Future Cubs Up Close?

One of the highlights of my spring training experience was Fitch Park, known for years to me as the "minor league camp" but with no idea of how much could be learned and seen at the camp. Four teams -- Iowa (AAA), Tennessee (AA), Daytona (A) and Peoria (A) -- work out at 9:00 AM on four diamonds,with all the backstops together. Well over 120 players are there, sometimes staying on an assigned diamond and sometimes moving in groups from place to place as the practice runs through its schedule. Each diamond eventually moves into batting practice and then breaks for lunch after 11:30.

Most days the two fields to the north will then feature minor league games at 1:00. Basically, the AAA & AA stay home while the two A teams travel or vice-versa. On Thursday, the Cubs sent the older teams to the Angels complex and the two A teams hosted the Angels. For a fan used to major league games in major league parks, the ability to get up close is unprecedented. It is easy to see the great plays and the errors, the tough pitches and the candy pitches, the great swings and the awkward swings. From right up close.

I already have plans to go to see the Kane County Cougars when they host the Peoria Chiefs this summer. Two prospects I was quite impressed with should be playing here on their way to the major leagues. Trades happen and prospects sometimes don't work out, but I think these two will look great in Cub uniforms in two years. Everyone knows the name Josh Vitters, first round pick third baseman who was rumored to be headed to San Diego in a proposed Peavy trade. He looks to be the real thing and has a major league swing. Catcher Mike Brenly, son of color announcer Bob Brenly, is about 6'3" and looks solid behind the plate, strong throwing, and a major league potential batter. It was great to see these stars up close and playing hard. Best of luck to them and to their teammates.

Next post on a neat museum in Mesa, longtime spring home of the Cubs.

Making a Mark on the Ballfield

One of the all-time Hall-of-Famers in Fergie's group is Harmon Killebrew, who was a Washington Senators third baseman in the late 50s and went to Minnesota when his team became the Minnesota Twins. When he retired, he had the third highest home run total of any right-handed batter, and he was a solid all-star. As a Cub fan, I never saw too much of him but I always respected him. Now that I have met him, I really like him as well. Soft-spoken, friendly, a man with a solid handshake: I was very pleased to have a moment to talk with him, a man who made his mark on baseball.

Shortly after my moments with Harmon Killebrew, I moved into center field (I did spend most of my playing days in center field or left field) and spotted a potential self-portrait. Here you see me making my mark on the Ho Ho Kam Stadium outfield.

Next post will be a look at a minor league practice, which was a surprisingly enjoyable part of my spring training trip.

A Meadowlark Sighting

Among Fergie's friends were people who were not baseball people. While not able to attend, former Chicago Bear Gayle Sayers was on the Hall-of-Fame list; Sayers and Jenkins were stars in Chicago during the same years and came into contact often. But among the biggest of Hall-of-Fame stars was basketball magician Meadowlark Lemon, longtime heart and soul of the Harlem Globetrotters.

In great shape for a senior citizen (and I can say that, being one myself), Meadowlark laughed and talked and shook hands and posed with hundreds of fans and he looked in fine enough shape that he might have been able to demonstrate some flashy Trotter moves.

In speaking with several Cub fans, I posed the question as to why Meadowlark Lemon was present. All answered that he must have been a friend of Fergie. But pushed again with another question -- why? how? when? -- not one knew what I knew. Back in the 1960s, major league players made good salaries, but few made enough to take the entire offseason as a vacation. Fergie Jenkins played with the Harlem Globetrotters for three winters and was Lemon's teammate. It was another enjoyable nugget in a great evening of entertainment. I met the Clown Prince of Basketball.

One more post from the Fergie and Friends baseball night.

Fergie & Friends For Charity

It was a perfect night for a baseball game, any kind of a baseball game. But the event that had convinced me to head out to Arizona, the Fergie & Friends Annual All-Star Game, was an event to remember. Great music as mentioned in the previous post, lots of nice people to talk to. But the real highlight was the 30 minutes we were allowed down on the field to "Meet and Greet" the All-Stars and Old-Timers. All the former ballplayers were friendly, shaking hands and having pictures taken one after another. Fergie Jenkins, certainly the most successful Cub pitcher of my lifetime with six straight 20-win seasons, was affable and organized. Billy Williams, seen with me in the other photo, spent the entire time smiling and laughing with people. That half-hour, by the way, stretched out to me being on the field for two and a half hours, talking baseball, listening to music, taking pictures, and just loving life and baseball.

