The 4-day 4th of July weekend afforded us the opportunity to run up to Phoenix on Saturday and catch a baseball game. Kelly is a huge Dodgers fan, and since they’re in the opposite league, in the conference on the opposite coast, and they weren’t playing the Red Sox, I didn’t really have any issue pulling for them. Manny was there, and although Kelly isn’t really a fan since the doping suspension last year, at least he didn’t pull a Johnny Damon (spit be upon him), and defect to the Yankees.
We had great seats, front row of the outfield bleachers, but positioned so we could watch the batters between the 1st and 2nd basemen:
We got into the ballpark just as the National Anthem started, and then proceeded down to our seats. Kelly’s favorite parking lot happens to be on the corner of the stadium where the entry gate backs up to the section we were sitting in, so that worked out perfectly. The above shot was taken with my Iraq-duty point and shoot, which I brought along specifically to be able to hand to someone to take our picture. Not especially keen on handing someone the good camera, as it actually requires a modicum of sense to be able to use correctly. That you don’t just look at the screen on the back of the camera, point it, and push the button, is sadly beyond a lot of people. If there’s not a screen on the back, they’re lost. This was the first of two shots the guy took for us, the second with my hat turned around backward to eliminate the shadow. Of course it turned out I had a goofy (okay, goofier than normal) look on my face for that one, so I took the above image and futzed about with photoshop a bit to reduce the effect of the shadow on my face. Basically selected my face and the shadow and increased the exposure, then fixed the skin tone to match my arm. Turned out pretty decent.
I did manage to get a couple of snaps doing the ‘point it at yourself at arm’s length’ thing with the big camera, and some of them even turned out pretty good:
I’m happy Kelly’s finally warmed to the thought of me taking her picture, as she is a bit camera shy. Having been around me long enough to be convinced that A: I have a pretty decent eye with the camera, and B: She still gets veto over anything I take even if I think the pic is okay, she’s now content to let me snap away. That makes me happy too:
Just after we sat down, the giant-headed ballplayer caricatures came around the warning track toward the Dodgers bullpen:
They also showed up a little later in the game walking through the crowd along the 1st base side of the field:
Most of the rest of the night involved us harassing the D-back fans behind us, me taking lots of pictures of baseball, and just generally having a good time. With the exception of a couple specific pictures which warrant further narrative, I’ll just post a bunch of baseball pictures now:
Some of the more interesting shots were taken while the outfielders warmed up between innings:
A couple innings in, we walked around to the beer and brats stand around by home plate, and on the way by I managed to catch a couple shots of Ojeda grounding out (I think to the shortstop):
Inevitably, the ‘banned’ beachballs came out, and of course one got bounced down onto the edge of the field. Oh well, they’re fun while they last:
Not too bad, considering it’s a night game under the lights, AND I’m shooting from all the way out in right field…
Time to sit down son, we’re taking a beating here on your account…
Again, not bad from the outfield under the lights:
All of the above pictures are posted in the order they were shot, with the exception of the pictures of Kelly and me, and of the bobble-heads. These next two look as though they could have been shot on the same walk from the dugout, but were in fact shot over 40 minutes apart:
Even just after having swapped in the above pitcher, they started warming up a 3rd:
Snapped this one just before the 1-run jack to right-center by one of the D-backs that saved them getting shut out. For quite a while, the Dodgers had more runs than hits…
At the end of the game, they opened up the wall panels and the stadium roof for the fireworks display:
Overall, it was a good night. I’d like to get to a day game at some point so there’s enough light to use my 2x magnifier AND get decent stop-motion shots vs the semi-blurry ones I was getting under the lights. Oh well, just another reason to go back for another game! Happy 4th of July everybody!
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