COOL SHOTS

FIELD OF PLAY Like many photographers who covered the golden era of sports, Michael Zagaris took advantage of lax security to garner some incredible access. As a Bay Area teenager full of, as he says, a little ambition and a load of bulls---,” he’d forge press credentials and talk his way onto the field at Kezar Stadium, then the home of the 49ers, charming suspicious cops by asking whether he could photograph them for a completely made-up book project called Sunday Gladiators. Unlike many photographers who covered the golden era of sports, Zagaris is still going at it. He’s been San Francisco’s team photographer for nearly 50 years, and his career is chronicled in the breathtaking Field of Play. Reading the book is to study the evolution of the game, from when it was played in outdated places like Kezar below, in 1964) to the every-Sundaya-spectacle it has become. Zagaris has been there each step of the way, using his status as a team employee to get that same incredible access, attained without lying to the law. He’s in the locker room as players are given pregame injections. He’s under the stands as Joe Namath cavorts...