Having a Ball at the Ballpark

Opening Day 2011

2011-04-22T02:53:00.000-07:00

Not opening day for Major League Baseball, or for the Dodgers, just for the Efting family. I took Alina and Tommy to our first game of the season Monday, April 18. It was the first day of my spring break, and the first day that I would have been able to make it to batting practice. We made it to the gates about 2 minutes after they opened them.
Here are Alina and Tommy waiting to be tossed a ball from a Dodger player.Unfortunately no Dodger tossed them a ball. But as soon as the Braves started taking BP someone tossed a ball up towards Alina. A good BP is when each of the kids get tossed their own baseball and I manage to get one of my own. I love catching them in the air, but beating someone else in a scramble for a ball is a good feeling too. I don't know if I would go to so much batting practice if it was only for "the kids" it is a blast for me as well.

Alina getting a ball first was great. In 2008, when we first started going to BP, Alina got a lot of balls tossed to her. However when the two of them stand together now, it is usually Tommy that they end up giving the ball to. So for Alina to get the first one that was pretty good. Before too long someone tossed a ball to Tommy, and then another to Tommy. Then I caught one in the air. I had to go halfway down the steps to get it, and it felt really good. I gave it to Alina so that they each had two. That is a good BP - I made a catch and they each had two baseballs. Everyone thinks it is fair and we had fun. Our record at a game was five so four is a pretty good night.

But that wasn't the end. More balls got tossed up and Alina actually caught one from a player, I'm pretty sure it was George Sherrill. Then Brandon Beachy came over and tossed one to each of the kids. I ended up winning the scramble for another ball and when BP was over we ended up with 8, that's right eight baseballs!!!The game was pretty good too. Here is a shot at the beginning of the game.
Ted Lilly got his first win. Matt Kemp got an RBI, and we saw the debut of Jerry Sands. Sands got a double in his first MLB at bat! Here he is recording his first Major league strikeout.

I know it would have been better if I had a picture of the double, but I didn't think to take the camera out then.

Near the end of the game a police officer came over to talk to Tommy. I thought he was going to tell him he couldn't stand in the isle. Instead he asked Tommy where his ball was. Tommy was waiting to catch Jerry Sands first MLB home run. The police man pulled a ball out of his pocket and gave it to Tommy. That meant Alina and Tommy each walked away from the game with four baseballs and we collected nine altogether.
What a game!

Shut Outs

2010-06-18T21:19:00.000-07:00

Every time I go to batting practice my quest is to get at least one ball. Actually my quest is to get three baseballs if I take both Alina and Tommy to the game with me. I love to see players toss balls to my kids. Last year in San Diego Tommy actually caught a ball thrown by a player.

It was the first time any of my kids had done that. Usually the player tosses the ball to me or someone else around my kids and they hand the ball over to them. I have to be honest though. I am usually not happy until I get a ball myself. The most fun way to get a ball is to catch a homerun ball. Sure it is a batting practice homerun, but I am actually catching a ball that is hit from a Major League player that travels about 380 feet to get to me. The next most fun way to get a ball is to beat everyone else in a scramble. Well the last ball I got last year was like that. It was June 29. Here is a picture of the one I got and the ones Alina and Tommy got that day.

After that day I got shut out every game that I attended the rest of the season. That is why I stopped blogging about it. Well I am happy to say that 2010 has been much better for me. I have been to four games and I have only been shut out once (and in that game we got three balls total). So I’ll try to blog about 2010 soon.

Take Dad out to the Ball Game

2009-07-01T23:59:00.000-07:00

I had purchased a ticket package from the Dodgers before the season started - Three tickets for 12 games. My two older kids usually like to come to the games with me, so it normally works out well. But June 1 was a school night for them. So I invited my Dad and brother to go with me to the game. I picked up my Dad in Colton, and met Scott at the game. He drove strait there from San Jose. We met early and played a little catch in the park across the street from the Dodger Stadium parking lot.

We don't like paying $15 for parking, so we try to get there early to get the good spots just outside the parking lot. That is one reason that I took up this batting practice hobby.

I was hoping to have better luck this time with the D-backs, since I didn’t have to hold or keep an eye on Casey during BP. However I just managed to get one ball and even that one wasn’t spectacular. I should have caught it but I bobbled it, and had to grab it off the stairwell before another guy got it.

