Sweet Shots
In a remarkable career that spans seven decades, from the 1940s to the present, Ozzie Sweet has taken more than 1,800 cover photos for magazines, including The Saturday Evening Post, TIME, Newsweek and SI. He is best known, however, for his iconic portraits of baseball stars, from Ted Williams to Sandy Koufax to Roberto Clemente to Randy Johnson. Since 1947 Sweet has been shooting players at spring training, and many of his best Grapefruit League photos are gathered in his new book, The Boys of Spring, written with Larry Canale. On these two pages we showcase Sweet's portraits of 12 baseball legends--and one legend in the making.
• For daily Web-only Leading Off galleries, go to SI.com/scorecard.
COLOR PHOTO
SPORTCLASSICBOOKS.COM
NEIL LEIFER
2005~Sweet, 86, was shooting at spring training this year, as usual.
COLOR PHOTO
Ozzie Sweet
1949~Ted Williams
BOSTON RED SOX
COLOR PHOTO
Ozzie Sweet
1954~Bobby Thomson
MILWAUKEE BRAVES
COLOR PHOTO
Ozzie Sweet
1954~Willie Mays
NEW YORK GIANTS
COLOR PHOTO
Ozzie Sweet
1962~Roger Maris
NEW YORK YANKEES
COLOR PHOTO
Ozzie Sweet
1962~Luis Aparicio
CHICAGO WHITE SOX
COLOR PHOTO
Ozzie Sweet
1964~Sandy Koufax
LOS ANGELES DODGERS
COLOR PHOTO
Ozzie Sweet
1967~Willie Stargell
PITTSBURGH PIRATES
COLOR PHOTO
Ozzie Sweet
1967~Whitey Ford
NEW YORK YANKEES
COLOR PHOTO
Ozzie Sweet
1967~Roberto Clemente
PITTSBURGH PIRATES
COLOR PHOTO
Ozzie Sweet
1967~Hank Aaron
ATLANTA BRAVES
COLOR PHOTO
Ozzie Sweet
1968~Lou Brock
ST. LOUIS CARDINALS
COLOR PHOTO
Ozzie Sweet
1970~Pete Rose
CINCINNATI REDS
COLOR PHOTO
Ozzie Sweet
2005~Randy Johnson
NEW YORK YANKEES