10 Goals For 2010

By Alan Schuster

April 19, 2010

Since I'm not able to make it out to the ballpark very often, I live vicariously through you. When you post a big snagging day on this website, upload some cool pictures from the stadium, or make the highlight reel on sportscenter, I get a great deal of satisfaction from it. I do get jealous at times that you're snagging flies hit by Major Leaguers while I'm stuck behind a computer screen, but running this website connects me to the game in a very profound way.

Since my personal ballhawking stats are virtually non-existent, one thing I particularly enjoy doing is studying the cumulative stats (all members combined) on myGameBalls.com. Do you realize that as a group we've snagged over 18,000 total balls, over 500 foul balls, and over 200 game home runs?

Recently I looked closely at the cumulative stats for the 2009 season and decided to come up with some goals for us for the 2010 season. At first glance it is going to seem I'm setting the bar way too high on a lot of these, and I agree, a lot of these are a stretch. But hey, we're all a year older and thus bigger, faster, and stronger than last year. Plus there's a lot more of us this year than last year.

So here is my list of 10 goals for our cumulative 2010 season:

• 10,000 Total Balls (4600 last year)
• 25 Game Home Runs (15 last year)
• 100 Foul Balls (53 last year)
• 150 Double-Digit Games (83 last year)
• 1,000 Balls Each at Angel Stadium, Citi Field, PNC Park, and Yankee Stadium (593, 545, 544, and 445 last year, respectively)
• 500 Balls Each at Nationals Park, Dodger Stadium, and Oriole Park at Camden Yards (394, 285, and 272 last year, respectively)
• 300 Balls Each at PETCO Park, Minute Maid Park, Safeco Field, and Progressive Field (168, 160, 123, and 114 last year, respectively)
• 100 Balls Each at Every Other MLB Stadium (Most stadiums had at least 40 last year)
• 1,500 Player Toss-Ups (1,036 last year)
• 500 Retrieved Balls (316 last year)

I'll post a follow-up to this at the end of the season to report on how we did. Even if we fall short, it will be fun trying!

Post a Comment