During the time we were there, someone from a newspaper was interviewing and taking pictures during batting practice. He was really intrigued with Dad being there and wearing a glove. Of course the story was not quite as good when Dad told him it was his first game this year. I have been searching online to see if I could find the story they guy wrote, but I have yet to find it.

Dad was really hoping to catch a ball, but there were not a lot of balls coming our way that day.

The Dodgers looked like they might put a couple of rallies together to win, but they ended up loosing the game. Joe Torre brought Eric Milton in to pinch hit that night. It seemed like a very strange move, he had other hitters on the bench, and Milton is not really known to be a good hitting pitcher (.176 lifetime with no hits for the Dodgers this year).

However it was an enjoyable night for me with my brother and my dad.

Casey's First Ball

2009-06-06T22:16:00.000-07:00

Casey is 2 1/2 years old and I felt it was time to take him to a Dodger game with me one on one. Maybe it was too early for him. But I had tickets for a game on Monday May 4, so I could not take my older kids because they had school the next day. So it was pretty much take Casey or go by myself. Actually I had invited a friend from work, but he had to cancel the day of the game. I had taken Tommy to his first one on one Dodger game when he was just three years old. Tommy ended up being more interested in Dodger dogs then the game.

We ended up leaving after the second inning. I didn't want to burn Tommy out on Baseball so I decided I would leave as soon as he wanted to. (If you know Tommy now you know he is not burnt out on Baseball). I didn't feel too bad about leaving so early because Tommy and I got there early for batting practice. We didn't get any baseballs that day.

But now 3 years later, I had a much better idea on how to get a ball during batting practice. Casey and I showed up early and were ready before the gates opened at 5:10.

We had Dodger and Diamondback apparel, so that we would look like fans of whatever team was hitting.

Plus Casey is so cute. How could anyone resit tossing a ball to him. Well I was right. Withing the first 15 minutes of BP a security guard noticed Casey in the stands. He asked Guillemo Mota for a ball and tossed it up to me. Wow, that was so cool. Casey got his first ball tossed to him at only 2 years old. If he keeps going to BP he should be able to pass Zack Hample before he turns 25. However that's not the end of the story of Casey's first ball. You see I was holding Casey in my right arm much like the way I was in the picture to the left. In my left had I had my baseball glove. When the security gaurd tossed the ball up to us I caught it in my glove, and then opened my glove to show the ball to Casey. He seemed excited to get the ball. He grabed the ball out of my glove and . . . THREW IT BACK ON THE FIELD!!! I couldn't believe it and, I couldn't stop him either - my hands were full. There were 10 to 12 fans right behind us that laughed when they saw what Casey had done. That got the attention of Guillemo Mota who smiled, picked up the ball and threw it back to us. I guess Casey wanted a ball tossed from an actual player. :)

Later we switched over to the Right Field Pavilion, to try to get some more baseballs during the D-backs BP. Unfortunately Casey was more interested food, and stairs then getting more baseballs.
We stayed until just after the 7th inning stretch. We saw home runs by Andre Ethier and the "suspended" player. Casey and I had a great time. Even though I had brought a Dodger shirt for Casey, I left his Arizona shirt on him because it made a good bib. Here is Casey with his ball and nacho cheese all over his shirt.

Balls this game: 1 (but we got it twice)
Balls for me and the kids this season: 4
Average balls per game: 2

First Game of the 2009 Season

2009-04-26T10:03:00.000-07:00

I don't remember another season where I was sooooo looking forward to the first game. You see last season was the first one where my kids really started enjoying going to games with me. Tommy really developed a love for baseball that started last year, and both Alina and Tommy enjoyed trying to get baseballs during batting practice. We managed to get 22 baseballs over the course of the season. So wen the season ended and we didn't have that time together anymore, I really missed it. Of course its more than just a bonding moment for me and the kids. If you want to see all of the reasons I love batting practice you can check out my post from Oct. 22, 2008.

Also the facts that the Dodgers have such a great lineup and have been doing so well to start the season boosted my anticipation of this game.

So after school Friday April 17th I got Alina and Tommy in the van and we heading down the Cajon Pass to pick up my brother Scott and head to the game. We had plenty of time and were sure to get there early enough to find a parking spot on the street and not have to pay for parking. We were making good time until ...
there was a car fire in the middle of the pass. All lanes were blocked and the little bit of information we could find out about it led us to believe it could be an hour or more. It was going to be so great to finally get back to Dodger Stadium and try to get some BP balls, but now I was wondering if we would make it in time. Fortunately after about 40 minutes they cleared the road and let us get going again.

