Mike McCann's Field of Fotos

+ I made my first visit to AT&T Park in late August and was deeply impressed. Yes, I snapped away all evening, building an archive of images I'll share throughout the offseason. Here, it's just about dusk, with the perfect convergence of sky, architecture and the Giants/Brewers game in progress.

Thanks to Madison Bumgarner, who turned in a pitching performance for the ages -- throwing shutout ball in games one and five, then five shutout innings of relief to save game seven -- the San Francisco Giants are champions of baseball for the third time in five seasons. Here's the jewel of a ballpark they call home.

Go ahead, call him "Ace," because Yordano Ventura certainly pitched like one Tuesday night (he was pretty impressive when I saw him against the Yankees in September, too). The 23 year old fireballer threw seven innings of shutout ball as the Royals forced a seventh game in the World Series with a 10 - 0 rout of the Giants. The KC offense eased much of the pressure from Ventura by scoring seven runs in the 2nd inning. Still, give Ventura his share of the credit -- he shut down the same San Francisco hitters that pummeled the Royals Saturday and Sunday. So now, it's the ultimate showdown -- a winnter-take-all game seven.

Ground was broken on October 28th, 1961 for Shea Stadium in New York. It would take two-and-a-half years to complete. For 45 years, it would be home to the Mets -- spanning skippers Casey Stengel to Jerry Manuel; starting pitcher Jack Fisher to Oliver Perez and shortstops Amado Samuel to Jose Reyes. Highlights, low lights, an All Star Game and four World Series. The round, spartan multi-purpose design wouldn't place it high on any iconic list, and the wing and the ever-present airplanes overhead added a unique twist. Never to be as beloved as Ebbets Field -- which also ironically hosted baseball for 45 seasons -- or as distinctive as the Polo Ground, the Shea story began on this date in 1961.

Found it! My press pass from the '86 World Series. I have no idea why Game 7 is not punched. I was there. In fact, I gave away tickets to the (Super Bowl-bound) Giants game against the Redskins that night to be at Shea Stadium. Delayed a day by rain, game 7 was not the epic game 6 was, but still packed plenty of excitement. Yet another come-from-behind win for the Mets... who came back from an early 3 - 0 deficit (Dwight Evans and Rich Gedman homered off Ron Darling in the 2nd inning and Wade Boggs added an RBI single). The Mets finally got to Bruce Hurst in the 6th inning and tied it at 3. A 7th inning home run by Ray Knight -- voted series MVP -- off the beleaguered Calvin Schiradli gave the Mets the lead for keeps. The game ended 8 - 5 New York. Jesse Orosco retired Marty Barrett for the final out in the top of the 9th. 27 years ago tonight, the Mets were champions of baseball for the second time in their history.

You're never prepared to hear about the unexpected death of a 22 year old. That's the age when life's just beginning; school or career prep is in the rear view mirror. And that's why the news Sunday night of the death of the young Cardinals outfielder Oscar Taveras was so shocking. Considered one of the Top 5 prospects in all of baseball, the Dominican outfielder made his major league debut last summer. And while he didn't have the immediate impact of a Mike Trout or Jose Abreu, big things were predicted for him. When I photographed him during the Cardinals/Phillies game in late August, I assumed that it was the first of many times I'd watch this good looking lefthanded hitter. But it was not to be. Word came out during game five of the World Series that Taveras was killed in a car wreck in his native country. Amidst all the joy of baseball's greatest event is the ache, the sadness, the realization that young life of promise had ended before it r...

The most amazing win in Mets history took place on this night, and I was lucky enough to be there. Covering the World Series for WYNY radio, i was with several other local radio folks (including Howie Rose, then a weekend sports anchor on WCBS-AM; and Dennis Murray, then a news producer-editor for WINS) in "the auxillary press box", which was really an unused suite, totally empty except for the seats. It was cold, it was damp, it was high drama. Game Six of the World Series, the Mets coming into the night trailing three games to two. Entering the bottom of the 10th inning down by two and facing elimination, the Mets rally for three runs -- capped by Mookie Wilson's grounder spinning between Bill Buckner's legs as Ray Knight delightedly scampers home. That quirky 6 - 5 win sends the Series to a 7th and final game (in which the Mets have to come from behind again to nail down the title). No cameras of course in the press box. But I did find my copy of the World S...

