WARNING: During batting practice hard hit baseballs may smack you in the head

I have been waiting for this day for months. Opening Day at Yankee Stadium. I woke up, the sun was out, the birds were singing, etc, etc. I was off to the game with my aunt (which is good, cause she ends up paying for tolls, parking and lunch).

We get to the Stadium about 5 minutes before game time. We go in (uh, just a side note, there's no plastic bottles allowed in the Stadium this year) and we find a spot along the railing in the right field bleachers. The Yankees are taking batting practice. We catch the tail end of the first group. The second group of A-Rod, Matsui and Posada are hitting bombs. The relievers congregate in the outfield, shagging flies. Pretty much every player has a smile on their face. They're finally home.

Now the third group is up, which includes Bernie, who looked pretty good at the plate. He hit a couple monster shots. At this point the relievers (and I think Andy Phillips as well) were doing their pre-game warmups where a coach tosses them balls over their heads as they run by. I'm pretty sure Bernie was at the plate at this point. All of a sudden, a long fly ball is coming straight at me. I realize that it has enough to actually reach me. Last year I caught a BP home run from Sosa right in front of the railing. I figure this is going to be the same type of ball, so I have a shot at it. Well, I soon realized that it's going to make it over the railing, and my hands go from a basket catch position to a more vertical "save your face" kind of position. Only I kept my face right behind my hands. And my hands neglected to save my face.

That's right, I'm now one of those schmucks that got themselves hit in the head with a ball while trying to catch it. The ball hit my hands, then my head and glasses right above my right eye. I'm guessing it was my glasses that cut me. The ball actually ended up hitting my aunt in the neck after it bounced off my head. I heard that familiar "Ohhhh" from the fans around me. I put my hands to my head and yup, there was blood. One of the regulars in the bleachers is an EMT, so he took me down to the EMT's who are on call. They helped me mop up the blood and gave me some ice. Asked me the usually head injury questions. They told me I would probably need a stitch or two. I told them there was no way I was leaving this game. So they took me to the doctor in the first aid room. He put a steri-stitch on it and told me to get it sutured within 24 hours. We went back to our seats just in time for the introductions.

I almost forgot the best part about all of this. Before I left to go to the first aid room a girl who was sitting in the seats that are above the right field wall and below the bleach seats came by with a ball for me. She said that Mo gave her the ball to give to the person that got hit. So, I thought that was pretty cool. Just when I think I can't love Mo anymore than I already do, he goes and gives me a ball cause I got clocked in the head.

So, my summary of Opening Day will have to wait. I had to give my tickets for Wednesday and Thursday away because I can't take off work. Hopefully by Friday I'll have a full post about the game with some pictures (including my blood stained score sheet).