AT&T Park, Giants v Nationals
Yesterday I went to see the Nationals play the Giants at AT&T Park in San Francisco. It was an interesting game. Very few hits and not much scoring. The Nationals won in 10, 2 to 1. As you can see it was a beautiful day, perfect for baseball. I was at the mercy of the guy selling the tickets, and just asked for a very cheap seat. Ended up in section 302, which by my estimation is the nicest place to sit in the whole park. The only problem was that for the first time in all my years of going to baseball games, it was difficult to concentrate on the action with this amazing view of the bay always pulling me away from the game. Even if you HATE baseball, it is totally worth $24.00 to sit up here for an afternoon drinking a few beers and being part of a crowd of very friendly people. / After the game I blasted over to the offices of Collector’s Weekly and met with Hunter Oatman-Stanford who wrote this article about the suitcases that really opened a lot of doors for me. We were joined by two other editors and had a great chat about this and that. I was totally blown away when they told me that the story had generated roughly 600,000 views on their site. I really owe a lot to Hunter for his great interview and interest in the project. / Made it out to the airport in time to catch the redeye back to Boston. Got home at about 9.30 this morning and was happy to see the Pearl, who after a bit of a scare this weekend seems to be back on her feet.
Basketball
I was helping my photographer friend Thom Kendall set up an overhead platform at the Mullins Center today and had my little camera with me. It is always fun seeing things from different angles.
Stadium Thing
I am not really sure what to call this post. Just now when I uploaded the photograph, I saw that my shorthand for it was “stadium thing”. I guess I’ll go with that. I believe that it was built to sell snacks during UMASS football games, but I have never seen it in use. If you look to the right of the photo you will note that there is a second one just to the south. I have spent a lot of time around sports venues and never seen anything like it. Oddly beautiful though.
Soccer (Football)
I have always liked soccer. As a kid I first played it at Camp Dudley and then in high school. My junior year at Kiski the JV coach was Ed Schuster and at the end of the season I didn’t travel to the last game. He told me that I was the only kid he ever coached that went from starting at the beginning of the season to being at the bottom of the roster at the end. And I honestly couldn’t figure out why. Another case of me not being able to understand some of the adults in my life. I didn’t play in college but continued to follow the professional game. / Jürgen Kracht was a (very cool) colleague of my fathers at Allegheny College and in the summer of 1968, he and some of his friends asked me to join them to go to Municipal Stadium in Cleveland to see Pele’s Brazilian club Santos play the Cleveland Stokers in a friendly. It think we went in his lovely little red Fiat 850 Special. It was a memorable game in that the Stokers won 2-1 in what seemed a massive upset. Looking it up on the net I found the exact date to be 10 July of that year. We sat quite high up in the stadium, and even though capacity was around 80,000, I seem to remember it being mostly sold out.
Peter is in DC doing an internship with DC United and he was able to get me a ticket for Saturday’s first round playoff match with the Red Bulls at RFK. It was a pretty good match; ended up 1-1 and the crowd at the stadium was really rockin’.
Salvatore is the “12th man” and moves around the ground beating on his drum. I just love the matador get-up. I was hoping to get a shot of him looking at the camera, but I think he was leery of a flash going off. The return match is scheduled for this Wednesday at 8 (NBC Sports Network) at Red Bulls Arena in Harrison, NJ. Go United!
Something New
This post is a way to jump-start my brain. I have been so preoccupied with Peter that it has been difficult to concentrate on anything else. It feels great to be focusing on photographs again. None of these pictures seem so interesting on their own, but together reflect what’s been going on for the past month.
Above is Tom Schack’s birthday cake from the now infamous “Schackstock” at Snowzies in Sunderland. Bands started playing at 1 pm and things shut down at closing time. His Mom, Dad, and Sister were there as well as lots of his friends.
He is just about the nicest guy in the world, and was really enjoying himself.
This flower starts showing up partway down the drive in early August.
When I was shooting the Tilghman project in August I made sure to visit Miss Pigsley. She lives down the street from Jennifer, has an air conditioner in her shed and will never be bacon. I took this for Peter because we are both huge P.G. Wodehouse fans and any stories with Lord Emsworth feature his obsession with “The Empress”. This pig is magnificent and is very happy to have visitors. She used to drink massive amounts of Kool-Aid until the vet put her on a diet.
On the Sunday morning before Peter Carroll and I left the island, we went to the church to document a service. This gentleman was in the pew in front of me.
I have always liked cattails.
When Cris, Pete, and I went to see the Sox in August, the Olympics were going on and this guy was checking out the US Women’s Soccer action. Technology!
I had a hard time getting the white balance right in this shot. I walk past this box on my way to shoot the suitcases. It always reminds me of this Little Feat song.
Going back to Meadville means more than hot dogs and ice cream but two stops are essential; Eddie’s and Hank’s Frozen Custard.
