Opening Day. All the anticipation, all the rain. It was nice to get out, though, to walk around the concourse, and see some familiar and friendly faces. I sipped a Day Burner while people watching and waiting for the game to be postponed.
A trip to the store was my first stop. I found the perfect shirt for me. If you have gone to a ballgame with me, you know I have a hard time resisting popcorn.
The game was called a little after 4:30. As luck would have it, I was able to walk to and from ESL Field at Silver Stadium without having to use my umbrella.
I guess this may a good time to let you know what exactly this blog/website is. In the past ten plus years, I have been religiously making photos at baseball games, mainly games for the Rochester Red Wings. I’ve always loved baseball. I wasn’t a good player as a kid. But I loved and still love the Dodgers and collected baseball cards (my dad owned a card store in the late 80s and early 90s in Watertown, NY). I have fond core memories of going to Single-A games in Watertown.
As I aged into adulthood, I tried to get to as many games as possible in Rochester and Batavia. Life being life, I found myself single again then not single and living in downtown Rochester. In our first few months dating, my now wife and I went to quite a few games together. She wasn’t much of a baseball fan when we met but now she Bleeds Blue. A couple of our early dates in that first year we saw a no hitter pitched one night. Another night, some guy attempted to mug us on our way home. After the pandemic, we became season ticket holders for a couple years; one year next to the third baseline batter’s deck near the Youngman’s and the second year, right behind Barb on the first baseline.
After that, I held a press and field pass for a couple years. My goal was to do more documentary work and that I did but I missed going to the games and not feeling like I was working. See, when I am making candid street photographs I’m never working. Having that badge around my neck was pretty cool, but I felt like I was working. And I was nervous. It wasn’t all bad, those are all just me problems. I did have some cool experiences that I may talk about on.
Being a fan in the stands with a camera is just that, though. There’s literally no pressure and you are fan interacting with other fans. Having a press and field pass was a great opportunity but it also confined me to very reasonable rules and restrictions that left me not feeling like a fan. And I am not that bold to find limitations willy nilly at a ballpark that I loved being at.
Last year, I only went to a handful of games. Some minor-ish aging injuries put a damper on being mobile and photo making.
I missed being a fan and people like the Youngmans and Barb. So I got a season ticket, just for me. I’m the only one I know that likes to religiously go to ball games. To get back to doing what I set out to do. Going to the games, watch a ball game, enjoy the concessions and be amongst fans is what I craved. I didn’t need a pass, I needed a seat number.
That’s what this is all about. I pick something to do and I work at it. Peaks and valleys, and all that other jargon. It took me over ten years to be comfortable enough to make a photography zine of my street photography. I love the process and revere the work others. I rarely get excited to show work because it’s all become really shallow.
Enough about me. Photography, ephemera, field recordings, interviews, essays and art will be filling this space. On the weeks there are home games, there will be posts about that here. On the weeks the Wings are on the road, I’ll dig into more my work starting at the beginning.
One final note and I hope others join this cause. The Silvers should and deserve to have the stadium named after them again. The field can named for whatever the highest bidder gets. This isn’t a suck up, I call it like I see it. And I am sometimes? often? wrong. I do not think I would be doing this project and have so many good memories if it wasn’t for their effort in keeping baseball in Rochester and making it a source of entertainment for anyone who walks through the gates.
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