Tigers get the win on my 20th birthday

For my 20^th birthday I decided to head up to Detroit to cover them playing the Cleveland Indians. Since I can’t get credentials to Indians games at Progressive Field I used this game to focus mostly on stock photos.

I got to the stadium around 12pm for a 1pm start. I headed up to the media room to pick up a roster and enjoy some of the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever had (sorry mom your cookies suck).

I headed down to the field to work on some feature photos for players signing autographs. I saw Carlos Guillen signing autographs for fans. I wanted to get as low as I could on the ground shooting up on him singing autographs with all the arms reaching towards him but he was blocking his face while signing.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 1/250^th, f13, iso 200 with sb-800

So I made sure I got something by going up high for a different angle.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 1/250^th, f13, iso 200 with sb-800

Then second baseman Placido Polanco came over to sign some autographs for fans.

Nikon D700, 24-70mm, 1/250^th, f13, iso 200 with sb-800

When I was walking over to the Cleveland dugout to head to the top of the stadium to get a nice general view of the stadium I saw starting pitcher Cliff Lee talking on the phone. I bet he was asking manager Eric Wedge do I really have to pitch today?

Nikon D3, 70-200mm, 1/400^th, f4, iso 400

I also saw Luis Valbuena in the dugout warming up with his bat so I fired off a few frames for a nice stock photo.

Nikon D3, 70-200mm, 1/320^th, f4, iso 400

After those few pit stops I finally made it to the top of the stadium. I busted out the 14-24 for an ultra wide view of the stadium. It was a decent, but would have been way better if it was a sell out.

Nikon D700, 14-24, 1/1000^th, f5, iso 200

I headed back down to get starting pitcher Justin Verlander warming up.

Nikon D3, 70-200mm with 1.4x, 1/2500^th, f4, iso 400

It was a very boring game for the first 4 innings until this awesome play at the plate with Placido Polanco colliding with Kelly Shoppach that ended the inning.

Nikon D3, 70-200mm with 1.4x, 1/2500^th, f4, iso 400

Be sure to click on the photo below to see the play at the plate in a little video. Let me know if it doesn’t work.

After the inning was over Clevelands Grady Sizemore struck out and showed some disappointment.

Nikon D3, 70-200mm with 1.4x, 1/2500^th, f4, iso 400

Then it was back to 2 more boring innings of pop outs and strikeout. So I was looking for a cool detailed feature shot. I found a Cleveland player putting pine tar on his bat.

Nikon D3, 70-200mm with 1.4x, 1/500^th, f4, iso 320

I finished up the game with a Cleveland player who can’t figure out who it is for the life of me slide safely into home.

Nikon D3, 70-200mm with 1.4x, 1/2500^th, f4, iso 320

I spent the rest of the game transmitting photos and enjoying the game. That raps out my 20^th birthday.

My next blog will be game two of the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals between the Atlanta Hawks at the Cleveland Cavaliers.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 8th, 2009 at 6:32 pm and is filed under Baseball, MLB and tagged with Andrew Weber, Baseball, Cleveland Indians, Comerica Park, Detroit, Detroit Tigers, Michigan, Photographer, Placido Polanco, Sports, Toledo, US Preewire. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.