I will post the full gallery later--but here's a hot I got of Manny Ramirez coming out on deck in the top of the first Friday night. Click 4 Big.

I will tell you my foul ball story now though--top of the ninth, I've moved to good seats in the back of the field box section by the LA on deck circle. High pop-up, behind me. I turn around and watch it. There's no one in my four seat row, and only a young boy in the row behind me. So the ball is coming down, and I'm thinking it's in the loge seats. Or maybe the runway, which is two rows behind me. But I'm ready for the bounce, camera around neck, hands at my sides. Only as the ball is about to land do I realize it's coming down right in front of me, in the row behind me. I don't even have time to get my hands up, just out in front of me at waist-height. And the ball SLAMS off the meat of my west palm. For a split-second I'm thinking the ball may be in my hands--but no, that's just a heavy pain weighing down my left hand. I look down, and the ball's rolling toward that runway. I go for it, over the seat, but it rolls off the top row (which is raised from the runway) away from me, and I see a hand snatch the ball up. It was a great chance for me to get my first in-game ball, with no competition, and I blew it. Fortunately since the ball struck me down low, people probably thought it just hit the seat behind me--and most of their attention were on that boy, who after jumping out of the way, had supposedly also almost grabbed it off the ground, and they all felt bad for him. I will have to check the Sox and Dodgers' feeds tomorrow to see if there's a replay. Or if any announcers made fun of me. I'm normally a great pop-up catcher! You can ask Brian! But now I see why catchers turn their back to the infield on pop-ups behind the plate--the spin really is ridiculous, as it's coming back toward you. Oh, and I forgot all about my camera as this was going on--when I went to use it again, the dial had moved so it must have taken a hit. And only when I got home did I realize I also had a huge bruise on my knee, which also had to have come from this incident. The worst is sitting there at home, icing your hand to relieve the pain, knowing it's nothing compared to not having the ball.