Besides Jenkins and Williams, we met Ron Santo, Jody Davis, Bob Dernier, Glenn Beckert, Randy Hundley, Steve Trout and Jay Johnstone among other former Cubs. We also met several Hall-of-Famers including Harmon Killebrew, Bob Feller, and Rollie Fingers. It was a wonderful night all the way around.

My friend Terry, a Mesa-area resident I had just met, spent some time taking photos of each other with the ballplayers and just on the field. "This is baseball heaven," he said, ninety minutes after the fun had started. What else could I answer? "Amen."

The next post will feature another hall of fame ballplayer, but one who played with a much larger ball.

Country Music at the Ballyard

Just about the time I noticed the previous post's jersey FINALLY!, a country singer began a concert on a low stage behind home plate. Clearly a part of the party atmosphere, I anticipated being too busy to pay attention, but as a photographer I had to snap a few photographs. Cindy Standage had sung Take Me Out to the Ballgame the day before, so I knew she could sing. It turned out that I bought a CD and plan to add her music to my iPod collection.

A Scottsdale/Phoenix area singer with a great, tight band and a high-power personality to match, Cindy plays guitar and belts out a wide variety of songs. Plenty talented, this band is entertaining and enjoyable. Since the group travels all over the country, you might notice her name on a concert poster. Be there and you will become a fan. That's exactly what happened to me!

In case you prefer not to wait for a poster notice, you could look up www.cindystandage.com to see upcoming dates.

Jersey Name and Number?

Hall-of-Famer Fergie Jenkins hosted his second annual Fergie & Friends baseball game, featuring several baseball greats in a game against Phoenix-area TV and Radio personalities. With a VIP ticket, we were invited down on the field for pictures and a chance to talk to Billy Williams (who got a hit in the game; I had not seen him get one in 35 years!), Ron Santo, Harmon Killebrew, Juan Marichal -- and Meadowlark Lemon, who was Fergie's teammate for three winters on the Harlem Globetrotters. We were on the field for nearly three hours.

Unless there is a young man named FINALLY! including the exclamation point, the jersey seen here was a comment on this year's Cub team ending the 101-year drought of World Championships.

HOPEFULLY!

Wrigley Field Dreams

Back at the Gilbert Arizona softball complex, which gave us a photo in "Yankee Stadium" in the last post, here are two from the scale-model "Wrigley Field." One shows how the bleachers are painted on a panel above the wall, with the famed rooftops across the street included. The paintings are good if not exact and they are not highly detailed. But the idea of building the general atmosphere of the ballpark is excellent. The Wrigley wall is indeed brick with the familiar ivy planted before it. Since this park is only about 15 months old, the ivy planted against the walls has not had time to grow in as yet. My guess is that it will grow in completely and will only make the fine facility better.

Another blog-from-the-road post is scheduled tomorrow. Now is the time for a little rest so more on-the-run fun will be possible tomorrow.

Big League Dreams

If they build it, I will come. I had seen a discussion of a baseball/softball complex in Gilbert, south and east of Mesa and Tempe, so I had to go check it out. Driving on strange streets on a very dark night for only 7:30, I began to wonder if I was chasing wild geese. How would I even know such a complex would be open on a Tuesday night in March? The sense of adventure which just be a streak of stubbornness urged me on.

Big League Dreams has seven fields, and people play there from junior tee ball through youth leagues, adult leagues, and leagues for those of us in the "senior" category. In a large but compactly organized area, the complex also has an indoor soccer arena, a restaurant, a batting cage area and and pro shop. Each field is a scaled-down model of a current or former major league park. Wrigley Field, Fenway Park, and Anaheim Stadium are joined by Yankee Stadium (recently retired but rebuilt) and Ebbets Field, Polo Grounds, and Sportsman's Park in St. Louis.

Each field has a manicured playing surface, concrete dugouts, fully fenced playing area, and comfortable armchair seating. Youth practices were going on, with games to follow, and adult 12" softball games were also being played. In Yankee Stadium, men were playing some sort of scrimmage, so I asked and was given an at-bat. A hard single to left, racing to third on a hit by the next batter, then scoring on a third hit and my first day in Arizona was complete.

Build one of these near Chicago, I told them, and I will have to come out of retirement and play ball again!

Cubs Win in Mesa

My first day of my first spring training was fantastic. Perfect weather, a nice seat in the shade, lots of runs leading to a Cub win (even though the games don't count, it is fun to win when you flew four hours to get here). Pre-season baseball is more enjoyable than I pictured it: the field is in perfect shape, the fans are friendly and knowledgeable, and no one appears to be there to be seen or to be drinking too much. Everyone seems to be celebrating the end of a tough season called winter and the start of the following season called baseball.

