Photo of the Day
Today was a day when I was not sure if I would make any pictures. I had a marathon day of shooting planned starting with a Purdue softball doubleheader this afternoon. The weather did not cooperate, and the games were cancelled. The Purdue baseball team was playing later at night, and they were going to try and get the game in. I decided to make my way over to Alexander Field to make a few images. When they were announcing the starting lineups I heard a familiar name. The announced the starting pitcher for Ball State to be Clay Manering. That is where this story gets a little interesting.
In middle school I was part of a project in an industrial tech class that picked the stock market. One of the prizes was a minor league card of former Slicer pitcher Mark Manering signed by him. I really wanted that card, and I was lucky enough to get it. That card still sits somewhere at my parents house with all of my other cards. Our small town of LaPorte has a big baseball history, but to get a card signed by a hometown hero that played in the Yankees farm system was awesome. Mark also split time with Kevin Maas at first base for in the late 80’s. For anyone who collected cards at that time you know that Kevin was a hot card to have. Mark was unlucky to be beind Maas as well as Don Mattingly. Since that time a few other Slicer players have also pitched in the pros, but for some reason I have always remembered that card. My fake stock picks helped me add to my already sizable card collection. When I heard the name called over the P.A. system at Alexander Field I wondered Clay could be related. A quick check on my iPhone confirmed that he was in fact the son of Mark. I normally scout the other teams for interesting facts or players, but for some reason I did not look up the Ball State roster prior to the game. As luck would have it I was treated to a surprise. Clay has a great motion to photograph so I decided to try and get a few pictures of him against Purdue. As I moved behind home plate to try a few the rain started. It did not last for long, but it did make for some interesting images. On a day when I didn’t think that I would make any images at all I was surprised with a name from my childhood. I love it when things come around full circle. Photography has led me down some interesting paths, and this is just another one of those.
I have posted a few more images of Clay pitching tonight on my Facebook page here.
Technical Data
As with all of my baseball pictures lately not much to report here. I applied the Baseball (Day) preset when importing into Lightroom. I adjusted the temperature, and cropped the image. That was the extent of my editing here.
Dave Wegiel Photography 