We made it do Dodger Stadium about 15 minutes before the gates opened. Scott was not sure how soon we would make it out so he drove all the way to the game. We met up with him there and walked in together.

In just a few minutes we were in position to get some baseballs tossed to us from the players or snag some home runs. That familiar view was great.But I got this nervous feeling in my belly. What if no one threw a ball to Alina and Tommy? What if I couldn't get to any home run balls? It was the same kind of nervous feeling I had before my interview at Oak Hills High School last week. But that is a story for another blog.

Before too long the Dodgers were finished, and the kids and I put on our Rockies hats. Alina actually wore one of my hats so I suggested she wear it over her hat so it would fit better. The kids and I were a little more vocal than normal trying to draw attention to ourselves - that we at least looked like Rockies fans. Ryan Spilborghs ran by the wall close to us and asked what was under Alina's hat. I quickly explained that it was to make her hat fit, and he gave me a little smirk as he ran back into position. I was so worried that someone had figured our our "strategy" that it took me a while to realize that a major league player actually talked to me. I don't think that has ever happened before. Well except for the time that Raul Mondeci told me he was too busy to give me an autograph.

The next time that a ball came to Spilborghs he turned an threw it to me. He was at least 100 feet away. I thought that was pretty cool. So I gave it to Alina. Now we just had to make sure that we got one for Tommy before BP ended.

A little while later a ball came right to me I was the only adult around with a glove so I felt pretty confident, but the ball hit off the heal of my glove and bounced on the stairs, I reached for it but some guy grabbed it right before I could. I had another near miss on a ball a little later - it was getting frustrating.

But finally I caught a home run ball and I that I had to battle one of the regular Dodger Stadium ballhawks for. He had caught one earlier but I think that was all he got that day.

The last ball we got was tossed up by a Rockies player right towards Tommy. I was no where near the ball, so I was thinking this might be Tommy's first catch from a player. But a teenager next to Tommy tried to catch the ball for Tommy. Also another teenager tried to get the ball, but he had to lunge for it. He knocked into the first teenager, who in turn fell onto Tommy, and then the three of them also knocked Alina down. Now, I don't get upset about a lot of things during BP, but this really got to me. So I said "Oh come on..." The two teenagers got up and apologized, they also gave the ball to Tommy. So I quickly forgave them, I probably should have checked to see if my kids were okay, but we had the ball now so I figured everything else would be fine. After all that is what really made me upset - that they were trying to take the ball that was obviously being tossed to one of my kids. I didn't know they were trying to catch it for Tommy. But both Alina and Tommy were fine. And later when I asked Alina what here favorite part of the game was she said it was being knocked down and still getting that last baseball.

In the game the Dodgers came back with four runs in the 7th inning to win 4-3. Johnathan Broxton stuck out two players with the bases loaded and one out in the 8th inning.

Overall it was everything that I could have asked for in a baseball game. I caught a home run ball during batting practice, and both Alina and Tommy had balls thrown to them. And the Dodgers won! I hope every game this season is as good.

Wrigley Field

2009-01-20T18:50:00.000-08:00

On our road trip this past summer we spent a couple weeks in Chicago. Kim is a Cubs fan and we had been talking to the kids about taking them to see a game at Wrigley Field. However by the time we decided what game we wanted to go to the games were sold out. So we went onto Ebay and found a few people that were selling tickets. We needed four of them and most people were only selling two. So we ended up paying quite a bit for the tickets, but I think it was worth it. It would have cost us more to come back out another time, and pay regular price for the tickets.

Kim found a store that had Cubs temporary tattoos, so she tatted up the kids before we took off for the Subway or the “L” or is it “EL?” . . . we took the rapid transit system in the Chicago area.

We got to the game a little late, at least by batting practice standards. Kim doesn’t usually come to batting practices. She doesn’t really understand why I am so into it (not many people do). So I tried to cut it close so we wouldn’t be waiting too long outside before the gates opened. But we got off the Subway just after the gates opened, and once we got in . . . well the kids needed to go to the restroom. So I was a little frustrated that we missed virtually all of the Cubs BP, but we quickly found a spot along the wall where all of the kids could fit.

I couldn’t believe how crowed it was. I wasn’t sure that we would come away with any baseballs that day, but before too long one of the Reds players threw a ball up to Alina. I’m sure that it was because of her pink glove. With such a crowd of people I think it really made her stand out.