Alfonso Soriano lead off the Cub first with a shot down the line as he had two hits and two walks. Several Cubs had hits and several pitchers did reasonably well. After the game, the traffic is minimal and a short stop at the souvenir shop will get you to a fairly empty parking lot. Empty of most cars, as you can see, but not empty. I watched this Dad and his son play catch in 2009 and I remembered my son and me in 1979. Baseball. Always and forever, the national pastime and the perfect game.

Next post will be about another ballfield I visited later that night. A surprise located on the Internet, visited in hopes it would even be open on a March night, and ending with (of all things) a hit.

Chicago Landmarks

Of course any great city has its landmarks, but not many have a greater number of significant ones than does Chicago. The city that was heavily damaged in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, the same city which rebuilt bigger and better than ever, Chicago still has the landmark Water Tower right on Michigan Avenue, seen here through the empty branches of a winter morning. Michigan Avenue was named for the lake, as the street at that time was a lakefront avenue. When the cleanup of the fire was used as landfill on the east side of the street, Michigan Avenue was no longer on the lakefront. Grant Park was soon formed on a portion of the site, and still remains there. Within Grant Park is the wonderful Art Institute of Chicago (on the east side of the street) and the newer Millennium Park, just north of the Art Institute. The water tower is perhaps a mile north, and perhaps halfway between the park and the tower, the white facade of the Wrigley Building has a home on the west side of the street and on the north bank of the Chicago River.

Many wonderful skyline pictures show the collection, the flow, the pattern of the entire city. But these photos, like so many others, single out a feature and show it in a portrait. Wrigley and the Water Tower are two such photo stars.

Net post as promised will be far from Chicago, in Arizona, tomorrow night. See you from there!

No Harsh Corners

Lake Point Tower, standing tall on the lakefront, is a powerful interpretation of the modern skyscraper. So much of the modern is here, of course, with little adornment and a solid, strong look. But literally right across the street from Navy Pier is this huge home to many Chicagoans with no straight walls. If a helicopter flies over this gem, its footprint must look like a distorted three-leaf clover.

Downtown, there are several buildings including courthouses and federal offices which were designed by modern minimalist Mies Van der Rohe. They are straight lines, vertically and horizontally, ground to top and side to side. Look at the Tower and follow the vertical lines; they will look quite appropriate to the designs of Mies. But left to right, no plane is straight. An interesting adaptation that stands proud on the front doorstep of the Windy City.

One more day of buildings before Rick Beato Photo goes out on the road for its first travel posts. We will be posting from Arizona for three days of baseball, hot dogs, and photography.

A Different Sort of Architecture

It was cool but quite sunny this morning, and I was out of the house early. Several churches in St. Charles, Illinois, work together on a Habitat For Humanity project and this was the first Saturday I was available to swing a hammer and snap some photographs. It was a rewarding day.

A well-planned floor layout is complete for a cozy but excellent two-story frame home. This morning as I arrived, a few people were busy with the sound of hammering and others were waiting for someone to tell them what to do. The hammering was plenty loud as it should have been, as a crew was literally raising the roof. Leaving the climbing to younger volunteers, I grabbed the camera and got a different view of architecture altogether. Friendly and warm, the entire crew welcomed the new volunteers and before long I knew it was time to put the Nikon away and crack out the Craftsman.

A few hours later, a wall had been built, placed, and anchored to divide the Great Room from the Kitchen; and a guest closet had been studded out, located, and nailed into place. I have no photographs of the event as the hammer and the camera do not mesh well at any given time. But of course I have the memories of the wall building -- and no doubt tomorrow I will have the soreness of the muscles that had not hammered for some time. The ache will surely "Hurt So Good."

Back to larger buildings -- though perhaps NOT more significant ones -- in the next post.

Spring Morning in Chicago

On a bright spring morning, we look at one of the Chicago skyline's icons, The John Hancock center. As a student of history, I always thought a great tall building should have a powerful name like "John Hancock." This beauty, with the exoskeleton that gave "Spider Dan" Goodwin the idea to climb it, inscribes a signature across the skyline as clear and distinctive as the famed signature on the Declaration of Independence.

Those not familiar with the excellent observatory might not realize that a portion of the south face was remodeled several years ago to allow viewers to be in a well-protected outdoor viewing area where the sounds of the street are clear and interesting. A nice place to visit in any season, but now that it is spring a viewer might stay out there a bit longer than they did in winter!

Another building view in the next post.

