A Series Sweep! (vs. BoSox 4/29-5/1)

This past weekend was going to be a hot one, and of course, against a huge division rival, the Boston Red Sox.  It started out right after school on Friday, a hot day, reaching the lower 90s, on the ride down to the ballpark.  It was the first game in 2 weeks that we’d been to, so I was ready to get into the ballpark.  We met our friend Matt down at the gates, right before game time, and when we ran into the park, BP had already started.  The stadium filled up, but luckily, Matt had already caught a few baseballs and was nice enough to toss me on, across a few sections.  I had been talking to one of the security guards that I got to know, and we were joking about the team, the game, the heat, and of course, Sox fans.  During the Orioles portion of BP, we talked to Ronnie and then Guthrie, who told me that since I caught some baseballs last year, I didn’t need any this year.  I ended up tossing him my baseball from Matt so he could toss me a different baseball, so it would be as if I had gotten one from him. 
Once the O’s went in, I moved over to the foul line to talk to the
security guard some more and hopefully get a few warmup baseballs.  I
was lucky enough to catch one from a Sox player who I could not
identify, and after being asked by the guard to give it to a lady who
had been annoying some of the Sox players, and us, she thanked me, and
with the baseball, left.  I got to know another man from Boston, who I
enjoyed talking to and had a very nice time with.  He was from Boston,
but grew up here and still had a place in his heart for our team.  I
gave him the baseball that Okajima threw me, as a thank you for our
wonderful conversation. 

Bailey was a ballgirl the entire weekend, and before the game, Seg
and I went to say hi to her.  The exciting story with her would come up
on Saturday, so that’ll come later. 

The game was a great one, the
Orioles kept it close, and we got to move around to a few different
seats around the park.  It seemed that many people were getting drunk
and sick, and it turns out that over 50 people were thrown out, along
with the countless that were so drunk, they were sick, and beer sales
ended in the 5th inning.  By the 8th inning we were sitting out by the
bullpen, in front of some very nice Boston fans, who we got to know
after they had a little argument with an Orioles fan that was not
representing us well.  I can say that I was embarrassed by the way he
spoke and the way he was acting.  Luckily, the Sox fans were able to
joke around, and we had some fun for the rest of the game. 
(They also liked the video the Orioles showed that was of a scene from Cheers- filmed of course, in BOSTON, which we were joking about).   Tejada hit a solo shot in the 8th inning, to the section next to us, which tied the game, and in the end, sent it to the 10th inning, when he won the game on a single up the middle.  We went crazy, dancing, shouting, and celebrating a nice win.  After the game, a groundscrew member tossed me my 4th ball of the game.

After the excitement of the Friday night game, it was tough to imagine
how the Orioles were going to follow that up for the rest of the
weekend.  Avi and I were the only 2 who went to the Saturday game, and
boy were we in for a great night.  Before the game, right as gates
opened, I raced into the ballpark, and because I am now a Season Ticket
holder, I was able to get to Left Field very early.  As a I turned the
corner, I was happy to see a clean white baseball sitting in a seat that
the ushers had missed.  There were 2 ushers throwing baseballs back
onto the field, so I was happy to have gotten the one that they missed. 
Right after I picked that ball up, another ball landed in the top row
of the stands, and the usher was nice enough to let me run up to get it
before he threw it back.  I think that once the park opens, the ushers
should stop shagging home runs, and let the fans get them.  But he was
nice, and before I could take a breath, I had 2 baseballs.  My third
ball came off the bat of an Orioles player, and I was able to beat out a
few fans to the top of the section to grab that baseball.  As the
Orioles finished up BP, I went down the 3rd baseline to see if I could
get one of the Red Sox warm-up baseballs.  I saw the same Sox fans I had
met the day before, and we had a nice talk.  After the Sox were done
throwing around, Scott Schoenweis threw me my 4th baseball of the day.

