Before I shift gears to concentrate on my travels in 2012, I want to take a few moments to look back at the highlights that made up my 2011 baseball road trips. I’ve put together an extensive list of memorable events from an amazing summer — a list that’s not chronological or alphabetical. It’s just a list of some neat things to share. Most of the items below are highlights, but there are a few lowlights, too. Today’s installment is the first of three “best of 2011″ blog entries. The next two will come in the days ahead.

1. First ball collected: Game 1 in Toronto

It didn’t take me long to grab my first ball of 2011. When the gates opened during my first game of the season (May 19 in Toronto), I charged in, ran down to field level and found a batting practice ball sitting in a row of seats a few rows up. Here’s the ball:

2. Foul balls collected: Four

In 29 games, I managed to snag four foul balls, which is pretty good if you ask me. I got my first one on May 22 at a Great Lakes Loons game, followed that one up a day later in West Michigan, then added one on May 29 in Erie and finally, August 21 at Vermont’s Centennial Field. Here’s the foul ball from Erie:

3. Home run balls collected: One

During an amazing visit to Arthur W. Perdue Stadium on June 28, I retrieved Delmarva Shorebirds outfield Jeremy Nowak’s first South Atlantic League home run ball:

4. Most balls collected at a single park: 13

Arthur W. Perdue Stadium, home of the Delmarva Shorebirds, is ball-snagging heaven. I collected 12 balls during batting practice and added Nowak’s home run ball to give me 13, which is the most I’ve ever got at one park. Here are three of them during BP:

5. Most unexpected ball: Lansing

I don’t ask players or coaches for balls; I’d rather catch them. A few minutes before a Lansing Lugnuts game on May 21, I was standing at the Lugnuts bullpen and saw a warmup ball sitting partially under a tarp. Because it was starting to rain, I called to the Lansing pitching coach (who was collecting balls in the area) and pointed out the ball. His response? He grabbed it and flipped it to me. Before he did, I took this photo of the ball:

6. Most autographs:

I collected autographs at most of the ballparks during my travels, but nowhere yielded success like Bowie, MD. Before the Baysox game, the entire team was set up at tables throughout the concourse. I walked from one end to the other and got 26 signatures on one ball. You can read about that ball and see all the autographs by checking out this blog post.

7. Most MLB autographs: Four in Detroit

Before a rain-shortened game on May 25 in D-Town, I got four Tigers to sign a ball for me. One guy, Adam Wilk, isn’t a household name just yet, but the others — Max Scherzer, Rick Porcello and manager Jim Leyland — are awesome. This is the panel with the three players’ autographs:

8. Best autograph: Bryce Harper

Hands down, my favorite autograph of the summer was that of former first-round draft pick Bryce Harper, who’s arguably the top prospect in baseball and the most exciting one to come along in decades. I visited Hagerstown’s Municipal Stadium on June 27 with the hopes of getting Harper to sign and after a long adventure, it finally worked out. You can read the entire adventure here. In the meantime, here’s the ball:

9. Best souvenirs: Game-used lineup card and game-used bat

I’m pretty fond of these two top souvenirs I collected this summer. The first is a lineup card that hung in the Tigers dugout at Comerica Park during a Tigers-Blue Jays game. As you can see, it’s signed and filled out by Tigers manager Jim Leyland and features all sorts of neat notations:

The other great collectible is a game-used bat from former Blue Jays slugger Randy Ruiz. My wife bought me this amazing bat during our visit to New Hampshire in July:

10. Biggest star I saw: Justin Verlander

The Tigers ace had one of the best seasons by a pitcher in recent memory — and I got to see him pitch live when I was in Detroit on May 24. Verlander won 24 games in 2011, but when I saw him, he had a no-decision after giving up six runs on nine hits in six innings. Before the next day’s game, I snapped a photo of him as he walked by:

11. Worst rain: Tie between Midland, MI and driving to Fort Wayne

During a May 22 visit to Midland to watch the Great Lakes Loons, the game was interrupted by this crazy rain and hail storm …

… but eventually, conditions improved and the game resumed. A few days later, on May 26, I drove through an equally nuts storm on the way to Fort Wayne:

12. Worst sky color: Detroit

Sticking with the Mother Nature theme, the rain storm during my second Tigers game was intense. You’d hardly believe that I took this photo early in the afternoon:

13. Best ballpark tour: Tie — Fort Wayne and Baltimore

Not every baseball fans gets a one-on-one tour of a ballpark by a team’s general manager, but that’s exactly what I was fortunate enough to enjoy on May 27 in Fort Wayne. After telling a friendly usher about my website and my travels, he sought out TinCaps GM Mike Nutter, who took me for a tour around Parkview Field for more than 20 minutes. The highlight was a stop in the team’s clubhouse, which is something few fans get to see:

On the big league stage, I enjoyed a group tour of Camden Yards before my second Orioles game in two days on June 30. The tour offered impressive behind-the-scenes look at the ballpark and even took us to field level, where I got my picture taken with head groundskeeper Nicole Sherry:

14. Best food eaten: Crab cake sandwich, Aberdeen

As you might’ve read about here, I recently ranked the best food I’ve eaten on my travels. The crab cake sandwich at Aberdeen’s Ripken Stadium beat all the competition:

15. Most food eaten: Metro Bank Park, Harrisburg

I bought a ticket in the all-you-can-eat section of Harrisburg’s Metro Bank Park on June 24. And while I didn’t overdo it, I did put away two hot dogs, two sliders, two bags of popcorn, one bag of peanuts and one ice cream sandwich.

