That loud cracking sound coming like a metronome from the bullpen signals the game will begin very quickly. It is a sound familiar to all baseball fans. The sweet sound of the ball slamming into the catcher’s mitt. Baseball on leather. It can be truly heard in only one place, the bullpen. And the men wearing those catcher’s mitts are a pitcher’s best friend. We don’t give them much thought as they are rarely...
I just returned from a summer road trip. My wife and I journeyed through ten states. The only live baseball action I saw during this entire time was viewed from 630 feet above the action. Astonishing. I still don’t know how this happened. The purpose of our trip was to visit my family in Kansas. We brought our eight-year-old son with us, and left him with his grandparents for an extended visit. I had...
On Saturday night I had the opportunity to swing by Steinbrenner Field for the first time in a long time to check out the Tampa Yankees host the Brevard County Manatees. It was quite the game. A tit-for-tat back and forth battle throughout most of the contest, the Manatees jumped ahead with a 7-4 lead in the 5th inning. After a few innings of scorelessness, the T-Yankes scored one in the bottom of the...
Hello, everyone. My name is Phil Snyder. Eric and Brian have agreed to give me the opportunity to post some of my personal baseball photography here on Bus Leagues. I’m excited about working to bring a perspective and personal style to baseball photography that is not generally presented on large internet baseball sites. I am a baseball fan of the first order. It is without doubt God’s gift to the human race. I am...
Just over two months after my first visit to western Pennsylvania with my brother Tim and two friends, I went back to the Keystone State, this time with my wife. Our anniversary was Friday, we both had a three-day weekend for Labor Day, and the free Pirates tickets I won in June were burning a hole in my pocket, so we each took a couple extra days off and planned a trip. She originally...
I’m not going to rehash the story Brian has already told so well. I’m just going to add in the photos I took, along with some captions, since I was only there for the Baltimore portion of the trip. Camden as viewed from OMDQ’s seats. The seat I actually paid for would be right in front of the railing all the way to the left. This marks the first time I’ve ever been forcibly...
I’ll be honest here: I find it rather a daunting task to attempt to describe my whirlwind two-day visit to Omaha. Fortunately, I remembered that a picture is worth 1,000 words, so I’ll be letting my camera do the talking for part of this recap. I have always wanted to go to Omaha for the Series, and stupidly did not do so when I lived a couple of hours away in NE Kansas. Fortunately,...
My son was on spring break last week, so it was a perfect time for us to take in our first game of the season. Since the Braves flew the coop in Richmond, Lynchburg is the nearest minor-league town to ours, and we go there often. This time out, I was excited to see the Pirates’ top new prospect, former Vanderbilt star Pedro Alvarez. Alvarez went 0-5, but knocked in a couple of RBIs....
This is the picture of Peter Gammons that Eric referenced in his post on our visit to the Hall of Fame, the picture that will stand for all eternity to commemorate Gammons’ entry into the writers wing of that hallowed institution. The photo Eric took didn’t come out so well; fortunately, the Hall’s Web site came through in the clutch. Bring it back, Peter. Bring that awesome ‘stache back.
I’m going to tell you an amazing story. When OMDQ and I started writing this season, we also talked about meeting up sometime at the end of the minor league run. Brian suggested the Baseball Hall of Fame, which was swell with me, because I’ve never been. The crazy part is… it’s actually happening. Two guys with families including young kids (and, in my case, a 77-year-old mother-in-law) are actually carving out a day...
2012 05 14 Scranton Wilks Barre/ Empire State Yankees vs Pawtucket Red Sox
