Ichiro Suzuki is one of the all-time greats

Posted on September 8, 2010

Ichiro Suzuki #51 of the Seattle Mariners makes a sliding catch in right field against the Oakland Athletics during the game at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum on September 6, 2010 in Oakland, California. (Photo by Brad Mangin)

 

Man did Monday’s Labor Day game between the Oakland A’s and Seattle Mariners at the Coliseum look dreadful on paper. Although they are somehow still (kinda, maybe, sorta) in the American League West race behind the free-falling Texas Rangers, the A’s are such a boring team to photograph. Unfortunately, over in the first base visitors dugout sat the truly awful Mariners- a team so bad that the good people of Seattle deserve their money back for the 2010 season tickets they purchased last winter. The only reason I headed out to the park to shoot this game was because one of the greatest ballplayers of our generation, and of all-time would be in the Seattle line up: Ichiro Suzuki.

Ever since he broke in with the Mariners in April of 2001 Ichiro has been one of my favorite players to photograph. He took the league by storm that season, banging out 242 hits and finishing the year with a .350 batting average, earning him both the American League Most Valuable Player and Rookie of the year Awards. Between his wacky batting stance and swing from the left side of the plate, cannon-like throwing arm, blazing speed on the base paths and stylish persona it is hard to take a bad picture of Ichiro. With all of this in mind I knew where I would be pointing my camera most of the day on Monday, and as soon as Bruce the security guard handed me the stating lineup when I entered the ballpark with Ichiro listed as the Mariners lead off hitter I knew this was going to be a fun day at the yard.

I wanted to have fun and keep things simple, so instead of dragging all my gear into the park in a Think Tank rolling case I simply brought two cameras attached to two lenses: an 800mm 5.6 and a 16-35 2.8 zoom. My game plan was simple: shoot some wide angle stuff in the dugout before the game; shoot the first inning or so from behind the plate, then head upstairs to my favorite overhead position at the Coliseum in the third deck, sitting amongst the tarps on the steps in section 313 (thanks Dave Rinetti!).

Since we are now in September the light keeps getting better and better every day, and I know from past experience that pictures from this overhead spot look terrific late in the year with the sun at my back. As I nervously watched the out-of-town scoreboard showing my Giants going into extra innings against the Diamondbacks in Phoenix knotted at 0-0 I tried to concentrate on the ballgame way down below as the A’s and Mariners battled it out in front of a very intimate gathering of hard-core A’s fans on a beautiful day for baseball.

Over the past 10 seasons I have photographed Ichiro in many settings. I have shot him many times up in Seattle in wonderful Safeco Field wearing the home whites (on chrome!). I have shot him play in several all-star games. I have even shot him playing for Japan in the World Baseball Classic. I have built up a nice archive of pictures showing Ichiro do so many things on the ball field. The one thing I was missing was a nice image of him making a terrific fielding play in right field. Thankfully I was still awake in the bottom of the 8th inning on Monday when he chased after a long fly ball towards the right field line and made a sliding catch while facing in my direction the entire time. He seemed to be looking at me! Shooting the sequence with the 800mm lens was a joy, and when I chimped to see what I got on the back of the camera (see top) I was pleasantly surprised to see everything I wanted in the frame: light, face, ball and background. It was all there!

What does this all mean? Heck I don’t know. For me it means that you never know what is going to happen when you go to the ballpark. You need to follow every ball hit to the outfield, and it is fun to be in a different spot, away from everyone else. Sure I did not get to shoot next to Michael Zagaris and laugh at one of his stories involving a mustard jar, mushrooms, acid, or a threesome. But I got the picture!