I
was happy with my performance for the weekend so far, 8 baseballs, and
that coming on a weekend Red Sox series.  I headed up to the Warehouse
Bar to watch the Kentucky Derby with some of the other fans there.  It
was a great race, and hopefully we’ll see a triple crown winner this
year.  After BP ended, Avi and I decided to see if our passes to the
cafe on the Club Level would work and if we’d be allowed up there.  It
turns out they did, and the usher did not take the passes, so it may be a
more than one time thing.  We started walking around the club level,
looking at all of the amazing things talking about our history and the
days of Orioles Magic.

As we were walking around, I saw someone
standing by a suite that I recognized from our trip to Florida.  We went
over to say hi, and after having a nice talk with the owner of Big
Mario’s pizza (you should go try the pizza- very good pizza, and from an
owner that is truly a nice man).  He was very happy to see us, after
not having been in contact since the spring, and he said that he was
having some friends in his box, and if we wanted to, later on, we should
stop by.  We were so happy to be invited, and later on, we would have
food and a nice box to be in.  We wandered around club level, and found a
seat outside before we would go back to the box.  The game was great,
and when we went over to the box, he was happy to see us and we were
happy to be there.  We met some nice guys in the box, and seeing as many
of them were Red Sox fans, when the Orioles put a 6 on the board in one
inning, we had lots of fun with them.  The game turned into a home run
derby, with every fly ball leaving the park, 9 in total, and many of
them down the line onto flag court, which was on our side. 

During
the game, Bailey, who was down the first base line, made a spectacular
catch on a line drive right at her.  No player had a chance on the ball,
so she was the one who had to get the baseball, which of course was
headed right for her.  As she made the great play, all of the fans gave
her a very nice ovation, and MASN replayed her catch on their
broadcast.  It was very cool to know the ballgirl, and I’m sure that she
will be making great plays all season.

The rest of the game
went on just as the first half had, and the Orioles snuck out of their
with a victory, thanks to the home run ball.

The Orioles had
taken the first 2 games of the series, and would go for the big sweep on
Sunday.

Sunday:
A pretty laid back day, so I’ll keep it
short for this game.
Just some points of interest for this game:

Before
the game, I went down the first base line to see Ronnie, and before
saying anything, he tossed me a baseball and came over, and we had a
nice conversation.  It was pretty cool and one of the benefits to no
BP. 
We had seats in the 7th row, at first base, which were amazing
seats.  About the 5th inning, it got very hot, so we started walking
around the park.
Went back up to club level to get the game notes
and be in the AC.
The game was very exciting, and it looked like the
Orioles were not going to be able to pull it out, but of course,
because we had luck on our side this weekend, the O’s won on an amazing
walk-off double.  This was an amazing weekend, and it was nice to
celebrate the series sweep, with all the Sox fans that invaded this
weekend. 

I can’t wait to get back to the park, and I’ll be back
for one game next weekend, but that story is for next weekend.  Go
O’s!  

   
 
 

Homestand!!

The next week of games will all be hosted at Oriole Park, starting with a 3 game set against the Yankees, followed by another AL East team, the Red Sox, who are in for 3 games. 

The Orioles just returned from a nice series in Boston (or at least nice for our offense), which has finally woken up.  Tejada has returned to the lineup, and in the first game against the Yanks, Hughes is still in.  He may take a night off when the Orioles face the lefty Sabathia on Wednesday night.  He has had a hot bat since being called up to the bigs last week, and for the time being, Dave will stick with what is working.  I’m headed to the entire Boston series, and will be watching the Yankee series from the comfort of my home, even though I’d love to be at the games. 

More updates this weekend, and then I’ll try and figure out all the picture stuff so I can upload pictures from the games.  

Almost time….

Without home games for a full 2 weeks, I am stuck at home watching the ball games on MASN, and hoping that the results on the field improve.  It would be nice to get some wins on the road against the Red Sox and Yankees, because right when we get home, its the same teams again.  I would love to get the first few wins at home, and even some wins on the road.

