Apparently, doctoring photographs for use in news stories is all the rage these days, so I thought I’d dip my hand into the popular culture of the day and test the waters.
Here are some photographs I (presumably) took from Sunday’s A’s-Devil Rays contest in Oakland. See if you can tell which photos are real, and which ones are Photoshop.
Ceremonial First Pitch
95-year-old Emil Mailho, the second oldest living A’s player, throws out the ceremonial first pitch from his wheelchair.
Warmup
The A’s take the field.
Non-Ceremonial First Pitch
Esteban Loaiza starts the game off with a hard fastball to B.J. Upton.
!!!
And then my second thought was this:
???
Where had this velocity been all year? Later, Loaiza threw a pitch that measured 95mph on the stadium gun. What the heck? With his velocity suddenly returned from its AWOL status, Loaiza cruised through the game. After six innings, he had only thrown 58 pitches. He was at 90 pitches through eight.
As an aside to this, even though Loaiza had Upton befuddled most of the afternoon, striking him out three times, I kinda fell in love with Upton anyway. His swing is so quick and smooth, it’s quite a lovely thing to behold. I think he has the most aesthetically pleasing swing I’ve seen in years.
Stolen Base
Milton Bradley steals second base.
Stolen Base 2
Jay Payton steals second base.
Chavez Connects
On this pitch, Eric Chavez launches a home run.
Handshakes and High Fives
The A’s hold on to win their shortest game of the year.
1. Well, I'm embarrasssed at missing one of them.
2. Was it the last one?
3. Ken! Ya pick the one week this summer I am on dialup to run this thing!!! :(
...but I'll be at the Rays/Jays game on Tuesday, anybody I need to trash talk for ya?
4. I knew the Milton Bradley photo was real, just because he possesses the ugliest slide of a Major Leaguer since Pedro Guerrero.
Am I the only one who expects each Bradley slide to be quickly followed by a mad dash by trainer Larry Davis out to whatever base Milton is writhing near?
5. I apparently have a future in live action versions of "Where's Waldo?"
6. warmup.
corcoran vs. belth.
i wouldnt have noticed, but you gave alex a 6.41 ERA.
7. ok, now i feel dumb.
i missed the links the first time around.
this always happens when i post at 7 am.
8. Alex's high ERA is clearly a result of that one inning where 15 straight bloop singles was followed by 2 grand slams. If you look at his K/100 pitches and HR/9 rates, he's actually a much better pitcher than Corocan. Don't listen to the scouts when they say Alex doesn't have the "stuff." I also heard Alex throws a gyroball. And that Ken Arneson wears Alex Belth pajamas.
9. I think if you really wanted to stump people, Ken, you should have photoshoped in Marcel Lacheman over Rene.
10. the guy in the first picture in the left hand corner with a red shirt looks like he's getting ready to sit in the toilet & poop.