AL & Larry SportsBlog

I like food. It’s been kind of a love/hate relationship most of my life. And I am too large. So I’m trying to lose weight, but it’s a struggle. Because of my preoccupation with the tastier things in life, I feel marginally qualified to comment on them. I even worked as a chef for a year or so if that lends any credibility.

We said we would be talking about sports and such in this blog. Part of sports is the concession stand. We can’t always eat at home, or on the way to a game, so we have to grab a bite at the stadium. It’s the same situation for parents who have to do the driving or just want to see your son/daughter play and by the time you get home it’s almost 9 p.m. So why not get dinner at the snack bar?

Which leads me to the fact that I don’t believe I have ever read anyone review concession stands. So here goes.

About a week ago I attended some lacrosse games at St. Ignatius High School. The first thing I ask at the window is “what is your special.” In this case it is the Riche burger (pronounced ‘Reesh’). The Riche burger ($3.00) is a 1/4 pound beef patty, cooked on a gas grill. It was named by inventor Rich Clark several years ago but continues as a favorite. But what makes it special is the burger-sized hash brown patty, also grilled, placed on the burger. You add the condiments. I’ve had them before and perhaps it is the fact that the same person doesn’t always do the grilling that there is some inconsistency. At their best, fresh off the grill, burger and hash brown patty both, is a wonderful thing. Cholesterol be damned. A little mustard or catchup and it’s quite filling. Add a soft drink (16 oz. bottles from a cooler) and you have a terrific meal. My recent experience was a bit dimmed in that the burger had been wrapped in foil and sat for a while, depriving it a bit of the “fresh off the grill” taste, and it was a bit soggy. My advice? Get one fresh off the grill, even if you have to wait. And to the cooks, as long as you are grilling, some grilled onions on top of it all would be killer.

On Saturday I was at the Rocky River freshmen and varsity games. It was a beautiful day and between games I stopped for lunch. The concession stand special was a basic Ballpark Frank, grilled on one of those large portable George Foreman type things. It was cooked to perfection, kept warm in foil, but not soggy. Condiments on the counter included real Stadium Mustard, relish and freshly chopped onions. For $3.00 total, including the ice cold Diet Pepsi, I considered it a bargain. They also serve breakfast sandwiches, with the first game starting at 10:00 a.m. That will have to wait for another day.

And Special Thanks to the booster clubs that spend thankless hours preparing the food and manning the booth. – Larry Kasperek

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The weather finally cooperated and we were able to get off to a fast start with spring sports. Over the past seven days, we were at 13 games and posted more than 750 photos! We were able to get events from every school we cover with the exception of St. Ignatius. They will not be left out.

So as a parent, or student, you might be thinking “750 photos and none of my kid.” Well, that happens. Here’s why. Sometimes we aren’t there an entire game, or the light goes away on us. We edit each image, looking closely at exposure and focus, so some images don’t make the final cut. And much depends on our position relative to the players, sometimes we get blocked by other players, coaches and refs. A particular athlete may not be in a position (relative to us, we do move around) to be photographed during a game. And of course, there is always luck. We just can’t get every player every time. That is why we try to cover at least two games of every sport, every level, every school.

But the season is young, so we’ll keep trying. One of the best ways to help us is to join our Watch List. You provide us your name, athlete’s name, school, sport, level and jersey number. We’ll put that number on a list for each game and make an effort to get the athletes on the list. You will also provide us a valid email address and we’ll notify you when we post a gallery from that game. And we appreciate all the students who join the watch list so they can see photos of themselves on our site – but keep in mind that we know that it is the parents who buy the photos, and this is a business for us, so we prefer to hear from a parent. Case in point. We recently received three notifications from players on the same team at a school who all said they want to buy photos - but none provided a valid email address. Hmmm. There is a handy form on our site that you can fill out to joint the list.

Keep the good weather coming. – Larry Kasperek

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Hello to all our friends. This is the first installment of our blog. Yes, we have been brought kicking and screaming into the 2000’s. We hope to use this space so that you can learn more about the how and why of Al and Larry Sports. As we progress through the seasons, we hope to observe on the events at the hundreds of games we attend. We also hope we can give you some insight into sports photography and photography in general. We welcome your comments and questions and will try to respond as thoroughly and quickly as time permits. The basis for many of the first entries will be centered around our Most Frequently Asked Questions … things such as how do we pick the games we attend, or the schools we cover, and how this whole process works.

Today is the first of April, and according to the school sports schedules, it will be pretty hectic over the next six weeks as we try to cover as many games as possible, weather permitting. And that seems to be the biggest factor this time of year. We are already getting game cancellation and postponement notices. We plan on covering five sports this spring, baseball, softball, lacrosse, track and rugby. In addition to Al and I, we have two other photographers that are part of our team. Jim Baron covers most of the Mentor sports for us, and Scott Evans will be helping with the West side sports, particularly Rocky River, which is new this season, and Bay Village. We hope you will be seeing their contributions to this blog.

If you see one of us at a game, please say hello. We welcome your thoughts and ways to improve what we do. We will always find time to answer questions, but please remember we are there to work for you, so between periods, before and after games is best for us. And, to you aspiring high school photographers, we welcome your questions and will be glad to give you some tips to improve your work for your school or yourself.

See you on the sidelines! - Al and Larry

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