Chillin’ with the A’s bullpen
Originally written March 2011 on my personal blog. The A’s moved to a new Spring Training ballpark in 2015, so my suggestion of sitting behind the bullpen won’t work anymore because of the new seating configuration.
On the last day of our 2011 Spring Training weekend trip, my wife, my cousin & I caught an A’s Spring Training game at the Phoenix Municipal Stadium. In my research, I read online that the best place to sit is right behind the A’s bullpen because fans can literally sit about a foot away from the players.
The A’s had a split-squad day, & the other half of the team was in Scottsdale playing the Giants. Just as it happens in the Bay Area, the A’s vs. Giants games generally have a huge turnouts. This game had a lighter crowd, which was great because I much preferred these kind of games so I can sprawl out.
As we walk to our seats & even before we sit down, A’s setup pitcher Jerry Blevins is maybe only 15 feet away. He turns around & greets us:
Jerry Blevins: How are you guys doing?
Me (in awe & surprise): We’re…fine.
Jerry: Awesome seats, huh?
We both look around. There is absolutely nobody sitting in our section.
Jerry: You scored some nice seats in the family section.
A tongue-in-cheek joke. I’m still in shock with how close we are to the field. Below is a Google Earth view of Phoenix Municipal Stadium. The home team A’s set up their dugout & bullpen on the first base side. The bullpen warms up in the yellow rectangle area. We sat down in the seats in the yellow circle. Again, we’re only an arm’s reach away from the pitchers, & there’s nobody in our section.
Me & my cousin sit close in the first row, almost breathing on the bullpen’s collective necks. My wife is on the shy side, so she sits a few rows higher.
It was an experience like none other. You can actually hear conversations amongst the bullpen pitchers. It’s mostly talk about the players on the field & making clubhouse runs for cold drinks. Regular season games in full size stadiums can never emulate this experience.
A few innings pass. I excuse myself to the bathroom. Coming back & walking down the steps of the metal bleachers to my seat, my cousin & my wife were trying to tell me something, but I can’t hear over the clanging of my footsteps. Maybe a foul ball was hit & landed in our section. I even brought my baseball glove just for that reason. Bummer.
“You missed it,” they say as I re-take my seat. The bullpen guys saw my cousin playing around on her Blackberry, so they asked her if she had any games on it. She said she didn’t, but she gave them my iPhone which borrowed while I was in the can. They tried to find games on it, but only opened an app called Speed Download, an app that measures broadband speeds on a network, thinking it was a game.
Geez…I missed a lot in the two minutes I was away. A awesome consolation, my cousin video recorded the whole interaction!
I take my iPhone back, lean into the bullpen & said, “I have Street Fighter IV, if you still wanna play.” Grant Balfour, another A’s bullpen pitcher from Australia, takes the phone from me.
Grant Balfour: Aww man! I haven’t played that [game] in such a long time!
He doesn’t say the word game. Grant is notorious for his potty mouth. He tries to play, but hands the phone back to me. With his Australian accent:
Grant: I’ll play with your phone later. You can ask me again during Game 7 of the World Series.
Me: Sure! I’ll make sure to buy tickets behind the bullpen for that game.
Grant: You know what? I’ll get you those tickets for that game if it means I can play Street Fighter again.
Me: Thanks! I’ll give you my business card so you can get my info.
Dang, a missed opportunity to really give him my business card & a horrible time to leave them at home.
In between innings, the bullpen guys would sometimes get up & play catch with the outfielders. After the catch session, they usually toss those balls into the crowd for a fan. I gesture with my glove toward Grant & asked him for a ball.
Grant: Sorry, man. I can’t give you this ball. It would break the streak & Dallas would get mad at me.
Dallas Braden, the A’s starting pitcher who pitched a perfect game in 2010, was the starting pitcher & was throwing a few scoreless innings. Baseball players the most superstitious guys you’ll ever meet, & I guess they believe that balls shouldn’t leave the field during a scoreless streak. Totally understandable.
Anyway, as I was looking around the park, my back was to the field. I keep hearing, “Hey, Rudy!” from the field. I turn around, & Grant tosses me another ball he found. I was wearing my bright yellow Joe Rudi throwback jersey that day:
Here’s my cousin exhibiting my new souvenir:
A memory for the ages.
As always, you can see my whole sign collection on my website atgreatestsignmaker.com.
