Longevity

Here we have a factor of everyday life. Simply put, seconds turn into minutes, minutes to hours, hours, to days, days to weeks, weeks to months and months to years. A never ending cycle to say the least.

Me personally, I just turned 49. NFL legendary quarterback, George Blanda, who departed this life recently, played football until he was 49. That was an unbelievable achievement for his timeframe, or even the timeframe of today for that matter.

The idea is clear, for such an achievement one must take care of themselves in more ways than most of us are even capable of naming. Good diet and excersise, which I live by myself, are only a small part of the equation.

When I think of George Blanda, I often wonder what he could have done with himself if he had, during his on playing days, the medicine, therapy, and technology that we have on the market today. Playing well into his fifties? Who knows.

As I start my own countdown to my milestone, the coveted half-century mark, I can only wait, do what I know I must do to keep my own well being in order, then leave it in the hands of God. Perhaps the best is yet to come.

"Triple Threat."

OK, let's add to my list of interesting stories about out national pastime. The 2010 season is winding down, so many interesting things about this season are still going on, to include tight races for the division titles and wild card spots in the AL East, NL East, and especially the NL West.

There are a lot of possible achievements on the side of the best players, especially the hitters, that go on the line as well, most of which are watched carefully in order to determine the winners of the league MVP awards in both leagues, like the batting titles and leading the league in other major offensive categories.

So, on that note, let's refer to the possibility of a "Triple Crown" winner, this one on the side of the hitters, who could potentially lead their leagues in all three of the major offensive categories, they being batting average, home runs and RBI's respectively.

Triple Crown winners in baseball's modern time have been very few and far between. The last one was Boston Red Sox hall of famer Carl Yazstremski in 1967. You'd have to go back to the late thirties to find another one.

The 2010 season has a showcase of possible triple crown winners in both leagues. The most likely one in the National League would have to be Colorado Rockies outfielder Carlos Gonzalez, who is likely to take the batting title and is in the top five in home runs and RBI's.

St. Loius Cardinal first baseman Albert Pujols, a likely hall of famer, is leading the NL in home runs and RBI's at the time of this post and also stands in the top ten in batting average. Pujols already has a batting title to his credit and has lead the league in home runs before but as odd as it may be, no RBI title to his credit. Cincinnati Red first baseman Joey Votto is a close third in all three of the offensive catagories.

Over in the American League Texas Ranger leftfielder Josh Hamilton is, like Carlos Gonzalez, literally running away with the batting title. Hamilton is in the top five in home runs and the top ten in RBI's. Then there's Detroit Tiger's first baseman Miguel Cabrera, who's pretty much in the same position in the American League as Joey Votto is in the National League.

To see a triple crown winner in baseball would be quite interesting, but by today's standards just isn't as possible as some people think it is. There's always those big sluggers, like Pujols, for the category of home runs and RBI's in bunches, some of whom are likely to strike out quite often, keeping their batting averages down, then there's those players, like Ichiro Suzuki, who are "hitting machines,' literally running away with the batting title.

The game of baseball has a lot of achievements that seem out of reach by today's standards, one of which, we all know, is Joe Dimaggio's 56 game hitting streak. The game has changed in many ways during the course of the last 60 years, and no, I don't mean just player salaries. Who knows, maybe something interesting, even spectacular is in store for us fans in the course of our lifetimes. There may be a triple crown winner, a hitting streak of more than 56 games, perhaps even the Chicago Cubs will win a World Series, their first since 1908. We'll just have to do the right thing, that's wait and see.

"Chapmania."

Oh well, ho hum, another story about another phenomenal young professional baseball player. Is that as good as it gets? Yes, no, maybe so? Hey, who knows, only time will really tell.

So, Aroldis Chapman, the Cincinnati Reds left handed fireballer, a Cuban defector all set to go the route of one Fernando Valenzuela before him. Ah yes, "Fernandomania," what a time that was for the Los Angeles Dodgers and their fans,(yours truly included), what a time for the game of baseball in the City of Angels and the huge Mexican community it possesed then and now.

That was also a great time for me, having taken my first lesson in the Spanish language, enjoying the opportunity to test personal skills on the interpereted interviews of the (then) non english speaking young pitcher. As for Fernando, maybe not the hall of fame career that most were expecting, but a nice one indeed. He's back with the Dodger organization as a Spanish language broadcaster.

As is the case with most of the up and coming young ballplayers, I got to photograph Chapman in action, starting back in the 2008 Arizona Fall League, continuing through the 2010 Spring Training campaign. Chapman's ride through the minor leagues was a smooth and quick one. No surprise for a pitcher who was clocked on the radar gun with pitches in excess of 100 miles an hour, both in Triple-A (Louisville) as well as in his Major League start debut recently.

