A Day in Fresno
by James on May.06, 2008, under Minor League Baseball
My longest photo trip of the year so far, Fresno is as much as three hours from the Bay Area depending on where I start from. I’ll be passing that next week but it won’t be a one day thing. In this case, it was 15 hours from the time I left home until I got back but that’s just the way it is for something like this.
Chukchansi Park is a little over five years old and one of the nicer minor league ballparks around in my opinion. It’s a nice place to shoot in, though given the hot weather in Fresno they don’t have much other than night games once the summer really gets going so it’s good to get down there while it’s still pleasant. To help some fans stay cooler, they also have some misting machines mainly located under the overhang above the seats between the dugouts.
There are some pretty nice angles to shoot from on the field between the dugouts as well. The way a row of seats are set up right behind the backstop net, you literally get to watch the game at field level. A few feet above that, the regular seating sections begin so it’s no real trouble to work down there without worrying about blocking someone’s view.
In this one, Fresno used a combination of excellent pitching on the part of Nick Pereira (8 IP, 5 H, 0 BB, 11 K) and home runs from Scott McClain (two) and Clay Timpner to take home an 8-0 victory over Omaha. San Francisco SS Omar Vizquel played four innings in the first of a few injury rehab starts. I was pretty pleased with the majority of what I got at this game. There were a couple things I missed but I got some good results on a stolen base, double, error and double play, along with the usual pitcher/batter shots. I’ll be back down in Fresno again this season and I look forward to working there some more.
