i was there when the impossible happened and i've got the photos to prove it

not that i need an excuse to post a fantastic card like this 1995 upper deck sp championship series kirk gibson die-cut classic performances card

but i thought that i would expand on something i've mentioned a time or two before.  mainly, that i was at game 1 of the 1988 world series with my dad.  i came across some of our photos from that game recently, and scanned a few.  let's relive the excitement, shall we?

pre-game

we were sitting in the right field pavilion, and were in line for dodger dogs during the team introductions.  debbie gibson sang the national anthem.  when we got to our seats, the good year blimp was flying above the top of the park.

bottom of the first inning

that's mickey hatcher about to round second after hitting a home run to put the dodgers up 2-0.  hatcher was starting in left field in place of the aforementioned gibson, who had two bad legs following the nlcs against the mets.

the second photo there shows hatcher nearly catching up to steve sax as he nears third base.  when sax turned around after touching home plate, he was visibly surprised to see hatcher right behind him.

top of the second inning

tim belcher loaded the bases, partly by walking dave stewart (that's stew at second base), but he got dave henderson (at the plate in the photo above) to strike out for the second out, but that brought up jose canseco.

canseco took the first pitch in the photo above, but sent the second pitch on a line over the center field wall.  one of the hardest hit balls i have ever seen in person.  here's a photo of canseco rounding the bases

after what turned out to be his only hit in the series.  and here's a photo of him out in right field afterwards

i believe this is when the 'steroids' chants began that night.  did he flex for us? i think he did, but don't recall for sure.

bottom of the third innng

mickey hatcher came up again, and i thought his home run so improbable, that i took a picture of the diamondvision scoreboard.  hatcher drew a walk, but mike marshall lined out to third to end the inning.

bottom of the fifth inning:

here franklin stubbs (as the tying run) grounds out sharply to mark mcgwire at first base with tracy woodson on second base to end the inning.

bottom of the sixth inning:

with one out, following mike marshall and john shelby singles, mike scioscia is at the plate

and he singled to left to drive in marshall, making the score 4-3, which is how it stayed going into the final inning.

bottom of the ninth inning:

dennis eckersley is on the mound pitching to mike davis with two outs in that photo. davis draws a walk to extend the inning…

…and look who's coming up!

that's gibson, of course, making his way to the batter's box.  everybody in the stadium was up, and most were hoping for a home run, i am sure.

the next two pictures are from the first pitch eckersley threw - my dad's photo is better

than mine

must be the cameras.  the pitch resulted in a foul ball to the left side.  many hopes for a home run were dashed after that swing, i would guess.

here's the 0-2 pitch to gibson

i think this was also the pitch after which a's catcher ron hassey threw back to first to try to pick davis off.  i remember thinking that it would have been a terrible way for the game to end.

after that pitch, both my dad and i stopped shooting and watched instead. we are glad that we did.  i took this next photo after watching gibson's hit land in the pavilion to our left.  we have eck walking off the mound with steve sax holding his head in disbelief.

here's where we all were losing our minds.  the pavilion was rocking and i was full of adrenaline and joy, so this picture didn't come out at all

that's gibson, though, approaching second base.  i remember seeing the fist pumps.  it was awesome.

after that, i focused on home plate, which is too bad because i missed gibson rounding third.  this photo shows mickey hatcher and orel hershiser up the line to greet him

as does this one

but now gibby is somewhere in the mass of dodger humanity at home plate.

this series of photos is really not much to look at - it's just the celebration at home plate blurrily taking place, but i like it more for the slow progression of a's left fielder stan javier making his way off the field.  he's there at second base in the above photo

now he's almost half way to first base

and now he's just about out of the frame.

about the only person i can make out in all of this is tracy woodson, as he was wearing the blue pullover.  you can tell by the poor quality of these photographs that i am very happy to have so many cards in my collection that capture gibson's home run, including the one up top.  that's partially why there are two such cards in my header, which reminds me to remind you to get your entries in for my contest - only a few days left.

i know a guy who has only attended one baseball game in his lifetime, and it was game 7 of the 1991 world series.  he says that he's never felt the need to go to another after seeing that game in person.  game 1 of the 1988 world series was not the first game i had been to, obviously, but i kind of know what he means.  it is a hard act to follow, but that's the beauty of the game - anything can happen on any given night - and that's why i keep going back.

does raul mondesi regret his tattoo, and other random musings

while it is true that raul mondesi had a cannon for an arm, i wonder if the cannon tattoo visible on his 1998 upper deck card

was fully thought out.  from one angle it looks like a cannon, although the fuse is still lit even though the cannon has discharged, and from another angle one might mistake it for some sort of rocket. or something else, i suppose.

the back of that card is pretty interesting, too, as we have pylons and a car in the background.

i'm also curious about mondesi's 1996 fleer emotion xl card, although it's no fault of his that the emotion fleer slapped on there is 'pounding'

i don't feel pounding.  or tardy, for that matter.  what was fleer thinking?

along the same lines of lack of thought, here are a few other cards that i've scanned without a real purpose. although i suppose you could say that i scanned them for inclusion in a random cards from my scanned folder post, so there was a purpose. whatever.

