ROCKTOBER

I love baseball. It’s that simple. I always have. I watched the game since as far back as I can remember, Ive played the game (both organized and unorganized) on multiple continents and have shot the game for a number of years now as well. After interning with the Astros (my hometown team and by far my favorite organized sports team ever) I thought I was pretty strong as far as shooting baseball goes. When I knew I was coming up to Colorado, one of the first things I wanted to do was shoot the Rockies in Denver…and within a week or so of being here I had. I actually got an assignment to shoot the team this past Sunday. They played the Arizona Diamondbacks and won in an amazing game. The MLB stars aligned on this day and with their win the Rockies were set to play a 1 game tiebreaker the very next day at Coors Field, against the San Diego Padres to decide who would gain a playoff berth as the NL Wild Card. I was already excited to have the chance to shoot such an awesome game and have it be a nice, sunny day game, but when I heard that I was the one that would be coming back hours later to shoot the tiebreaker, I was beyond myself. I prepared a camera ahead of time outfitted with zip lock bags for a possible (wet) clubhouse celebration and it was a good thing I had since the Rockies won the almost 5 hour, marathon game in the bottom of the 13th inning with NL MVP candidate making a controversial, yet tough, slide into home. The place went ballistic. The Rockies were headed to the playoffs for the first time since 1995. The chaos that ensued was no doubt part of some of the greatest moments of my humble life. I was sprayed with champagne and Coors beer (Coors Field…go figure) and had an amazing time. At one point Willy Taveras (former Astros) recognized me from my tenure with the Astros, took my Astros hat from my head, slapped his alcohol-soaked cap on my head and proceeded to wave my Astros hat around, throwing more alcohol on it all the while. After the celebration died down, I talked with Willy and his wife (with whom I graduated last December) and was introduced to their new baby. I have adopted the Rockies as my new team to root for since my ‘Stros are out of it and for the simple prospect of possibly attending or shooting more playoff baseball in the near future. As I write this the Rockies are leading the NLDS race against the Phillies 2-0 and are coming home to play 2 games. It looks VERY good that they will continue on to the NLCS. I was forced to use the Nikon gear and although my shooting wasn’t the greatest ever, I was simply glad to be a part of history and be able to shoot through it all. My photos from Sunday and Monday ran in The Gazette fairly well on not only A-1, but the sports cover as well.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 5th, 2007 at 5:09 PM. It is filed under Editorial, Sports and tagged with Arizona Diamondbacks, baseball, champagne, Colorado, Colorado Rockies, Colorado Springs, Coors Field, Gazette, internships, major league, MLB, Newspapers, NL Wild Card, NLCS, San Diego Padres, Sports, Willy Taveras. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.