Evan Cooke Tosses A Gem

The last time that I saw Evan Cooke he was helping his Red Devil soccer team win the sectional. When he took the mound last night I hoped that he could have the success that he does with soccer during his pitching outing. I don’t know what the soccer equivalent to a no-hitter is, but he will have to work hard to top last night. Of the 21 outs in the game his strikeouts accounted for 13 of those outs. It was a dominant performance for sure. It wasn’t that long ago that he was coaching my little one in t-ball. After those games I remember him taking some bp with his dad. I had a feeling that I would see him doing something great again someday. Last night was that night.

A Little Luck Helps Me See Some History

A couple of weeks ago I knew that I was going to be at Purdue last night to see a bunch of past and present Lafayette Aviators play for Purdue Fort Wayne. That game was cancelled and this game was put in its place. I am sad that I won’t get to see PFW play here, but I am glad that I was there to see the no-hitter. After not having seen any gems until last year now I have seen two in two years. I need to see a couple more this year.

Back To The Basics

With the cloudy skies I broke the old 400mm lens out. I haven’t used this lens since football season. The autofocus is not the best so I end up manually focusing it more often than not. During a football game that can be hard, but if you are in the right spots for baseball you can make it work very nicely. With the older lens I didn’t have the high fps either so I was back to timing things like I used to. I still like to time, but you find that you start to rely on 30fps quite a bit. It was fun getting the moneymaker back out for another run. It dawned on my pregame that I started making baseball photos here ten years ago when my nephew played for West Side. It is hard to believe that it has been that long.

A Little Fun

As I said above Evan was one of my little ones t-ball coaches back in the day. Right before she had to leave the game she made a couple photos of him. After the game was over and I realized what we had seen it dawned on my that she had made photos of a no-hitter at eight years old. I was considerable older when I finally was able to say that. I love making photos, and it is always fun to share that love with the kids. Photographing a no-hitter together is even better. I was told that I have to hashtag this photo when I post it. I don’t know if that matters here but #laniesphoto.

Photographing The Game Like A Dad

I was not there in a real official capacity. My daughter had practice next door, and one of my senior picture students was on the baseball team. Part of making the photos for athletes is that I will come to a few games and make some photos. This was one of those games. Of course I had to leave for a minute to walk her over from practice, and at one point we left so that she could get to scouts. Of course the only score of the game happened during that one inning that I missed. A home run that would have looked nice in a gallery. Even though I was there for fun it always hurts to know that you missed a big moment. With the kids schedules picking up I am sure I will have more days like this one. It was still fun getting out there and making some photos. Below are a few more of my favorites from the day.