Casey even kept his glove on for a while, but Alina’s ball was the only one that we got that day. So we, or at least I was content to sit back and watch the game. Casey got into some cotton candy, and Alina and Tommy wanted to get some souvenirs. Tommy wanted a bat, and Alina found a cute Cubs squirrel.

Casey wouldn’t sit still, and even tried to eat some nachos off of the ground that the people in front of us had dropped. I decided that it was too much work to keep him out of trouble in the seats so I took him to get a souvenir.

He almost hit the people in front of us with Tommy’s bat so the foam finger seemed a good bet for Casey.

It was a pretty good game. Carlos Zambrano shut down the Reds except for a solo home run by Adam Dunn. We also saw Aramis Ramirez hit a home run for the Cubs.

We asked someone behind us to take a family picture at the game. Now that Erica is born, the picture is outdated. So I guess we’ll have to go back and get another picture taken.

As we headed back to the subway, we got a few pictures out in front of the stadium. Some guy volentered to lay on the ground and take a picture of us with the marquee in the background. After he took it he asked for money. All I had was a five so I gave it to him. I think I overpaid. What do you think?

On the way home we were all pretty tired. Casey fell asleep on the subway.

This last picture I took just before the game started. It was my favorite picture from the game and maybe from our entire trip.

Backyard Baseball

2008-12-20T08:15:00.000-08:00

Ever wonder what I do with all the batting practice balls my kids and I collect? Well, I turn some of them into Cut-Balls. A long time ago when I was in elementary school, some kids made these so that we could play with them at recess (they wouldn't let us play with hard balls). My brothers and I kept playing this new Cut-Ball game all the way through High School. Scott and I have even introduced our PE classes to the game. To make a Cut-Ball, you cut the stitching to and take the cover off. Then you stuff a sock or something soft inside an sow it back together. It makes the ball squishy.

These Cut-Balls are also great for practicing catch without the fear of getting hurt - pretty important for preschoolers. And they make a great ball for playing in the backyard.

Now we can play baseball almost anywhere -- and we have. Below are some pictures of my kids (mainly Tommy) playing baseball in our backyard and in various places across the country.

Here is Tommy pitching to his friend Noah in Colorado.In the picture above Stacy (Tommy's 2nd cousin once removed) pitching to Tommy in Steve and Dee Dee's back yard. Dee Dee is Kim's 1st cousin once removed. Below is Tommy pitching to Samantha. Samantha is Tommy's 3rd cousin and Stacy's niece. It is all very confusing, but everyone got along great even if they didn't know how they were related.Tommy played ball with his first cousin JD in Atlanta. First they played in JD's front yard . . .and then Tommy got a game going at JD's Church.
Tommy loves to have people play baseball with him. He even got his Nana to play with him in our backyard.

Now Tommy likes to dress up when he plays.

Here is Tommy in action.

Tommy even wanted to play baseball in the snow.

The Traveling Hat

2008-12-20T00:00:00.000-08:00

Last Spring I bought a hat for my youngest son Casey. When I saw the cartoon Little Bill, I thought it was so cool that his hat had a "B" on it for Bill. Well his shirt has a "B" on it in the picture to the left but trust me, his hat had a "B" as well, I just couldn't find a picture of it online. A couple years ago I bought my son Tommy a Texas Rangers hat because it had a "T" for Tommy. Tommy always referred to it as his "T" hat. So since my wife is a Cubs fan a Cubs hat made sense for Casey.

Here is a picture of Casey wearing the hat out on our patio. But Casey doesn't really like to wear hats, so his "C" hat ended up on the ground shortly after I put it on his head.

However my $5.99 has not gone to waste. Other people have taken to wearing Casey's hat, and on the trip that my family and I took last summer, the hat ended up on several kids' heads in several interesting places. Here are a few of them.

Casey's sister Alina decided she wanted to wear Casey's hat to the Cubs game. We saw the Cubs play the Reds at Wrigley field in early July. Here is Alina in Casey's hat.

Casey's new friend David wore the hat on a trip to Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo. David is the firstborn son of Nick and Rachel. Kim used to baby sit for Nick when he was little, now Kim and Nick have kids about the same age. Here is David in Casey's hat.