It has been tough to be an Orioles fan these past few weeks, and it looks like it can only improve.  We’ll see what happens in this next week, against division foes. 
 
If the plan stays the same, we will be headed out to the entire weekend series vs. the Red Sox, and hopefully we can defend our home field, even when the Sox fans invade our ballpark.

And as always, Go Orioles!  

New Blog

This new blog will be about personal experiences with the Orioles players and at the games, told by Zevi Lowenberg, Avi Miller, and Segev Goldberg.  We go to lots of games, love the Orioles and are always involved with the team.  This blog will be updated after every game we go to, and throughout the year whenever we are involved in something baseball related around this great city or wherever the game takes us. 

This is the last blog entry from http://oriolespen.blogspot.com/ :

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Sarasota
2010

So as the 2010 season kicks off, its time to go back and re-live the
Sarasota trip that 5 of us just took. It was a weekend trip, we got
down to Florida Friday morning, and left Sunday afternoon. It was the
most amazing trip, jokes and memories that will last for years, and we
got to see some great baseball. The trip was made fun by a lot of the
jokes, but I’ll leave those out of this, because if I tried writing
about them, it could take me a few days. I’ll get down to the
bare-bones of the trip, and let some of the other people that went fill
in details that they think should be in this post.

On the flight
down to FL we met a man sitting across the aisle, someone that works for
the Orioles, Doug Reaves. We had a nice chat with him, and he told us
about what he was coming down for, how he was bringing sponsors, and on
Saturday, they were going to be at a CrabFeast with the Orioles. When
we got to FL, we got a car, and after checking into our very nice hotel,
drove over to Sarasota to see the city and have some lunch. We ended
up eating at a place across the street from Ed Smith Stadium, the place
the Orioles now call Spring Home, at a place called Gus’s 12th Street
Cafe. Great meal, nice people, beautiful location. After lunch, we
hung out at the ballpark for a little while, walking around the entire
complex. There are a few minor league fields and some practice fields,
which are also very nice, and still in the same area as the ballpark.
We then explored the city of Sarasota, went down to the water, and got
to play on rocks- no one fell in, got injured or got to wet, so all in
all, it was a lot of fun being down on the water.

Game Time.
The anticipation of opening the gates for the first time was killing us,
and once they opened the gates, the atmosphere was really relaxed, no
one was rushing, and the players were pretty cool with talking to fans.
Avi, Segev and I all caught a baseball (or 3 or 4). Once the game
started, and we had a few autographs from players and coaches, and we
had talked to both Ronnie Deck and some other guys from the bullpen that
still recognized us, it was time for the game. Our seats were right by
first base, in the first row of the entire ballpark. If we had tried,
and leaned over, we could have taken some of the dirt home with us. The
Orioles lost the first game, but overall, it was a great time. The
players were really chill about everything, and even during the game,
guys would sign autographs as if it were pre-game, and there was no game
going on behind them. We didn’t get to talk to Ronnie post game, but
we did talk to a few other players, so that was still very cool. We
went back to the hotel, and after a very long day, and an early wake up
call the next day, crashed for the night.

Day 2: Saturday

Saturday
was going to be an afternoon game- temps in the 80′s. We were also
invited to a party with the Orioles after the game, the thing that we
had talked to Doug about. We saw Doug a few times before the game, and
we were all very excited for the meal post game. Pre-game went the same
as the first game, some baseballs, talked to Ronnie, and got some more
autographs. There was also a guest at the Orioles game that I got
meet– Dick Vitale, a nationally known basketball commentator for ESPN.
The game also went really well. The Orioles beat the Red Sox, there
were some great spelling errors on the scoreboard, and we all got a very
nice tan (and a little burned). After the game, we went to this
CrabFeast, and got to sit down with about 20 players, who were walking
around, eat great food, and get autographs. Matt Albers, who we talked
to last year, came up to us and talked to us about Ronnie, life, the
bullpen, and was overall a really cool guy. We also got to talk to Luke
Scott, Kevin Millwood, Kam Mickolio, among others. It was a great
afternoon and something that does not happen very often. We were also
told that it was ok to go play on the main minor league field, so we
went and played catch in the outfield, running around like 4 year olds
that had no idea what to do with themselves. We were on the same field
as the Orioles and we were playing catch! It was insane and very tiring
in the hot day.

