Tag: minor leagues

Photos: Moar camera practicing with baseball

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I took my DSLR out to Lawrenceville, to practice taking pictures during a minor league baseball game.  Admittedly, I’m still getting used to needing to be a little more intricate with focus, and the processing process dealing with RAWs.  But I do like the versatility that it brings, and I look forward to hopefully getting better as time progresses.

But I am loving some of the results, and if anything at all, that I can get some fairly sweet closer-up pictures.  The deal with all the pitcher pictures is that this guy is Julio Teheran, and if everything goes right in the world, he’ll be a really, really, really good pitcher for the Atlanta Braves for the next four to six years.

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Guess which player Alabamans love?

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Brad Coon is a player on the Montgomery Biscuits, and people really love to cheer for him.

The strange thing is that Brad Coon is not a supremely talented baseball player.  Brad Coon is 29-years old, and in his seventh year playing exclusively minor league baseball.  The Montgomery Biscuits are a AA-level minor league team, and the typical age for AA players with legitimate futures is typically anywhere from 20-23 years old.  In years prior, Brad Coon played for AAA-level affiliates for the Angels, Dodgers and Nationals, but upon landing with the Rays, they assigned him to AA.

So Brad Coon is considered way old for his level of competition, but his current statistics indicate that it’s fairly appropriate in terms of skill.  Which is another way of me saying that Brad Coon isn’t exactly the most talented baseball player in the world.

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Real Men Don’t Wear Small update: Riverwalk Stadium, Montgomery, Alabama

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My latest baseball travels took me out to Montgomery, Alabama for some minor league baseball action.  There, I visited Riverwalk Stadium, home of the Montgomery Biscuits, the AA affiliates of the Tampa Bay Rays.  Out of all of the minor league ballparks that I’ve been to, I would rank Riverwalk Stadium very high up on it, and it’s easily the best park I’ve been to out of the paltry four AA parks I’ve visited.  The best part about it is that it’s close enough to where I’d actually consider going again in the future.

Photos: A day in Montgomery, Alabama

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The pursuit of travel and baseball took me down to Montgomery, Alabama for a day, to take in some local sights, and eventually watch some baseball.  Compared to Birmingham from just a week ago, I have to say that I liked Montgomery more.  Ironically, a lot of it has to do with the historic feel of the area, and walking around what I suppose was a major home of the Confederacy.

The first White House of the Confederacy is what’s pictured above, and it’s kind of interesting to think that I never heard of such a structure even existing in contemporary school, despite the fact that Virginia too was a “southern state.”

As much as I thought I would be looked at with a strange eye for being a Chinaman in Montgomery, Alabama, I was pleasantly surprised to have not really run into such incident.  Well, not openly.  Then again, being a Sunday afternoon, pretty much the entire city was deserted, except for the sparse church-goers and baseball enthusiasts at the park.  I’ll save the park opinions for when I eventually update the baseball site, but as for the rest of the pictures, beyond the jump.

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Real Men Don’t Wear Small update: Regions Park, Hoover, Alabama

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The first update of the 2012 baseball season takes me to Birmingham/Hoover, Alabama for some minor league action.  Regions Park, home of the Birmingham Barons of the Southern League, the class-AA affiliates of the Chicago White Sox.  Ironically, the minor league parks for both the AA and AAA affiliates of the White Sox are way better than the White Sox’s major league park.

Photos: A day trip to Birmingham, Alabama

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Since I was kind of sick at the start of the baseball season, I pretty much missed the entire opening homestand for the Braves.  Which is kind unfortunate, considering the Braves won five out of the six games they played in Atlanta, but now they’re on the west coast, and will be out there for like another week, or so it will feel.  Or maybe it’s just that I really relish the novelty in visiting ballparks I haven’t been to before, over my home park, who knows really.  So the first baseball game I went to live this year would be a new one.

Despite having lived in Atlanta for the past nine years, I’d never actually stepped foot in the state of Alabama before.  I’ve never had any reason to, and I can’t say that I’d never felt compelled to visit for any other reason than baseball.  Living where I live, I’ve had my share of exposure from Alabamans, most of them less than positive.  Too much Roll Tard and absurd loyalty to college football spawning irrational idiocy.  But with Rome and Lawrenceville already off the list, it left me with few alternatives.  And with the Braves’ double-A affiliates from Mississippi playing in Birmingham, it looked like good of reason as any to make my first ever trip into Alabama.

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Real Men Don’t Wear Small Update: Ripken Stadium

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Corresponding with my recent trip up to Aberdeen, Maryland, the most recent Real Men Don’t Wear Small update features Ripken Stadium, home of the Aberdeen IronBirds, the short-season A-ball developmental team of the Baltimore Orioles.  Translation: a level below the minor leagues, for really, really young draftees and teenagers to get a taste of what professional baseball is like.