With the sun setting around 5pm (yes even on the west coast) this time of year, it gets challenging to get quality baseball field photos at night. If the field is lit up, great that really helps my cause. However, it is December and a lot of fields are not being used full time. So, leagues and schools may elect to keep their electricity bills down and shut the lights of the field off when no one is using the field. Case in point, the University of Southern California.

I took a chance and drove down from Whittier (where I was staying for work) down to the campus of the University of Southern California, more commonly referred to as “USC.” It was dark by the time I parked across the street from where the baseball field was situated inside the gates of USC. I took another chance and searched for a visitor’s entrance and lucky for me, found one. I walked around a huge construction site, passed the proposed site for a new football stadium, passed the tennis courts, and over to Mark McGwire Way.

I had a pretty good feeling about this one. There was no way I was getting into the field area to take photos. So, I did my best to take what photos I could. Here is a legendary wall and just a small reminder that USC has produced a ton of baseball talent that went on to play professionally. Ever heard of Tom Seaver, Fred Lynn, Bill Lee, Mark Prior, the aforementioned Mark McGwire, Aaron “Frickin'” Boone, Randy Johnson? All USC baseball alums, all with significant MLB time, several Hall of Famers in there, pretty impressive.

The campus athletic area was pretty well lit but I got the sinking suspicion that my time was running out on campus. I made my way around the field and over to a walkway to see if I could snag a photo of the field from an elevated area. I really didn’t have much light on the field to work with and I didn’t get the best shots, non filtered. I did my best to get what I could. Here is how they turned out.

Here is a snapshot of what I was hoping to photograph, snipped from the USC Baseball page –

As you can see, a rather stunning view if your timing is right. Timing is everything and my time was up at USC. I found an exit gate, had a student let me out before he locked up, and headed back to my car, then back east to Whittier from downtown Los Angeles. Still, a fun experience on the campus of USC despite the darkness and the looming thought I was going to be locked into campus overnight. Hey, I was in Hollywood and a little drama never hurt anyone, especially this baseball fan.