A father's snapshot of his 11-year-old daughter successfully executing a bunt in a girls' softball league, taken through the chain-link fence. Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, July 2008.
"I hope you all happened to be watching the Angels-Red Sox game on Monday night when the Angels pulled off the small-ball fait accompli—a perfect suicide squeeze. It was beyond beautiful.
"This is my pal Jenna Burnett executing a bunt a few Sundays ago on a field somewhere in Pennsylvania. Of all her accomplishments I'd rank being able to bunt way up the list." (Bob Burnett)
_____________________
Mike
Featured Comment by Tom K.: "A wonderful slice of Summer and Baseball and Americana itself. I love baseball. I love this photo."
Bunt? Suicide squeeze???
Posted by: Guy Batey | Thursday, 31 July 2008 at 11:18 AM
Still one of the most exciting plays in baseball. Despite the fact that they're 27-1/2 games back, the Mariners have pulled off the suicide squeeze twice this season. They tried it again Tuesday night against the Rangers, though, and it went horribly wrong.
Ichiro laid down a beauty last night, and managed to beat the throw to first, to boot.
Posted by: Toe Tag | Thursday, 31 July 2008 at 11:44 AM
Can I echo Guy? For your transatlatic cousins what is a bunt? or is this revenge for our predeliction of another hallowed game; cricket?
Posted by: Marten Collins | Thursday, 31 July 2008 at 12:32 PM
The internet is large. Cast thy ignorance upon its broad waters.
Mike J.
Posted by: Mike J. | Thursday, 31 July 2008 at 12:34 PM
And I bet Jenna got to first base faster than Manny did against the Angels (and I like Manny, I really do.)
Posted by: sevres-babylone | Thursday, 31 July 2008 at 12:37 PM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squeeze_play_(baseball)
Posted by: Toe Tag | Thursday, 31 July 2008 at 02:09 PM
Yes I got it! I think I understand. And yes it is as confusing as cricket!
Posted by: Marten Collins | Thursday, 31 July 2008 at 04:30 PM
The wide-angle shot does a great job of conveying how incredibly far away the bases (not to mention the outfield) seem to be when you're that age.
Of course, to really convey what it feels like to be a young batter, you would need the pitcher to appear to be 10 feet tall...
Best,
Adam
Posted by: mcananeya | Thursday, 31 July 2008 at 04:38 PM
"I love baseball. I love this photo."
And I've always loved the bunt.
Posted by: Robin Dreyer | Thursday, 31 July 2008 at 06:47 PM
Tomorrow's lesson: the "balk"
Posted by: Toe Tag | Thursday, 31 July 2008 at 09:13 PM
We just got back from tonight's doubleheader--here's the rundown: a couple of Texas leaguer's made it to the outfield, Katie hit a dinger, Kyra's change-up was landing--they were out front a country mile, and Jenna fielded a hot grounder while playing right and nailed the runner at first! Oh--and a few double steals, and yes----several bunts.
(Could that be the British people screaming "Bollocks!" that I hear?)
--Bob
Posted by: bob6061 | Thursday, 31 July 2008 at 11:28 PM
I'm now lost, double flabberghasted, which isn't pleasant in a man of my age.
But I do love the photo of Jenna! It's a picture of a life 7k miles away!
Posted by: Marten Collins | Friday, 01 August 2008 at 04:41 AM
I've never understood baseball, or beisbol, as we say here. And I have seen hundreds of films about it, had quite a few american friends -a couple of cubans also- explain it to me. Never been good at sports, either. But what strikes me is that the US is supposed to be a country of naive, spontaneous, unsophisticated people, yet their favourite games are very ritualistic and elaborated. You really need to have a deep knowledge of them to follow a game or get emotional about it. Thinking about American football, golf or baseball. As opposed to European soccer, a more primitive, intuitive game. No need to know anything about it to enjoy a match.
Something similar could be said about car or bike races, maybe the sole exception would be basketball.
Back to topic, the photo is perfect. You don't need to understand what's going on -suicide or blunt- to enjoy it.
Posted by: J_G | Friday, 01 August 2008 at 08:16 AM
"...the US is supposed to be a country of naive, spontaneous, unsophisticated people, yet their favourite games are very ritualistic and elaborated."
J_G,
I think the "naive, spontaneous, unsophisticated" bit might have been true in the 1800s, but no longer.
As I recall, there was a famous sportswriter who said something like, "There are only two natural sports, racing and fighting. All the rest are contrived."
Mike J.
Posted by: Mike J. | Friday, 01 August 2008 at 08:41 AM
Great photo, Bob. Random question though: why no infield grass?
Posted by: JChristian | Friday, 01 August 2008 at 10:35 AM
An excellent random question, JChristian, answered in two parts.
--This is actually a converted high school-sized baseball field. Most of the time a softball field doesn't have outfield dirt.
--Softball fields have all dirt infields. There are very few instances where you'll find grass infields in softball. (usually it occurs when someone is forced to convert a baseball field at the last minute to meet tournament demand) As an added thought, softball pitchers don't pitch off of a mound either.
--Bob
Posted by: bob6061 | Friday, 01 August 2008 at 01:13 PM
Mike
No judgement here, just an observation.
Let's say the US is characterised worldwide for its bold pop culture. Of course, it's the home of Harvard and the MIT and Edith Wharton and NASA and a very sophisticated political system and whatever. If you consider sports as part of popular culture, it's obvious to me that there is a shocking contrast: Rock'n roll, superman, blue jeans, hamburger, then games you play wearing an armour or some elaborated uniform includes a cap and following some intrincated undecipherable rules...
Posted by: J_G | Friday, 01 August 2008 at 06:32 PM
Ahhh ... Reminds me I'd better get to sleep to prepare for my own daughter's softball tournament tomorrow and Sunday (short tourney, just six games at most, but lots of fun photo opportunities!)
Posted by: Tom Dibble | Saturday, 09 August 2008 at 02:40 AM