Plow through those Beavers Blue!
With the Michigan baseball team in Corvallis, Oregon this weekend challenging the defending national champs Oregon State for a berth in this year’s College Baseball World Series, I thought I’d reflect briefly on how I’ve come to appreciate baseball as a sport in general. And to wish the M-nine some good luck!
Naturally, my introduction to baseball has been through photographing it, and like many other sports (football, basketball, hockey) that I never had the interest for growing up, shooting them eventually helped to teach the nuisances of each sport to me as well as gain a solid hold on my off-the-court/field enjoyment in following them.
It was much easier with the other big 3 though, because they were more action-packed, fast paced, and more “exciting.” Every time I saw major league baseball on TV, I’d fall asleep just as I would when I watch golf (still do). So what changed everything? Simply put: being on the field.
Or in the case of shooting baseball games this season, having the opportunity to see the action from the ground-level vantage point of a team dugout:
When you can shoot baseball from the ground level, like that shot above from Comerica Park (or all of the Michigan baseball pictures in this post) you immediately loose the passiveness of watching from a spectator’s point of view to that of being immediately involved in the game. Sure, you’re not like the players, but by shooting that low to the ground, you feel what they feel.
You see the emotions in their eyes, the anxiety of the teammates on the bench, and the masterful calculations in every twitch and scratch of the coach’s hands at his side. Baseball immediately becomes more strategically oriented to me, and I find myself having the same feelings in my stomach as when I shoot a close football game from the sidelines or close basketball game on the baseline.
Its still necessary as in shooting every sport to try and get as many pictures from as many angles as possible, from the stands, wide over the stadium, and above the action if feasible. But the dugout is definitely the place to be for the photog. I can see why all the MLB ballparks have photo dugouts, and why those pictures from them used in the pages of Sports Illustrated or ESPN Mag are so good. The shot from a dugout automatically gives you a dominant, flattering portrayal of the athlete, and you automatically get cleaner backgrounds with the sky or a stadium feature to capitalize on. Batting shots don’t look so pedestrian anymore, and the fielding shots exaggerate the action beautifully.
Plus, when the game isn’t playing yet, you catch all the funny moments on the field such as captains of Michigan football and hockey holding on to big hoses…
