I'd like to blame it on the bleacher expansion, but truth is, I'm just over-the-hill...



Out of the Ballpark Totals:
Friday, April 20: BP-1 [W-1,S-0], HR-1 [W-1,S-0], Foul-0, Roof-2 [A-1,C-1]
Season: BP-24 [W-19,S-5], HR-1 [W-1,S-0], Foul-1 [W-1,S-0], Roof-7 [A-3,C-4]