Friday night I covered MLB Home Run Derby X, an event where four teams of 4 players, each team including one former MLB veteran, see how many home runs they can hit from what looks like a giant inflatable bouncy-house in the middle of the infield of Dunkin’ Donuts Park.
I was escorted to the “media section,” a no-man’s land along the third base line from where I could almost see what was going on. A charming spot, the only thing missing was a 1972 Chevy that had been stripped for parts.
Things were progressing slowly. My deadline was 7:30, and I believe there were introductions happening around 7:10, though it was hard to see from the bunker, as they were facing the crowd and behind some equipment…their backs to me.
Finally around 7:20, just after the National Anthem, the crowd looks up, I follow, and see two large aircraft approaching at about 11 o’clock. They were coming in fast, and my camera at hand had my 300 2.8 on it. My other camera was in my bag farther down the bunker. No time. I grab my phone, get some shots of the planes coming in over the stadium, and just as quickly they’re gone.
Edit in my phone, then ran around asking anyone I could find, “Where were those planes from? Were they C-130’s? I need caption info, dammit!”
No one knew anything.
Finally found a guy who said they were Air National Guard C-130’s. That sounded right, and he had quite the military bearing. I did a quick comparison online between my shot and existing photos of C-130’s, went with it and filed at 7:29.
Shot the rest of the event, the highlight being when a ball went into the crowd and fans either cowered, waved their arms around, just stood and stared, or in rare cases made an attempt to catch it.
I left thinking, “That was chaotic and not what I was expecting.” But to prove that you never go wrong doing the best you can despite the circumstances, I ended-up with a nice gallery and a full-page on Sunday.
As my fellow photog Scotty Keeler used to say back in the day, “Stanley-Boy…looks like you made a silk purse from a sow’s ear.”
News photographers do it all the time…it’s our specialty...