Ron Gardenhire just ended a 13-year tenure managing the Minnesota Twins. Working with a limited payroll, he still produced six AL Central titles, though his teams only advanced to the ALCS once, and never made the World Series. In contrast to his low-key predecessor Tom Kelly, Gardenhire had a fiery temper  and was ejected from more than 70 games. Here from 2012, he stomps off the field after losing an argument with an umpire. He shares his October 24th birthday with a Twin whose tenure included the highest of highs: Gene Larkin (whose picture I don't yet have) hit a 10th inning walk-off single in game seven of the World Series to give Minnesota its second (and most recent) championship. Larkin also holds the distinction of being the first player from Columbia University to make the majors since Lou Gehrig -- many of whose school records he broke during his undergrad days.

Ballparks don't look like this anymore. We're at Veteran Stadium for a Phillies/Giants game in the summer of 1984. Hall of Famer Steve Carlton pitching to the Giants' Jeffrey Leonard  -- native of Philadelphia. Artificial turf; sliding pits, but no basepaths. What else grabs your attention in this image?

Hunter Pence -- with one of the most unconventional swings in baseball -- had the biggest hit of World Series game one. He crushed a two-run homer in the top of the 1st inning that seemed to suck the life out of Kauffman Stadium. The Giants, behind another outstanding start by Madison Bumgarner,  handed the Royals their first loss of this post-season. 7 - 1 was your final score.

Kansas City... in six. Sometimes, you just sense one team's got some pixie dust or other unworldly kind of magic on their side. We've seen that in the eight games where the Royals powered, finessed, outsmarted and stunned the A's, Angels and Orioles. The Giants are cut from much the same cloth -- eliminating the Pirates, Nationals and Cardinals. But they've become playoff mainstays of late, while the Royals are bunch of fresh faces, who got hot at just the right time. Keep in mind at one point in July, KC was two games under .500. But that's the nature of multi-tiered playoff baseball -- the best team doesn't always win. Your more likely champ will the club that got hot down the stretch -- and maintained that pace through October,

...you share it with the late Mickey Mantle. The beloved Yankee icon of the 1950s and '60s succeeded Joe DiMaggio in center field and then wrote his own ticket to Cooperstown with a combination of power, speed and style. There was also the poignancy of his frequent injuries and the sadness of his final seasons when for many of us he became the only reason to see the Yanks. As a baby boomer, I call attest he was as much of a star to us as Elvis or any of the The Beatles. And he wore number-7, fitting in that Mount Rushmore of single-digit Yankees. More than 45 years after his retirement, he still holds an impressive collection of records: The most World Series home runs (18) The most World Series extra-base hits (26) The most World Series RBIs (40) Tied (with future Hall of Famer Jim Thome) for the most walk off homers (13; 12 in the regular season and 1 in the World Series His monument still draws big crowds at Yankee Stadium. Catch the key quote toward the bottom: ...

Travis Ishikawa wrote his name into baseball history in boldface Thursday night. Pinch hitting in the bottom of the 9th inning, the Giants utilityman rocked a pennant winning three-run homer off Michael Wacha of the Cardinals. OK, the Giants were tied, not trailing, and it was game five, not a decisive game three as it was when Thompson connected off Ralph Branca back in the first-ever NL playoff in 1951. Still, it was an electrifying moment as San Francisco heads for its third World Series appearance in five seasons. They'll meet the Royals beginning on Tuesday night as, for the first time, two Wild Card teams meet for baseball's ultimate prize. (I caught Ishikawa in action August 27th against the Brewers,)

Say hello to Royals catcher Salvador Perez, whose team capped a four-game ALCS sweep of the Orioles yesterday afternoon. With talent, smarts and a little magic, the Royals have made it through three playoff rounds undefeated. And they now await the survivor of the NL series between the Giants and Cardinals. So what makes a better storyline: a rematch of the 1985 "I-70" series between Kansas City and St. Louis, or a World Series matching two Wild Card teams?

