By covering Game One of the 2013 World Series at Fenway Park between the St. Louis Cardinals and Boston Red Sox, I now have had the good fortune of covering 22 Fall Classics!
Since I was working for Major League Baseball Photos, I was one of only two still photographers (the other being Red Sox team photographer Michael Ivins) on field for pre-game activities. It’s always a bit surreal being out there solo. My MLB Photos “teammate” since 2000, Brad Mangin and Rob Tringali made up the MLB Photos photog team in Boston. If you follow baseball, you might know that there’s been a few pretty good pictures made between the three of us over the years.
That said, I’ve been living the dream and continue to do so, so please don’t wake me up!
Speaking of waking up… What happened to the previoulsy unflappable Cardinals during Game One? I’ve gotten to know them quite well over the past few weeks, so watching the wheels come off the way they did last night came as a surpise.
It all started early.
In a play that turned out to be the beginning of the end for the Cardinals, Pete Kozma’s failure to handle Matt Carpenters throw in what probably would have ended up being an inning ending David Ortiz double play grounder instead resulted in bases a bases loaded, one out at bat for post season stalwart Mike Napoli.
It didn’t come easy for the Red Sox, however as second base umpire Dana DeMuth originally called Dustin Pedroia out, ruling that Kozma was “transferring the ball” out of his glove to throw to first base. Red Sox manager John Farrell argued the original call and the umpires decided to discuss the play. The ruling on the field was reversed, correctly so, setting the stage for Napoli.
Of course, Napoli immediately cleared the bases with a three run triple and the Red Sox were off and running.
Adam Wainwright was unpredictably wild and hittable, the defense had more than a few meltdowns, most noticeable when it involves Gold Glove catcher Yadier Molina. I can only summarize the reason for this uncharacteristic play as being caused the mighty powerful force called….
Pressure.
After the first two innings, the game did settle down, actually, it slowed down until the Red Sox added a pair of runs in the seventh inning on Big Papi’s home run off of Kevin Seigrist.
Add the eight strikeout performance of Jon Lester to the equation, combined with 3 Cardinal errors and the end result was a 9-1 Red Sox drubbing to put the Bosox up one game to nothing.
Game Two will feature the Cardinals Michael Wacha up against the Red Sox John Lackey.
My prediction… If the Red Sox defeat Wacha tonight, a 2004 repeat could be in the cards…
…Of course, I’ve been wrong many times, so don’t make too much out of my take on things. I’m just having fun!
That’s it for today… Time to head to Fenway.
Ron congrats on the many years of service with the MLB, lots of great memories. We have to get together one of these summers, we can go play Chicago Golf Club…..I have a sponsor!
Great job last night…
LCL
Thanks, Larry! Baseball has created some great memories for me… I hope to keep adding to them as time marches on…