James Venes

Finally, the last game of the trip. May in particular was packed with games I could cover (ten), but now that we’re getting more into the summer months most teams scale back drastically on their day games except for Sundays. Also, many of the midweek day games I look for early in the season end up being “education days” where kids from local schools attend. That makes for an interesting setting when the first 2/3 of the game is filled with kids making a lot of noise then the place suddenly goes silent as they all file back to their buses around the 7th inning, which I don’t really get. If you’re going to bring a group of kids to the game, let them see the whole thing.

Anyway, Lancaster changed over to an affiliate of the Boston Red Sox not too long ago and they definitely make sure people know about it (and why not?). They have their “Jethawk Nation,” a “mini-monster” sign above the scoreboard in right, plus they play “Sweet Caroline” and then “Dirty Water” following a win.

Clear Channel Stadium, also known as The Hangar, has a full-size jet mounted in front of the main entrance and it calls attention to the aerospace legacy and military presence in the area, particularly Edwards Air Force Base. The design of the stadium itself is nearly identical to the one the Inland Empire 66ers use in San Bernardino, probably no surprise as both opened in 1996 and I’m certain they were designed by the same architecture firm. The concourse and seating setup is very similar and both have the same general roof design. There’s nothing wrong with it - they’re both cozy places to watch a game in.

The Ports and Jethawks engaged in a game of “Anything you can do I can do” as both scored single runs in the 3rd and 4th. Then Lancaster added the “better” part when they scored 4 in the 7th after Stockton took a brief lead on a solo home run by Matt Sulentic. Jorge Jimenez tied it with a single, Josh Reddick gave the Jethawks the lead with another, then Chih-Hsien Chiang’s double plated the final two as Lancaster won 6-3.

After being a little displeased with some of the results in Visalia and Fresno, I went back to shooting with an ISO setting that got me better photos before and it worked well again here. The early part of the game had a decent cloud cover so the shadows were easier to deal with, but by the time the sun came out I got the usual brightness I’m used to working with during the middle of day. I also had the best weather of any place on the trip: 70s.

This 10-day, 7-game trip ended with 474 photos uploaded along with 55 more from an afternoon/evening in Joshua Tree National Park. Thanks to those who have looked. If you visit Scout.com, you should eventually see many of these on various player pages as well. Without them and the occasional work I do for SFDugout.com, I don’t get this kind of access.

5/22/08: Stockton Ports at Lancaster Jethawks

Starting off about a week and a half in the Southern part of California, I worked a game at Recreation Park yesterday in Visalia. This is a place I’d been to before in 2005, but just from the point of view of a traveling fan wrapping up visits to all of the California League parks.

This time around, it was a little different. As small as it is, there is no field access so everything needs to be shot from the seats. On the plus side, they’re making renovations to the ballpark and some newer, lower seats are now down the third base line. The drawback to the current renovations is the entire first base side past the dugout is completely off limits as all the work is taking place there. That severely limits places to go but once it’s all done I’d like to get back there to check it out.

Regardless, it’s both interesting and challenging to shoot there. The position of the sun was tough at times and better on the first base side, but like I said that was the more restricted side. So, not my best set of work but not every game can be. This is also the first gallery I put together using the new laptop and drawing tablet I picked up last week. Doing that sure beats having to get multiple memory cards without the ability to do anything further until I get home again.

The game didn’t have a whole lot of action. Lancaster scored a run in the 5th and Visalia came back with a pair of their own in the bottom half for a 2-1 win. Good pitching by Cesar Valdez was enough for the win and three Oaks collected a pair of hits. Josh Papelbon ended up pitching for Lancaster so it was fun shooting his submarine style at different points.

5/13/08: Lancaster Jethawks at Visalia Oaks

This is often a bad thing in sports since, though it brings new fans to new areas, it often dilutes talent. In my case, it’s a very good thing.

While most of the games I’ve shot featured affiliates of the Oakland A’s or San Francisco Giants, I’ve begun to branch out in covering other teams as well and I expect to continue that over the next month in particular. In this case, Lancaster is a High-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox while Modesto is with the Colorado Rockies.

This was another Wednesday morning game and it stayed overcast most of the way with brief periods of sunlight. While it makes for easier shooting in the sense that shadows aren’t as severe as they are on a cloudless day, I do have to shoot a little slower so things don’t come out too dark to clean up later.

John Thurman Field in Modesto is unique in the sense it’s right up against a golf course so there’s a high screen behind the home/third seating area to help keep balls from landing on the course, but a number go over anyway. It’s also got a very deep left-center field power alley: 393 feet. Dead center tops out at a more traditional 400, but it’s even easier to hit home runs than usual closer to the lines as the foul poles (fair poles to me) only reach between about 310-320 feet from the plate. The jump from 312 to 393 in left is very quick. The facility itself has seen various renovations over the past decade or so and it’s not bad for a site that first hosted baseball in 1955. Personally, I like the trees that are prevalent mainly beyond the right field wall.

Continuing my trend of low-scoring games this season (2-1 and 3-0 before this), Modesto pushed across single runs in the 6th, 7th and 8th innings to take a 3-0 victory over Lancaster. Australia’s Shane Lindsay went 6 innings for the win while Mike Paulk, Cole Garner and Daniel Mayora each picked up 2 hits apiece for the Nuts. One of Paulk’s was a triple.

4/23/08: Lancaster Jethawks at Modesto Nuts