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Dwyer
Stadium is a pretty simple place, but
sometimes the lighting right around game time can
be spectacular. Late afternoon showers had
threatened to cancel the game, but then the sun
came out, flooding the home dugout with shadows
and creating a rainbow just over the first base
line. Conditions like this don't happen very
often, and usually last for less than a minute. |
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| Many of these shots of the
2000 Batavia team were rejected in favor of
"action shots" for their card set. I
had a couple of days to shoot when the blue sky
was absolutely magic. I was pretty disappointed
that some of these shots were passed over, like
this one of pitcher Travis Alston. |
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Outfielder Brandon
Caraway from Texas, also a very
photogenic subject. |
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| Kevin Donovan
is a pitcher. He told me he didn't want anything
fancy - "Just a regular pose." I kept
telling him he looked like a hitter and he kept
laughing and walking away. Then the next thing I
know, Donovan is swinging a bat in the clubhouse!
I got him out of there before he could hurt
anybody and posed him on the outfield grass. I've
never seen anybody get into it so fast! He told
me he hadn't batted since high school, but you
could have fooled me. |
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Alejandro
Rojas got nicknamed "Cookie"
within minutes of arriving in the Phillies
system. He's a nice kid from the Dominican
Republic who spent some very frustrating time
last season on the DL. I love watching him run
the bases. |
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| This is Jarrod
Lawson's second season at Batavia. He
was looking forward to pitching healthy and
showing everyone what he could do. I took his
picture for the 1999 card set also, but like this
shot much better. |
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Justin
Duarte was also spending his second
season at Batavia. He asked me to get some
pictures of him working during a game, which I
did. But seeing a guy crouched behind the plate
with catching gear on doesn't really personalize
a baseball card. This shot was taken during a
game, and it shows a lot more about Duarte, as
well as his manager, Frank Klebe,
and his coach Chico Fana. This
is the kind of "action shot" I can
relate to. |
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| Infielder Preston
Underdown was concerned that his card
would get his name wrong. "It's not
Underwood" he told me several times. I
promised to do what I could, although the truth
is, photographers don't have much control over
what gets written on baseball cards. Preston is
from Curt Schilling territory (Scottsdale,
Arizona) - a nice omen for a future Phillie. |
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I just love
this picture of Carlos Silverio,
although it's a long shot whether it will ever
end up on a baseball card. In fact, it's a long
shot whether Carlos will even have a card in the
2000 Batavia set. The second night I was in town,
Carlos was the starting pitcher. He went five
strong innings but had to leave the game with
what turned out to be a fairly serious arm
injury. He was leaving a day later to begin a
rehab stint in Florida. My last memory of him is
a forlorn-looking guy sitting alone in the
stands. I tried to talk to him but his English
and my Spanish didn't get us as far as I'd like.
I wished him buena suerte and really do
hope things work out better than they looked that
night. |
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| Catcher Dan Tosca
- another very photogenic guy. |
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Pitcher Chad
Sadowski - only a steel grey sky kept
this from being one of my favorite shots. |
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| Infielder Scott
Youngbauer from Georgia. Here's another
guy who can have a backup career as a
photographer's model if his baseball career
doesn't take off. |
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