Baseball

Daniel Yeow for Columbia Daily Spectator…

Baseball is supposed to be a great American pastime. Well, one thing is for certain, time does seem to pass (and you really notice it!) during baseball games. A vastly inferior attempt at cricket, it is a game of ball and bat in which the players hit the ball around and run in circles. Interestingly, Columbia isn’t half-bad at Baseball. In fact, we won the Ivy League championships. I don’t normally shoot baseball, but I was called in at the last minute because the regular baseball photographer wasn’t available and the editors knew I would be at Baker Field sports complex perving on shooting the girls playing softball. Here are some of the photos…

You know the game is serious when Roar-ee (the lion (the one on the right)) shows up.

This thing is called a dug-out. Obviously, this was from back in the day when they played baseball during wartime and had to hide most of the players in trenches for fear of getting hurt. Obviously this isn’t neccessary any more, hence the dug-out isn’t dug out.

hey! get the glove off my ass! I’m trying to hit the ball

“clink”

Columbia isn’t a big sporting university, but the small numbers who do turn up to these games seem pretty into it. They’re wearing matching colours for a start.

“clink” (i’m sure everyone’s getting tired of these photos by now)

oh look, I’m about to catch the ball as it bounces evenly off this strange synthetic grass…

The pitcher… throws the ball at the other guy, and is used to serve drinks during the break.

can someone explain to me what’s going on with his left arm

all that red… it’s supposed to be dirt, but instead, it is strange simulated red grass

unlike cricket, after the batter has hit the ball and begins to run, he usually drops the bat.

ever wonder why the catcher has an extra pair of gloves in his back pocket? yeah, me too

The ball doesn’t seem to go so fast from this angle

Oh, the renamed the field… after some guy… I forget his name. Mr. Field? no, that’s not it…

This one made the back page of the paper… which surprised me a bit because it isn’t a very “standard” shot.

winding up for a swing…

sliding on the synthetic stuff isn’t nearly as cool as doing it on the dirt… the girls get all dirty while the guys… yeah… don’t.

High fives all around as someone makes a run. Runs are hard to come by in baseball… not like in cricket where scores in the hundreds aren’t out of the ordinary.

“clink”

nice follow through

The batter from Penn tries to bunt while the man at first base is hesitant (that almost rhymes!)

is he gonna make it!!??

you know what… I think he made it!

I have recently become addicted to taking photos of players sliding into bases. Here we have a classic belly-slide

quite common for backtracking after failed base-stealing attempts

No baseball shoot is complete without a fisheye shot

We move on now to a slightly bigger stadium – Yankee stadium. And who have we to watch at Yankee stadium tonight? The New York Yankees of course.

alright, I know I’m hopeless with the ladies… you don’t have to rub it in

Nice wrist action… loose that ridiculous glove and this guy might make a good bowler in cricket

oohh… the ball’s a bit close to his body, it’s cramping his style.

That ball is rather close to his… balls…

Mouse over the image…

looks like this one is caught out

“clink”

whoah! money shot! (you’ll notice that almost all of my shots are taken from the same location. seeing as I don’t have a press pass for the NY Yankees, I don’t have the free roaming ability that I normally have at Columbia games)

These pitchers throw the ball pretty fast.

Will he make it?

will he make it!!???

ooohhhh…. he JUST made it!!! (to get the proper effect, download all three in the sequence and watch them in a slideshow one after the other)

This is the seventh inning stretch… and the people who groom the field do a little YMCA dance…

nice catch… right at the end of the pitch. There is no boundary rope, as there is in cricket, the boundary is set by whether or not a fielder can make a catch

sometimes the pitcher attempts what we in the cricket world would call a “bouncer”, aimed deliberately at the batsman to throw their rhythm

…and when you’re twisted out of shape like this, your rhythm just falls out of your pocket

“clink”

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