Favorite pictures from a fun weekend of baseball

Posted on June 1, 2010

Miguel Olivo #21 of the Colorado Rockies sits in the dugout before the game against the San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park on May 31, 2010 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Brad Mangin)

 

Memorial Day weekend is a time when most Americans enjoy time off with family, throw meat on the barbecue, drink beer, and dread going back to work on Tuesday. My holiday weekend was a little different from most Americans. Since my good friend Jack Gruber and his family moved away from the Bay Area last year I am not able to enjoy a traditional holiday feast at the Gruber house in Foster City, California. Instead, I found myself working at the ballpark photographing a couple of San Francisco Giants games on a really nice weekend in the Bay Area. Yes, I worked hard this past holiday weekend, but now I have a few days off and get to attend tonight’s Giants game as a fan in my season ticket box seats.

I got to the ballpark early on Sunday for the Diamondbacks and Giants game, but there was not batting practice to shoot. After having lunch upstairs I hung around in the Diamondbacks dugout looking for anything that might make a nice picture. I love baseball bats, so I shot a few pictures of bats in the bat rack while I waited for players to come into the dugout and get ready for the game. I shot a few pictures of manager A.J. Hinch and some of the players before bench coach Kirk Gibson threw me out of the dugout. I’ve been thrown out of the dugout before. Many times. Usually it is by a trainer, a crappy player, or San Diego Padres closer Heath Bell. I thought it was kinda cool to get tossed by the intimidating and legendary World Series hero from Michigan.

By the time the game started my main goal of the afternoon was to get some good pictures of Giants rookie phenom Buster Posey. The Giants called up Posey on Saturday night, so Sunday was my first chance to shoot him in 2010. He had a brief stint with the club last September but did not see much playing time. He was now being asked to be a regular contributor to the anemic Giants offense, so I needed to get some good stuff on him, and in a hurry! Posey has a pretty swing that starts with a high leg kick and ends with him making a nice face as he turns on the ball, especially like he did on Sunday when he lashed out three hits, two of them doubles (see above).

After the Giants rallied for an extra-inning comeback win on Sunday I headed out to the park early Monday morning and got there at 10:15 to shoot Giants batting practice. I wanted to shoot more Posey and anything else that might look cool. The one thing I wanted to steer clear of was anyone wearing the awful patriotic white hats that Major League Baseball makes everyone wear on the holiday. Don’t get me wrong. I think it is wonderful that MLB honors those who have fought for our country on this special day. They have wonderful ceremonies before and during the games. However, the hats the players wear (two years ago they were blue, last year they were red) are just awful and render the pictures pretty useless as far as stock sales go.

I had the amazing opportunity to photograph the best pitcher in baseball, Colorado Rockies right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez. The joke was on me, of course as he sported the white hat with the red bill making all of my pictures of him nothing more than proof I was there to watch him jam the Giants bats up their asses with another incredible pitching performance. Jimenez is two months into the most dominating season I can remember since New York Yankees lefty Ron Guidry (25-3, 1.74 ERA) tore up the American League in 1978.

Aside from many pictures of guys wearing white hats I managed to get a few pictures I liked yesterday, and both of them took place before the game, which is becoming a growing trend. After getting a fun portrait of Rockies catcher Miguel Olivo I was quickly tossed out of the dugout by pitching coach and former neighbor of Grover Sanschagrin on Long Island Bob Apodaca. Michael Zagaris and I were in the dugout shooting Olivo 30 minutes before the first pitch when the former Mets hurler, whose son Sanschagrin only played with so he could get Apodaca’s autograph told us, “Hey guys, can we get some privacy?”

With that I left the dugout and headed over to the Giants dugout near third base. I was bored so I ventured down into the tunnel on the way to the clubhouse when I saw some bats leaned up against the wall (see above). Did I tell you I loved bats?