ALDS Game 1: Red Sox @ Angels

Posted on October 14, 2009

The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and the the Boston Red Sox stand on the field for pre-game ceremonies before Game 1 of the American League Division Series at Angel Stadium on October 8, 2009 in Anaheim, California. (Photo by Brad Mangin)

 

After shooting Game 1 of the Cards and Dodgers the night before I headed south on Highway 5 to Anaheim to shoot the opening game of the American League Division Series between the Red Sox and Angels at Angel Stadium in Anaheim. The last time I had shot a game in this ballpark was Game 7 of the 2002 World Series between the Giants and Angels. That did not work out so good for me. The pain of that Giants Series loss still lingers with me. However, this time it would be all baseball with no rooting interest. I did not care who won. I just wanted the games to be exciting and fun and allow us to get a few good pictures that told the story of the game.

The Angels ballpark is a wonderful place to work for photographers. The great shooting environment dates back to the days when the great V.J. Lovero was the team photographer. The terrific attitude towards photographers has remained as team photographer Deb Robinson (along with John Cordes and Bob Binder) is always there to help us out.

For this game I would be shooting alone on assignment for Sports Illustrated as staffer John McDonough was shooting Game 2 of the Cards and Dodgers series and Robert Beck was up north shooting the President’s Cup in San Francisco. Our magazine always gets treated real well at this ballpark and I was able to shoot from an awesome spot that V.J. always loved- the inside first TV well that only has room for one still camera. This is a terrific and different spot to shoot a game from and always makes for some good pictures. I was so excited to shoot this game from V.J.’s old spot- now I just needed some action to come my way!

One of the great features of this park is the area behind home plate that will accommodate up to four shooters on a rotating basis to go back there and photograph the pitchers. I signed up for the first inning and went back there to shoot the starters: John Lackey for the Angels and Jon Lester for the Red Sox. Once I finished shooting them in the bottom half of the inning I focused on Red Sox third baseman Mike Lowell and was able to get a nice frame of him making a diving play to end the inning (see above).

Once I got back to my cool inside first base position to begin the second inning it was all about trying to tell the story of the game. It was a nice pitcher’s duel between Lackey and Lester until Torii Hunter hit a three-run bomb for the Angels to break things up in the 5th inning. After that it was apparent that the Red Sox listless attack was not going to put many dents on the scoreboard, so it became my job to try and get some pictures that said “Angels Win” and “Red Sox Lose.”

The Red Sox dugout was difficult for me to shoot into because of the large TV cameras next to me and the robotic camera in the foreground that blocked most of my view. Late in the game I was finally able to get off a few frames of David Ortiz walking through the dugout on his way to an 0-4 night that included three strikeouts. When the 9th inning came and the Angels were going to win I decided to turn my camera away from the field and shoot some of the good looking Angels fans celebrating after the final out. Mission accomplished!