About Kelly O’Connor (Sox and Pinstripes Photographer)

Born in Boston (okay, technically Ahlington) I have been a Red Sox fan since I was born. My family rarely went to Fenway, but summers meant long evenings either crashed in front of Channel 38 or on the sun porch with the radio listening to Ned Martin and later Ken Coleman. If pressed, I'd date my indoctrination to 1978: in July a team of destiny, leading the division by 14 games, by the chill of September in a terrifying free-fall. When they finally broke my 10-year-old heart in that playoff game, well, I guess I learned for the first time just what kind of hold this team had on me.

By 1986, I was a college sophomore in New York, subscribing to the Boston Globe through the mail in order not to miss any Red Sox or Celtics coverage. I had the radio on and the windows open when the ball went between Buckner's legs, and I will never forget hearing the exultant cheers of New Yorkers all around me as my heart fell six stories to the basement and shattered. (I'm not convinced I found all the pieces.) In 2003, when Grady Little failed to pull Pedro in the eighth, I did the unforgivable: I lost faith, and waited merely to see how the loss would play out, to see whom the fates would choose as the actors in the final play. But in 2004 I was resolved that no matter what, I would not lose that faith—and I never did. I still marvel at the collection of individual stories that coalesced in that year and that World Series win, and I wouldn’t trade that one triumph for 50 rings.

In the off-season of 2005, a poster on the Remy Report board inadvertently started a thread of player photographs. Searching for good pictures, I found myself drawn to Spring Training and batting practice photos by talented folks like Brita Meng Outzen (MLB) and Jim Davis (Boston Globe). I admired their work, but there were never enough photos of the players I wanted to see… and I decided I could shoot them myself. I started http://www.sittingstill.net taking photos with a 2MP Olympus digital; two Panasonic Lumixes carried me through 2005 and 2006. I signed a Canon 30D and some nice zoom lenses to a free agent contract in this past off-season and it’s clear they’ll be on the roster for keeps.

My primary goal when I shoot is to capture a side of the game and the players that isn’t always evident when you watch on TV or read the papers. Guys joking around in BP, former teammates or college friends flagrantly breaking the rules on fraternizing, conversations on the dugout rail, hawks keeping watch from the high reaches of Fenway—these are as much a part of the picture to me as the phenomenal catches and home run swings that make the highlight reels.

While I lived in New York, I did manage to earn my degree in English and a minor in Psych at Columbia, which prepared me remarkably well for running the coolest video stores in Cambridge, MA. When I hit the end of my rope there I crossed the river to Boston University, where I’m an executive assistant and staff director and not incidentally can make it from my office door to Gate E in five minutes, Kenmore Square construction permitting.