Young pitchers of the highly touted category are great to watch, but always in question in more ways than anyone inside or outside the game can even name. Stephen Strasburg, who got off to a great start at the Major League level, recently tore a ligament in his pitching elbow, will have to undergo Tommy John surgery and may be out of action up to 18 months.

Tommy John, the sensational pitcher for whom that surgery was named, I remember as an integral part of the Los Angeles Dodger pitching staff of the mid to late 1970's timeframe. When he tore his elbow ligament during the 1974 season, it was thought that his career may be over, but team physician, Doctor Frank Jobe, performed the first of what would be many successful Ulnar Collateral Ligament reconstruction procedures. With a 10-10 comeback in 1976 and a 20 game win season the next year John would go on to pitch twelve more seasons. Not a hall of fame caliber career but a superb one all the same.

Well, the rookie class in Major League Baseball in the 2010 season has been an impressive one. It will be a tight race for the National League Rookie of the Year award but Jayson Heyward and Ike Davis remain the top candidates, followed closely by Buster Posey. Again, the best is yet to come.

Reunion Central

The Palisades High Class of 1980, my class, my great friends whom I love like family, got together on September 15, 1990, August 26, 2000, and once again on July 10, 2010 to spend a nice evening reflecting on so many fond memories.

This years event was held at the Sheraton Delfina in Santa Monica California. A lot more laid back and with a lower attendance than the ten and 20 year reunions did not damper anything this time. It's always good to see everyon up close and in person, which hopefully will happen more often in the future. I keep thinking and often saying out loud that we're certainly not getting any younger.

It's so great to have social media sites within the world of todays technology. Places like Facebook seem to give us the feeling of being reunited every day. Many blessings to my fellow classmates, not only to the ones from Palisades High but all my other schools as well, especially to those who are no longer with us, including my good friend Jimmy (The Weatherman) Alexander. My hope is now for all of us to stay well and look forward to getting together more often in the future.

The Phoenix Mercury/WNBA

There's a lot that can be said about women's sports, especially at the professional level, where leagues, teams, etc. have been rather few and far between in recent times, most of which have featured leagues that only lasted a few years on average, some of which, like the Women's Pro Soccer League, have vanished and resurfaced later.

The WNBA has been one of the most interesting concepts of women's pro sports I've ever seen. Since its inception, in the summer of 1997, the league has been able to prove itself in more than one way. I'm quite impressed with the fact that the WNBA has pretty much beaten the odds. With the ceasing of operations of the Sacramento Monarchs at the end of last year, it marked, if I'm counting correctly, the ninth time in league history that a franchise has either relocated or folded.

One of the origional teams, the Houston Comets, looking like they were on their way to some kind of WNBA dynasty, winning the first four WNBA championships,(1997-2000) is one of, I think six teams that no longer exists. I always thought that teams like the Comets, who had an NBA team in their city, would have the best chance to get by on the business end of things, but no, that hasn't been the case. Most of the teams that have ceased operation along with Houston, in places like Portland, Cleveland, and Orlando just to name a few, have been the ones that have lasted the least amount of time.

Here in Phoenix, we have the Phoenix Mercury, who, like most teams, have had up and down seasons, but are one of the origional franchises that have been able to stay in the same city throughout their existance. The Mercury have a great player in Diana Taurasi and have had others, like Cappie Pondexter, to help them win the 2007 and 2009 WNBA championships and all the player/fan enthusiasm that came with them.

I've had a great opportunity to photograph the Mercury this season, but with the departure of Cappie Pondexter and the addition of Candice Dupree, it's quite obvious that the team is going through a new chemistry that it was not as easy to adjust to as some might've thought. At the time of this post, the Mercury are holding a 9 win and 12 loss reccord for 2010, but still holding onto second place in the WNBA Western Conference that the Seattle Storm is being the dominant team in. Except of first place Seattle, who is running away, with 19 wins and 2 losses, the rest of the conference has teams with fairly evenly matched records. There's no telling what the playoff picture will look like.

The Mercury remained a fairly young team going into the 2010 season. No player on the roster, with the exception of Tangela Smith, is more than 30 years old. There's still plenty of time to turn things around, push up and over the .500 mark, and make way to the playoffs. With the Mercury's recent aquisition of forward/center Kara Braxton from the Tulsa (formerly Detroit) Shock, in a trade for forward Nicole Ohlde, It might make a difference as the 2010 season begins to wind down. Best of luck to head coach Corey Gaines and the Phoenix Mercury team for 2010 and beyond.

