The 2023 Running Baseball Thread

Sorry I'm not home right now
I'm walking into spiderwebs
So leave a message and I'll call you back
A likely story, but
Leave a message and I'll call you back

 

I think I posted something about this after the first Cleveland game on FOX a couple of weeks ago, but the Orioles shit the bed every fucking time they were on national TV this year, aside from the Sunday night game against the Yankees. I'm sure it's just a weird coincidence, but dang.

 

From The Athletic, an anecdote on the photographer getting the shot of Harper staring down Arcia after the second home run. The photog admits missing the first one:

Derik Hamilton stationed himself to the right of the TV cameras in center field and he pointed his Nikon Z9 with a 600-mm lens toward the field. He is a 36-year-old freelance photographer from Bear, Del., who is working for the Phillies during the postseason. When Harper homered in the third inning, Hamilton trained his camera on Harper — until he reached first base. Then, he photographed fans celebrating.

He missed the stare. He missed the shot.

“I saw it out of the corner of my eye the first time,” Hamilton said.

When Harper came to bat in the fifth, Hamilton figured he’d stay on the slugger no matter what happened. Harper drove a Brad Hand slider 414 feet to center for his second homer.

Harper stared down Arcia again. Hamilton snapped it.

“Once I looked at the back of the camera and saw it was in focus, I knew it was done,” Hamilton said. “I knew it was an iconic shot.”

He laughed.

“Making that image is a good feeling,” Hamilton said. “But it’s better because we were able to tell that story. We were able to show that. We don’t want to let it go unmissed. We had it.”

https://x.com/Phillies/status/1712245789559271728?s=20

Story: How the Braves' 'atta boy' fueled Bryce Harper and sparked a stare down in a Phillies blowout

 

Barves are being incredible babies about this whole thing, from whining about the media reporting words being said directly in front of them to complaining about throat slashing gestures and the fans mockingly doing the Chop.

 

They should make a montage of it and show it during the middle of an inning at their next home game.

 

Are you Lincoln Mitchell?

Steve Garvey Is Running for the Senate

 

"Et tu, Orlando?"

 

Yet another violation of the noble and ancient UNWRITTEN RULES OF BASEBALL.

Dignity. Always, dignity.

 

Braves have been one of the hot spots of red ass in baseball, passed from Bobby Cox on down. One of the reasons they're perpetually unlikeable.

 

I backed into journalism as a photographer in college and was thrilled to be assigned by the student paper to the big 1982 Clemson-at-Georgia football game (featuring the 1980 and 1981 national champions). I found myself perfectly positioned for the first score, when Clemson's QB ran the option to perfection. With the Nikon's motor drive whirring, I got shot after shot of him maneuvering through the holes and then celebrating in the end zone.

And then it came time to change film. Yep. All those great shots were snapped with no film in the camera.

 

Watching Dodgers-Dbacks with Bob Costas, I just kept thinking this was a documentary, not a baseball game.

 

Sports shooting without the motor drive was always a fun exercise. You'd miss the perfect moment by a nano-second and just have to hope for another similar chance.