I usually try and go from first base side to third a few time to try to get faces of batters when they are up to bat. It's a bitch for me to walk around to each side, so I try and spread it out (2 innings) a side. I love first base side shooting you get better view of field from that side. Most of the time for me from third base side usually the coach gets in the way. I wish I could get someone to ask me to shoot their son/daughter in a game. I haven't figured out how to get my info about games I shoot on schools twitter page. I thought I had it but the game I just shot I posted a tweet then went back in and looked and my tweet wasn't there. I think I could sell a lot of photos if I could get on there and tell everyone to go and look. A shitty photographer well!! LOL. Most of the photographers that shoots at my games are shitty also. But they give away FREE photos sometimes hard to compete with free no matter how bad they are. Hope to get out to at least 2-3 events this week. Will see what happens. Talked to Brandon, told him I had not been well for 5-6 months and didn't think I would make the 25 galleries this year so I wouldn't get my credentials. He said he would make a note so when the time comes to order again he would take that into consideration. He's a good man. Well, I will let you go. Keep posting those awesome photos you shoot I really look forward to all your work friend. Thanks BE SAFE!!

Tom

Sorry I'm slow getting back to you. I've been working every day. I appreciate the compliment, but will have to respectfully disagree with some of what you are saying.
First, a monopod is simply not practical for many of these shots. I frequently shoot off of a ladder to get over softball and baseball fences as well as tennis. If I was having trouble with focus or holding a camera steady then a monopod would undoubtedly be practical. Otherwise it's just extra weight to drag around.
Second I don't use Topez, or any other sharpening or denoise program. Since the corporate office took over doing page layout for all 23 papers in the corporation they do not want photos sharpened or denoised as for some unknown reason they are applying the same amount of sharpening and denoise to each photo that goes in print, so what you see is the sharpness and noise that was there when the photo was taken.
Third, I will continue to use an extender. My boss asked me to take photos of baseball games from the same location I have been shooting softball from, which is in right center field behind the fence. I need at least 800mm and in some fields 1120 to shoot from there. Yes, there might be a small amount of image degredation, but it is still better image quality using the Nikon 400 f2.8 with a 2x extender than my old Sigma Sport 150-600 without one and it gives far more reach. When a sports editor says to shoot from the outfield you find a way to shoot from the outfield.
Finally, I went back and looked at the Exif data from all 10 of those photos I found one photo that was not shot wide open and it was the only one where the ISO appears to be a little high. The reason for that is pretty simple. There are several buttons on the 400 lens that are near where I hold the lens and if I accidently hit one it changes the fstop, which is exactly why I do not shoot in manual. Shooting with auto ISO adjusts so that even if I accidently do change the fstop while shooting I will still have properly exposed photos. I think you do a great job with your photos. I also think that the photos that my sports editor and publisher expect are very different from what Max Prep Sports wants, so what works for one of us may not work for the other.