After the game, we drove over to some of the
islands of Sarasota, and drove around on the coast. We went to a public
beach somewhere on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico and got to cool down
on the hot day. After playing a round of mini-golf, we went back to
Tampa for a late dinner and time around the hotel. Avi and I spent some
time (until about 2 a.m.) in the Orioles suite on the top floor that
they had for everyone that was part of on Orioles organized trip to
Sarasota, and of course, our “family”. There was enough food to last us
a year, so we never went hungry. We were also allowed to go to the
buffet breakfast, courtesy of the Orioles, where we were offered more
food than any of us could eat. We were never hungry, which was good,
and always taken care of.

Day 3: Sunday
On Sunday, we spent
the day in the Orioles suite, since we had to be at the airport in the
early afternoon, and there was no Orioles game. It rained the entire
day, so we spent the day talking and joking with other Orioles fans and
spending some time together not in the car or in the ballpark. The
plane ride back was through a lot of turbulence, which was not at all
fun, and boy, was the plane shaky. We got through it alright, and that
was the trip.

An amazing weekend, that we’re all really glad we
got to have, and we all take away some great memories. Now it’s time
for the new Orioles season….Go O’s!

Thanks and I hope you enjoy this new blog…..

Other Blog

This is our second blog, the one we will be updating, but for all of our previous entries, check out our other blog– it’s worth your time. 

http://oriolespen.blogspot.com/

From now on, we will be updating this blog, unless otherwise noted, and then linked.

A Trip to Remember

Between July 31st and August 4th, Segev and I(Zevi)
took a road trip with my dad to 4 different cities to see 5 baseball
games. We had been planning a much larger trip, but when it came time
to really plan it we had to cut it down to a reasonable trip. My dad
told us that he would take us if we kept it under a week and somewhat
close. So we headed out to Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cincinnati,
and Detroit. It was a lot of fun, we saw some amazing games, met a lot
of people, and of course in Detroit we saw the Orioles, and so we also
saw Ronnie and Ruben. Ruben, who likes to joke around with us and hide
from us behind some of the taller guys on the team, (Ruben is 5’9), so
when he saw us in Detroit, he had to hide from us. Here is a summary of
our trip:
Day 1:
Falling Water is amazing! Holy ****! EVERY OTHER EXCLAMATORY THAT DENOTES AMAZINGNESS!!
Why is there so much damn traffic in Pitt?
FREE HAT!
Nationals and Pirates both suck horrifically!…
Nats 5 Pirates 6
Steve Pearce’s first career HR

(For
me, I got 1 baseball that game from the Nationals bullpen coach, since
i had a DC hat, and I had seen him before the game, and he said that if
he had any left at the end of the game, he would give me one.)

Day 2:
WHY IS CLEVELAND CLOSED FOR THE WEEKEND?
Cool Boat
Still closed
Victor Martinez Bobblehead: Check…
Victor Martinez: Absent!!!
Jacobs Field did not turn those seats very much
Congrats to Indians Hall of fame class of 09
Haha no Cliff Lee either
Toregas’s (VM’s replacement) first career hit
12 innings!!
Tigers 4 Indians 3

Day 3:
Drive across OHIO
dude our hotel is right across from the ballpark (w/ a river in between)
IDK 10 towns near Denver
but another city in CO we can do!!… (so I got a baseball from the Rockies bullpen coach)
Way upper deck seats!!
Jay Bruce Mesh Jersey: Check
Jay Bruce on the field: Absent
11 innings!!!
Rockies: 6 Reds: 4
THAT MAN HAS A RACOON ON HIS SHOULDER!!!!!
Awesome Apartment Building!!!!
Uncle Dan! Kentucky’s First Pedophile?
Zevi gets sick :(
“If this were Taken, you’d be ******* dead!”
Funny People
Oh **** we missed the curfew!!!!

