Jackie Robinson 42 Yankee Stadium Monument Park

Forty-one years ago today, Jackie Robinson died.

Posted on October 24th, 2013 under Other. Tags: baseball, new york, nikon d7000, Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 Lens for Nikon. Comments Off on Jackie Robinson

Yakult Swallows walk-off victory
中村 悠平 with the hit
山田 哲人 scores the game winner

I must admit to having become totally uninterested in the 2013 MLB post season. Once my A’s lost there hasn’t been another team that has compelled me to watch a game. I don’t even know who is winning between the Tigers and Red Sox or Dodgers and Cardinals. Four top-ten payrolls battling it out for bragging rights means nothing to me. Too bad the A’s didn’t get past the Tigers. If the Pirates or Rays had made it another round I could have still cared.

Today’s photo is from a sayonara RBI in the bottom of the 9th inning by the Swallows‘ Nakamura back in August. Yamada scored the game winner. What a fun game it was.

Posted on October 17th, 2013 under Japan. Tags: baseball, Nikon 24-120mm f/4 VR G lens, Nikon D600, sports photography, Tokyo, yakult swallows. Comments Off on Walk off hit (サヨナラ打)

Coco Crisp leads off as Barry Zito delivers the pitch at AT&T Park

Today’s photo has nothing to do with the subject line (other than the fact that the A’s were involved), but that is only because I didn’t have a camera when I went to the A’s game on October 15, 1981 and Krazy George started the first wave. I was only 12 years old at the time, but I remember that game well.

Posted on October 15th, 2013 under Other. Tags: baseball, Nikon AF-S VR Zoom-NIKKOR 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED Telephoto Lens, Nikon D600, oakland, san francisco. Comments Off on 32 years ago today “the wave” was invented

Wally Bell

I sat behind Wally Bell on an April evening last year. Today he died. As someone who didn’t care about the outcome of the game (my A’s weren’t playing), I found nothing about his calls to dislike. His punch outs on called third strikes were quite entertaining.

RIP Wally.

Posted on October 14th, 2013 under Other. Tags: AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II, baseball, nikon d7000, Nikon TC-17E II 1.7x Teleconverter. Comments Off on Wally Bell (January 10, 1965 – October 14, 2013)

Yasuhiro Ogawa
Yakult Swallows

The Yakult Swallows had the worst record of any team in Japanese Professional Baseball this year despite amazing seasons from two players. Yasuhiro Ogawa (小川 泰弘), pictured above, went 16-4 with a 2.93 ERA for a team that went 57-83 overall. On the offensive side, Wladimir Balentien batted .330, with 60 home runs (a new record for NPB), and had a ridiculous 1.278 OPS. By comparison, the best OPS in MLB this year was Miguel Cabrera at 1.078. I really don’t understand how the Swallows lost 83 games with performances like that from Ogawa and Balentien.

Posted on October 10th, 2013 under Japan. Tags: baseball, Nikon AF-S VR Zoom-NIKKOR 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED Telephoto Lens, Nikon D600, sports photography. Comments Off on 2013 NPB Season is over