Daily BallHawk Updates

STRONG NORTH WINDS............

NOW its time to panic !!!....lol

Since 1995 when the divisional series began , only the Yankees have come back
after losing the first two at home. And over all , in best of five series including
the league championship series since 1969 only 7 teams have come back from an
0-2 hole. So you know what the means for the 2008 Cubs. NOT A DANG THING !!!

All that matters is the Cubs have Harden on the mound with his 2.07 era against the
Dodgers Kuroda ( 3.73 ) And after the Cubs take this game by a score of say...8-4
it will be Lilly in game 4 and Dempster in game 5.

Video soon......( after game 5 )

STREET TOTALS :

OCT 2nd BP : WAVELAND 8 SHEFFIELD 3 -- GAME: WAVELAND 0 SHEFFIELD 0

PLAYOFF TOTALS :

PLAYOFFS BP WAVELAND 14 SHEFFIELD 7 -- PLAYOFFS GAME WAVELAND 0 SHEFFIELD 0

FINAL REGULAR SEASON TOTALS :

SEASON BP WAVELAND 297 SHEFFIELD 83
SEASON GAME WAVELAND 8 SHEFFIELD 6

Ok ok .......dont panic. If the Cubs lose tomorrow ......then panic !!

Wind shifts straight in from left at 25 mph and the corner was quiet.
Except for Chicago's Finest moving metal barricades all up and down
Waveland for an hour and a half .

First they decided to block the South side of Waveland , with openings
in the crosswalks. Then after that was set up , they moved in more
barricades and blocked both sides completly. Then after a half hour
and batting practice was over , and seeing how there were only 10-15
fans on the street they pushed the North barricades to the middle of
Waveland. Leaving just a small "driveway" where Engine 78 , Ambulance 6
and other emergency vehicles could pass through.

It was actually very entertaining

STREET TOTALS :

OCT 1st BP : WAVELAND 0 SHEFFIELD 3 -- GAME: WAVELAND 0 SHEFFIELD 0

PLAYOFF TOTALS :

PLAYOFFS BP WAVELAND 6 SHEFFIELD 4 -- PLAYOFFS GAME WAVELAND 0 SHEFFIELD 0

FINAL REGULAR SEASON TOTALS :

SEASON BP WAVELAND 297 SHEFFIELD 83
SEASON GAME WAVELAND 8 SHEFFIELD 6

After a short trip to Milwaukee the Ballhawks were happy to be
back home at the Friendly Confines. Moe , Rich and myslef took
in the Cubs game on Saturday. And even though it is a beautiful
park to look at . It absoulutly stinks for catching baseballs .

So at 3:30 , the Cubs took the field and the 2008 playoffs were
officially underway on The Corner. A strong Northwest wind kept
at least a dozen balls from making Waveland. But 5 did make it
over , with Scott , Ken , Matt , Sean , and myself all with one
souviner a piece. So it was a five way tie !!!. 5 balls were tossed
over to Waveland by workers wandering the bleachers , and with
two tossed over on Sheffield by players , almost every Ballhawk
and passerby went home with at least one ball.

EDIT

email received on 10/1/08 from Rich ( The Teacher )

"Uh Dave , Who got the 1st one out of the park yesterday?........the guy you never get good video on."

Reply by Dave;

Not only did I miss your catch , I accidently erased the tape and evidently erased it from
my memory as well......lol... Moe and I must have tried to add up the totals 5 times after bp......
Moe confuses me anyways...so its his fault I forgot yours ......

DAVE: so how many did YOU get Moe
MOE: two
DAVE: which ones
MOE: Ted Lilly threw one over
DAVE: Ted Lilly ? how do you know he threw one over
MOE: On Sheffield .......
DAVE: That was a Dodger that threw that one over, I was right there.....I got that on tape
MOE: Then the worker threw one to me on Waveland
DAVE: That one was not Lilly that was a Dodger Moe
MOE: No not that one ....the Lilly one, that little kid got.....
DAVE: ???? MOE ??? I aked you how many YOU got ..... why did you even bring up Lilly and the little kid
MOE: I thought you ask me how many came over ?
DAVE: WTF

DAVE: So who caught balls that were HIT
MOE: lets see......Scott , Ken , Matt....
DAVE: ....Rich , Myself ......
MOE: Mikey got one ....then Rich ...then you
DAVE: Mikeys was thrown.....
MOE: Yes but he got one
DAVE: I said balls that were HIT....
MOE: oh , I thought you said total
DAVE: So we got me , Scott , Matt , Sean , and Ken
MOE: Yes , and 5 toss outs
DAVE: I dont care about toss outs
MOE: Ok , 5 and 5
DAVE: Ive got a headache

THAT is how I forgot Rich's nice basket catch........

