Mostly it’s bad news for Red Sox fans, and it doesn’t seem as if it’s going to get too much better. Other than having a few young players who could be future stars — Xander Bogaerts, Mookie Betts, and Eduardo Rodriquez — there’s not much to like about this season.
However, there is one bit of good news: Ellen Miller is getting interested in sports’ photography. At least baseball photography.
We (foolishly) went to a Sox vs Orioles game the other night, with the usual result. But Ellen brought her camera and long lens, and here are a few examples of her first serious baseball pictures.
So instead of fearing an August Sox slump, we can look forward to photos ‘thru Ellen’s lens’ from games we’ll see this summer in Tokyo and Fenway.
David Stephenson said:
Nice work, Ellen! Perhaps you’ll document Papi’s last game when you visit Friendly Fenway. I’m going to a game against the O’s on 23rd with my youngest, because of a bid my wife did at a charity auction. We get to go on the field during infield practice. Given the way things are going, one of us will probably get conked with an errant ball.
Edward Scholl said:
Very nice Ellen. Keep posting!
Brian Steinbach said:
The first photo reminded me of Leroy Neiman, although quite different. Great shots!
Daniel said:
Nice! My favorite is catching Pedey’s hop. Something to look forward to, indeed. Encore!
Land Wayland said:
Ellen has captured the moments I watch for in a baseball game. The actual plays in baseball take so little time. A pitch takes about 2-3 seconds from windup to catcher’s mitt. A ground ball to the infield eats up 3-4 seconds from swing to first baseman’s catch. A high fly ball to the outfield is a leisurely play because it gives us time to glance at the runner before switching back to watch the catch. The amount of time the ball is actually “in play” that is, actually moving, in an entire baseball gave (including the 250-300 pitches and catcher’s return, foul balls and hits/running) is probably less than 10-12 minutes.
Not much different than the much shorter games of football or tennis or badminton or volley ball (where the amount of time that the ball is “in action” is even shorter than baseball), but much different from soccer or basketball (where the ball seldom stops moving)….which is probably why the sports where the ball is mostly “quiet” are considered by many ignorant souls to be “boring”.
But Ellen understands that the time in baseball when “nothing” is happening is an essential part of the game. There can be as much “action” going on when the baseball is not moving as when it is flying out of the pitcher’s hand or off the bat at more than 100 miles per hour.
Her pictures capture these excellent athletes doing what they do just as well as they move…in some of her best pictures she captured them when they weren’t moving…..but were very much in the game.
Compared to virtually every other game (except chess and checkers) baseball is a game of minds fully engaged in planning and plotting and scheming and….thinking. Fully loaded and ready to explode but trying to figure out how best to do it. The action usually takes place very, very quickly. A home run and the resulting trot around the bases is the longest play in baseball, which is part of what makes it unique.
A batter only gets two mistakes with the bat and he has less than 1/10 of second to decide precisely what he is going to do and he is working with a margin of error of less than 1/100 of an inch. From 66 feet away, a pitcher has a margin of error of about 1/4 of an inch. An infielder has 1/50 of second to decide exactly when to release his throw to perfectly hit the first baseman’s outstretched glove.
So most of our time at a baseball game is spent watching players not moving, not throwing or catching, not swinging or running. And since we love baseball so much, this must mean that we very much love the rest of the game when “nothing” is happening. And Ellen understands this and has shown us how well she understands this.
More, more, more. Please
Land Wayland
Chris said:
Thanks for the great pictures. I’m holding on to Bosox hope and am going with a “darkest before the dawn” take on the situation, 3 games back by the all-star break!