Amy Cowell really had a bat, a ball and was photographed in late April at the construction site for the new Downtown San Diego ballpark. But it took some digital magic to create the final cover shot.

Cowell's photo was taken on the project site by photographer Alan Decker using a Nikon D1 camera.

A ball that she was tossing during the shoot was photographed separately, with the lighting coming from the same direction as it fell on Cowell.

The San Diego Padres provided by e-mail a digital rendering of how the finished ballpark would appear.

Using Photoshop, Decker distorted that rendering to make appear it was wrapping around the ball.

He then superimposed the original ball’s laces back on top of the image and placed it back into the shot.

Next Decker created a motion blur from Cowell’s hand to the ball.

Voila, a cover was born.

The construction and placement of the ball took about an hour.