We visited Casey's other cousins in Atlanta on our trip. Most of Casey's cousins live close to us in California. J.D. is the oldest of Casey's cousins and he took a liking to Casey's hat as well. Here is J.D. sporting Casey's hat at the top of Stone Mountian in Georgia.

Casey's brother Tommy loves to wear hats. He managed to find Casey's hat when we made our final site seeing stop of our summer road trip. Here is Tommy wearing Casey's hat at the rim of the Grand Canyon.

Kimberly and Erica

2008-11-23T07:54:00.000-08:00

Although this blog is supposed to be about baseball and ballparks, I cannot help but post another entry about my new daughter Erica, and my wife Kim's efforts in bringing her here.

Erica is our fourth child, so we have already been through the birth process several times. Somehow this time it seemed like forever before our baby finally arrived. At my school, another teacher's wife was due two days before Kim. So he and I had a little friendly competition to see who's baby would be born first. My school had a baby shower for both couples on October seventh. Neither of the ladies looked too big at the shower but they were both 8 months pregnant in this picture.Carl and his wife had their baby on November fourth. But still Kim and I waited. I ended up taking time off of work on more than occasion for false alarms. You see Kim had contractions for at least six weeks before Erica was born. They are pretty mild at first and then they get more intense and uncomfortable as birth is getting closer. When Kim has gone into labor in the past they have really hurt her alot. But something about the anticipation of this baby and the frequency of the contractions made us think that Kim was going into labor when she wasn't yet.

On Tuesday night Kim was up most of the night with contractions. She was timing them and trying to figure out when she should wake me up to head to the hospital. I think she was hoping we could get our oldest two to school before we headed to the hospital. When I woke up she told me what was going on, and that she thought this was the the day. So I got a sub for school that day, and took the older two kids to school. When I got back, those contractions that were a steady five to six minutes apart started becoming 10 to 12 minutes apart and then sometimes as much as 20 minutes apart. That was really disheartening. I could tell that they were "real" contractions because they were bringing Kim to tears, but unless they were five minutes apart, we just had to wait at home. By noon we realized that I could have gone to school and that if anything were to happen that day it wasn't going to happen until evening.

Kim's mom had made the trip up to our house so she could be close just in case anything happened. So she suggested that I go with Kim to her doctor appointment, that had been scheduled for that day. So we went to the appointment at 4:00pm. They always do an ultrasound there, and they told us that the baby weighed less than eight pounds. They also told us that since she was overdue she should go into the hospital and get her contractions and the baby's heartbeat monitored, and they talked about scheduling a time to have labor induced.

So we headed to the hospital. They didn't have a room for monitoring so they put us in a labor and delivery room. As soon as we got there the contractions picked up. They were coming about five minutes apart. Before too long we realized that this was it. Kim wasn't going to be sent home, and the baby was finally going to come.

So we made arrangements over the phone for friends to have Tommy and Casey stay overnight with them. Our oldest Alina wanted to be their for the birth, so she stayed at our house with Nana until later. As Kim was having contractions I was trying to comfort her and figure out when the best time for Nana and Alina to come would be. Since this was our fourth child I thought she might come quickly. I asked the nurse when she thought it might come, but she wasn't much help. On top of everything it was a full moon that night and the Labor and Delivery section of the hospital filled up before we knew it, so we actually didn't see a nurse too often. Apparently what they say is true - more babies are born when there is a full moon.

Nana and I had decided to have Alina go to sleep and then we would wake her up when it was time to go. I made a guess, based on how things were going, and how things went two years ago when Casey was born, that Erica might come before midnight. So I suggested that Nana bring Alina around 10:30. I figured better too early than too late. As it turns out it was way too early.

When Alina got there the lady in the next room was screaming in pain. It sounded like she was delivering her baby. Alina was pretty scared, and when she saw her Mom in pain that didn't help. Around 11:15 they sent the three of us out of the room so that they could give Kim an epidural. When we came back. Kim was feeling better and Alina felt better as well.

We could tell that the epidural took the edge off of Kim's contractions. She was more alert and social between contractions. However as the night went on the pain started coming back. Before too long she seemed like she was in more pain than she was before. She was still feeling everything, even though the epidureologiest came back and upped the dosage. Kim was also very tired. Remember she didn't sleep much the night before. Alina was also getting very tired.
Sometime in the early morning Kim said she felt like pushing. So I went to find a nurse. After I told them, one of them came down to check Kim. After she did, she asked me "How big were your other babies?" When I told her they were all around 7 and 1/2 pounds, she said as she walked out of the room "The baby's head might be too big."

