“A little Jim Edmonds-esque there,” Cardinals center fielder Rick Ankiel is quoted as saying in today’s game story by Joe Strauss. Kind of timely given Edmonds’ debut with the rival Cubs.

In the first inning, a player hit a long fly out and I chose to use a looser lens to follow the hitter running towards first base for a reaction if it was a home run. Didn’t make a picture as the ball was caught and he just jogged back to the dugout.

In the second inning a similar situation occurred as Pittsburgh’s Adam LaRoche launched a ball to the deepest part of Busch Stadium, straightaway center field. I tracked Cardinals’ center fielder Rick Ankiel racing back to the warning track and stayed with the long lens as he leaped and turned in mid-air to backhand the ball over the wall.

My first frame has the ball still in the air a moment before the actual catch was made, but it is several feet from his glove and leaves uncertain whether the ball was caught. Ankiel’s face is clearly visible, but the distance is hard to judge and it could be inside the park.

The second frame, the one that was ultimately used in the paper, leaves no doubt as Ankiel impacts the padding with his arm stretched over the wall. Although his face was covered by his arm, the glint of the ball secure in Ankiel’s glove made the moment for me.

Sports photography brings up the need for quick decisions on how to react to a certain play, and often, how to predict what play will happen to prepare for it. Sometimes I guess right, and sometimes I don’t. If it looks like I’m usually right, it’s only because you never see all the times when I’m wrong and I miss the picture.

What actually makes this photo is not anything I did, it is the pure athleticism of a professional athlete, the amazing coordination to know where to be and to get there at the right moment. I’m watching it like 30,000 other people in the stands. I just happen to be looking through a viewfinder. And I say “Wow” afterwards too.