Ballparks Redux

Metropolis has posted a slideshow of the outtake photographs by Sean Hemmerle for my story on New York’s ballparks. The pictures are phenomenal, so click over and take a look. And if you haven’t read it, the story is here. I’m happy to say it’s been getting much positive feedback. Here’s how it starts:

There are times—too many of them—when it is hard, very hard, to be a baseball fan. I do not mean those days when your team has fallen to its rival by some ignominious score, though that is frustrating. I refer to something more corrosive, a breaking of the unspoken covenant between fan and team on which professional baseball depends. By this agreement, the fan pledges undying loyalty to his team, and in return, said team makes every possible effort to disguise the fact that said fan’s loyalty has been pledged not to a benevolent civic institution but to a mercenary corporate operation. It is this suspension of disbelief that allows us to enjoy the game in all its innocence; and this, to a large degree, is why we become fans in the first place. Baseball is at once our national pastime and national palliative.

Continue.