Spring Training Pics: 3/13, 3/15, 3/16

by JimmyAB on Mar 23, 2009 1:24 AM EDT

So here are a few of the shots taken about a week ago during 3 games at Goodyear. I'll put a link to my Flickr page at the end if you are interested in seeing more.

Sizemore looked consistently good at the plate and in this at bat drove one in the gap and legged out a triple.

Kerry Wood continued to impress in his first few appearances and has fans starting to feel confident about keeping the lead in the late innings.

Jhonny Peralta is having a great spring at the plate and looked solid on defense as well.

The Indians obviously need to get strong performance from their middle relief and set-up pitchers. Chulk has turned in some solid appearances and is making a case his place on the roster.

Andy Marte. At this point I think there is nothing left to say.

Does anybody have anything bad to say about this guy?

If we see Carlos in the lineup (and I hope we do) in the next few years, I hope he comes without the expected intro music for his at bats.

I hope we see LaPorta sooner than later this season. I have been pleased with what I have seen so far.

Hitting a three run walk-off homer (as you see here) certainly carries some style points but it appears Gimenez has more going for him than just the occasional power stroke.

Okay. Enough for now. If you have interest in seeing the rest they are HERE.

I was going to say some more about the park at Goodyear and just a little bit about what I saw in the way of individual performances, but I think I'll keep it short for right now and do that as another post. It's late and I'm somewhat bummed out by team USA's showing tonight.

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Comments

Great pictures. Thanks for sharing.

by afh4 on Mar 23, 2009 8:39 AM EDT reply actions

Much appreciated.

Steel Nick

by nickjs21 on Mar 23, 2009 8:55 AM EDT reply actions

this is very cool. thanks.

by Brick. on Mar 23, 2009 10:02 AM EDT reply actions

my favorite is the santana one.

by Brick. on Mar 23, 2009 10:02 AM EDT reply actions

Maybe Marte should switch to a heavier bat.

by FranklinScott on Mar 23, 2009 10:56 AM EDT reply actions 2 recs

Should I look for these in the 2010 annual?

Travis Hafner is overrated. Clarity is underrated. David Dellucci is David Dellucci.

by westbrook on Mar 23, 2009 12:21 PM EDT reply actions

We probably can’t use photos where the faces in the crowd are so prominent, since nobody signs release forms.

Well, that's just, like, your opinion, man.

by Jay on Mar 23, 2009 6:14 PM EDT up reply actions

Maybe, but people shown on TV during games don’t sign forms either.

Travis Hafner is overrated. Clarity is underrated. David Dellucci is David Dellucci.

by westbrook on Mar 23, 2009 6:28 PM EDT up reply actions

I think that there is some sort of release on the tickets when you buy them. One of those “we can use your likeness how we see fit”.

by cclemens31 on Mar 25, 2009 12:19 PM EDT up reply actions

I can’t imagine this being a problem.

by Ryan Kelsey on Mar 23, 2009 7:40 PM EDT up reply actions

Well, I would certainly be honored if someone wanted to use any of the photos (I’ve a bunch more as well) in something like the Indians Annual (which, by the way, is absolutely amazing and I keep going back to it). I’m not so sure the quality of the images is up to snuff but what do I know. I do actually have RAW image files of everything as well and except for cropping and resizing I didn’t fool with anything else in the way of color or other adjustments. I would think that one could just blur out the background faces if it was necessary. I don’t know what sort of laws apply to these issues.

by JimmyAB on Mar 23, 2009 11:29 PM EDT up reply actions

A second Annual is not a foregone conclusion like everyone seems to assume, but if we do it, I definitely will look into including some photos from both you and LLM, if you’re willing.

Well, that's just, like, your opinion, man.

by Jay on Mar 25, 2009 1:31 PM EDT up reply actions

Anyone else find it hilarious that Marte is the only one squashing the bug (strictly verboten) with his back foot? Plus the broken bat, I find hilarious.

by joeee on Mar 23, 2009 2:23 PM EDT reply actions

I figured Wedge sent him up there without a bat.

Well, that's just, like, your opinion, man.

by Jay on Mar 23, 2009 2:30 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs

Dude that’s like, poetry and stuff.

by joeee on Mar 23, 2009 2:34 PM EDT up reply actions

My pictures are terrible compared to these. I have a little Casio that we take on trips that has a lousy zoom. Takes nice photos in full daylight, but our seats were too far down the LF line to get nice closeups like those.

