6:05pm starts are what dreams are made of

Posted on August 5, 2014

Clayton Kershaw #22 of the Los Angeles Dodgers puts resin on his hand during the game against the San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park on Saturday, July 26, 2014 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Brad Mangin)

 

I have written in the past about the joys of shooting baseball in amazing early evening sunshine. Most of the games I shoot here in the Bay Area start at either 12:35pm, 12:45pm, or 1:05pm. Quite often the light is awful and harsh, making the pictures I get not pleasing to look at. As we get close to the summer solstice of June 21 the sun is directly overhead and the pictures I get before 3pm are pretty much garbage. What is a picky, whiny, pain-in-the-ass photographer like myself supposed to do? Pray for 6:05pm starts when we have a chance at some fast-moving, fleeting sunlight that skips across the infield so fast it might be gone in an inning or two. If you can catch the magic confluence light and shadow on an interesting subject all of the pain and agony of studying sunset timetables and weather maps can be worth it if you get that one good frame. Just like in golf, when a crappy round can be saved by one great chip out of the green side rough that keeps you coming back to chase that great feeling, all it takes for me is one special picture in the incredible light to keep me coming back at 6:05pm in search of magic on the diamond. Unless the fog rolls in. Then I want to scream and cry.

6:05pm is a weird time to start a baseball game, thus we don’t get many of them around here. Most of the time it is on a Saturday night because of the bizarre mathematical gymnastics clubs have to do with their schedules to avoid the always fluctuating exclusive FOX television window that does not allow a team to broadcast their game locally if there is a conflict with the national telecast. This anomaly gives us a few of these each season in both Oakland and San Francisco. We also get a few extra 6:05pm starts in Oakland for different themed fireworks nights. It seems that in the year 2014 many ball fans have either never seen fireworks before, or they are somehow still bemused by the bright colors and loud bangs that ensue when they are launched into the nighttime sky over the Coliseum. Say FREE fireworks after the game and you will get a sellout every time!

In the old days I would go to 6:05pm games shooting color slide film concentrating on whoever or whatever was doing anything in the sun. Once the sun was gone I was gone too. In the middle of the summer when the days are longest we get sun on the mound for an inning or two, allowing us to get wonderful photographs of the starting pitchers. Later in the year the games start with the shadow near second base, meaning the only players in the sun are the outfielders.

I took a big gamble on a night like this many years ago when the New York Yankees were in town to play the A’s on Saturday night, August 25, 2000. I knew the mound would be covered in shadow at first pitch, but I went out there with my 400mm 2.8 lens and a 2x converter hoping to capture something in the outfield on a roll of Fujichrome. As luck would have it a deep drive was hit to center field in the 2nd inning and Yankees center fielder Clay Bellinger went back to the wall and made a great play, casting a long shadow across the dark green padded wall as the white ball disappeared into his glove. Of course I was shooting film, not digital, so I could not see the images on the back of my camera. All I could do was hope and pray as I shipped my raw, unprocessed film on United flight #78 from San Francisco to Newark, so the Time Life Photo Lab could process my E-6 film. My Sports Illustrated baseball picture editor at the time, Matt Ginella, liked what he saw, and within a few days my subscriber copy of SI arrived in my mailbox with the best frame of the sequenced splashed across two pages in the Leading Off section of the magazine (see below.)

I have already had some good luck this season with 6:05pm starts on both sides of the bay, as you can see in a few of the pictures I posted in this blog. We have another one coming up this Saturday night in Oakland as the Twins come to town to face the A’s. You can bet I will be out there, hoping the sun shines bright and the fog stays away.

6:05pm starts are great for myself and other photographers out there in search of great light. 6:05pm starts can also be great for weddings. My good friend Matt Maiocco was married to his awesome wife Sarah (who’s mom Mary loves fireworks!) back in 2000. Being the easy going guy Matt is he left pretty much all the planning to Sarah. Matt was just thrilled to be getting married and was not the type to argue about decorations or flowers. However, being the sports fan the Matt is he had one request. He did not want the wedding to start at 6pm like was originally planned. In a nod to start times all over the sports world, Matt insisted the ceremony begin at 6:05pm. When I got my invitation in the mail the start time was 6:05pm. Classic. I have never seen that before or since. Needless to say it was a great wedding. Great things happen at 6:05pm. Just look at my pictures and the Maiocco marriage as proof!