Have a look at his helmet -- you can clearly see the whole stadium, the CN Tower, the batter's box, Ivan Rodriguez and home plate.

Looking at those highlights coming off Rios's helmet, it seems you have a star filter on your lens. Am I right?

Nope, I was stopped down to around f8, and the radiating lines are light traveling up the split in the aperture where the blades come together.  It's also accentuated  because it was hot as hell -- look at the heat wobble in the out of focus highlights in the stands behind him.

Fantastic shot NFH.  One of my favs of the year.  Kudos as well on the Hill (diving back into 2nd) shot.

Keep up the good work ... Most of your shots have adorned my desktop since POTD started...

Thanks.  I was really pleased to get that Hill shot.  I thought he looked like a land speeder from Star Wars, floatin' off of the ground like that.

It is getting difficult to pick a favourite photograph for this season.

I don't understand the concern about writing Rios into the All-Star ballot. I'd imagine it's futile to attempt to give him the third-most votes for an outfielder in the AL, or even the tenth-most.

Not that this should matter, because he like many other deserving players will be judged by the wisdom of Ozzie Guillen and it's pretty unlikely that Rios won't be there.

A couple days ago I thought there might be some concern for where Alex's game was headed as he seems to be swinging for the fences a lot more. And, to this moment, he is on a streak where he has six hits in the last week and five of those hits are home runs, with seven walks and seven strikeouts.

He'll make the all-star team and all those votes will be a nice gesture, yet they won't have much of an effect.

I don't understand the concern about writing Rios into the All-Star ballot. I'd imagine it's futile to attempt to give him the third-most votes for an outfielder in the AL, or even the tenth-most.

Well, I really like the idea of him leading all write-in vote candidates.  That's a nice number to put on your shelf with your other trophies.  And it's a strong indicator that he's beloved by the team's fans.

As someone who led a campaign to get Frank Catalanotto into the All Star game in 2003 (which directly led to the Cheer Club's collection of gigantic, ridiculous signs), this effort seems far less futile.

Geoff, as an indicator of who I am, I own a Trinidad and Tobago football jersey.  That should probably explain everything.

By the way, here's how much I suffer for you guys -- to get these shots with the beautiful reflections off of the helmet, I had to shoot into the blazing sun.  The other photographers had either abandoned the first base side or were hiding their heads behind whatever shelter they could find.  Not me -- I got a wicked burn on my face, left arm and especially my nose.

It was worth it.

Wow.... I thought you were joking with the comment about his helmet... Bravo buddy.