A Busy Month

     It has been busy for our family at Whataburger Field.  Our youngest son, Colby and I won a Father and Son Day at Whataburger Field.  July 17^th turned out to be our lucky day as the Corpus Christi Hooks were taking batting practice.  We got a chance to mingle with the players during batting practice along with getting their autographs and after the players finished hitting the ball, Colby and I got some time in the cage.

     On July 18^th, I caught Outfielder Drew Locke's solo shot on the left berm in the bottom of the 6^th off of Frisco RoughRiders pitcher, Kasey Kiker.  The night would have been better if the Hooks would have won but they lost to the RoughRiders 4-3 which spoiled a decent outing by Kenny Baugh who was pitching his first game as a Hook.

     The next home run ball which would be deposited in my glove came on July 29^th.  The Corpus Christi Hooks were playing their I-37 rival, the San Antonio Missions.  Drew Locke came to the plate in the bottom of the 6^th inning against Missions pitcher, Zachary Herr with three men on and he crushed a line drive ball over the left field berm and I slid to catch it next to the fence between two kids who were playing catch.  I was bloody over this catch but it was well worth it.  This ended up being Locke's 2^nd round tripper of the game.  Locke's total for the night was 2 HR's and 5 RBIs.   Drew would hit another home run the following night in his first appearance at the plate.  In a game at Midland the following week Drew would hit another Grand Slam.  Drew and Midland RockHound Chris Carter are in a battle for the Triple Crown.

     During this time two players from the 2008 Corpus Christi Hooks squad got called up to the Astros, starting pitcher Bud Norris and relief pitcher Sammy Gervacio.  Norris continues to turn in impressive performances on the mound. 

     The next home run ball which would be deposited in my glove came courtesy of Arkansas Traveler, Jay Caligiuri on August 13th.  Jay hit a line drive off of Douglas Arguello in the top of the 5^th that rocketed onto the left field berm.  Unfortunately for me I was still in the process of getting my glove up when the ball hit off my left forearm.  After stopping the balls forward momentum it rolled into my glove.  My forearm tingled the rest of the game.  I did have Jay autograph his Home Run ball the following night.  He asked if I wanted him to autograph the sweet spot.  I asked him if it meant the ball or my forearm where the ball hit.  Both of us got a chuckle out of that one.

     Colby and his daddy spend many games out on the berm.  The final game against the Arkansas Travelers on August 14^th saw no balls get out of the outfield.  The game against the Springfield Cardinals on August 16^th was a different story.   Ryan Kulik took to the mound for the Cardinals.  In his 1.2 innings of work he got roughed up pretty bad before getting ejected when he hit German Duran.  He threw 51 pitches, 23 of them for strikes and he walked four.  Jimmy Van Ostrand clubbed a HR in the bottom of the 2^nd with one man on and two outs which hit the front of the cotton press located to the left of the scoreboard.  The next batter was Ray Sadler who clubbed a HR that also hit the cotton press on the left side.  I was in the general vicinity of both balls but their trajectories off the cotton press were in the opposite direction of where I was at.  I managed to snag a foul ball in the bottom of the 3^rd off of Wladimir Sutil.

     The bottom of the 5^th inning saw Nicholas Moresi come to the plate and he crunched a ball just inside the left foul pole off of Cardinal pitcher Casey Mulligan.  Unfortunately for me I didn't see the ball come of the bat because some people had walked in front of me.  When people started to look in my general direction I had that deer in the head light look.  I finally saw the ball as it started its descent toward the backside of the left field berm.  The ball hit the fence within a couple of feet of Colby who promptly snagged his first home run ball.  Colby was a very proud boy.  Colby got Moresi's autograph after the post game interview and was surprised that a little boy got the ball.  In the bottom of the Hooks 6th I snagged another foul ball this one off the bat of Nicholas Moresi.