I need to buy a real camera …

Signature to be named later.

by emd2k3 on Mar 23, 2009 3:15 PM EDT reply actions

Great pics (although I’m glad the baloney-on-a-stick didn’t get promoted to the front page).

by APV on Mar 23, 2009 5:20 PM EDT reply actions

I realized that younger kids might occasionally read this forum and decided it was prudent to not post the fried baloney-on-a-stick right out in the open.

by JimmyAB on Mar 23, 2009 11:33 PM EDT up reply actions

Whoa, these are great. Thanks for posting them. What kind of camera and lens do you use?

by LeftyCatcher on Mar 23, 2009 6:23 PM EDT reply actions

Wow. You didn’t take a picture of Tony Sipp, but the PD did and ran it online today.

And I just had one of those rare but bewildering moments; the moment when you realize a player you were certain was white is actually black (or vice versa, as was the case with Marcus Giles years ago, before I knew whom his brother was).

by tabler84 on Mar 23, 2009 6:24 PM EDT reply actions

I had one of those moments with Brian Barton.

Travis Hafner is overrated. Clarity is underrated. David Dellucci is David Dellucci.

by westbrook on Mar 23, 2009 6:26 PM EDT up reply actions

A good friend of mine still can’t accept that Ponson is white.

Well, that's just, like, your opinion, man.

by Jay on Mar 23, 2009 6:44 PM EDT up reply actions

Ha! He was also on my list. As was, back in the day. Carsten Charles.

by tabler84 on Mar 23, 2009 6:47 PM EDT up reply actions

Khalil Greene. That is all.

by dgcambridge on Mar 23, 2009 6:49 PM EDT up reply actions

Good one.

Well, that's just, like, your opinion, man.

by Jay on Mar 23, 2009 7:10 PM EDT up reply actions

I had the opposite thing happen with Reggie Willits the first time I saw him on TV.

by Logodaedalus on Mar 23, 2009 6:29 PM EDT up reply actions

For me it is Brian Roberts. For some reason, despite seeing him repeatedly, I can’t get myself to think of him as white.

by APV on Mar 23, 2009 6:33 PM EDT up reply actions

Just a hunch, but I bet it would get easier if you saw him dance.

Well, that's just, like, your opinion, man.

by Jay on Mar 23, 2009 6:43 PM EDT up reply actions

Same, I was shocked to find out he was white.

by mrich on Mar 24, 2009 10:05 AM EDT up reply actions

Haha I totally forgot to put that in my post last week. I’m getting Brantley’s autograph and I realize, wait, what? Ah, good to know.

by supermarioelia on Mar 23, 2009 7:18 PM EDT up reply actions

Bill Simmons documents this phenomenon in his “Reggie Cleveland All-Stars” list.

by joeee on Mar 23, 2009 8:05 PM EDT up reply actions

I don’t know why I already knew for a long time that Tony Sipp wasn’t white. But I can tell you I was mighty surprised when Erik Bedard got traded and I realized that after years of hearing about him, Adam Jones was black.

Steel Nick

by nickjs21 on Mar 23, 2009 8:41 PM EDT up reply actions

And blind!

Signature to be named later.

by emd2k3 on Mar 24, 2009 9:09 AM EDT up reply actions

I am curious enough about a player’s batting stance or pitching wind-up that I look at the Youtube videos of almost every Indians prospect that Lastoria puts online. Prevents this from happening to me generally

by Roger Dorn on Mar 23, 2009 8:49 PM EDT up reply actions

I assumed Jerry Hariston Jr. was white, and I continued to assume he was white long after I’d seen him play.

by jhon on Mar 23, 2009 9:38 PM EDT up reply actions

See, now this is just crazy. ;)

by tabler84 on Mar 23, 2009 10:09 PM EDT up reply actions

I’m confused… is that not Tony Sipp? I admit that up until I saw him (at least I think I saw him) I thought he was white. What PD photo are you talking about? I’m so confused…

by JimmyAB on Mar 23, 2009 11:12 PM EDT up reply actions

It is indeed Tony Sipp. He is indeed not white. You and I were on the same page here.

by tabler84 on Mar 24, 2009 5:33 AM EDT up reply actions

Also! Awesome pics. Well done. Thanks.

by tabler84 on Mar 23, 2009 6:24 PM EDT reply actions

Because I’m sure everyone cares, I’m not far out of frame in several of these pictures — these happen to be the two (and only two) games I went to in Goodyear. Was sitting about 20 rows back for both games, within a section of home plate.

by Logodaedalus on Mar 23, 2009 6:28 PM EDT reply actions

Logo we were probably at the same two games, literally a section apart. I was one over from all those goofs with the lime green hats.

by supermarioelia on Mar 23, 2009 7:26 PM EDT up reply actions

Logo was the one with the pocket protector, reading a six-volume collection of Proust essays during the game.

