Day 180 of 365

Getting the gun reading

Taking in a Trenton Thunder matinee.

"Play at the plate," New Jersey, July 2006

Gomez meets Jason Brown

Getting that perfect shot of a play at the plate is always a goal of mine at the ballpark.

"Beer here," August 2006

Cheap eats at Trenton

Minor league baseball -- a cheap afternoon or night out and, often, cheap eats. (Ironically, the beer isn't usually that cheap, but I guarantee you that it's cheaper here, in Trenton, than it is in the Bronx or Queens.)

"Trenton's four-legged batboy," New Jersey, August 2006

"Trenton's four-legged batboy," New Jersey, August 2006

Whenever I go see the minor-league Trenton Thunder, I can't help myself -- no matter how many similar pictures I have of Chase, That Golden Thunder, retrieving one of the player's bats in the first inning, I have to take more.

The dog is owned by the team and lives with one of the front-office employees. A handler sits with him next to the Thunder dugout during the bottom of the first, sending him out to the plate to retreive the wood after an at-bat. Each time, Chase sniffs and rolls the bat, often needing two or three attempts before finding both a balance between the weight of the heavier barrel and lighter handle and a section with not too much pine tar. Overall, the process, in the end, probably takes longer for the four-legged batboy than it does the two-legged one who handles the rest of the game, but the fans get a kick out of it.

After the first inning, Chase disappears until the sixth, when he emerges with his handler to run down frisbees in right field. It's tied to a promotion, where a fan earns money for each catch -- either $5 per snag, or increasing $5 increments for each one.

Happiness is rounding third

"Happiness is rounding third" series, New Jersey, August 2006

The mascot race at a minor-league baseball game can be hit or miss. Sometimes you get the kid who develops a sudden onset of stage fright as soon as he or she is put at first base with 5,000 people watching and a big blue furball standing there. In those cases, one of the team employees usually leads the child around the bases by the hand or, in at least one instance I can recall, picks the child up and carries her around the bases.

But some kids are truly happy to score from first with Boomer -- in this case -- or some other mascot giving him a head start or scripting a diversion that allows the young sprinter to run away with the race. On this day, the boy outran Boomer's scooter; in a race earlier in the week, Boomer carried a bouquet of flowers and stopped to flirt with the third-base umpire ... who tossed the flowers aside and clocked Boomer with an inflatable boxing glove. With this kid so thoroughly enjoying himself, I couldn't bring myself to choose just one photo. Hence, a series. So what if it's the easy way out.

"Broken bat," Trenton, July 2006

"Broken bat," Trenton, July 2006

Brett Gardner lost his lumber on this swing last week in Trenton. I'm still amazed I caught this one. It's why I love shooting sports. There can still be moments missed even with the new digital SLR. What I love is the whole image -- the ball still in the frame, the barrel of the bat parallel with the ground and the splinters flying off in blurred motion from the space between the windmilling barrel and the broken handle still in his hands. Easily the best shot I got all day, and in the past week at several games.

I also definitely like the larger format I've set up for posting through Flickr. I still think I need to play with the template to even out the text with the image and get the right column to appear nice and neat without being too narrow.

Mike Jacobs after the slam, Trenton, June 2005

A couple of months before the Mets called him up to the majors, Mike Jacobs was tearing up the Eastern League. When I caught a Binghamton Mets game in Trenton, his third-inning grand slam tied the game at 6-6. I'd call that success. In the seventh inning, he was hit by a pitch -- after Trenton's Shelley Duncan, the team's top home run hitter, had been drilled and caused the benches to empty when he took a few steps toward the pitcher.