My Ball!

We made the trip to our 3rd of 6 games and got to the stadium pretty early. We walked around had some diet Pepsi to drink and then got a piece of pizza. We watched the grounds crew ready the field for the players from the 200 Level railing out in left field. Then, as the pitchers came into the warm-up area, we headed downstairs to watch Fister, who now pitches for the Tigers, and Beaven, who was our pitcher tonight. There was only a small space open, so I bellied up to the rail and watched Beaven warm up.

There was a guy to my left, who spoke to Navarro in Spanish, asking if he could get autographs from the pitcher and Navarro said after. I just watched and watched pitch after pitch and as I watched the other pitchers came in and lined up to watch him and peruse the crowd. One of the pitchers seemed to not be able to take his eyes off me. He kept staring and staring. After a while Beaven went down to start the game and that pitcher came over and started taking some balls out of the bag that the pitchers use to warm up with. He took some and headed away towards the field.

It was about time to go up to our seats, so I headed to the bathroom and left Riles to hold my stuff. When I came out of the bathroom, Riles had a ball in his hand!!! What!?!?!? How did that happen? According to Riles after I left the pitcher came back and got some more balls out and looked up at Riles. They made “eye contact” and Riles made a target for him and the pitcher threw him a ball. I was pretty amazed.

Riles told me the pitcher was signing autographs and I should go get one if I had a felt marker. I didn’t, but saw a lady that did. I asked to borrow it and she said yes. At that point the pitcher was no longer signing autographs, he was looking up at the big screen. I was nervous and asked Riles if he thought the pitcher would come over and sign the ball. He told me the worse he could say was no or ignore me.

So I scooted into the only open spot left on the railing and said in my most sweetest voice, “Brandon, can I get an autograph please?”

He turned and said, “Yes.” The boys to both sides of me weren’t very happy as they had been calling him for a bit and he hadn’t answered them. They wanted to know why I got an autograph and why they didn’t. Obviously…I’m a girl!

So he got a ball

And I got an autograph.