I have been going to Hank’s since it opened in 1952.
Peter loves it too.
There is only one reason to post this photo. It might be the only time you can see Red Sox pitcher Clayton Mortensen at bat in an American League Park. At this point the Sox were up something like 12-1 and I still can’t figure out why Bobby Valentine had him at the plate. Kind of cool though.
When we were at Pymatuning watching the ducks walk on the fishes backs we met the woman I posted about earlier. She was wearing this shirt which got us talking. I’d like to visit sometime.
It is very rare to be in on an historical moment, but I can say I was there when one of my neighborhood friends coined the term “Rat Lake” for the body of water that appeared after the flood control dam was built.
I usually help Thom Kendall out with the photos on media day for the UMASS football team. The new coach is a really great guy. This picture pretty much tells you most of what you need to know about Charley Molnar.
The Pearl out on the deck.
Cris and I went to Amherst Coffee today. I often take a shot of my cappuccino for some reason.
Never one to hide my emotions, I have been mentioning to just about anyone I talk to about my feelings of having Peter off in DC. So many of you have told me that he will be fine, and I want to thank you all for your support. One of the best bits of encouragement came from Leamuse in France as a comment on my earlier post. “Bon courage et bon chance.” Thank you so much; it really helps.
Pirates v Dodgers
Peter and I had a nice visit to PNC Park last night. We usually sit in the same general area; sections 116 or 117 as the seats are really affordable. I have made a version of this photo on many occasions but it is always a captivating view. A great city and in our opinion the nicest park in the majors. Bucs lost 5-4 to the Dodgers but it was a good game and the fans were totally into it.
Sunday in PA and Ohio
Today, Peter and I drove from Meadville to Cleveland, mostly on Route 322. It was a cool gray morning and 322 is a road that I have ridden on and driven many times. The fields were so green and lush; soy beans and field corn grown mostly on small family farms. I had wanted to stop and photograph on our way to the Indians game, but I felt a bit of pressure to get to the stadium and park with plenty of time to spare. It was a great game for the many Sox fans that made the trip with Boston winning 14-1. Afterwards Peter and I had an amazing meal at Mallorca.
As we were driving back to Meadville I was again taken by the rural beauty of Eastern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania. The roads are in quite good shape and the farms are nicely kept. This shot is facing East on Ohio Route 167 not far from the PA line. There was so little traffic that I just stopped the car in the road to take it.
I stopped to photograph the fields on the way home and found myself thinking about the farmers in the midwest who are suffering through one of the worst droughts in recent history. Not four hundred miles west of here in Indiana the corn is dying for lack of rain. And yet the farmers in this part of the world seem to be in the midst of a bumper crop. I actually thought that if the Indiana farmers saw these fields they might cry.
And finally, our route back to Meadville took us through Linesville, PA. I got the chance to show Peter the famous spillway on Pymatuning Lake where the “ducks walk on the fishes backs”. I know it is really bizarre, but it is something I grew up with and it doesn’t seem that weird. We met a nice woman who is driving across the country visiting places like this. Here’s a link to her blog.
Fenway at Night
Peter, Cris, and I went to a Red Sox game last night. It was an absolutely perfect night for baseball; temperature in the mid-70s and a constant light breeze from the south. In the bottom of the first, Carl Crawford hit a double off the monster and was then picked off second when he wandered a bit too far from the base. That pretty much sums up the season. It has been a tough year for the club. But still, baseball on a beautiful summer’s evening. Can’t be beat (unlike the Sox who lost 6-3).
Hadley Hall Bowling Alley
On Friday I got the chance to get into Hadley Hall on the site of the former Willard Psychiatric Center. The Romulus Historical Society was setting up the annual display of Willard suitcases and I helped out a bit by moving some boxes around. There were two areas of interest to me, and this post is about the first of those. Hadley Hall was the recreation facility for the asylum and was built in 1892. The building is dominated by a beautiful auditorium complete with a fully functional stage set-up. On the lower level is this bowling alley. According to people I have spoken to, the alley was used by both staff and patients.
And I believe that the lanes were used up until the psych center closed in the mid 1990s.
The system for resetting the pins and returning the balls was mechanical only to a degree. Someone back here behind the pins waited for the ball to arrive. It would be returned via the wooden track and the pins would be reset (depending on a strike or spare). The mechanical part of the operation involved the pins being dropped onto the lane once they were loaded onto the mechanism (see below).
When people were bowling, the place must have really been hopping.
It is so interesting to me that most of the components of the alley were still here and relatively intact.
The pins certainly look well used.
This is a very cool ball.
I am constantly reminded how fortunate I am to have access to these spaces.
Tomorrow I am back in Rotterdam shooting suitcases, but I hope to post part two of my visit to Hadley Hall later in the week.
Jon Crispin's Notebook 
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