The Best Baseball Photos I Took in 2024
One of the IBWAA co-directors shares his favorite baseball photos from the last year
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Pregame Pepper
Did you know…
. . . A week from today, the annual MLB winter meetings will kick off in Dallas. Typically, free agent deals before the winter meetings are rare, so it makes sense that very few of the elite free agents have signed so far. Of MLB Trade Rumor’s top 50 free agents, fourth-ranked Blake Snell signed with the Dodgers, No. 12 Yusei Kikuchi signed with the Angels, and No. 29 Nick Martinez accepted the qualifying offer from the Reds. Even among the “honorable mention” list, only Travis d’Arnaud (Angels) has signed among the 18 players listed there.
. . . For hardcore baseball nuts, the last day of the winter meetings is often the most exciting, with the Rule 5 draft the last real item on the agenda each year. With the roster deadline to protect players from the Rule 5 draft passed, writers and podcasters are examining the field. This past week, Baseball America and Just Baseball’s The Call Up show both released excellent podcasts to get you informed on the top prospects available.
Leading Off
The Best Baseball Photos I Took In 2024
By Benjamin Chase
For many, their interaction with baseball is not at the MLB level, the minor league level, or even college. High school baseball, American Legion baseball, Little League baseball, and a host of other youth baseball organizations are often where the average fan encounters the game most frequently.
That’s certainly true for me, but I do have the opportunity due to my job at a newspaper to cover local baseball, through both stories and photographing home games. As we in IBWAA encourage and support all baseball coverage, whether written, video, radio, or photographs. Today and tomorrow, I will share some of my favorite photographs that I took through the year of local baseball.
High School Varsity and Junior Varsity
Being in South Dakota, the spring high school season is often quite short, so weather can eliminate a lot of the season, and that was exactly what happened this year. Much of the month of April was lost to rainouts, leaving teams scrambling to get enough games in to qualify for the postseason. Otherwise, I’d have dozens more photos from the spring!
American Legion Varsity
American Legion baseball actually began in South Dakota, so the summer youth baseball program has a 100-year history in the state and often draws players who don’t participate in their high school team. The Huron area has three levels of Legion baseball. We’ll cover two today.
American Legion 16U
Those who are paid subscribers will have the chance tomorrow to enjoy photographs of the one championship team that I covered this year. If YOU have a collection of baseball photographs that you’d like to share, feel free to sign up for a day to contribute to the Here’s the Pitch newsletter, and share away!
Benjamin Chase is one of the co-directors of IBWAA and an editor of the Here’s the Pitch newsletter. His day job is with a rural newspaper in South Dakota, but he covers baseball on his Medium page and with the Pallazzo Podcast prospect show, among others. He can be found on most social media platforms under the username biggentleben.
Extra Innings
Just like the photos will be done in two parts, a bit of insight from arguably the best modern baseball photographer will be done in two parts today and tomorrow. Today’s long video from Brad Mangin is a presentation he gave on the history of baseball photographs: