If you don’t think time is flying by, then think about this … it’s been 10 years since New York Yankee captain Derek Jeter was rehabbing at the Railriders when he was caught leaving a Pittston restaurant.
You just never know when something as crazy as one of the greatest baseball players of all-time will show up at Pittston.
I received a call from the Sunday Dispatch that they got a tip that Derek Jeter was eating at a downtown restaurant and I should grab my camera and head down to capture a shot of him leaving the eating establishment.
At first I got excited that I was going to photo Jeter because I never saw him play in person, or I thought. It hit me later that I actually did see him play when he was much younger.
So I know there is a front and back door at the restaurant so I decided to recruit only one person for the job, my daughter Tiffany, who is a huge Yankee fan.
That was the good news for her, the bad news was I had to have her cover the back door just incase Jeter escaped out the rear door.
As Tiffany recalls, she never made it to the back door because we both stayed on Main.
We were one of the first people on the scene on Main Street as the rumor mill was at a fever pace and before you knew it, Main Street had quite the crowd gathered.
So we waited and waited and waited until there was a bit of a shuffle at the restaurant’s front door. Eventually Jeter emerged. It wasn’t a rumor!
Much to my surprise (I had major doubts he was even in town), I grabbed my camera and started to find a good position to get it but first, I had to figure out where and what car he was heading to.
It was then I realized I needed my camera with the short lens for close up shots was in my car so poor Tiffany had to run to the car to retrieve it.
The crowd was at a fever pitch and autograph seekers were surrounding Jeter, including my daughter Ashley’s friend Mia Pagnotti.
It was bedlam and the whole time I’m thinking, “I better be in the right spot at the right time” so I had to move into a position where he might be heading.
I basically stood in the middle of Main Street not paying much attention to the cars coming at me from behind just so I could accomplish my task at hand.
At this point, adrenaline is flowing and I had to just get that one shot … the money shot of Jeter.
For as excited as I was about getting the job done at hand, I couldn’t help but think that this is what it must feel like to be a paparazzi hunting down celebrities to sell photos to the National Inquire.
I’m not going to lie, in the end; I didn’t like the feeling of stalking someone just to get a photo of him for publication. I really felt bad for being there and even more important, I felt like I was infringing on the poor guy that no doubt didn’t want to be rehabbing with the Railriders and sure as hell probably didn’t want to be photographed coming out of a restaurant in Pittston, Pennsylvania.
Regardless of how I felt, I had a job to do and I did it. I captured him walking, looking for his car, signing autographs, being mobbed, and trying to get into a car before driving away.
I must have taken a million photos for something that happened in just a few minutes.
Even though it was a short walk from the restaurant to the car, it felt like it was in slow motion and it seemed like it took 10 minutes to get to his car and drive away.
Just before he got into his car, Tiffany shoved a sheet of paper in front of him and he reluctantly signed it. He closed the door and off he went.
I wish I could say the story was over at that point and all I did after was go home, edit my photos and send them to the paper.
In all my excitement, I posted the photo on Facebook (the newspaper wasn’t happy about that) and before I knew it, someone hijacked the photo from my page and the next thing I know, the photo appeared online and in print all over the country.
If you Google “Derek Jeter Pittston PA” you’ll see my photo.
If looks could kill, I would be dead because his if his blue eyes were lasers, I would have been disintegrated. Yep, I’d be dead as one of Aunt Clara doorknobs.
I believe it was the first time I heard the term viral, because that photo did just that, it went viral for sure.
To know the photo is still floating around in cyberspace is pretty wild. Albeit somewhat of a parody now, it’s still out there.
I learned a lot from that experience. I never posted anything work related until after it is published and the other, I could never, ever be a paparazzi.
Thought of the Week
“The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say ‘no’ to almost everything.” – Warren Buffet
Quote of the Week
“When you delete hypocrites from your life, good things will start happening and it won’t be a coincidence.” – Paulo Coelho
Bumper Sticker
“Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.” – Buddha
