Blowing bubbles: It’s a baseball thing

Posted on April 20, 2010

Jason Motte of the St. Louis Cardinals blows a bubble and watches batting practice before Game 1 of the National League Division Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium on October 7, 2009 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Brad Mangin)

 

Turn on the television during this time of the year or head out to the nearest ballpark and you will eventually see grown men acting like children. Sure, they are being paid millions of dollars to play a kid’s game, but Major League Baseball players can do one thing many young lads could only dream of. They can blow some really big bubbles while chewing bubble gum and playing our national game.

As a kid I always tried to blow big bubbles after being inspired by the Bazooka Big League Bubble Gum Blowing Championship that Joe Garagiola ran during his pre-game show (The Baseball World of Joe Garagiola) on NBC’s Saturday Game of the Week telecasts in the 1970’s. I remember Los Angeles Dodger pitcher Andy Messersmith being the best I ever saw, till he bowed out of organized bubble blowing competitions in 1975 as Kurt Bevacqua and Johnny Oates battled it out  for the the title and the $1,000 top prize. See the fabulous video here from October 14, 1975 prior to Game 3 of the 1975 World Series that shows the championship blow off.

When I was toiling in the Centerville American Little League for the Twins, Indians, Tigers and Orioles whenever I tried to blow bubbles like my heroes they usually came out really small, and when they popped the gum stuck to my face causing a huge mess. Maybe it was the crappy gum I was chewing, the stiff pink stuff that came in all the ten-cent packs of Topps baseball cards I bought at the nearby 7-Eleven. I didn’t have the luxury of cramming a limitless supply of Bazooka in my mouth like Messersmith. I don’t think my mom would have let me.

By the time I started covering big league hardball in 1987 I always kept my eye out for ballplayers acting like kids and blowing bubbles during the game. I would see them blowing bubbles while taking batting practice. I would see them blowing bubbles while playing defense. I would also see them blowing bubbles while sitting in the dugout. One of my favorite guys to shoot who always blew nice bubbles was Giants star Will Clark. Clark was always blowing bubbles and I have many pictures to prove it!

Over the years I have shot many guys in many different uniforms blowing bubbles, but I never really stopped to take a look at some of the photographs till this week. I started thinking about bubbles when I photographed Braves phenom Jason Heyward last week. Heyward blew some bubbles when I saw him, but there were pretty tiny. During that same weekend I shot Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval blowing bubbles on the field when he was playing defense and running the bases. I was reminded that he blew many bubbles for me last season in the dugout (see above) and they were not too bad. I thought it would be fun to go through my archive of images going back to 1987 and see what kind of pictures I could dig up of players blowing bubbles. I was not disappointed and share some of them here and in the fun slide show below.

Ballplayers Blowing Bubbles – Images by Brad Mangin

I think I have started a new project. From now on I will pay extra close attention to guys blowing bubbles at the ballpark. I will start this week when I shoot the Yankees and A’s in Oakland.