Stadiums in Triple-A can sometimes be difficult for snagging a baseball. At smaller stadiums, such as in the Short-Season A New York-Penn League, you can stand beyond the outfield fence and pick up home run balls during batting practice. And at MLB stadiums, you can actually attend BP and hope to get a ball then. That leaves the AAA level, where neither of the above options are possible.
When you arrive at Frontier Field, and especially if you park at Lot D, you’ll see people lining up to get in the stadium at the front gate. Instead of waiting here, walk down Morrie Silver Way toward the rear of the stadium. Partway down the third base side, there’s a gate at which you can stand and watch batting practice. If you go all the way to the left field corner, another gate gives you a clear view of the on-field events. Your best pregame bet is to watch batting practice in one of these areas; the outfield gate is the better of the two. Try to track the balls that enter the stands and see if they’re picked up by ushers. Ushers will patrol the stands between the end of batting practice and the gates opening to pick up balls. But they don’t always catch everything. If you see a ball enter an area that the ushers missed, make a beeline there as soon as the gates open and you may have yourself a ball.
Failing that, try to sit in as empty a section as possible during the game, and sit on the end of a row to allow you to quickly chase after foul balls. Corner sections 101, 102, 129 and 130 are often uncrowded due to this distance from home plate, but are in prime foul ball territory.
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