I got an ULTRA RARE Félix Hernández baseball at Camden Yards!!

STORY TIME! On August 12, 2023, the Seattle Mariners inducted Félix Hernández to their Hall of Fame. They had a huge pre-game ceremony at T-Mobile Park, and they used commemorative baseballs during that game against the Baltimore Orioles.
Now, it just so happens that Orioles bullpen catcher Ben Carhart is THE MAN, and we've become friends over the past few seasons, so I texted him that day and asked if there was ANY chance that he might be able to track down one of those special Félix balls for me. He said he'd try but then I didn't hear back from him about it, so I figured he wasn't able to it, and I didn't want to bug him, so I let it go.
Well, on September 8, 2023, I saw the Orioles at Fenway Park, and Ben told me that he HAD gotten one of those baseballs for me -- but he didn't know that I was gonna be in Boston, so he didn't have it with him. Here's my video from that day (including our conversation about it):
• HUGE surprise for me a...
So basically, at that point, I needed to figure out a time to get my arse to Baltimore ASAP. Ben offered to mail the ball to me, which was incredibly generous of him, but c'mon, in order to count it in my collection I needed to actually SNAG it at a Major League Baseball stadium. That's how it works. Otherwise what's the point? I could've just bought that ball, ya know? I explained this to Ben, and he told me to give him a heads-up when I was planning to be at Camden Yards, and so THIS game, which took place on September 26, 2023, was the culmination of my six-week odyssey to acquire a Félix Hernández commemorative baseball.
I really REALLY love commemorative balls. I've gotten more than 140 different ones since the late 1990s, and on numerous occasions I've booked flights and hotels just to try to catch them. Last year I flew from NYC to Seattle (12 hours roundtrip) to catch an Ichiro Suzuki commemorative ball, and I would've done that again for Félix Hernández except the game didn't fit into my schedule. I'm telling you all of this so you understand (a) how excited I was to get this ball and (b) what a huge favor Ben did for me.
Want to see my entire collection of commemorative baseballs? Yes, of course you do! Here's a page on my website with a ton of photos:
www.zackhample...
So let me say it one more time: HUGE thanks to Ben Carhart for making this happen for me. I gotta thank my videographer as well -- Rachel Messbauer, who enthusiastically spent six hours in the car with me and did a great job of capturing all the action. (Filming on the Flag Court is challenging. It's hard to see, and it requires standing for nearly 100% of the game, but she did it.) Thanks to my editor Zac Gutherman (@zg_films) who cranked this one out and has been working hard lately on a ton of stuff for me. And thanks to YOU for watching!
Oh, and one last thing -- take a look at my blog entry from the 2011 All-Star Game. It's truly a masterpiece:
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