Sports Illustrated photo shoot

My last blog entry showed the article that appeared in Sports Illustrated for Kids. Here’s a look at some of the stuff that took place before, during, and after the photo shoot…

I knew that the photographer, Heinz Kluetmeier, wanted to recreate (and improve upon) the bathtub photo that was taken for People Magazine in 1999…so before he and his assistant arrived at my parents’ apartment (where I keep most of the balls), I cleaned the tub:

First, however, Heinz wanted to take some other pics, so I lined up the barrels and made myself a place to sit behind them and got him a ladder. I also changed into a more eye-catching red shirt:

The shoot was soon underway, and in case you’re wondering, I’m holding my 3,000th ball:

My girlfriend Jona was taking these pics, and she happened to get one right as Heinz’s flash went off (“’cause I’m amazing like that,” she says):

Heinz wanted a few shots of me with my parents, so I went and got ‘em:

It was time for the tub. Heinz wanted to see what the old photo looked like, so I showed him the copy that I keep in my wallet:

Then it was time to move some baseballs into the bathroom. Each barrel holds 400 balls and therefore weighs about 133 pounds:

Heinz helped move the books and shampoo bottles off the edges of the tub:

I got in the tub. They asked if I was ready for them to dump the balls on me. Ummmmm, no:

The solution:

At first I felt like we were cheating by using pillows, but then I realized we weren’t using them to make the tub look fuller. My collection could’ve filled four tubs. This was just an issue of…my future children’s existence. Anyway, Heinz brought the ladder into the bathroom, and his assistant (whose name I have since shamefully forgotten) got the rest of the equipment:

I tried to get a free advertisement for my book by holding it up in the tub:

“Tilt the book a little more toward me,” said The Man who was perched precariously with one foot on the toilet and the other on the ladder:

We finished with the book and moved on to other poses:

By golly, the pose below is THE very pose that was used in the magazine. You can tell I’m holding the same balls here based on the “practice” stamp on the ball closest to the camera. Here’s a similar practice ball that I photographed a while back for my web site. This one is an old National League ball (with a black logo) while the one in the magazine is an old American League ball (light blue):

Ready for the embarrassing pic I was talking about? Ohboy. Here goes:

Yeah, thank God THAT didn’t appear in the mag, but hey, at least my right arm looks good. Here’s some more toplessness:

Jona took more pics (of my hideous farmer’s tan) after the guys left:

And that was pretty much it. Sayonara, balls.