It's near the end of the season, and finally the games are looking like the city cares about them. Attendance is up. Wings are still playing Wings ball, however.
I got some interesting stuff in the couple innings I stuck around...
The game was 2-0 Bisons until Ray Chang hit a nice double. Here, he's obviously not there yet, but this one was the most attractive (to me).
Here's the score. Tsuyoshi Nishioka smacked a solid single, and brought Ray around to score.
Next inning, the third baseman, Escobar, got a hit. As can be seen, even the catcher knew this hit was worth watching.
Escobar was busy tonight, and this shot of him executing a perfect force out looked good, even in preview on my camera.
This shot actually comes after the next one, but I thought it was an nice accident. Lately I've been setting my camera up with "continuous auto-focus" and "continuous auto-shutter release", I was in the wrong place to get an unaffected shot of the stolen base. The auto-focus latched onto the first-base coach, providing me with an interesting image.
At least the auto-focus caught this one OK. The mid-air stop-motion was pretty cool, I thought.
I got a nice series of this one with the continuous shutter. This one is the best of the batch. Notice the third-baseman. He's got the ball, but he's off the bag. Had he missed that ball, Escobar was going home. Instead Evan Bigley struck out while trying to send the ball a country mile.
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My first game back from a long-ish vacation was the second in a 3-game series against the Phillies' Minor League affiliate, the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs.
The Wings' bats were popping. Unfortunately, they usually popped into Iron Pig gloves.
A few pictures.
I'm not entirely sure whether the catcher's glove indicates a mighty, but ineffectual swing, or just an empty glove. Parmelee can HIT! (So it could go either way.)
Here's a failed sacrifice bunt. Given the wide angle, the details of the players aren't quite what I'd like them to be, so I compensated by trying to photoshop it to look like a TV image.
Here's a really nice little shot of Rene Rivera at the instant of making contact with the ball. Ultimately he was stranded on base. But he got on base.
This
is a landscape orientation of later in the same at-bat as the second
picture. I just love the kinetic energy this one gives off.
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August 24 found the Wings in military-themed uniforms to benefit a charity for the children of fallen veterans.
It also found them down 7-0 by the 3rd inning. The game ended 8-1.
My wife and parents attended the game as well, so, while I stuck around for the whole game, I wasn't doing a lot of photography. I did get some nice shots when I did shoot.
I've recently taken to shooting with continuous shutter release. I have about 8 shots of this pop-up and catch. While I did get the moment of catch, this one came out cleaner. At least the ball was in the frame.
These next two shots go together. The one run scored by the Wings is represented here by two shots of Ray Chang. Here, Ray hits a single. Nice swing there, Ray!
After a passed-ball advance to second, J.R. Towles hit into an out, and then Tsuyoshi Nishioka clobbered a double to get Chang across the plate. Unfortunately, that pitch I had my camera on the pitcher, but at least I got Chang's arrival at home.
Probably the most interesting part in the whole game was the relationship between the home plate ump, J.R. Towles and the Wings' manager. My father noticed a bit of conversation and less-than traditional interaction between Towles and the ump. Pretty much EVERYONE noticed the conflict between Glynn and the ump. According to the D&C (local paper) the conflict started early between the ump and the batting coach Tom Brunanski. Later, Glynn had a few words... ok... a lot of words. Later, there were some brush-back pitches, and two Wings were targeted, including a solid smack on the elbow to Wilkin Ramirez who got ejected when he responded poorly (who can blame him, the ump had lost the main element of control, and his team was headed for ignominious defeat.) Glynn came out to protest again, and took another 5 or more minutes "talking" with the ump. I was really pulling for him to go full Earl Weaver - hat throwing, yelling, getting tossed and generally inspiring the team through emotional manipulation. He didn't. Here's a couple pix, though.
After the game, there were fireworks. The theme music was "Tribute to Boy Bands." I may have been the only one in the place plugging my ears between booms, but listening to the booms. The music sucked massively. I would have been happier with a "Back to Disco" theme. Honestly, it was so bad, I left early, abandoning my parents and wishing them good-bye by cellphone. It did not help that the fireworks were so ashamed to be in the same show as that crappy music they malfunctioned.
But... we were entertained, and the price was right, so we definitely got our money's worth. I just hope next year "Tribute to Boy Bands" is dropped like a hot rock.
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