Spring Training!

This is a really nice time of year here in the desert.  February started with sub freezing temps but a month later it's really starting to get nice (87F).

This time of year a large portion of our division at the DayJob(tm)  takes an afternoon off to visit a spring training game.  The stress of tracking down bugs is traded for the stress of avoiding sunburn and dealing with traffic.

Today the DiamondBacks dropped in on the Angels at Tempe Diablo Stadium.  Here's what it looked like during the Angels pre-game workout:

The  home Angels are the team in red and the visiting Diamondbacks are the team in (slightly darker) red.  Had to look close to see who is who.

These "action" shots were taken with the "advanced sports action" settingand I must say it's not what I expected.  I'd hoped it would "prefocus" to minimize the shutter delay.  Instead it seems to stretch out the shutter speed to blur the action.  There are times that makes sense, (like taking airplane pictures - fast shutter speeds stop the propellers and just doesn't look right).  But in these shots, I'd rather catch "the instant" rather than seeing the bat and ball as a blur.  I'm still learning and got a little smarter today.

The Pickoff.  Note the ball just right of the first baseman's head.

Here's a hit with a ground bounce. The ball is the streak in the grass on the left and you can trace the line back to the dirt splash.

Anyway, you get the idea..  It was actually a pretty good game. started out slow with no action but the Angels pretty quickly built a lead.  The local team battled back to tie and then  take the lead.  But the Angels got some players on base and retied the game.  For a while it looked like the game might end in a tie.  But next at bat scored a run for the win in the bottom of the ninth.

I hope your Friday was as pleasant.