I was thinking she was going to call the Doctor, but later I realized she didn't because she said about an hour later "I think you're ready to deliver, I'm going to go call the Doctor." I really wondered what she did when she walked out of the room earlier. Did she have a card game to finish with the other nurses? And why would she make a comment like that and just leave the room?

Anyway the Doctor finally came. Kim did start to push, and she still had no working epidural.

-- Okay I need to make a little disclaimer before I relay this next part. No, I am not going to post any pictures of the actual birth if that is what you are thinking. It has to do with my perspective at this point. You see I had been through childbirth 3 times before this one and I still know very little about the whole pushing part. I am usually the last one to see the baby's head, and I still don't know what to say to Kim to "coach" her. But the following is what I put together from everything that I saw and heard.

It seemed as if Kim was pushing and then the baby would slip back. The nurses and the Doctor seemed pretty concerned. Was the head too big? I didn't know, but it seemed as if they were discussing the possibility of a C-section without saying it out loud. I don't think they wanted Kim to have that thought in her head . Plus since it was so busy, maybe they would have a hard time getting the epidureologist back. Maybe if it were not for the full moon Kim would have had a C-section.

The other thing that really stood out to me is Kim's attitude. She kept saying she was tired, and that she didn't think she could do it. But when the nurse said "yes you can!" Kim answered back with a respectful "okay." It wasn't like "okay - be quiet" it was like "okay you convinced me, I'll do my best." With all of the pain that Kim was going through, she still felt the need to answer the nurse that was talking to her. More than once during the night Kim asked me how I was doing too. She didn't want me to be burdened with the things she needed . To me the way she acted goes to show that consideration for others is deeply ingrained into her. That was one of the things that I liked about Kim when I asked her to marry me, but I would have thought that this was a time that she could think more of herself than others. But Kim is not like that. Alot of times intense situations show what a person is really like. This labor, which was the hardest that Kim has had since our first baby, showed me that Erica is a lucky girl to have Kim as her mom!

Well baby Erica did finally come out at 2:45 am. Alina who was waiting in the hallway during the delivery quickly came in to see her new sister. Before too long Alina was holding baby Erica in her arms.

Of course Mommy got to hold the baby too. She deserved it after all that hard work. This picture was actually taken the next day when both Kim and Erica were feeling a little better.

I was thrilled to hold our new bundle of joy as well.

It was wonderful that everything turned out alright. We were glad to finally meet little Erica, but Alina wanted to go to school the next day, so we needed to go home pretty soon. Nana had to drive all the way down they hill. So we said goodbye to Kim and Erica and headed out together around 4:00 am. Alina fell asleep on the way home. We were glad that Nana didn't. When I got home I arranged for a sub at school, sent out a couple emails, and posted my last blog entry, so that people would be able to see pictures. I got to bed about 5:30 am.

The next day I was awakened by Kim's sister Michelle. She was in Hawaii, and wondering what happened. It was about 9:00 am. I was sooo tired, but excited to tell someone about little Erica. Alina woke up pretty soon after that so I took her to school around 9:50, just in time for the Great Southern California Shake Out (an earthquake drill that many area schools took part in).

Later on that afternoon I took all three of my other kids to see Erica. Casey fell asleep, so the first picture with all four kids in it has both Erica and Casey sleeping.

Casey woke up before long and got to hold his little sister.

He is pretty protective of her already. Just in case anyone thinks about messing with her, he is ready!
I just had to work that picture into this blog somehow.

Tommy got to hold baby Erica for the first time too.
And then we got our first family picture with the six of us together.

In the end it was all worth the wait. Our beautiful baby Erica was born. And the 11 days so far after she was born have gone alot faster than the 11 days before her birth. Kim is feeling much better, and we are all at home now. I'll leave you with a few more pictures of Erica.

Erica CarolAnn

2008-11-13T04:56:00.000-08:00

Future baseball fan Erica CarolAnn Efting was born today at 2:45 am. She weighed in at 8 lbs. 8 oz. and 20 inches long. Here are a few pictures of the darling little girl.

Too much time on my hands

2008-11-07T10:09:00.000-08:00

My wife and I are anxiously awaiting the birth of our fourth child. Kim's due date was yesterday, and although she keeps having contractions they have not been strong enough or close enough together to have us start heading into the hospital. So we just wait. Here is a picture of Kim and me at the pumpkin patch a couple weeks ago.

