Mariners: See You at Home

(Nikon D3, Nikkor VR 200-400mm/f4.0 lens @ 200mm, ISO 500, 1/1250th sec.,f4.0)

The thing about photographing baseball is you can go innings, no — make that games — no, make that ENTIRE HOMESTANDS without having an opportunity to make a great action photo. When Seattle’s Eric Byrnes tried to score from third and the throw home beat him by a couple of yards, he had no alternative but to try to bowl over Detroit catcher Alex Avila, who held onto the ball for the out. I was on assignment for Sports Illustrated magazine, so I uploaded the frames to them right away since their deadline was that day.

So much of baseball is routine — routine strikeouts, ground balls and fly outs, that when something spectacular happens, one has to be prepared. Or lucky. I guess I was a little of both with this frame. I got even luckier when Sports Illustrated published the photo over two pages in their “Leading Off” section, with the headline, “Tools Shed”.