George Brett. Brooklyn Dodgers. Bob Gibson. Stargell & McCovey. Boston Red Sox.

•November 8, 2011 • 6 Comments

1993. George Brett says goodbye to both the Royals and Kauffman Stadium after his illustrious 21 year playing career.

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Such a great photo of Pee Wee Reese and Don Zimmer of the Brooklyn Dodgers in which they show their appreciation for the “Keep The Dodgers in Brooklyn” campaign.

I came across this photo while searching for a “Keep The Dodgers in Brooklyn” button or shirt. I found it on THIS site which is reproducing the exact shirt in the photo above. The shirts are a little pricey but I think the inner Baseball geek inside me will validate spending that much somehow.

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Bob Gibson, Spring Training of 1975. This photo makes me feel a little uncomfortable. I am so conditioned to seeing Gibson during his playing days as an dominating force without many weaknesses that finding this was almost shocking as it captures a fading star in the twilight of his career.

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No big deal, it’s just Willie Stargell and Willie McCovey hanging out in a dugout together. I love this photo of these Hall of Fame sluggers.

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Ted Williams, Bobby Doerr, and Dom DiMaggio of the Boston Red Sox. I wonder if Ted Williams is looking at video footage of one of his at-bats? If so that would further validate every comparison between himself and Tony Gwynn. This is because Gwynn was known as “Captain Video” due to his pioneering of making video analysis a regular practice in modern Baseball.

Oh yeah, this photo is awesome as it has 3 of my favorite Red Sox players of all time who just happen to be 3 of my favorite PCL players also.

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Eric Byrnes. Bill Lee. Yogi Berra. Gene Mauch. Willie Stargell. Dale Murphy. Rollie Fingers.

•November 3, 2011 • 3 Comments

April 18th, 2010. You can’t look at this photo and tell me that Baseball doesn’t rule. What we have here is Eric Byrnes attempting to run over Catcher Alex Avila during a Mariners and Tigers game from last year. Byrnes was tagged out, but wow did he look cool doing so. I loved the way Byrnes played the game, hard nosed and with a lot of energy. It’s really too bad his career was derailed due to injuries.

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1976. Bill Lee after the now infamous brawl between the Yankees and Red Sox which left his shoulder seriously injured after Graig Nettles got a hold of him.

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Holy Moly, finding this photo is like finding a treasure chest in a sunken ship! What we have here is a photo of a VERY young Gene Mauch and Yogi Berra while playing American Legion Baseball. While it’s very obvious who Yogi is in the photo, I’m not quite sure what player is Mauch.

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Willie Stargell and Dale Murphy. I found this photo and thought I was seeing things as I have NO recollection of Stargell being a coach for the Braves. I looked into it and it turns out he was a Braves coach for a number of years and was a big influence on a young Chipper Jones.  While that’s cool and interesting, I must say that I feel uneasy seeing Stargell in any uniform other than the Pirates.

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1971. A great photo of a 24 year old Rollie Fingers during his 3rd full season with the A’s. The fact that this was prior to his trademark mustache along with him wearing such an awesome A’s uniform both add to the pure awesomeness of this photo.

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Joe DiMaggio. Josh Gibson. Lefty O’Doul. Satchel Paige. Ted Williams.

•November 1, 2011 • 2 Comments

What a great photo of the Yankee Clipper during his young years as a member of the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League. DiMaggio played with the Seals from 1932 to 1935 before joining the American League New York Yankees and becoming a household name through out the nation.

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Josh Gibson of the Homestead Grays. I don’t find many photos of Gibson that I have not seen before however this was new to me and I was quite delighted to come across it.

On a related note, a movie called “Invisible Men” based on the Negro Leagues is in the works. Check out the Invisible Men official site HERE and while your at it, check out THIS post on SeamHeads.com which discusses the film. The movie really looks like it is going to be awesome and done well.

