The DVD from the A’s finally came in the mail! I’m no Rollie Fingers, but I’m grateful that I managed to pitch the ball all the way to the plate. Maybe next time, I’ll throw it off the mound.

Again, thank you to the Oakland Athletics for making this the most magical day of my life!

Gotta love my dad. He brought his handy camcorder to record my first pitch. Yay to my dad, hurrah to the A’s public address announcer who pronounced my name properly, but yuck to my celebration face toward the end of the video.

How sweet. A soft novelty baseball was passed around the office at work on the day of my first pitch. Everyone wrote their wishes all over the ball. What an awesome gesture.

Sorry Brendan, I’m flattered, but I can’t accept!

For all you well-wishers & supportive friends, family, peers, co-workers & fellow baseball fans…

For all those who played catch with me, despite the cold & winter afternoons & even putting yourself in harm just so I could figure out how to properly throw that ratty old baseball…

For all those who sensed my nervousness on the days before the big day, building up my confidence saying that I’ll do fine…

For all my friends & family who came to the ballpark early so they made sure they didn’t miss my first pitch…

For that one special East Bay baseball team with the awesome fan base & even awesomer front office staff…

For all these people…thank you! All of my recent fortunes are because of all of you!

Coming soon: the play-by-play of the minutes leading up to that first pitch.

Being on ESPN is on my bucket list, but this is pretty darn close…if not, better. It was short-lived on the home page, so I took a screenshot. My head is spinning with all this excitement!

Edit: Although not as prominent, the another link is found on the Oakland Athletics homepage as a text link:

Edit #2: Likewise, if you conduct a Google search for the ‘greatest sign maker‘, you’ll get this:

Note that you have to search for ‘greatest‘, not ‘best.’ This is gonna be awesome for my SEO ranking!

See my posters on the MLB site »

Yay, it was on TV! Thank you to the TiVo for properly recording the pitch.

In the beginning of the clip, you can see me & my wife Cindy being escorted to the mound at the bottom left of the video. After that, you can see my pitch framed perfectly behind & between the two commentators. Yes, the pitch was a bit outside, but very happy the ball didn’t bounce!

Best day ever!

I love Twitter contests. Remember back when in order to participate in a contest, you had to write a postcard to a company, find a stamp, then mail it off? Today, all you have to do is hit up your computer or smartphone & send a simple tweet. Free & easy, my kind of contest.

Last December, the Oakland Athletics held their 31 Gifts in 31 Days Twitter contest, in which they tweeted a question (some softball questions along the lines of Who is your favorite A’s player? or Would you rather hit a home run or steal home?) at 11:00am every day, & a chosen Twitter responder would win the day’s prize. Prizes ranged from an autographed baseball, an autographed Moneyball book, to a Ross Dress for Less gift card.

I tweeted on days when I was around my computer/phone at contest time. I played on December 25th, but lost. In checking my Twitter feed, I find a Direct Message notification from @Athletics two days later, saying:

The A’s “31 Gifts” participant on 12/25 could not be accepted. You are the next applicable participant. Please email [the A's]… w/your full name, age, and address to confirm the 12/25 A’s “31 Gifts in 31 Days” gift. Thanks.

Whoa…no way. How cool! I forgot what the contest winnings were for that day, so I check the website:

Jackpot! But could this be true? Still skeptical, I send the email to the A’s. On the same day, I get a response:

Hello Ian,

Thank you for your email.

The originally announced winner of the December 25 “31 Gifts in 31 Days” gift was unable to accept. Your tweet was the next eligible reply. If you would like to accept, you have won four Field Level tickets to an Oakland A’s game in 2012 and the opportunity to throw out the ceremonial first pitch.

We will have to find a mutually agreeable game that works for both the promotional department and your schedule. Could you look at the 2012 A’s schedule and provide me five game dates that might work for you? I can then check with the promotions department if one may work. www.oaklandathletics.com/schedule

Congratulations and thank you for your continued support of the A’s.

Yesterday, I just got confirmation of the date:

Hello Ian,

Thank you for your patience as we secured a first pitch date. Your first pitch game date is Monday, April 9. … [The A's Special Events Coordinator] will be able to provide you additional information when and where to meet on April 9 for the first pitch. Your four Field Level tickets will be in Will Call under your name on April 9.

Thanks for following @Athletics on Twitter.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t score a weekend day game. I’m still extremely grateful! I need to start practicing. The more I think about it, the more nervous I get. Anyone who has seen me pitch/throw will know that my aim is extremely bad.

So if you don’t have plans that Monday evening, I would be eternally grateful if you can come support me! If this is will be your first A’s game, I promise you I will do my darndest to make it the best Monday evening you’ll ever have. For those who have enjoyed a ballgame with me, save me a seat in front so you don’t have to suffer from my loud jeering in your ear.

If you’re on Facebook, I’ve set up an event. If you can come, please RSVP through the page below so we have an idea of how many people can come out. If enough people will come out, we’ll plan to sit in the bleacher section, which has open seating.

RSVP on our Facebook page »

Hopefully we’ll see you there! Go baseball & Twitter!

Ahh, tailgating season. When the weather is awesome in the Bay Area, there’s no better way to enjoy a Saturday afternoon. Even better when you get to enjoy it with the company of friends, as well as the opportunity to make new ones.

The Texas Rangers came into town a few weeks ago & played a few games in Oakland. Perfect occasion to break out the tailgating kit & BBQ to enjoy a parking lot lunch with fellow baseball fans & fans of free food. Foul on me, though—we managed to fit our whole tailgate kit in my tiny GTI, but realized that I forgot the barbeque grill in the living room [sad trombone]. All good, because whenever people are having fun, they forget that the hot dogs they’re eating are cold.

…can you sit this close to the players in the middle of a live game AND have them take your phone & try to play games with it. The only time I leave my awesome seat was to use the bathroom, & during the two minutes I was gone, this gem between bullpen pitchers Jerry Blevins (left) & Grant Balfour (right) played out. Grant tries to ‘play’ a game called Speed Test (it was an iPhone app that tested Internet speed) & tried to call his family back home in Australia. So awesome.

My cousin Mel captured this with her camera. Good quality video, I must say.

Baseball’s back! Giants won it all last year, now we’re hoping to share the glory on this side of the Bay. The Seattle Mariners started off the season in Oakland, & my friend/co-worker Fumi hooked it up with some awesome 3rd-base-side seats with an awesome view.

It was Japanese Heritage Day, & the A’s hooked it up with free Hideki Matsui t-shirts:

Why buy expensive authentic MLB-branded clothes when we can get them for free?