Words and Light

When the York Revolution lost the playoffs last month, they completed not only their post-season chance for a third Atlantic League championship — they also completed manager Andy Etchebarren’s career.

© 2012 by The York Daily Record/Sunday News. York Revolution manager Andy Etchebarren shakes hands with fans after the Revolution lost 12-8 to the Lancaster Barnstormers, ending their season at the semifinal level and concluding Etchebarren’s career, on Saturday, Sept. 29, 2012. The York Revolution lost 12-8 to the Lancaster Barnstormers, who clinched Game 3 of the Atlantic League’s Freedom Division playoffs.

The day started well enough. The Revs had lost the first two games in their best-of-five series, but spirits were high:

© 2012 by The York Daily Record/Sunday News. York Revolution pitcher Corey Thurman, left, gives a pre-game spoken word performance in the dugout as third baseman Chris Nowak dances on Saturday, Sept. 29, 2012.

© 2012 by The York Daily Record/Sunday News. York Revolution shortstop Joe Thurston jumps in the air after scoring the Revs’ first run in the first inning against the Lancaster Barnstormers on Saturday, Sept. 29, 2012.

Then the Barnstormers started racking up runs, and the Revs just couldn’t keep up.

© 2012 by The York Daily Record/Sunday News. York Revolution second baseman Andres Perez, right, and Lancaster Barnstormers outfielder Blake Gailen watch as Barnstormers first baseman Tommy Everidge, foreground, beats Perez’ ball to first base in the fifth inning at Sovereign Bank Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 29, 2012.

After shooting last season’s Champagne-soaked playoff jubilation and championship victory, covering the swift end of the Revs’ post-season play and the quiet conclusion of Etchebarren’s storied career was a little strange.

Etch has managed the Revs for only three and a half seasons, but because I’ve shot those last two seasons (and was never too familiar with Etch’s career with the Orioles), it’s hard for me to separate Etch from the Revs, and vice-versa. I think I haven’t worked long enough in one place as a photojournalist to have developed a distant- or vast-enough perspective of time and the changes it brings. Sometimes, when I look back on my body of work, I’m surprised by how much I’ve covered and how much of it I’d forgotten about until reviewing it. Then I remind myself that I’ve been working professionally for just over a year and generally for barely six years — and that’s really just a drop in the bucket, in the grand scheme of things.

So maybe someday, in a few years or 20, I’ll forget that Etch was here when I first started working in York, at least until I review my work again. In the meantime, I can hardly imagine next season without his presence on the field, but I’ll find out soon enough what that’s like. Soon enough in the grand scheme of things, that is.

© 2012 by The York Daily Record/Sunday News. York Revolution manager Andy Etchebarren waves farewell to fans after the Revolution lost 12-8 to the Lancaster Barnstormers, ending their season at the semifinal level and concluding Etchebarren’s career, on Saturday, Sept. 29, 2012.

(Be sure to check out some more photos from Etch’s last game.)