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On a recent travel adventure, I happened to wander into a "Recycle Store", a business which tries to take one person's junk and turn into someone else's treasure.
This store happened to have a huge barrelful of old, discarded slides and photo negatives. Turns out that most of these discarded pictures were of sporting events. Probably 95% of them were pictures of NCAA and NFL football games, but there were some baseball pictures in the pile, too.
So I gathered up as many baseball pictures as I could find, and bought a couple handfuls of the old photos.
None of these photos were marked in any way, so there's the game: let's try to identify who the people are in the photos, and figure out where and when the photo was taken.
Ready? Here's picture #1:
Click on the image for a larger view.
That could be Qualcomm, but I don't recall it having any angles in the outfield like that.
1995 California Angels--the patch on the sleeve for their 30th anniv.?
Orlando Palmiero #3
Tim Salmon #15
Anaheim Stadium
http://www.sportslogos.net/logo.php?lo=4918
And I think that is Angels Stadium -- I'd recognize the non-descript green padding rimming the stands anywhere. Even if it is non-descript.
And I'm betting that it was this game:
http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/B07040CAL1995.htm
Since it was July 4th and it would be a more likely day for the Angels to wear a different uniform.
Orlando Palmeiro was a rookie in 1995 and played only a handful of games in center.
http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/Mpalmo0010011995.htm
http://www.sportslogos.net/logo.php?lo=4919
The light blue piping on the sleeve is the dead giveaway. What a fool I was not to notice.
I think that's the wrong font for the numerals. Also by that time, Anaheim had a different style fence in RF.
And that does appear to be the 35th anniversay logo on Palmeiro's sleeve.
http://www.sportslogos.net/logo.php?lo=510
http://www.sportslogos.net/logo.php?lo=4913
Yes, I have the day off.
Now, which ballparks in 1995 did they have games in which Palmeiro played CF, and Salmon played right?
Orlando Palmeiro has not played center field much so it's not a big set of games.
The green padding on the fence is pre-renovation Anaheim, when it was set up for Anaheim's nonexistent football team.
There's a link to Palmeiro's day-by-days in 9
So it's either Kansas City on August 9, 1995 (a Wally Joyner double to right in the eighth inning), or in Boston on September 2, 1995.
The game that night drew 61,292, which was the biggest crowd in the majors at that point in the season.
The Angels were also in negotiations with Darin Erstad's agent on July 4, 1995 and deciding whether or not to demote Shawn Boskie or Mike Bieleck to the bullpen.
It's not KC. And it's not Boston. I'm pretty sure it's Anaheim. I think they wore the dark pants with the blue tops.
Red Sox 3rd: Alicea singles to right. Vaughn doubles to right.
Red Sox 4th: Hosey singles to right. Valentin flies to right.
Red Sox 6th: Valentin flied to right.
Red Sox 7th: Naehring singles to right.
Given the strong nature of the throw (he's probably throwing to third) I'm guessing this was Valentin's fly ball to right for the 2nd out of the 4th inning, with runners on 1st and 2nd. He'd be making a strong throw to keep Alicea on 2nd base.
Where was the "Recycle store?"
http://www.ballparktour.com/Angel_Stadium_Dia.gif
I think it's Valentin's fly in 25:
Sat, 9/2/95, Angels @ Red Sox at Fenway Park, 5-4 Sox bottom of the sixth. Against Mike James, Luis Alicea walks and a Willie McGee strikes out. John Valentin then flies out to right. This is a photo of Angels right-fielder Tim Salmon firing the ball back in to hold Alicea at first with center fielder Orlando Palmeiro in the foreground.
http://www.espn.go.com/media/radio/2004/1028/photo/a_tNixon_i.jpg
Here's a photo that shows the sharp corner in the right field grass (bottom of linked photo):
http://www.ebaseballparks.com/images/fenway14.jpg
And here's another from beyond the RF wall, note the padding on the left of the photo and the sharp corners in the grass:
http://www.happen.net/travel/img/east/fenway_sunset.jpg
'92: 1
'93: 31
'94: 23
'95: 34
Classic.
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