Batting practice at the Coliseum

The A’s front office is doing a lot of cool things these days to make their fans feel special (shout out to my homie Dave Kaval!).

Our family are season ticket holders a few years running. That privilege comes with cool perks like free tickets & A’s swag, but nothing compares to the opportunity to play baseball in the same place where our baseball heroes play.

A few weeks ago, I received an email from the A’s. An excerpt:

I just wanted to follow up on my earlier voicemail inviting yourself and a guest out to get onto Rickey Henderson field for a special Season Ticket Member experience! We currently have space available to actually take batting practice on the field when the A’s are away… Let me know if you would be at all interested in attending the event, as we are expecting to fill up the available spots in the coming days.

Practice at work

The pressure is on not to look like a fool on the field. I’m very fortunate to work at a place that has its own batting cage, so in the mornings when I get the chance, I’m getting a few cuts in before the workday. I gotta make sure I look awesome in case my fantasy comes to life where I knock a home run into the seats & the A’s draft me as a baseball phenom. There’s not enough Filipino ballplayers in the Majors.

Realistically, though, I want to just make sure that I can make contact with the ball & not to whiff all pitches coming my way. That, & I can’t figure out the timing on when to plant my front foot & rotate the hips to generate more power. I’ll keep practicing. For now, contact swings will do.

Gameday

We’re treated to free parking, so walked up to the gate to submit our signed liability waiver forms & get assigned batting order numbers:

It’s an odd — but very welcome — feeling to stroll into the Coliseum without going through security. I even got to bring in a can of Coke, usually a no-no on game days!

For lunch, we brought some hamburgers from work:

…but I hardly had an appetite because I was too excited.

After a quick laydown of the rules by the A’s staff, we had free reign to explore the field & its surroundings. They turned up the Coliseum speakers with radio music & invited everyone to warm up on the field with a game of catch:

Instead, my wife & I went photo-happy & snapped photos that are normally off-limits for most fans.

It’s not the first time we’ve been on the field as I’ve taken my daughters to the run-around-the-bases activity after Sunday afternoon ballgames. It’s still awe-inspiring to be on the field where our favorite players play:

We stashed our gear on the dugout bench, but not without taking a picture of me & my buddy Brick Tamland first:

Facing the dugout, on the left end of the bench is a door to the players’ restroom. I dared not to use it, but was also curious to see the view from one of the best seats in the house:

We were assigned numbers that dictate our batting order. 65 people total, I was #59. This gave me ample time to shag balls in the outfield from other fans & more photos with the two signs I brought:

Brick Tamland’s Let’s Go Oakland & my most recent GOAT sign to honor the Greatest of All Time, Rickey Henderson:

At-bat

Being at the near end of the batting order allowed me to see a bunch of hits that traveled far from guys twice my size with arms as big as tree trunks, including one that was crushed that counted as a proper home run. Impressive!

Initially nervous, the apprehension turned into excitement as my turn came up. I’ve been practicing for a few weeks, so if I can knock a few at least past the infield, I’ll be a happy camper.

The on-field announcer asked for my name. I give my usual spiel of my name & its pronunciation:

My name is Ian, rhymes with lion.

I faced no more than 15 pitches total. 3 pitches were foul-tipped, 2 were big swinging strikes, but the rest made good contact & traveled surprisingly far:

Sadly, I did not get drafted, but there’s always next year!

Bonus pics: Nicola from the A’s front office was taking photos at the event & photographed all batters. She took some pretty sweet shots:

Come check out the rest of my work! I’m constantly adding new signs!