STREET TOTALS :

SEP 30th BP : WAVELAND 6 SHEFFIELD 1 -- GAME: NO GAME

PLAYOFF TOTALS :

PLAYOFFS BP WAVELAND 6 SHEFFIELD 1 -- PLAYOFFS GAME WAVELAND 0 SHEFFIELD 0

FINAL REGULAR SEASON TOTALS :

SEASON BP WAVELAND 297 SHEFFIELD 83
SEASON GAME WAVELAND 8 SHEFFIELD 6

As expected the Cubs and Cardinals did not take bp on the field.

Here is a list of the street homeruns this year and the players that hit them.

4/02 Rickie Weeks
4/16 Adam Dunn
4/22 Ronny Cedeno
4/30 Mike Rivera
5/12 Jody Gerut
5/13 Khalil Green
6/20 Jermaine Dye
7/10 Adam Dunn
7/11 Aramis Ramirez
7/25 Jeremy Hermida
7/27 Dan Uggla
8/21 Joey Votto
8/22 Mark Derosa
9/16 Prince Fielder

STREET TOTALS

SEP 21st BP : NO BATTING PRACTICE -- GAME: WAVELAND 0 SHEFFIELD 0

FINAL REGULAR SEASON TOTALS

SEASON BP WAVELAND 297 SHEFFIELD 83
SEASON GAME WAVELAND 8 SHEFFIELD 6

CUBS CLINCH !!!!

Instead of Ballhawk catches and misses I will simply show you
the last out ( from the street ) and 3 minutes or so of the celebration
that followed. ( notice the fire hydrant is purple again !! )

Since neither the Cubs nor the Cardinals will hit tommorow these will
be the final totals for baseballs hit out of Wrigley Field .




STREET TOTALS

SEP 20th BP : WAVELAND 6 SHEFFIELD 1 -- GAME: WAVELAND 0 SHEFFIELD 0

FINAL TOTALS

SEASON BP WAVELAND 297 SHEFFIELD 83
SEASON GAME WAVELAND 8 SHEFFIELD 6

STREET TOTALS

SEP 19th BP : WAVELAND 9 SHEFFIELD 2 -- GAME: WAVELAND 0 SHEFFIELD 0

SEASON BP WAVELAND 291 SHEFFIELD 82
SEASON GAME WAVELAND 8 SHEFFIELD 6

STREET TOTALS

SEP 18th BP : WAVELAND 3 SHEFFIELD 1 -- GAME: WAVELAND 0 SHEFFIELD 0

SEASON BP WAVELAND 282 SHEFFIELD 80
SEASON GAME WAVELAND 8 SHEFFIELD 6

STREET TOTALS

SEP 17th BP : WAVELAND 1 SHEFFIELD 0 -- GAME: WAVELAND 0 SHEFFIELD 0

SEASON BP WAVELAND 279 SHEFFIELD 79
SEASON GAME WAVELAND 8 SHEFFIELD 6

Its been a long time !!!

Southwest winds ALL week , and were off to a good start
I was on time , and saw each and every ball leave the yard .
And I caught zero ....lol. I think everyone was a little rusty
having not had a game here in almost 2 weeks. An above
average amount of scrums , with almost everyone spending
some time sprawled out on the pavement going for a ball.
THIS I will not do anymore. Just not worth it. Unless......
it's a game homerun .

I played Prince Fielder on Sheffield each and every time he
came to the plate. Even a free steak sandwich from the roof-
top could not keep me from being there. Twice in the past
2 years an offer came for free food and I accepted.....and missed
a street homerun. NOT GONNA HAPPEN this time. Moments
after declining the offer I had a good jump on Fielders 464ft
BOMB that went across Sheffield , through a tree , off my HEAD!
and in to some bushes lining the walkway .

They say a tree is 90 % air.....well.....it nicked a small piece of
that 10 % preventing me from making the grab on the fly . It
was a glancing blow to my head, so thankfully I didnt get hurt
and the ball didnt go ricocheting across the street . Like the Adam
Dunn homerun that hit a bike seat of all things sending it 30 feet away .





STREET TOTALS

SEP 16th BP : WAVELAND 9 SHEFFIELD 5 -- GAME: WAVELAND 0 SHEFFIELD 1

SEASON BP WAVELAND 278 SHEFFIELD 79
SEASON GAME WAVELAND 8 SHEFFIELD 6

With nearly 2 weeks between games at Wrigley Field , Ballhawks young
and old set up camp at US Cellular Field for the Sox / Blue Jays series.