Buster Posey et al

So, what have we here? I guess most of you would say I'm beating the "Ho Hum Drum" by writing yet another story about yet another up and coming professional baseball player.

Gerald Demp ("Buster") Posey, drafted fifth overall by the San Fransisco Giants in the 2008 Amatuer Draft is certainly another one of the up and coming young pro ballplayers that's worth writing about.

I missed the opportunity to photograph the catcher/first baseman in the 2009 Arizona Fall League, where he played after his stellar college baseball career at Florida State University, which included the Johnny Bench Award and lead to a good year in the Giants minor league system, leading to a brief call up to the big club at the end of the 2009 regular season.

My opportunity to photograph Buster during the 2010 Cactus League Spring Training games was as enjoyable as any other. That shot I took for this article, with him colliding with one of the Giant's infielders (I'm not sure who)while chasing a pop fly was one of my best and it came with good results as the out was recorded.

Beginning the 2010 season at Triple-A Fresno, Buster would soon receive another call to the big leagues on May 29, 2010. Playing first base and getting a hit in nine out of his first ten at bats is just one of the ways he proves that his career is definitly going in the right direction.

Well, a lot has changed recently for our national pastime. Ken Griffey Jr. has called it a career, Jason Heyward is still the top rookie position player, followed closely by Starlin Castro. Mike Leake continues to show dominance on the mound and at bat. Steven Strasburg made a spectacular Major League debut while his Washington Nationals, who once again had the top draft pick, took top prospect Bryce Harper, an up and coming young catcher. I've said it before and I'll say it again: "The best is yet to come."

Sealing the Leake

I once said "I like Ike," so I can also find an appropriate reason to say "I like Mike." That's Mike Leake, a former baseball standout at Arizona State University, in the role of a righthanded pitcher, as well as an infielder/outfielder who is also on the list of the great up and coming ballplayers that I recorded images of with my own cameras over the course of the last few years.

For Mike Leake, being selected by the Cincinnati Reds in the first round of the 2009 amatuer player draft as a pitcher, then going to the 2009 Arizona Fall League and working out with the Reds during 2010 Cactus League Spring Training as a non-roster invitee worked out much better than most had anticipated.

It would earn him a spot on the Reds 25 man roster as the fifth starting pitcher for the Reds, beating out Travis Wood and another highly regarded pitching prospect in Aroldis Chapman, as well as becoming another of many players to make the big league roster without having to play a day in the minor leagues.

I waited quite a while for a chance to watch Leake in action during the regular season and finally got the chance on May 20, 2010, when his Cincinnati Reds were broadcast on Major League Baseball Network for the "Thursday Matinee" game, when the Reds took on the Atlanta Braves at Turner Field in Atlanta that afternoon.

Mike and his team broke out with an 8-0 lead over the Braves by the 2nd inning and he would even help himself out going 2 for 3 at the plate, though not driving in any runs. On the mound, Mike would pitch 6 innings, allowing 5 hits, 1 base on balls and striking out 6 batters.

Despite Mike's good performance, he and the Reds were not able to hold onto their big lead and would lose to the Braves in dramatic fashion in the bottom of the ninth inning. Reds leftfielder Laynce Nix, who had hit a home run to pad his teams lead in the top of the fifth inning, had a high fly ball hit by Brave's pinch-hitter Brooks Conrad bounce off his glove to clear the fence for the game winning grand slam home run. Oddly enough, Reds first baseman Joey Votto also hit a grand slam home run, in the top of the second inning. You don't see two in one game very often these days.

Mike Leake, despite the disappointing loss for his team, was able to show playing prowess in many areas that day, to include at bat and in the field, often looking a lot like the good infielder he was when I saw him during his playing days at Arizona State University. For the Reds he wears jersey number 44, a number more common in baseball with big hitters, Hank Aaron and Reggie (Mr. October) Jackson just to name a few.

With Stephen Strasburg continuing to do well in Triple-A ball in the Washington Nationals organization, as well as Mike's former ASU teammate Ike Davis with the New York Mets, Jason Heyward with the Atlanta Braves, and recently Starlin Castro with the Chicago Cubs, I meant what I said when I mentioned the fact that the race for the NL Rookie of the Year award will be a tight one this season, just like what's expected of the races for playoff spots and division tiles can be.

My hat's off to all the up and coming young players who are on the verge of making good names for themselves and our national pastime. It's going to be an interesting 2010 season in that regard and hopefully, many others. It's still early in the 2010 Major League Baseball season. The best is yet to come.