Corn Cobs in a Midwestern Skyline

At least, the corn cob image was my first impressions so long ago when Marina City was built just west of the old SUN-TIMES building along the Chicago River. But looking more closely they are simply modern curving spaces that have aged well in the Chicago skyline. Large balconies yield excellent views on the downtown, the near north side and Lake Michigan, depending on the location of the unit.

With the acclaimed House of Blues on the lower floors, Marina has managed to keep updating itself as it became another of the wonders of Chicago architecture.

Another building from the Chicago skyline in the next post.

Changes in Skylines

Updating old slides into modern digital images will remind one of the buildings that no longer exist. Squatty, in a prime location along the river just a bit east of the previous post, were the editorial offices of the CHICAGO SUN-TIMES and its former sister paper, the CHICAGO DAILY NEWS. My prime newspaper reading for over 40 years, the SUN-TIMES moved a few blocks west some years ago, this building was torn down, and a new tall, modern skyscraper is now in that footprint. It is the Trump Tower. But I still recall the TIMES, reading that great paper, visiting the sports department when my son worked there, and lots of bygone days.

Guess any study of architecture will do that -- trigger reminiscences. Next post will feature a building that still exists . . .

Reflections on Architecture

Virtually every skyline has building that are mirrored, glassy modern edifices that tend to blend in with their older counterparts by actually reflecting them. Depending on the shape and size of the building, the effect either helps the new building blend in or stand out. For that matter, the look changes as the day moves on, the weather changes, and the color reworks itself.

At the fork in the Chicago River, just northwest of the heart of downtown, the curved masterpiece shown here reflects across two of the branches of the river. At the left, the famed Merchandise Mart appears to welcome the new neighbor. One of the first things I look for in any skyline is the beautiful reflection. Hope you enjoy this one.

Another building or two in the next post.

Old Engine House

Much of the architecture of Chicago involves high-rise buildings, be they the Monadnock of the 1890s or the Sears Tower of the 1970s. Much of it involves majestic souvenirs of long-ago World Expositions, or iconic downtown merchants, or awesome assortments of vendors in the Merchandise Mart. Thousands of images are collected of all these, and I have my share in my archives. But before we look at a few of my favorite Chicago Architecture photos, I thought a reminder would be in order.

When looking into any city for architecture, remember that the buildings are never built to remain empty. Without people, the buildings are not alive. And every city or town has interesting, photogenic, and important buildings if only we open our eyes to look. In color, in form, in the people who work inside, the old-fashioned Chicago Engine House is as wonderful a bit of architecture as any.

What building would you like to honor in this way? Another post on buildings comes soon.

Chicago Bridges

Chicago is a wonderful place to study architecture, and thus a wonderful place to photograph architecture. Well after the city was established, the notorious Great Chicago Fire of 1871 leveled a good portion of the downtown area, granting architects a blank canvas to rebuild. With the modern inventions such as the elevator and advances in indoor plumbing, buildings went higher and were built better than ever before. We will look at some Chicago buildings in the next series of posts, and we will start with two of my favorite bridge shots.

Both shots are of old bridges on the north branch of the Chicago River, just a bit northwest of the Merchandise Mart. The brick base was taken in the middle 1970s as the span had become a true bridge to nowhere. The bridge that appears to be a shortcut to the upper floors of a high rise is a recent shot of a retired bridge that stands at eternal attention.

Some high rise buildings in the next post.

Alphabet Art

Late last summer I had a strange idea and naturally followed it. I kept the camera with me as I drove around for a few days, snapping pictures of individual letters on large public signs. Each night I would crop and save the letters, eventually making a list of missing entries. The idea was to form a sort of font for future use, but with no use in mind.

Eventually I did find a use for these letters, and now I have three Alphabet Pictures. And I have my font saved for future use. I expect I will add a fourth to this collection when my fourth grandchild is born in May. Hope you enjoy these.

Ceres -- The Goddess of Cereal

Experimentation with Polar Coordinates will yield some interesting abstracts, as we have seen. Last night I got a pretty haunting concrete image I just had to post.

The Chicago Board of Trade, an art deco masterpiece opened in 1930, has a statue of Ceres, goddess of grain, atop the building. Shot from the street on a sunny day, she glistens and looks straight down LaSalle Street from her position of honor.

Wrapping her into a Polar Coordinate and cropping off the top of an imperfect circle leaves her quite recognizable, but looking down into a pit. Perhaps a commentary on the current financial mess? Either way, a definite keeper.

New post tomorrow. No more Polars for now, guaranteed.

