Last visit to the ballpark (this time)

I figure 3 blog posts should be enough to adequately cover a single baseball game, so this one will be short and cover a few batters.

I like the first picture because it leaves a little blur from the bat and the ball. At a shutter speed of 1/250th of a second, the bat and ball had to be moving pretty fast to still be blurred.

The next one, #76, Jesus Guzman highlights one of the non-roster invitees getting a shot at the team this spring training. You can read more about him and the other invitees in this article. I am always impressed by how major league hitters pick up their front foot and take a step as they are swinging. Since I have never played baseball, I am not sure if this is for a little extra power, but it seems like it would make it harder to hit the ball.

The last shot shows how different some batters stances are. It looks uncomfortable, but it seems to work for him, even with a loose shoelace.

Whether you are a baseball fan or not, I hope you appreciated some of these baseball posts. If you are a baseball fan, leave a comment with your favorite team. I think there is a White Sox fan out there.

To The Ballgame (part 2)

The ballpark is a great place with the fans, the vendors and the players all come together to make it an experience. It is interesting that when I have my camera with me (nearly always these days) I notice many things that used to slip by me before. Things like other photographers with incredibly big lenses causing me to further irritate my already bad case of lens envy.

In High School, I was on a swim team and was fairly competitive by my junior year. In a citywide meet, I finished in 4th place just 2 hundredths of a second out of 3rd and not much more than that behind 1st and 2nd. I am not bragging, but just setting the stage for my next comment. I know the effort it takes to be competitive and so I appreciate seeing that effort played out at this level. The effort it takes for a pitcher to throw a baseball at this level is clearly visible in shots like these.

This day at the ballpark was (as I mentioned before) a fun time. I would be happy to go back again to this park, or any other sports facility. Does anyone have any suggestions for particulary photogenic ballparks? Anything in Arizona is more likely for me to visit, but please leave a comment here or a shout out on Twitter and let me know what you think the best looking sports facility is. Is it the University of Phoenix stadium where the Arizona Cardinals play with its rollout field? Or is it the Twin Cities Metrodome in Minnesota with its rich history of baseball and football?

Take Me Out To The Ball Game...

For the first time in several years, I went to a baseball Spring Training game this week. It was a game between the Oakland A's and the San Francisco Giants.

One of my best friends is a big Giants fan, so I was rooting for them. They kept it within a few runs, but were not able to capitalize on some well hit balls and the A's caught a few breaks (hard hit balls that went right to their players for example).

During the game, a foul ball rolled to a stop near the 3rd base where the umpire picked it up. A new ball had already been thrown to the pitcher, so the ball was not needed for the game to go on. The fans in the stands were reaching out, hoping the umpire would toss them a souvenir, but he just grinned and stuck the ball in his pocket. At the end of the inning, he took the ball out and walked over to the stands to where a girl was sitting with her outstretched hand. He joked around with the girl and her parents (I'm guessing as I was not close enough to hear) and pointed at his cheek as if to say "give me a kiss and I'll give you the ball". The girl would have nothing to do with that offer but negotiated a hug instead and then handed her the ball. Then, he proceeded to use their camera to take their picture from the field. It was great to see the kids having a fun time at the ballpark and for the umpire to go out of his way to make the event memorable for them.

I took about 200 pictures at the ballpark and spent a lot of time playing with different settings (changing focal point, quick ISO changes, tracking the ball, shooting in burst mode to capture action) so you can expect to see some more baseball pictures from this outing showing up here in the future.

Do you like team sports or are you more of an individual accomplishment kind of person? Would you rather play a round of golf or watch it live or watch it on tv? Let me know what your favorite sport is here in the comments or shout it out on Twitter. Thanks for dropping by.