10 years ago I was down on one knee asking Kim to marry me. Now I am down on my knees comparing her belly to a pumpkin.
Any way since I seemed to have a little time on my hands and there is no more baseball to watch this season. I decided to take a picture of myself in each one of my hats and put it on this blog. Maybe this will scare away any casual readers. :)

Playoff Atmosphere

2008-10-31T06:47:00.000-07:00

So many times you here commentators or players say it was like a playoff atmosphere. Well, on October 4th, at 42 years old I finally got to attend a playoff game and saw what a “playoff atmosphere” was really like.
My brother Scott and I went to the game. We like to get there early for batting practice, and for free parking. Usually if you get to Dodger Stadium early enough you can park on the street just outside the stadium parking lot. However the first difference I noticed for playoff baseball was that everyone arrived there early. By the time we got there the parking lots were opened already and it was more than two hours before game time. So we ended up parking inside the stadium parking lot.
It was about then that I realized that I did not bring the tickets. There was a moment of stress, but the people at the will call window were nice enough to print me new tickets. The Dodgers opened all levels of the stadium right away, but would not allow anyone into left field without a left field ticket. So we were relegated to the centerfield warning track area. Here was our view of the stadium when we entered.

It was nice that we had somewhere to go to try to get a ball, but the place was packed.

A few balls came close to my area, but it was hard to move around. Most people that hung around for a while were really nice. They were all dressed in Dodger Blue, and I had some pleasant conversations with several people while I was out there. There was only one guy that put a damper on things. Apparently I had bumped him while I was pursuing a ball in the area. He told me to take it easy. My thoughts were “Everyone here wants a ball, you have got to expect a some bumping when a ball comes nearby.” But although I told him I was sorry, I don’t think he forgave me, because the next time a ball came close to us I felt an elbow in my chest blocking me from moving to the ball. Sure enough it was the same guy. After the ball landed in the crowd I noticed that he didn’t have a glove, and he wasn’t even going after the ball. He just didn’t want me to get it. The guy is in the picture below. I won’t tell you who it is, but you might be able to figure it out on your own.

Near the end of BP I finally made my way up to the front row.

Unfortunately no balls came my way and I left batting practice empty handed. But that was okay; I really wanted to see the game. The Dodgers were up 2-0 on the Cubs and had a chance to close out the series. It was the first home game for the Dodgers, so it was cool to see all the hype before the game. They made introductions of all the players and brought out the huge American flag.
The game was great. The Dodgers scored two runs in the first inning, and Hiroki Kuroda shut down the Cubs for six plus innings. For some reason I decided to take score during the game. It might have been the first time I ever did that.

The stadium was packed.

Almost everyone I saw were Dodger fans. However, there was a lone Cub fan sitting in front of me. He tried to be obnoxious but it was hard to do since the Cubs only scored once.
Scott and I decided to watch from behind home plate as Jonathan Broxton finished out the game.
Then the celebration began. Someone from the top deck decided to throw beer around in celebration. A little bit got on to Scott and I. But the Dodgers made up for that by placing a picture of both Scott and me on the scoreboards! It was nice of them to commemorate our first playoff game that way.

Batting Practice

2008-10-22T20:38:00.000-07:00

When I was in high school I went to a baseball game in the Seattle Kingdome, which was my third major league baseball stadium. I had been to Dodger Stadium and the ballpark in Oakland. I decided that it would be cool to visit every major league stadium before I died. At the time it was really my only lifetime goal. So when my family moved back down to southern California I made sure that I saw a game at Angel Stadium. I went to the nearby ballparks when I was in College, and I started taking mini-trips with my brother Scott. (shown here with me before a recent game at Petco Park)

Scott, took on the goal of seeing all of the ballparks as his own goal, and actually finished his tour of all 30 major league stadiums when we visited Tropicana Field with our brother Andy in 2006.

Well Scott, who is a teacher, takes a trip every summer to see several baseball games at different ballparks across the country. He would tell me stories of snagging balls during batting practice. He made it sound like so much fun. In all of the games I had been to (over200 games) I had only caught two foul balls, and none in batting practice. So I went with him to a game at Dodger Stadium and I managed to win a scramble for a ball during batting practice. Latter we went down to San Diego and I caught my first batting practice home run (hit by Olmedo Saenz).