Well, that's just, like, your opinion, man.

by Jay on Mar 23, 2009 10:16 PM EDT up reply actions

My hero: the guy in the LaPorta picture, arms crossed, glare on his face which is rapt in thought, mustache bushy and white, perma-frown, trucker hat and aviators on, alone, thinking about baseball. I want to be that guy. When I’m older, I hope I have a friend who will sit in the upper deck with me, by then we’ll both be really fat, and we’ll take our shirts off in the sun and leave one buffer seat between us and we won’t say a word to each other except between innings. Maybe one of us will have goofy yellow headphones on, listening to the (superior) radio broadcast. Those guys – those guys are the reason baseball exists.

by joeee on Mar 24, 2009 1:29 AM EDT up reply actions

I actually thought that might have been Chuck.

by tabler84 on Mar 24, 2009 5:35 AM EDT up reply actions

Umm what’s up with those two to his left?

Travis Hafner is overrated. Clarity is underrated. David Dellucci is David Dellucci.

by westbrook on Mar 24, 2009 1:52 PM EDT up reply actions

That’s kind of a jarring juxtaposition, actually… Proust and pocket protectors…

(yeah, yeah, I just said "juxtaposition")

by Logodaedalus on Mar 24, 2009 1:53 AM EDT up reply actions

Juxtaposition isn’t that brainy of a word. It’s like faux brainy. Like “square root day” and “Pi day.” People who are actually math geniuses would never give a crap about those things.

Well, that's just, like, your opinion, man.

by Jay on Mar 25, 2009 1:33 PM EDT up reply actions

Fair enough — was just trying to preempt comments about it.

I don’t actually any words are really “brainy” intrinsically. Brainy is using them well to convey precise and nuanced meanings.

by Logodaedalus on Mar 25, 2009 4:07 PM EDT up reply actions

i just farted.

by Brick. on Mar 25, 2009 4:12 PM EDT up reply actions

fo’. shizzle.

by Logodaedalus on Mar 25, 2009 4:21 PM EDT up reply actions

Brainy is using them well to convey precise and nuanced meanings.

Easier said than done.

by jhon on Mar 25, 2009 6:25 PM EDT up reply actions

easier said than said?

by Logodaedalus on Mar 25, 2009 7:52 PM EDT up reply actions

Logo was the one with the pocket protector, ~~reading~~ writing a six-volume collection of Proust essays

Steel Nick

by nickjs21 on Mar 24, 2009 9:41 AM EDT up reply actions

Hey, did you guys know that a la mode, translated literally from French, means “in the fashion”? “Mode”, of course, being derived from the Latin “modus” meaning “do”, or “proper”….

by Logodaedalus on Mar 24, 2009 12:44 PM EDT up reply actions

Jay is exaggerating. No such six-volume set of Proust essays exists. He is probably referring to Renbe Girard’s Proust: a collection of critical essays, published in Englewood Cliffs, NJ in 1962. But this is only a single volume of 182 pages.

by odradek on Mar 26, 2009 11:57 PM EDT up reply actions

You don’t have access to Logo’s private library.

Well, that's just, like, your opinion, man.

by Jay on Mar 27, 2009 2:34 AM EDT up reply actions

Yup, I remember them. They were just a couple rows down and a section or two to the left of me.

by Logodaedalus on Mar 24, 2009 1:50 AM EDT up reply actions

I cropped most of these shots and have many more so I would bet that you would be in some of the full frames.

by JimmyAB on Mar 23, 2009 11:47 PM EDT up reply actions

Great pictures. Seeing Brantley anywhere near Marte causes me irrational fear.

by Brad D on Mar 23, 2009 8:20 PM EDT reply actions

Thanks for all the positive comments. I really did not expect to have them so warmly received. For anyone asking about the camera model and just about every other setting used for each shot; the details are on the Flickr page as a link for any given photo under “Additional Information”. Here is an example. In short, the camera is a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18 which has an optical zoom of 18x.

by JimmyAB on Mar 23, 2009 11:46 PM EDT reply actions