1987 topps orel hershiser

1990 donruss mickey hatcher

1992 score rookie and traded carlos hernandez

1997 topps stadium club pedro astacio

2007 topps heritage derek lowe

2009 upper deck o-pee-chee scott elbert black parallel

and 2012 bowman chrome prospects jt wise

as in wise enough to not consider 'pounding' to be an emotion?

sunday morning target dodgers - russell and yeager, but not that russell or yeager

happy mother's day!  here are some more cards from a sheet of 15 that was part of the 1990 target dodgers giveaway set.

bob aspromonte

aspromonte was a brooklyn native who signed with the dodgers in 1956, and actually got an at bat that same year as an 18-year old.  he next appeared in the big leagues for the los angeles dodgers in 1960.  after playing in 68 games for the dodgers over the 1960 and '61 seasons, aspromonted was picked by the houston colt .45's in the expansion draft, and he went on to play for that franchise for several seasons.  in fact, he was their franchise's inaugural third baseman, first batter, first batter to get a hit, and  first batter to walk.

ike boone

boone played for brooklyn from 1930-1932.  he appeared in 59 games over that span, hitting .268 with 3 homers and 15 rbi.  in his two full seasons in the majors (with the red sox in 1924 and 1925), boone had hit .337 and .330, respectively. that's not too surprising i suppose, since his career minor league batting average was around .370 over 13 seasons.

eddie brown

brown - nicknamed 'glass arm' for some reason, played for the robins in 1924 and 1925.  he hit .308 in 114 games the first year, and .306 in 153 games the next.  in 1926, brown was playing for the braves, and he hit .328 while leading the league with 201 hits.

george culver

culver had a 9-year major league career, spent mostly in the bullpen.  the dodgers picked him up towards the end of spring training in 1973, and culver pitched in 28 games for them that year - his second-to-last in the majors.  he was 4-4 with 2 saves and a 3.00 era through august 1, but was put on waivers and claimed by the phillies a few days later.

sid fernandez

el sid was thought to be the next fernando valenzuela by some dodger fans in 1983. he was a lefty, but whereas el toro was from mexico, fernandez was from hawaii.  he made two appearances (one start) for the dodgers in '83, going 0-1 with a 6.00 era.  after the season, the dodgers traded fernandez to the mets in the deal that netted them bob bailor and carlos diaz.  fernandez had his best seasons with the mets, helping them to a world championship in 1986.

mickey hatcher

hatcher was a dodger double dipper - you can read all about it here - who seemed to have some bad luck before helping the dodgers win the world series in 1988.  in march of 1981, the dodgers traded hatcher to minnesota, and then went on to win the world series.  six years later, the twins released hatcher, and then they, too, went on to win the fall classic.

johnny hudson

they called him…mr. chips, supposedly because he was a good person to have around when the chips were down according to baseball reference. hudson was a member of the dodgers from 1936-1940, and he appeared in the first night game at ebbets field, which was also the second of johnny vander meer's consecutive no-hitters (hudson was 0 for 1 with a strikeout) in 1938.

chief meyers

meyers was a catcher who had two top-five mvp finishes for the new york giants in 1912 and 1913. he joined the dodgers in 1916, and helped them win the pennant.  meyers was 2 for 10 against babe ruth's red sox in the world series that year, and he returned to the robins for the 1917 season.

fred norman

this may well be the only dodger card of fred norman featuring him in a dodger uniform.  he's still wearing his dodger jersey on his 1971 topps card, but his team affiliation is noted as the cardinals, as he pitched in one game for saint louis in 1970 after they claimed him on waivers from the dodgers late that september.  he had only made his dodger debut earlier that season, and his 1970 topps card shows him wearing a jersey that i believe to be from the kansas city a's (his previous major league team) although he is listed as a dodger. i believed that, but i was wrong - he's wearing his spokane indians minor league jersey on his 1970 topps card (thanks eric).

phil ortega

i can't believe i haven't featured a dodger card of phil ortega on the blog before.  i included him in a post about the frank howard to the senators trade that took place following the 1964 season, but he was a senator on his 1965 topps card that was featured in that post.  ortega was 7-13 with the dodgers over parts of five seasons prior to the aforementioned trade.

jim russell

jim (not bill) russell was with the dodgers in 1950 and 1951. he hit .216 over that span, although that average is somewhat skewed by his 0 for 13 season in 1951.

dick scott

scott pitched for the dodgers in 1963, although not in the world series.  he made an appearance in nine games for the dodgers that year, and he recorded a couple of saves.  after the season, scott was traded to the cubs (that explains his jersey in the photo that was used for the card), and 1964 turned out to be his last in the majors.

don stanhouse

stan the man unusual  was the closer for the american league champion baltimore orioles, when the dodgers signed him to a free agent contract for the 1980 season.  it was a bust of a signing, as stanhouse pitched in just 21 games for the dodgers, amassing an era of 5.04 in 1980.  he didn't pitch at all during the second year of the contract in 1981, and he attempted a comeback with the orioles in 1982.  the dodgers were on the hook for over $400k a year through 1984, however, and some feel that the failed free agent signings of stanhouse and dave goltz made the dodgers gun shy on the free agent market for a few years - until they signed kirk gibson in 1988.

sammy strang

strang was with the brooklyn superbas in 1903 and 1904.  he was their primary third baseman in 1903, hitting .272 in 135 games that year, but he was moved to second base in 1904, and played in only 63 games while hitting .192 in doing so.

joe yeager

joe (not steve) yeager did indeed play both the field and pitch while with the brooklyn franchise from 1898 through 1900.  he was 12-22 on the mound in 1898 when he completed 32 of his 33 starts (he also pitched as a reliever in 3 games) with an era of 3.65, and he also played some shortstop, outfield, and second base. in 1899, yeager played more games at short (11) than he did at pitcher (10), but in 1900, he pitched in two of the three games in which he played.

that's it for this week - take your mom to brunch if you can!