Another great day of baseball in The City

Posted on July 2, 2012

Melky Cabrera #53 of the San Francisco Giants bunts against the Cincinnati Reds during the game at AT&T Park on Sunday, July 1, 2012 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Brad Mangin)

 

As we near the half-way point of the season, and next week’s all-star break the 2012 San Francisco Giants are starting to gel as a team and come up with their own identity. With a starting lineup filled with new players, a disabled list filled with familiar faces, and a ballpark packed to the rafters every day with 42,000 + fans yesterday’s 4-3 win over the Cincinnati Reds was a game that summed up their season so far. In a good way!

When I got to the ballpark around 10:30 to shoot the game the sky was grey and the vibe inside was lifeless and dull as there was no batting practice to liven things up. Word started circulating through Twitter that the Giants fans had taken a page from the 1956 Reds fans and stuffed the all-star ballot boxes by voting in three of their favorites to the recently- released National League All-Star Game roster. Melky Cabrera, Buster Posey, and Pablo Sandoval would all be starting for the NL squad next week in Kansas City. Matt Cain was also named to the roster. Giants fans were ecstatic, and in the Reds dugout Hall of Famer Joe Morgan was PISSED. Reds stars Johnny Cueto and Brandon Phillips were left off the team so Morgan whipped out his cell phone and called his friend Bud. That’s right. Selig! He left an angry voice mail about how NL skipper Tony La Russa left them off the team because of a fight they had with the Cardinals a few years ago. There are angry folks all around baseball when the rosters for the mid summer classic are unveiled, and yesterday was no different. If I was a Mets fan I would be going bat-shit crazy about Sandoval starting at third base ahead of David Wright.

The Giants were celebrating the 10-year reunion of the 2002 National League Championship team with a big ceremony on the field before the game. I tried to shoot some fun features in the Giants dugout of all the guys before they went onto the filed but I got kicked out, so I went over to the other side and had a blast seeing Dusty Baker and his son Darren Baker as they donned Giants jerseys to participate in the activities.

The game was cruising right along behind the usual stellar pitching of Ryan Vogelsong as the Giants tried to hold onto a 3-2 lead into the 9th. I didn’t have any great pictures yet, but I didn’t really care as long as the bullpen could hold on. Shooting most of the game from third base things were starting to get boring, and before I knew it the Reds bats came alive tying the game at three and leaving the bases loaded before Santiago Casilla could finally put out the fire. As the game moved to the bottom of the 9th I moved over to the outside first base spot to try and change my luck, as well as the luck of the Giants.

Before I had a chance to settle in next to my good friend and Giants team photographer Andy Kuno, Reds right fielder Jay Bruce was butchering a fly ball off the bat of Giants hitter Angel Pagan with Posey on second base. The Giants were going nuts, and the Reds were stunned as the scoreboard read Giants 4, Reds 3.  I finally had a few celebratory pictures that I was really happy with, and I really didn’t mind editing and captioning my stuff until 9pm. What a fun way to wrap up the first half of the home season. I am heading to the Coliseum in a little bit to shoot some Red Sox at A’s. I hope to run into a few good frames while I am there.