One More Polar Coordinate

On second thought, we will hold off the new direction for one more day to look at another strange abstract effect from the Polar Coordinates. In an email to a friend who had seen the previous post, I was writing about where to find the effect -- it is a Photoshop Filter Distort selection -- and I realized I had limited my fun with that filter.

The previous post was like most of my Polar productions, which would only be a dozen or so. In each case, I used a panoramic photo or cropped one from a traditionally-shaped photo. In each case, I selected a photo with a clear three-layer arrangement -- the river below, the bridge between and the sky above, for example. That produces the logic of the prior post, with the river at the core, the bridge and its crane as the highlight and the sky as the background. I will of course continue to experiment with such pictures.

But as I checked on the use of the filter, I happened to have a non-panoramic photo, one with nothing like the three-stripe arrangement mentioned above, and I used the process on it purely to refresh my memory on the use of the filter. I quickly used SAVE AS to hold that image and later returned to decide if I wanted to keep it. What do you think? I definitely like it and plan to do further experimentation with it.

Meanwhile, thanks for the help with experimenting in a new direction, Laura. We will move in another direction in the next post. Maybe.

Abstract from Manipulation

Look at this abstract which looks so strangely concrete. Check it carefully and see if you can spot the Illinois River in the center and awhirl around the river -- a bridge, crane and all. Look closer and you can find the seam, relatively cleverly hidden, where Photoshop changed its normal left/right coordinates to polar coordinates. Essentially, if you find the seam, you have located the left and right edges of a relatively normal panoramic photo of the bridge with the river below. The magic effect spins the base into a circular center and wraps the image for some fascinating semi-abstracts. Try it sometime!

Our next post? In a different direction to be chosen soon.

Abstract Processing

Another place to find abstracts would be in the post-processing. Whether by intent or by accident, when an image does nothing for you, you can try something else. Often a change of color, a blurring, a creative crop will create a completely new image. There are times when dropping color overlays over such an image, one by one, will result in finding just the right color. Image manipulation under pressure can be demanding work, but this can and should be fun.

An intentional abstract from a very different effort in our next post.

Abstracts Abound

One of the many enjoyable aspects of photography is finding the beauty of abstraction in the most unlikely places. In my mind, visual art is abstract when it uses color, shape and line to draw a pleasing work that does not reference a specific reality. And "abstract" is not a "thing." And sometimes the thing becomes the abstract.

Here are two abstracts that are such "found" items. And they are part of very specific things. Many modern buildings feature collections of reflecting windows -- mirrors, if you will -- that tend to blend the building with its neighbors. This one in Anchorage, Alaska reflects another building in an interesting way. The other abstract is from an interesting fountain in The Chicago Botanic Garden, featuring a line of water jets with one jet out of sync.

Finding such abstracts is always a high point of a photo shoot. Abstracts can also be generated by post-processing magic. We will look at a couple of these in the next post.

Robins & Reflections

Not much could be more springlike than a nest of baby robins just out of the eggs. Careful not to touch or disturb, I shot this with a telephoto a bit further away than the image looks. Two days later, the nest was an empty souvenir. Watching their tiny beating hearts moving their bodies was just awesome.

The reflection in the still streamway was made at Morton Arboretum in Lisle, the "outdoor museum of woody plants" that can be a paradise for a photographer in search of beauty.

Enough springscapes. Next post will be a new topic as yet to be determined.

Berries & Pathways

Berries on a Black Jetbead. Paths that wind invitingly through a sun-kissed but shaded forest. Blue Sky, green grass, and places to see while having fun in the sun. Oh, yes, spring offers the hope of nature, of renewal, of rebirth. Today the temperature rises above 40 with promise of further increases. Yes, spring is here.

More Springscapes in the next post.

Flowers and Lightning

Another look at the season I long for, spring. Two opposing Springscapes, bringing lightning and flowers. Of course, the old saw of April showers and May flowers reminds us of how the seeming opposites are intricately related; those of us who love spring look forward to both.

More springscapes in the next post.

Spring Arrives No Matter How it Looks

As I look out my window here on Pulaski Day, I see "lake effect snow" drifting down on my lawn even though Lake Michigan is a good 25 miles from here and we rarely see lake snow this far west. Despite this anomaly, Tom Skilling says that Meteorological Spring began yesterday, so I declare that Spring is Here.

Both of today's Springscapes are modern digital conversions of years-old slides shot either on the old Ektachrome (the landscape) or Agfachrome (the ball glove). But both remind me of the look of spring -- blue sky, blue water, birds, greenery and baseball. This week I will drop by a few more Springscapes to try to put these last vestiges of winter on the back burner!