After the free concert in Central Park, I got on the New York Subway to Queens to check out Citi Field. The neighborhood around the stadium is pretty grim, but inside Citi Field is one of the nicest ballparks I’ve ever seen.

As you enter the main entrance you head up an escalator and at the top are giant baseball cards showing you the Mets starting lineup for the day. These are real cards, not a video projection, so someone has to physically change these every day. The cards pictured here are from the 2012 Topps set. I’m guessing they have new ones each year.

From left to right the cards are:
Kirk Nieuwenhuis
Daniel Murphy
David Wright
Lucas Duda
Ike Davis
Scott Hairston
Omar Quintanilla
Josh Thole
RA Dickey

The actual starting lineup ended up being different so I don’t know if there was a late change or if they just try to predict the starting lineup with the cards since they have to have it in place more than a couple hours before the game, and the real starting lineup isn’t usually announced until about an hour before the game.

Posted on July 29th, 2012 under Other. Tags: baseball, mets, new york, nikon d7000, Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 Lens for Nikon. Comments Off on Today’s Topps Starting Lineup

My Oakland A’s have been crazy good this past month, moving from playing under .500 baseball to the third best record in the American League. They have, by far, the best record in baseball during July. Last night their offense came to life in Toronto, beating the Blue Jays 16-0. Next Saturday I’m going to see them in Oakland against the very same Toronto Blue Jays. I can’t wait.

Today’s photo is of Josh Reddick, who has been one of the few bright spots in Oakland’s offense. I took this back in April in Anaheim. Reddick is currently slugging more than 50 points above his career average, which is saying a lot since he has moved from hitter-friendly Fenway Park to the pitching heaven of Oakland.

Posted on July 26th, 2012 under Other. Tags: AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II, baseball, nikon d7000, oakland. Comments Off on The A’s are on fire

Curtis Granderson swings

The New York Yankees had the best record in Major League Baseball for the first half of the season. Can they do it again in the second half?

Posted on July 13th, 2012 under Other. Tags: AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II, baseball, new york, nikon d7000. Comments Off on Second half of 2012 baseball season begins today

Andrew McCutchen rips one off of Chris Capuano

Andrew McCutchen has had an incredible first half of the season to lead the Pirates to first place in their division at the All-Star Break. If he does the same in the second half, it is fairly safe to say that the Pirates will be in the playoffs for the first time in forever and McCutchen will be holding the NL MVP award. If you double his first half stats they come out to be 116 runs, 224 hits, 36 home runs, 120 RBIs, 28 SBs, and a .362 batting average. Wow! Can he do it?

McCutchen didn’t do so great in the Home Run Derby last night, but he did better than Cano.

Today’s photo is from my April trip to Dodger Stadium.

Posted on July 10th, 2012 under Other. Tags: AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II, baseball, los angeles, nikon d7000, Nikon TC-17E II 1.7x Teleconverter. Comments Off on Andrew McCutchen of the Pittsburgh Pirates leads the National League in the All-Star Game tonight

Yankee Stadium panorama from Monument Park

This weekend Roger Waters is performing The Wall at Yankee Stadium twice (Friday and Saturday nights). When I took this photo at a Yankees-Braves game last month they had an advertisement for the second date (which wasn’t sold out at the time) and it gave me goosebumps. Unfortunately, I will not be in New York this weekend, but I have extremely fond memories of seeing this tour in San Francisco.

I took today’s picture from Monument Park in center field before the game, approximately the same place where Roger Waters will be performing The Wall. The photomerge of five pics messed up the netting that protects the monuments from home run balls. I attempted to Photoshop the netting away, but I became frustrated and was ready to delete the images off my hard drive. Then it occurred to me that this isn’t all that different from the wall Roger will be building and destroying in center field this weekend, built on the edges to begin with, fully built by intermission, and destroyed during the second set.

For another panorama of Yankee Stadium that isn’t a mess see this prior entry.

Posted on July 5th, 2012 under Other. Tags: baseball, new york, nikon d7000, Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 Lens for Nikon. Comments Off on Roger Waters @ Yankee Stadium