Everyone has heard of the phenom 21 year old pitcher who was selected #1 in the 2009 MLB draft. This past weekend I was headed to Long Pond, Pennsylvania to shoot NASCAR. I was browsing ESPN.com and I saw Strasburg would make his final minor league start on Thursday in Buffalo. So I did a quick search to see how far Buffalo was from me and how far it was to the track. 5 hours from home then another 5 hours to the race. This being such a big deal I had my editor request a media credential for the Buffalo Bisons vs Syracuse Chiefs. Once credentials were approved I had to figure out what time I should leave Ohio to make it for a 1:05 start time. I left home at 5 am which got me to the stadium around 10:30 which gave me plenty of time to check out the stadium get something to eat and relax.
About thirty minutes prior to the game, Strasburg emerged from the locker room into the dugout. Let the stalking begin!
A MLB official emerged from the dugout shortly after telling all the photographers we weren’t allowed to pass this line to shoot him warming up in the bullpen. So I decided to head into the stands and stand right above him in the bullpen. First he played a little long toss then he started warming up.
Once he took to the mound all the fans were just waiting to see the 100 MPH show up on the scoreboard, but it never happened! Sorry kid! Maybe in the pro! But only having to shoot a pitcher is boring and kind of fun at the same time. You have to try and shoot from a different position every inning to get something different.
After a few innings I tried to get a little artsy and and turned my shutter speed way down to 1/60th of a second and did some blur photos of Strasburg. Took about 150 frames to get a nice sharp one.
This being international league the pitcher gets to bat. Lets just say Strasburg took a few good hacks at the ball but later struck out.
Here are a few clips of my photos used around the internet.