Day 4:
Happy Birthday Zevi!
US Air Force Museum= Awesome and I wish we had a full day there!
Meeting Mr. Milner!
Awesome outside of Comerica Park!!…
HI RUBEN AND RONNIE!!
Baez: “Happy Birthday”
Dunn: “Happy Birthday”
Kranitz: “Happy Birthday”
Mickolio: “Happy Birthday”
Ruben: “You should get a broad!” *Splash*
Holy **** we got to Verlander!!!
EPIC WAVE FAIL!!!!
Damnit Baez!!
Go that way as far as we want, but if you see Ford Field turn and run!!!!

(
I got 3 baseballs from this game, all from guys from the bullpen that
recognized me. And also Segev. My dad got hit on the arm with a ball,
along the foul line- his arm was fine, and I made sure to grab the ball
to give to him.)

Goodyear World of Rubber (no not that rubber)
more traffic in Pittsburgh!!
lots of cops downtown but there was actually stuff open!
Doubleday’s! (good burger and fries)…
Ball b4 gates open! (from the usher who liked me)
Ball
from ARZ bullpen coach (who saw that I was wearing an old style DBacks
polo- so we joked around about how I need to get a new one)
Free Hat cause im 18+!!!
Free Hat cause Zevi’s dad is 18+!!!
Free Tix cause im 18+!!!
Zach Duke is amazing!!!
Free Ball from Pirates catcher: “I don’t owe you anything”
Damn strict ushers!!
Free Hot Dog from a cannon!!!!
Plastic falling from a sign!!!!
Yusmeiro Petit is more of a beast!!!
7 inning NO-HITTER!
Damn you Ronny Cedeno!!!
1- hitter still pretty damn good!
ARZ 6 PIT 0

BIG MAC MUSEUM!!!!!!!!!

Home. This was an amazing trip, we had a lot of fun, and its good to be home.

The 2009 Season- Recap of what has happened

So this blog is going to be about three guys(Avi, Segev, and Zevi)
who go to the Baltimore Orioles games pretty much whenever they are
home, and sit out by the bullpens, and no joke, talk to the pitchers
and everyone else in the bullpen. We have become pretty good friends
with both of the bullpen catchers, Ronnie Deck and Ruben Felix. Because
they do not truly have their own fans, we have become their fan club,
and every game we go out to see them, and when they come out into the
bullpen, they make the effort to talk to us before and/or after each
game. This all started one game, vs the Mets,
when we wanted to cheer for someone in the ‘pen, and so a friend looked
up what the catchers name was, and we came up with Ronnie Deck. We
cheered for him, and on his way back, he gave us a wave. Thinking that
was pretty cool, the three of us went the next day and cheered for him
again. After that game, there was a road trip, so we decided that the
first day they come back, we would go out and cheer for him to see if
he would say hi to us. Much to our surprise, Ruben Felix, the other
catcher, came out pregame and told us that some of the guys from the
bullpen had been getting on Ronnie’s case about his new fans, and how
he now had people that knew him. He gave us tips and pointers for
cheering for them, and from then on we have been cheering for both of
them. Over time, the bullpen coach, Alan Dunn has come to know us and
talk to us. Also, pitchers Danys Baez, Kam Mickolio, and Cla Meredith, and pitching coach Rick Kranitz
have all come to know us and talk to us. This blog will be about us at
the games, what goes on, some of the stories from the bullpens, and
also our collection of baseballs that we sometimes get at the games.
Keep reading, and Go O’s!

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