And I must say I have a new favorite team in the American League .
The Toronto Blue Jays !!!! They can hit . Batting practice was
outstanding !! And with a 10 game winning streak they obviously
are doing their best impersonation of the 07 Rockies .

The three M's made the trip . Moe , Matt , and Mikey .....each making
some nice grabs all caught on BallHawk Cam . Matt traded gloves
with the Blue Jays Kevin Mench , and came away with 5 on the last
day ,which tied Mikeys total on day one . Play of the week came when
Moe made a nice snow cone catch while avoiding a charging Mikey,
who came away once again with his hat ( and his feelings ) all bent
out of shape ...lol.

I on the other hand dropped 5...(at least ) , hey its been 10 days ,
but most importantly I avoided injury . Or least avoided re-aggravating
my sore shoulder , bad knee , or pulled hamstring......( ouch ).

enjoy the video

Strong North- East winds kept the corner quite for most of the day .
2 balls left the yard on each street ...all being the bounce out variety.

Now before you start to panic with the 5 game losing streak....the Cubs
are 9 games up on the wild card. Meaning if the Cubs go 6-16 the rest of
the way, to beat the Cubs the Phillies would have to go 16-6 , St Louis 17-5
and/or Houston 18-4 . So in other words.....its NOT gonna happen .

The Cubs WILL be in the playoffs and it might be better if they DONT win
the divison. In the last 6 years a wild card team has made it to the World
Series , winning it 3 times !!!!!


STREET TOTALS

SEP 3rd BP : WAVELAND 2 SHEFFIELD 2 -- GAME: WAVELAND 0 SHEFFIELD 0

SEASON BP WAVELAND 269 SHEFFIELD 74
SEASON GAME WAVELAND 8 SHEFFIELD 5

For the first time in months I made it to batting practice on time , which would
be roughly 2.5 hours before game time. And as usual we were all caught off
guard as the first ball came crashing down on Waveland. GAME ON !!!!

Landing across Waveland , across the sidewalk , and bouncing 3 houses down
Kenmore the chase was on.......and Matt the quickest of the young Ballhawks
gathered it in. A couple toss outs grabbed by Mikey , one of which resulted in
a pileup in the front yard of the second house , and more than a couple BOMBS
by Hunter Pence of the Astros all added to a somewhat exciting batting practice.

Moe snagged a couple , Rich the teacher tracked down one , and Israel did a dance
around the garbage can while making the one handed grab. Mikey later added to
his 2 toss outs by diving between parked cars for one of Pences drives , which took
a tremendously high bounce......like 30 ft !!!! Later, Mikey had a shot at his fourth of
the day but was "pimped" by a part time ballhawk who stuck his glove in front of
Mikey's a split second before he could make the catch.

Now there are many definitions in the urban dictionary for pimped.
In ballhawking we use definition # 4 out of the available 7 .

PIMPED ; To take easily, without force or additional coaxing

And as you see in the video .......Mikey was pimped !!!!! ....lol



STREET TOTALS

SEP 2ND BP : WAVELAND 9 SHEFFIELD 2 -- GAME: WAVELAND 0 SHEFFIELD 0

SEASON BP WAVELAND 267 SHEFFIELD 72
SEASON GAME WAVELAND 8 SHEFFIELD 5

The question I get most often is how much the new bleachers have reduced the
amount of baseballs leaving Wrigley Field. And since im always on Waveland when
asked that question I will stick with those stats and forget Sheffield for the moment .
Here are some stats with help from the original Ballhawk website , Ballhawk.com .

Lets go back to 03/04/05 , the last three seasons before expansion.

576 /497/ 554 - batting practice

26/40/25 - game homeruns

2006 is a big question mark. Not sure what happened . And with the Cubs
finishing the season at 66-96 im not sure I care to remember it either

2007 saw 334 batting practice balls and 11 game homeruns.

And it looks as if we are coming up a little short of those 07 figures this year.

So in summary , expansion - not good , steroid testing - not good (jk )
Cubs with the best record in baseball ---- I can live with that

STREET TOTALS

SEP 1st BP : WAVELAND 9 SHEFFIELD 1 -- GAME: WAVELAND 0 SHEFFIELD 0

SEASON BP WAVELAND 258 SHEFFIELD 70
SEASON GAME WAVELAND 8 SHEFFIELD 5

CLICK HERE FOR -----> BALLHAWK VIDEOS

STREET TOTALS

AUG 31st BP : WAVELAND 1 SHEFFIELD 0 -- GAME: WAVELAND 0 SHEFFIELD 0

SEASON BP WAVELAND 249 SHEFFIELD 69
SEASON GAME WAVELAND 8 SHEFFIELD 5