After Bob Barker retired from The Price is Right, some of the comments he made in the interviews that followed really stuck with me:

“The second to last show was harder than the last one. Of course there would be lots of fanfare and celebration for the final show, but the one before that was the last time everything would be normal. It was harder to let that normalcy go than it was to actually walk away after the final show.” (Paraphrasing, of course).

I thought of that quote constantly between when I got back from my trip and today. This was not the final game before my internship; I had one more set up later in the week. Knowing everything that comes with a last game, a cheering section (since one of my friends would be joining me), and the fact of catching my 100th ball (which I was positive would happen that day), it was almost harder to acknowledge that this was the last time for a while that everything would feel the same and go according to plan.

I barley made it to the gate on time. I erred on the side of less traffic, and I almost paid the price. I had about 10 minutes to spare, which meant the line in front of me was much longer than I wanted it to be.

From what I saw around the ballpark, this had the potential to be a relatively empty game. It was unseasonably chilly for June, and sometimes a mid-week series just doesn’t appeal to fans. I didn’t expect to have a great deal of trouble even if this wasn’t the case, but it’s always nice to know your chances are automatically increased a little bit.

Right when I got inside, I ran to the regular’s area. It’s now my go-to place whenever I’m here, since I correctly predicted I would get one on the fly before a game back in May.

As is usually the case, the crowd was thin for at least a few minutes. This is what I had to work with until about 5:20, when the Cubs finished up.

They didn’t help me out at all. The Mets first group of hitters seemed to be lefties, so over to right field I went.

Again, the hitters weren’t doing squat for me. Probably because of this:

I used to just think I had bad luck when I came here, but now I feel like it’s an epidemic this season. Even as the year has gone on, the wind hasn’t done what it usually does when the temperatures warm up. Great timing for me to go to the most ever games here, right?

I was still feeling good about the seats, especially considering what time it was. The crowd was just what I thought it would be based on what I saw outside; still more empty than usual early on.

The ideal crowd is zero, but I could work with this for now.

Eventually, the Mets led me back to left field…

And more people showed up.

If you happened to take a look at the clock, you could see that it was already 6:15, and I had yet to get a ball. This was very, very bad. If luck was on my side, I had about another 20-25 minutes to make something happen. Looking back now as I’m writing this let’s me see how many people were really there, and makes what I’m about to tell you that much more unbelievable.

I was standing in the aisle right where I took those pictures; the aisle one section over from the well/dip in the left field wall. I tracked a ball hit to my left, and made my way down to the spot right behind the guy standing in the grey and black shirt. I continued to drift and expected it to fall short just like countless others had done today and earlier in the season. It kept coming and coming, and at a certain point, I just caught it. There was no thought process or getting ready for it. Catching it was really the only action my mind told my left hand to do.

Did that really just happen?

I remember it being a little rough making my way through the people and to the spot I was going for. I bumped a couple, almost fell over a few others, but all things they did to themselves by purposely getting in the line of fire. I think some kid my age was giving me some attitude for something or other, but it was a clean catch. I didn’t take out my camera for that exact reason. I didn’t think it would help me all that much if I “bragged about it”.

It had to be less than five minutes before I caught another one on the fly. It will be one of the ones I never forget exactly how I got it, solely because of the reaction I caused by snagging it.

It was almost identical to the first one, only it was hit to my right. I made it to where I wanted to be, and I was directly behind this kid as the ball was coming down:

As I was watching it, I was the most sure I’d ever been in my life that this ball was mine. He was the only one contesting me, and had no idea I was behind him. He put his hands up a little too early, and at the last second, I put my glove over his head and in front of his hands to make my cleanest catch yet. His reaction was priceless and incredibly rewarding.

“AWWWWWWWW MAN. That was mine!”, he said in shock. “It was LITERALLY in my hands! AHHHHHH!”.  He knew he missed out, but wasn’t angry at me directly.

“Nope, it definitely was not, buddy”, I said to myself as I went back to the aisle with a small grin on my face.

I rushed over to the corner as soon as the Mets were done hitting…

And got my favorite groundskeeper to toss me one of the balls that were stuck in the basket. I saw it right when I got inside, and kept an eye on it the whole time. It just so happened to look like this:

It doesn’t happen as often anymore since I’ve gotten into my own routine, but I still take away valuable lessons and things to remember from time to time. Today felt like every other close call I’ve had in the last two years. At 6:15, I was essentially dead in the water. I always have SOME hope that I’ll find a way, but it’s VERY possible that any one of these situations could develop into the one that ends my streak. In a matter of 20 minutes, I put together probably the overall best game of my life. I didn’t set my single game record, but instead had two quality catches on the fly and finished off BP with this little treat. I’m never doomed, done for, hopeless, or shut out until I leave the park. Anything can happen at any time, especially when I’ve learned how to make the most of what was happening in front of me.

I was absolutely ecstatic when I had the chance to look back at my week. It was all coming together too perfectly. My last three games consisted of eight balls, figuring out and having success at two new parks, and three catches on the fly. This was the longest (and only) hot streak I’ve ever been on. This commemorative (my 5th this season) put me at 98 balls. Two away from the goal. It was going to happen. If not today, then early on when I get here Friday. Thinking about it and circling the day was one thing, but being so close to it actually happening is quite different.

However, this was also the worst possible timing and I hated that it was happening. After the best week I’d ever had, I had to stop dead in my tracks. It would be at least three weeks before I Ballhawked again.Why could this not have happened earlier in May when I actually had time left to make the most of it?!

Right before the game, the seats were desolate. This was actually way more emptiness than I was expecting.

I opted to stay in this spot until more people showed up. I had a hunch that the space on my right would come in handy early in the game.

Off the top of my head, I could vividly remember four game homers that landed somewhere in that picture. My hunch ended up being completely wrong, but one of these times I may actually use what I know to give myself a real shot.

When I got bored, I wandered up to the seats underneath the scoreboard. The weather made for a spooky scene at the lakefront.

Being away from all the people in left field allowed me to take a picture of my balls without worrying that someone would snatch one.

A little blurry, but the awesomeness makes up for it. I’d never had a game where every ball was important.

I decided to give left field a shot since anywhere I was going to go wouldn’t be better than any other spot. I also checked ESPN’s Home Run Tracker and positioned myself accordingly.

The sunset makes that shot a hundred times better. I’ve developed a soft spot for good pictures over the years, too.

Dice-K was on the mound for the Mets, a name I hadn’t heard in a LONG time. I had no idea where he was, but assumed he was in AA ball somewhere or back in Japan.

At one point, I even found myself here:

Dave has told me he’s run out of the stadium and picked up a couple foul balls that roll off the roof. He mentioned that Luis Valbuena is especially prone to sending them over, so I went to check it out when one of his didn’t come back down. I had 15 minutes for my “smoke break” to putz around and see what I could find. It didn’t even take me that long to realize that being outside was completely useless. The fenced off players lot is the most likely place they would land unless someone CRUSHED one, and crushed balls usually don’t result in pop-ups.

Cubs win 5-4, where the deciding run scored on a wild pitch in the 5th inning. The only team that’s as big of a joke as the Cubs is the Mets, so that was very fitting.

One more game. Two more balls. Four years in the making. It all comes down to Friday.

STATS

• 3 balls at this game
• 34 balls total this season
• 36 consecutive games with a ball
• 98 lifetime balls
• Time spent at game: 6 hours, 0 minutes
• Total time spent at games in 2014: 96 hours, 40 minutes
• 3 balls X  28,185  fans =  84,555 Competition Factor