Down and dirty at the ALDS in Oakland

Posted on October 17, 2013

Photographer Brad Mangin gets on his hands and knees to photograph a batter at home plate during Game 1 of the ALDS American League Division Series between the Detroit Tigers and Oakland Athletics at O.co Coliseum on October 4, 2013 in Oakland, California. (Photo by Michael Zagaris)

 

There is nothing like shooting October baseball. Lucky for us here in the Bay Area we have been spoiled for the past several years photographing postseason ball in Oakland and San Francisco. This year the Giants were pretty awful, but the A’s had a great year. This meant playoff games in Oakland earlier this month when the American League Division Series came to town as the Detroit Tigers battled the A’s for five games. Three of the games were in Oakland, and I was happy to be on assignment for Sports Illustrated.

We have had dozens of postseason games in Oakland since 2000. That was when the Coliseum built the “suicide boxes” they out in front of the backstop inside both first and third bases. These are positions we can’t shoot from during the regular season, and they are fabulous. I always try and get the spot farthest on the inside of the first base box, looking right down the third base line. I love this angle and I love being low to the ground. Once again this year I got this cool spot and was super excited for Game 1. However, I wanted to get even lower to the ground.

My editor Nate Gordon wanted me to shoot some wide pictures of some of the star players on both teams batting to get a sense of place and feel of playoff baseball. My spot was great, but over the years I have learned that pictures are usually the most dramatic when they are shot from the lowest angle possible with the camera at ground level. A few years ago legendary Sports Illustrated photographer Peter Read Miller wrote a story about shooting football from a low angle and the results he got were fantastic. I wanted to do this during this playoff series and I was willing to goof around and bend a few rules to get this awesome look to my pictures. Game 1 was a trial for me as I slowly got up the nerve to slide out the end of the box and kneel in the dirt. I then placed my Canon EOS-1X on the ground with a 70-200mm 2.8 zoom. Using the Canon right Angle Finder C I was able to look down into the viewfinder to frame and focus my shot. (See the picture of me in action by Michael Zagaris at the top of this blog post.) The results were so much better than the stuff I got from simply sitting on a chair in the box. Nate liked the stuff, but I needed more in Game 2.

Game 2 took place on an amazing warm night in Oakland. We had a great pitching match-up between Justin Verlander and Sonny Gray. The A’s were wearing their colorful gold tops and I was ready to try and make a few decent pictures. As soon as the game started I became greedy and crawled out into the dirt for almost every right handed hitter that came to the plate. I even asked the bat boy to bring me a towel to make things more comfortable when I was on my knees. I was getting some cool stuff, and as the game went into the 8th inning tied at 0-0 I knew I had to go wide for every hitter in case there was a big hit. In the bottom of the 8th inning my luck ran out. I felt very exposed out there in the dirt and felt like everyone could see me. Finally one or the umpires did. Crew chief Gary Darling whistled at me from third base delaying the game for a split second and pointed at me. I knew what he meant. I quickly got up and dove back into the box and tried to act like it was no big deal. I immediately texted Nate about it. He quickly wrote back, “Do I need to call Joe Torre?” That made me laugh my ass off. Few people saw this happen. It took a veteran baseball sage like Jose Luis Villegas of the Sacramento Bee to come up to me after the game to tell me he saw it.

Now I was left to try and get my low angle while staying in the box and reaching out to hold the camera out the site of the box near the ground as the game went into the 9th inning. This is how I got the above picture of Stephen Vogt’s game winning hit.

Game 5 was back in Oakland last week with an earlier 5:07pm PDT start. This meant we would get some of the magic bounce light off the luxury suite windows in center field around 5:40pm. When the umpires took the field crew chief Gary Darling walked past me and motioned towards the box. He did not have to say anything. I knew he remembered me! My friend Thearon Henderson saw the whole thing and went nuts laughing his ass off. it was pretty funny. I had fun chasing this light around home play early in the game and got a few fun things like the picture of Cespedes above.

Unfortunately for the A’s there was too much Verlander in Game 5, just like last year. When Miguel Cabrera homered early in the game to put the Tigers up 2-0 it felt like the score was 10-0. It became apparent that I needed to start shooting pictures of the Tigers winning and that is pretty much what happened.

The Tigers won by a final score of 3-0 to win the series and move on the LCS against Boston. As the loyal A’s fans cheered their team on another great season that had a disappointing ending I headed off to the clubhouse armed with my champagne-proofed camera rig ready to try and make a few pictures of the Tigers celebrating.

I was sad to see the A’s lose because I really wanted to shoot more playoff baseball here in the Bay Area before the World Series. I will be taking off next week for Game 1 of the Fall Classic in Boston or Detroit as part of the MLB Photos crew for the 14th year in a row. I am super excited to work with my ol’ teammate Ron Vesely again! Check back during the Seies as I will be blogging after every game. I hope I don’t run into Gary Darling again!