I snapped this during August's Joe Torre Day ceremony at Yankee Stadium. And when I checked out my "this date in baseball history" notes, posting this was a no-brainer. Williams scored the tie-breaking run (on an Oakland fielding error) as the Yankees beat the A's 5 - 3 in the fifth and deciding game of the 2001 ALDS. Martinez, hitless on the night, moved Williams into scoring position when he was hit by a pitch. 2001 was the final year of the heart of the last Yankee dynasty -- the team's fifth pennant in sixth years. But the personnel began to change the following season. Martinez was replaced by Jason Giambi; 3rd baseman Scott Brosius retired. And the team chemistry, the "likeability" factor was never quite as strong as it was from '96-'01. They're not Hall of Famers the way Derek Jeter or Mariano Rivera proved to be, but the way Tino and Bernie played, and yes, the results, made them Yankee favorites for this generation, much as Chris ...

Were you as disappointed as I that last night's ALCS game three was postponed by rain? That's an issue baseball still has troubles dealing with -- the Phanatic certainly remembers the 2008 World Series: as the Phillies won just their second World Championship, some of the games were played under miserable conditions. Is it really such a good ideas that, in much of the country, the most crucial games are often accompanied by lousy weather? Of course, rain can hit anytime -- the Phanatic offers encouragement before a Phillies/Yankees exhibition game in Florida last March.

Jim Leyritz smacked the first of three Yankee home runs (Daryl Strawberry and Cecil Fielder had the others) in the 3rd inning as New York wrapped up its first American League pennant in 15 years. The 6 - 4 win over the Orioles at Camden Yards advances them to the World Series against the Atlanta Braves -- where Leyritz would contribute a crucial home run in game four. I interviewed Jim in 2011 when he published his memoir Catching Heat.

The Royals did it again. No, what they did last night had never been done before -- four extra inning wins in the same post-season. No team in over 110 years of post-season ball had ever pulled that one off. And we're just one game into the American League Championship Series. Wild game, edge-of-your-seat stuff. Kansas City grabbed an early 5 - 1 lead with their ace James Shields on the mound, but couldn't hold it. The Royals loaded the bases in the top of the 9th (on three walks), but couldn't cash in. Neither did the Orioles in the bottom of the inning. But then came the 10th -- when Alex Gordon hit the tie-breaking blast and Mike Moustakas smacked the two-run shot that, after a Baltimore run in the bottom half (off a suddenly shaky Greg Holland), became the margin of victory. 8 - 6, the still-undefeated Royals grab Game One.

Earl Weaver set the standard for Baltimore managers, leading the Orioles to six division titles, four pennants and the 1971 World Series championship. A feisty, dare I say, ornery guy, he holds the record with 94 lifetime ejections. Named the American League manager of the year three times, he was inducted into Baseball's Hall of Fame in 1996. That's how you earn the honor of a Camden Yards statue. Buck Showalter (right) has been the O's most effective skipper since Weaver. Under his watch, Baltimore returned to the playoffs two years ago as a Wild Card, and this year won its first division title since 1997. Now the Orioles are eight wins from a title, and four wins from making it back to the World Series. Even with a lineup missing such mainstays as Manny Machado, Matt Wieters, they won the Eastern Division by a dozen games and put away the powerful Tigers in an ALDS sweep. And a lot of the credit goes to the man in the jacket, the steely-eyed strategist Buck Sho...

80 years ago today, Dizzy Dean (whose uniform is displayed at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown) wrapped up the 1934 World Series in style. He fired a game seven shutout as the Cardinals blanked the Tigers 11 - 0. By the way, Dean pulled that off working before a hostile crowd at Navin Field in Detroit. That made good on his promise that he and brother Paul would get St. Louis the four wins they needed for the title. (Dizzy also won game one; Paul earned the victories in games three and six.) One of baseball's truly larger-than-life characters, Dizzy , then just 24, won 30 games for the Cardinals in '34, tossing 24 games. With Cy Young enjoying his retirement, there was not yet an honor for pitching superiority. So Diz had to "settle" for being named National League MVP.

