2013 World Series: Game 3

Posted on October 27, 2013

Kolten Wong #16 of the St. Louis Cardinals celebrates after defeating the Boston Red Sox in Game 3 of the 2013 World Series against the at Busch Stadium on Saturday, October 26, 2013 in St. Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Brad Mangin/MLB Photos)

 

Holy shit. You will NEVER see another World Series game end the way last night’s Game 3 between the Red Sox and Cardinals. EVER. I will never be able to do all the intricacies of the rule book justice, but let’s just say when the dirt around home plate at Busch Stadium in St. Louis settled in the bottom of the 9th inning the Red Birds were 5-4 winners despite getting two runners thrown out at home plate on the same play.

My day started 12 hours before I got back to my downtown hotel when I spent some time on the field with some MLB officials shooting the special World Series hats made by New Era for their social media channels promoting the game (see above).

It was great being on the field so early in the afternoon to enjoy the incredible weather. What a glorious day we had here in St. Louis. Sure it got cold at night, but the daytime was spectacular.

Before the game I really wanted to get into the locker room where Fredbird the Cardinals mascot gets ready. He told me I could come in around 6:30pm to shoot a few frames, so I went in there for five minutes and really enjoyed hanging out in his little area.

After shooting Fredbird I went out onto the field to find my photo position for the game on the platform in the back row of the inside third base photo well. It was CRAZY crowded but workable because all the photographers up there were veterans from places like Sports Illustrated, USA TODAY, Getty Images, AP, and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch who have all shot hundreds of big games like this one.

Once the game gets going it was kind of a nice relief after the hours of build up and other assignments I shot during the afternoon. Anytime you shoot a World Series game you hope for some dramatic shit to happen, but none of us could have been prepared for what we would witness in about four hours.

After the Cardinals scored two quick runs their stater Joe Kelly was looking really good. The game settled into a nice little low-scoring battle into the middle innings and it was anybodies ballgame.

First the Red Sox tied the game 2-2. Then the Cards went ahead 4-2 in the 7th. It looked like that might be it with the Cards brilliant kiddie corps bullpen of right-handers who throw gas but no. The Red Sox came back to tie it at 4 in the top of the 8th and it was looking like we might go into extra innings. Up in her perch above first base Getty Images staffer Elsa was heard saying “Free baseball! Free baseball!” much to the chagrin of other shooters who were freezing their asses off and tired from standing in one spot for four hours. Extra innings were coming unless the home team could push across a run in the bottom of the 9th.

If you are a baseball fan then you know what happened next. The Cards got two runners thrown out at home plate on a lay that started with Red Sox shortstop Dustin Pedroia making an incredible diving stop on a ball hit by Jon Jay with the infield playing in. Next thing you know Cardinals base runner Allen Craig is laying in the dirt at home late too hurt to move as his teammates came pouring out of the dugout to celebrate the win, and the Red Sox players and manager came running over to home plate umpire Dana DeMuth to see what the Hell just happened.

Of course by now we all know that obstruction was called on Red Sox third baseman Will Middlebrooks when he tripped Craig at third base, but man it took a long time to realize what had happened. The Cards now hold a 2-1 lead in the Series, and man I really want to go back to Boston game games 6 and 7. C’mon Red Sox!

The cool thing is we get to do it all over again tonight! This is what October baseball is all about. More please!