When the 2008 season arrived I was so excited to get back to batting practice, I went to a preseason game at Dodger Stadium March 28^th. Scott and I went together and sat in the all you can eat pavilion. People get so excited about the free food that they don’t try to get baseballs right away. Within 5 minutes a Red Sox player threw a ball up into the stands. I was one of the only ones standing there so he threw it to me. A couple of weeks later I caught a ball on the warning track. The Dodgers opened up the warning track during batting practice during the 2008 season.

Two games - two balls, I thought I was doing pretty good. I started thinking that other people must be into this batting practice thing as well. So I googled “batting practice” and after following a few links I stumbled across Zack Hample’s website zackhample.com. Zack has amassed over 4000 balls in his lifetime including more than 500 in 2008. I suddenly started thinking that I wasn’t doing that great after all. So I started reading his website and his blog http://snaggingbaseballs.mlblogs.com/ trying to learn some things that would help me get more balls.

The next game I went to I got 3 balls. Woo Hoo!

So that is basically the start of my batting practice obsession. Alina and Tommy have enjoyed it and I am enjoying watching them. I try to get them to stand in the front row, look cute and raise their gloves. Even Casey has got into the act, but no one has thrown Casey a ball yet. Here he is at Wrigley Field.

So after getting balls at Dodger Stadium, Wrigley Field, Turner Field, and Busch Stadium, Alina Tommy and I were going to make one last trip to Dodger Stadium. It was going to be on Labor Day. Scott informed me that Zack was going to be at that game. I hadn't seen that on Zack's blog yet. So we were able to see Zack in action. We didn't get any balls that game. It was the first batting practice that I took the kids to that none of us got any baseballs. But we did get our picture on Zack's blog http://snaggingbaseballs.mlblogs.com/archives/2008/09/9108_at_dodger_stadium.html (the forth picture on his post that day) and we got a picture with Zack after batting practice.

We later went to a game at Angel Stadium, which was detailed on my previous post.

Angel Stadium

2008-10-17T23:58:00.000-07:00

To complete our Summer of Ballparks and batting practice I wanted to take Alina and Tommy to Angel Stadium. So September 26th I called to find out about tickets. The ticket office told me they only had scattered singles. The stadium was going to be the 4th, 5th and 6th stadium of the summer for Alina Tommy and me respectively. I felt it was worth the risk of driving down there and not being able to get tickets. I figured if we could just get in we would be able to find a place to sit together. So we headed down. When we got into the parking lot Alina and Tommy were immediately impressed with the big "A."

As we started looking for open ticket windows I was afraid that we would not find one open. However as we got to the front of the stadium we found one. The guy inside told me that we could get tickets for $3 and I said "I'll take 'em!" So with tickets in had we headed in for batting practice.

We were a little bit late but it was not very crowded for a Friday night. Alina and Tommy found a spot along the wall, where we had hoped they would get noticed by the players. Unfortunately they did not pay any attention to the kids and neither Alina nor Tommy got a ball tossed to them. And then the wall started getting more populated.As we were watching one of the Rangers players tease us with a ball to our right, another ball was hit towards our area. No one was looking and then out of the corner of my eye a saw something. I turned and had a ball bounce right into my glove area, I bobbled it but made the grab. Anyone around me could have caught it if they had been looking. I was just in the right place and got lucky. So now the goal was to get another ball, so both of the kids could have one. After having no luck, a man who had managed to get a few came over and gave me one. What a nice guy! He is pictured to the left and has the arrow pointing to him. I told Tommy if he went over and said "Thank you" I would buy him and Angels bat. So Tommy did. So now both Alina and Tommy had baseballs so we went up into our seats - yeah right! We stayed there until batting practice was over, even though both the kids were saying they were hungry, but we didn't get anymore balls.

We found something to eat and watched the start of the game down near the left field foul pole. Here is a view from where we sat.
When we eventually got to our seats this was our view.

The Angels got killed in the game 12-1. We saw Lackey have his shortest outing of the season, and Josh Hamilton hit his 32nd and last home run of the season.
I found someone to take our picture before we left. This baseball season was really fun for me. Both Alina and Tommy had four balls thrown to them. They are both understanding the game more as well. This is the last park that we will visit together this year, but I look forward to many more seasons with my growing baseball fan family having a ball (or two or three) at the ballpark.

2 balls this game
22 balls in 13 batting practices this season (1.69 per game)
1 consecutive game with at least one ball