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1950. San Francisco Bay Area Baseball legends Joe DiMaggio and Lefty O’Doul show how it’s done in Japan at Tokyo’s Korokuen Stadium. The fact that these guys went to post-WWII Japan to spread the the game of Baseball is fascinating to me.

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Satchel Paige is consoled by a teammate during the 1948  World Series against the Boston Braves which was also Paige’s rookie season in the Major Leagues. After looking up how Paige did in the ’48 Series, I realized he only appeared in game 5 and only pitched 0.2 of an inning. The short appearance included a balk being called on him

I am curious as to why he did not appear in more games? I vaguely remember the ’48 series being discussed in his autobiography but nothing regarding Manager Lou Boudreau’s lack of use of Paige in the series. I am currently reading “Satchel” by Larry Tye, maybe these questions will be answered by the end of the book.

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A young Ted Williams in mid-swing during his time with the PCL San Diego Padres. Over the years this photo has been used in many Padres media guides, books, etc and is quite well known. I assume because it’s one of the only photos of The Splendid Splinter actually playing during his time in San Diego in 1936 and 1937.

I love this photo so much. It randomly shows up on eBay once in awhile, I think I am going to have to buy a print of it soon and frame it. I hate looking at this with the autograph and sticker in the corner.

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Great Baseball Quotes.

•October 26, 2011 • 2 Comments

“All baseball players attempt to suspend time, and the bitch of it is we’re only partially successful.” – Bill “Spaceman” Lee

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“I weighed 200 pounds when I was playing, I was big enough to protect myself. Strong as a bull, I screwed 2 girls everyday.” – Ted “Double Duty” Radcliffe

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“I don’t care if the guy is yellow or black, or if he has stripes like a god-damn zebra. I’m the manager of this team and I say he plays.” – Leo Durocher (on Jackie Robinson)

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“If we lose today, it will be over my dead body. They’ll have to leave me face down on the mound.” – Luis Tiant

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“If a horse won’t eat it, I don’t want to play on it.” – Dick Allen (on artificial turf)

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Mays in SF. The ’51 Yankees. The Spaceman in Fenway. Reggie. Satchel in Cooperstown.

•October 19, 2011 • 5 Comments

Opening Day, 1958. Willie Mays rides down Market Street in downtown San Francisco as he is welcomed to the city along with other members of the Giants.

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A great photo of the 1951 world champion New York Yankees. The ’51 Bronx Bombers are one of my favorite teams of all time as they had Casey Stengel, Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle, Phil Rizzuto, and my personal favorites in Billy Martin and Jerry Coleman. What a great team with so many Hall of Fame and legendary players. Click on the photo for a nice close up of the photo as it’s a large scan.

3 fun facts about the ’51 Yankees: 1) It was both Mantle’s rookie season and Dimaggio’s last season. 2) I was announcer Bob Sheppard’s first year with the Yankees, a position he held until 2007. 3) Whitey Ford was not a member of the ’51 team due to the fact that he was serving in the Korean War.

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May, 1989. Bill Lee pitches at a Old Timer’s Day game at Fenway Park at the age of 42 years old. Something tells me that Bill would have much rather been pitching for the actual Red Sox that day and I bet he would have been able to hold his own.

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1972. Reggie Jackson slides in safely past Bill Freehan of the Detroit Tigers. There are so many things to like about this photo but I must admit for me that the Umpire throwing his arms in the air along with Reggie’s bouncing helmet on the base path is what I love the most about it.

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1971. Satchel Paige looks proudly at his Hall of Fame plaque during his induction. While he looks extremely happy you can’t help but wonder as if he may have been looking at those limited number of years pitched in the Major Leagues with a dash of bitterness. It was no secret that Satchel wanted to be the man to break the color barrier.

While Satchel will always be regarded as one of the all-time great pitchers; it’s very possible that he could have went down as the greatest if he did not have to wait until he was 42 years old to break into the big leagues.

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