Hudson, Braves sweep Giants out of town

Posted on April 25, 2011

Tim Hudson of the Atlanta Braves pitches during the game between the Atlanta Braves and the San Francisco Giants on Saturday, April 23, 2011 at AT&T Park in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Brad Mangin/MLB Photos)

 

The Atlanta Braves scared the crap out of me when the San Francisco Giants faced them in the opening round of the National League playoffs last October. All of the games were very close, and if it weren’t for some key injuries and a kid named Brooks Conrad the Giants might not be flying a bright orange 2010 World Champions banner at their ballpark. The same Braves came to town this past weekend with a healthy squad and Conrad with a goal of showing the Champs what they were made of. Boy did they ever. The Braves pretty much shoved it up the Giants asses all weekend and took all three games in front of sellout crowds that still don’t know what hit them. The Braves meant business and they proved that they might have something to say about who comes out of the National League alive in October.

I attended Friday night’s opener as a fan with my sister Paula and watched as boring a ballgame as I had seen in quite some time as the Giants went down meekly to a hungry Braves team 4-1, led by the great pitching of Tommy Hanson. The night was extremely disappointing after co-author Brian Murphy and myself had such a great time signing copies of “Worth The Wait” for two hours at the Giants Dugout Store at the Stanford Shopping Center. The fans we met were jacked up for the big weekend series against the Braves, and so was I. No way did I ever think the Giants would get skunked.

I was very excited to shoot Saturday’s game for many reasons. I would get to see my good friend Robert Leiter, who was making the trip up from Santa Barbara to shoot the game. I would also get to photograph two great Tim’s on the mound: Tim Lincecum and Tim Hudson. Of course Lincecum needs no introduction around the Bay Area, and local fans should never forget how terrific Hudson was with the A’s. Huddy was always one of my favorite pitchers to photograph, and he was just sensational on Saturday in leading his team to a 5-2 win. Huddy totally out pitched Timmy and put on a clinic on how to “pitch.”

One of the highlights of my day was spending a few minutes before the game in the Braves dugout chatting with the aforementioned Conrad. What a great guy! I asked him how he liked wearing the terrific zipper-top Boston Braves uniform last week on turn back the clock day against the Dodgers in Los Angeles. He told me how much fun they were to wear, and also how comfortable they were. I watched the game on television and agreed that they looked great. Don’t worry, I kept the conversation light and did not bring up last year’s playoffs.

As usual I was planing to spend my Easter Sunday shooting a baseball game. Game 3 of the weekend series was set to start at 1:05pm and there was no way the Giants would get swept. Right? I was excited to goof around on Sunday and have fun at the game, so I brought along the Canon 800mm lens to shoot some real tight stuff. This lens is always fun to use. It yields many frames that do not work, but when I happen to frame the action well and get something good within that frame it looks really cool. A great example of this is the picture above of Buster Posey hitting a 2-run homer. During the season I shoot so many batting pictures head-to-toe with the 400mm lens, it is fun to try stuff real tight- if I can keep the player in the frame. It’s not so easy!

I enjoyed hanging out in the third base photo well right next to the Giants dugout. The conversation was fun with other photographers, especially Marcio Sanchez’s critique of the new VH-1 show “Audrina.” Marcio thinks the show is pretty bad, but he was looking forward to the new episode airing later on Sunday night. The ballgame was fun to watch and shoot, but after the Giants bullpen collapsed the relentless Braves were ready to pounce like my new kittens Willie and Mike. By the time the dust had settled the Braves were 9-6 winners and I was left to make the long drive home to edit my take.

Many Giants fans were ready to jump off the bridge after the game as I listened to some of them call into Marty Lurie’s post-game show on KNBR. I wasn’t worried at all as I headed home. The Giants won the freaking WORLD SERIES LAST YEAR. The season is only 21 games old, and there are many more games to play. Besides, I was able to enjoy a lovely Sunday afternoon at a baseball game. It doesn’t get much better than that.