Monday night, it was Kolten Wong... and last night, the power-hitting Matt Adams delivered the decisive home run off Clayton Kershaw as the Cardinals pushed past the Dodgers 3 - 2 and advanced to the NLCS for the 4th year in a row. Proving again how different playoff ball is, Kershaw -- after a stellar, almost unworldly regular season -- ran out of steam in both his NLDS starts. The prohibitive favorite to win the Cy Young Award heads to his off-season a lot earlier than he or his Dodger teammates expected. (In happier times, Kershaw enjoying a night-between-starts in the dugout at Citi Field earlier this year.)

Kolten Wong (seen here in August against the Phillies) belted the game-changing home run last night as the Cardinals moved within a win of reaching the National League Championship Series. Four days shy of his 24th birthday, the native of Hawaii connected off Dodger lefty Scott Elbert to put St. Louis up 3 - 1. The Cardinals first-round draft pick in 2011, Wong had and up-and-down rookie season, hitting just .249, while popping a dozen home runs. His first in the post-season ranks as the biggest so far.

(Above:) Nelson Cruz added more proof to his being the free agent bargain of the year. Sunday's two-run homer gave the Orioles all their offense, as they edged the Tigers 2 - 1 at Comerica Park. It's Baltimore's first playoff series victory in 17 years, as they advanced to the ALCS for the first time since 1997. (Below:) Alex Gordon's bases-loaded double got the Royals off and running in the bottom of the 1st as they capped a sweep of their own. And this time, they didn't have go extra innings! Playing before their home fans, they closed out the Angels 8 - 3 (yes, the team with the best regular season record in the majors) and advanced to an ALDS showdown with the Orioles. Let's be honest, how shocked are you that we're looking at an Orioles/Royals series -- with one of these teams returning to the World Series for the first time since the mid-1980s??

How could I not give a photo "shout-out" to the two Giants who stood tallest in Saturday's historic 18-inning win over the Nationals? That's Brandon Belt, above. The lefthanded half of San Francisco's 1st base platoon belted the go-ahead home run in the top of the 18th inning. And below, Yusmeiro Petit, who fired six inning of one-hit shutout relief. The onetime Mets propsect has been a very effective swingman for the Giants the last couple of years. Think about the job he did last night -- entering the game in the 12th inning, he had no idea how long he'd be working. While his offense was stalled, he worked against Washington with no room for error. A post-season high-wire act

How convenient was it that the Royals played the Yankees on Derek Jeter Day, September 7th? It gave me plenty of chances to zoom in on Kansas City's young talent -- who really haven't been in the national spotlight in recent years. After a strong second half and thrilling Wild Card game win over the A's, we're getting to know more of the most successful Royals team since the heyday of George Brett, Frank White, Willie Wilson and Dan Quisenberry. Thursday night, Mike Moustakas was the hero. The Southern California native, playing before many of his family and friends, delivered the 11th inning home run that pushed Kansas City past the Angels 3 - 2. Ironic how the only team in the majors that fell short of 100 homers this year, won their Division Series opener with the long ball.

Brandon Crawford (seen here against the Mets in 2013) just did something no one else ever had in baseball history. His 4th inning grand slam broke open the Wild Card playoff game between the Giants and Pirates, which San Francisco went onto win 8 - 0. Now, think for a moment: go back over the best-hitting shortstops in baseball history -- Cal Ripken, Derek Jeter, Pee Wee Reese, Alan Trammell, Alex Rodriguez (in his Seattle days), Barry Larkin... none of them ever did what Crawford just accomplished He's the first shortstop to hit a grand slam in the post-season. Are you surprised?

Royals catcher Salvador Perez was Kansas City's Man of the Hour last night -- actually Man of Nearly Five Hours. His two-out RBI single in the bottom of the 12th inning made the Royals 9 - 8 winners over the Athletics -- as they advanced to the ALDS where they'll face the Western Division champion Angels. You have to feel good for Kansas City, a club that hadn't been to playoffs in 29 years. In fact, prior to Tuesday night, the last post-season game they'd won was the final game of the 1985 World Series. Good fans, a beautiful stadium and an exuberant style of play -- SEVEN stolen bases against Oakland. The Royals are this year's fresh faces of October. And their first win was an almost-five-hour marathon that fans will be talking about for a long time to come.