I have a copy of Championship Blood in my hands!

Posted on January 28, 2015

Cameron + Company creative director Iain Morris, photographer Brad Mangin, and Cameron + Company publisher Chris Gruener pose with an advance copy of Championship Blood in their Petaluma, California offices on Tuesday, January 27, 2015.

 

Yesterday was a super huge cool day for me. After shooting countless San Francisco Giants baseball games over the course of the 2014 season and working hundreds of hours after the final out of Game 7 of the World Series in my office I was able to hold an advance copy of my new book about the ballclub that I have co-authored (for the third time!) with my good friend Brian Murphy. Iain Morris, my incredible designer at Cameron + Company called me in the morning to tell me that five hand-bound books had arrived from China for us to approve before they machine-bound the bulk of the printing for the books official release on April 1. I made the long drive north to their office in Petaluma as soon as I could and was immediately overwhelmed with the quality, size, and beauty of the final product. Championship Blood is a freaking gorgeous book. the 11 x 14 size makes for some stunning layouts and display of my pictures. I can’t wait for Giants fans to see this book!

After spending two hours pouring over the book with Iain and my awesome publisher Chris Gruener I thought it would be fun to surprise my co-author Murph and drive by his house to drop off his copy. He had no idea we were getting them this early and I could not wait to see the reaction from him and his family. I was not disappointed!

Murph, his two sons Declan and Rory, and his wife Candace immediately gathered around the dining room table to begin going through the book page-by-page. The early reports were very positive as young Rory was able to name almost every Giant he saw in the big and bold pages of the book.

It was super fun seeing the reaction at the Murphy house. It will be hard keeping the excitement in for two more months until the book is on sale for everyone to enjoy. We got the word out a little bit last night on Twitter and Instagram and it was cool to see the excitement from Giants fans. Murph got the ball rolling when he sent out a picture of one of our favorite spreads in the book (see below).

After I got home from my long day of driving all over the Bay Area it was fun to tweet back-and-forth with so many Giants fans who are excited about the book. One of my favorite tweets came from great Giants fan who told me that my ever-growing long hair “…is flowing like Jimmy Page!!!” I loved that! (See below)

If you want to see an early copy of Championship Blood drop by our booth at the KNBR Giants Fan Fest on Saturday, February 7, 2015 at AT&T Park. I will be there all day along with our publisher Chris. You will be able to pre-order books and see an advance copy in all it’s glory. The book is really big- and it is beautiful!