Check back soon for parts two and three of this “best of 2011″ series! And remember to follow me on Twitter for updates about my website, blog and upcoming travels.

Since I started traveling to new ballparks in the summer of 2010 for my website, TheBallparkGuide.com, I’ve collected a decent number of balls. When I go to any game, getting one or more balls isn’t my chief goal, but I do try to get one if I can.

One of my favorite elements of my collection is that I have at least one ball from several professional leagues, all the way from Major League Baseball to the Short-Season Class-A New York-Penn League.

Right now, my collection totals 59 balls.

Here’s an artsy look at some of them:

As far as totals per league, here’s what I’ve got:

Major League Baseball: 22
New York-Penn League: 15
Eastern League: 6
Midwest League: 4
South Atlantic League: 4
International League: 3
Minor League Baseball: 2
Northwest League: 1

And I’ve also got two generic Minor League practice balls.

I’ve only been to one Carolina League game so far, and didn’t manage an official Carolina League ball. (I did get two generic practice balls, though.) It’s a fair trade-off considering I’ve never been to a Northwest League game and still have a ball from that league.

Here’s a look at some of the notable balls in my collection:

A pristine Official Major League Baseball:

And a dirty Official Major League Baseball:

I snagged this foul ball during a New York-Penn League game last August:

If you look at the blue mark on the side of the ball, you can tell it’s caused by the letter ‘n’ in the word Rawlings. Obviously, another ball rubbed up against this one in a ball bag or the umpire’s pouch:

This is another NYPL ball, only this one is marked on the sweet spot with ‘SI,’ which stands for Staten Island. I snagged this one during Staten Island’s batting practice in Aberdeen last summer:

Here’s one of my Official Eastern League balls; this one is a foul ball from Erie:

And here’s an Official Midwest League ball that was a foul ball at a Great Lakes Loons game:

All four of the Official South Atlantic League balls in my collection are well worn, including this one:

This Official International League ball is in the best shape of any of my IL balls:

My Official Minor League Baseball has seen better days:

Believe it or not, I picked up this Official Northwest League ball in Vermont, of all places:

And finally, this Official Minor League practice ball looks like it might’ve only been hit once:

I’ve snagged nearly all of the 59 balls during or immediately after batting practice at various ballparks. Four of my balls, however, were game foul balls that I grabbed and one was a home run.

I’ve blogged a handful of times about the different items I’ve bought or otherwise obtained (through giveaways, not stealing!) at ball games.

In the last week, I’ve written about the caps I’ve bought and the shirts I’ve acquired.

Several months back, I shared stories and photos about a pair of game-used bats I got; read about the first one here and the second one here.

Today, I’ve got two game-used items that I think are pretty awesome.

The first is a New Hampshire Fisher Cats game-used player jacket. I visited Northeast Delta Dental Stadium in both 2010 and 2011, and loved the whole experience. When the team sold off its 2010 apparel at the end of the season because of a logo switch for the following year, every item was on sale. Big time.

Here’s the jacket …

… which I bought for $12.50. No joke. Regular price = $100. Sale price = $12.50. I bought the jacket online after the 2010 season, and part of me wonders if the item was priced incorrectly. After I bought it, the price shot up to $50, as I recall.

Anyway, you might wonder who wore it. Well, because Minor League players often share jackets as they move up and down through a team’s system, this jacket was worn by at least three players. You can see the numbers 4, 14 and 44 on the tag:

According to The Baseball Cube, these numbers belong to Brad Emaus (#4) and Bobby Bell (#14). There’s no one listed as #44, so I can only assume it was a Blue Jay on a rehab start on someone else who passed through quickly. Anyone have any ideas?

The second game-used item isn’t one I picked up last summer or the summer before, but it’s still worth sharing. In 2007, I got an Ottawa Lynx game-used jersey after the team sold off all its uniforms before moving to become the Lehigh Valley IronPigs of the International League.

Tim Raines, Jr. wore this Lynx jersey for a Halloween promotion. Here’s the front:

And here’s the back:

This summer, one of my goals is to buy another game-used item. I have no idea where or what at this point, but hopefully my game-used collection will grow.