four white walls photography

I decided last week to attend batting practice at Chase Field. The team that I grew up rooting for, the Detroit Tiger’s, were in town to play the Diamondback’s, my current favorite baseball team.

When I go to a D-back’s game, I like to stop by the World Series display featuring the ball Luis Gonzalez  hit over Derek Jeter , to score Jay Bell with game winning run, to beat the Yankees in game seven of the 2001 World Series. The greatest moment in Arizona sports history.

Batting practice turned out to be more fun than the game. The gates open two hours before the game starts. The D-back’s are batting for the first half hour, before the visiting team takes the field for the next hour. This is a great time to take advantage of the easy access to the dugout areas and the players taking part in drills in the outfield. It is also the best chance catch a ball hit over the fence or thrown in the stands by a player. Dan Marjele took a turn in the field, in between interviews on the sidelines.

There was a interesting mix of people who are regulars at the Diamondback’s dugout, seeking autographs from players.

Some of the D-backs players stopped and signed autographs for the kids. But there were several adults who were clearly professional autograph seekers hanging around.

Tiger’s manager Jim Leyland still gets out and hits fly balls to the outfield. Hanging out by the dugout made my $11.00 seat in the upper deck seem so far away. Luckily for me the first place Diamondback’s can only fill half the ball park on a Friday night, and there were plenty of lower level seats there for the taking.

The new video screen at Chase Field clearly shows part of the Detroit Tiger’s problem. Gary Sheffield’s .194 batting average with twenty four strike outs. Life without the juice just isn’t the same. Speaking of juice I heard the Tiger’s were thinking of signing Barry Bond’s…