2012 World Series: Game 4

Posted on October 29, 2012

Buster Posey of the San Francisco Giants celebrates in the clubhouse after the Giants defeat the Detroit Tigers to win the 2012 World Series on Sunday, October 28, 2012 at Comerica Park in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Brad Mangin/MLB Photos)

As I sit here in my Marriott hotel room in Detroit I am still recovering from everything that happened last night. The cold. The rain. And oh yeah- the Giants winning the World Series! This has been such a crazy week I decided to sleep in past noon today and try and kick my cold before flying home on Tuesday. I will now try and put everything from last night into perspective so you can see what my experience was like covering Game 4 of the World Series between the Giants and Tigers for MLB Photos.

The forecast called for cold temps and a possibility of rain when our crew got to the park six hours early for Game 4. One of my goals was to get into the Giants clubhouse to shoot uniforms, bats and balls that would help illustrate our coverage of the Series. My good friend and team photographer Andy Kuno took me in after the team hit the field for batting practice and I was able to shoot some cool stuff and bring the fans some behind the scenes looks at what goes on at a World Series.

Before the game my picture editor Jim McKenna had the great idea for me to go on the field and shoot into the Giants dugout when Hunter Pence led the team with his daily pep talk. Pence had started this postseason tradition when he rallied the club during the NLDS in Cincinnati and by the time the team reached Detroit for the games this weekend it had evolved into a full-on revival. With Pence dancing and screaming while being surrounded by his teammates throwing sunflower seeds in the air the ballclub united to beat every team that came before them. Last night was no exception and the pictures I got were pretty damned cool (see below).

Once the game got going I was shooting from a sweet inside first base spot looking down the third base line. I was a nervous wreck and froze my ass off. I kinda assumed the Tigers would win and was preparing myself for that result when Marco Scutaro got a two-out single in the top of the 10th inning to knock in Ryan Theriot from second base to give the Giants a 4-3 lead. Luckily I was in a good spot to squeeze off a few good frames of Theriot sliding home and jubing. I was pretty damned excited and the cold went away (see below).

Sergio Romo got the final three Tigers out meekly to seal the deal, and I decided to key on Scutaro and was happy with the little frame I got. My teammate Ron Vesely nailed Romo and Buster Posey celebrating from third base so our coverage was very complete. Next stop, clubhouse!

My boss Jessica Foster got me in the Giants clubhouse so early I was able to shoot the corporate branding before the players got in (see below).

I was ready before the onslaught of players and media got in to celebrate- and I am lucky I was because it got so crowded so fast it became very uncomfortable because the clubhouse was so small.

Before I got out of the champagne-soaked clubhouse I grabbed a few frames of some details to finish my coverage.

Shooting a big celebration like this is always a crap shoot for me, so I was happy to get a fun sequence of Posey going nuts early on (see top). It is late and I am still in Detroit. I will be back home on Tuesday just in time to shoot the parade on Wednesday! I hope you like my pictures!