Ode to an All-Star Game

July 15, 2003: All-Star Game at U.S. Cellular Field

FROM THE ARCHIVES.

With the 79th All-Star game at Yankee Stadium ending here is my ode to an All-Star Game.

Boy the All Star game has changed a bit over the years. I remember covering it when it was more of a social hour when all of the top players from around the league came together to hang out and have fun.

Tuesday's game was completely the opposite, 15 innings and 4 hours and 50 minutes and the American League once again prevailed with a 4-3 win in the Midsummer Classic.

We had Phil Velasquez, one of our baseball aces, covering the game for us but he was solo and they did not allow laptops on the field. If the game had started at noon I would have liked it a lot more but because of the late finish I feel like I could not get the best of Phil's images in the paper.

We have been using a new piece of technology to send photos directly from the camera to the office and if that had worked we would have been golden. But alas we have not gotten it to work at any big sporting events yet. It crapped out last week during the LifeLock 400 at the Chicagoland Speedway but luckily it started working after the race and we were able to get the celebration in the paper. When it is working right we can get a photo from camera onto the web in about five minutes. When it is not it is like the old analog wire transmitters minus the high pitch transmission tone.

Enough of now, here are a few photos from the last All-Star game in Chicago in 2003 at U.S. Cellular Field. I was covering it for the Tribune and we had a crew of about 3 shooters and 1 editor. We were set up in one of the hallways under the stands and before the Futures game Phil made a frame of Giants mascot Lou Seal giving me a few picture editing tips. I wish he would have been around to run cards for me later during the All Star game we could have used the help.

The slowest time editing on the road is always the beginning of the game when you are waiting for cards to roll in, so I went to the upper level where we did not have a photog to shoot an overall of the field. I did not want to have an empty aisle in the middle of my frame I worked my way to an empty seat. As the national anthem was finishing up the U.S. Navy Blue Angels roared overhead and much to my delight the guy in front of me raised his fist in the air. I made the photo grabbed my gear and ran down to edit the first batch of images coming in.

One editor on 3 photogs at a big event is a bit much and I was pretty swamped trying to keep on top of the game and get key photos back to the Tower. It was not till after the game was over and Scott Strazzante was looking at the back of my camera did he see this frame and told me I should move it.

Though I still love to make photos I know what my job is editing at an event and I always edit my photogs images before I even look at my own photos. I will head out to shoot some features or pick up a ball game here and there is we do not have a staffer to cover. I like to keep my shooting skills as sharp as I can because if you left your skills fall off to far it is hard to get them back.

The photo of Oakland's Keith Foulke was from Monday workouts.

-jk