Day baseball in Oakland: It’s so relaxing

Posted on May 6, 2010

Head Groundskeeper Clay Wood of the Oakland Athletics waters the infield before the game between the Texas Rangers and the Oakland Athletics on Wednesday, May 5, 2010, at the Oakland Coliseum in Oakland, California. The Athletics defeated the Rangers 4-1. (Photo by Brad Mangin/MLB Photos)

 

I am very lucky. I get to go to the ballpark and take pictures at baseball games for a living. Trust me, I can piss-and-moan with the best of them, like all other photographers. However, on days like yesterday I am reminded how truly fortunate I am. I was assigned by Major League Baseball Photos to shoot the Texas Rangers and Oakland A’s play a 12:35pm ballgame at the Oakland Coliseum on a nice sunny day in the Bay Area. My assignment was pretty basic. Get there early, shoot batting practice and any other pre-game stuff that looks fun, and shoot the ballgame, trying to get good stock pictures of everyone who plays.

I was in a good mood yesterday morning and wanted to get to the ballpark three hours early so I could be ready to shoot both teams taking batting practice. I also wanted to be able to soak up some good pre-game conversation with my good friend Robert Leiter who was traveling up from Santa Barbara to shoot the game on assignment for PhotoFile. Leiter is a true baseball guy who is super fun to be around. He knows pretty much every player on every team and we have a good time talking ball when we shoot together. When I got onto the field at 9:45 the cage was set up, but no one was hitting yet. Since the light was great I started shooting anything that looked interesting. I started by shooting head groundskeeper Clay Wood as he watered the infield dirt (see top). I then moved on to shooting details of first base in the pretty morning light.

Leiter rolled into the Rangers dugout to sit next to me around 10:30am. It was apparent that the Rangers would not be taking BP, so we were waiting for the A’s to get into the cage. As soon as Leiter sat down he told me,”It is always so relaxed here.” It really is nice and relaxed shooting the A’s in Oakland. The security guards are great. The PR people are great. The team photographer (Michael Zagaris) is a legend and there are many great photo positions to shoot from. The Oakland Coliseum is an old, ugly place that the A’s have been calling home since they moved here from Kansas City in 1968. It’s a dump, but that is what makes it so great. It is like shooting in your own backyard. You can walk around the field in between innings before you settle into a new position to shoot in a relaxed manner, unlike places like Dodger Stadium that are so difficult to work in.

Leiter and I wandered over to the grassy area behind home plate to start shooting the A’s take batting practice. Yes- that’s right- we can actually stand on the grass in Oakland! Woohoo! The A’s aren’t exactly laden with many superstars on their roster, so we are left to try and make nice candid portraits of guys like Gabe Gross. After a semi-decent lunch in the press room it was time to head over to the Rangers dugout to get some fun candids of the guys getting ready for the ballgame. I was disappointed that they Rangers did not take batting practice, because they have such a fun group of guys. Vladimir Guerrero is always one of my favorites to shoot before a game as he has such a great face and a wonderful smile. While I missed the chance to shoot him around the batting cage, I was able to get a few good frames of him in the dugout, which really made my day (see above).

By the time the game started it was almost anti-climactic for me. I was so happy with the pre-game stuff I got the game was kinda secondary. The ballgame ended up being a ho-hum affair with the A’s winning 4-1. There wasn’t much action, other than guys swinging the bat and guys throwing the ball, but I got what I needed to fulfill the assignment. I was able to move around during the game and shoot from many different vantage points, all the while having a good time talking to Leiter and other friends in the photo wells. Sure, like other photographers I can complain with the best of them, but a day at the ballpark beats the Hell out of a day in my office, every single time.