Check it out - a midair moment and a bunch of conspicuous light blue wristbands! This is a card worthy of both Dinged Corners and Uni Watch. So why exactly were Miggy, his blurry teammate in the outfield, and baserunner J.D. Closser all wearing those wristbands? A quick check of baseball-reference.com shows that this photo was taken on June 19, 2005; that was the only game of the three-game interleague series between the O's and the Rockies in which Closser played. It was a Sunday afternoon game, Father's Day to be exact. Every MLB team wore blue ribbons and wristbands to promote prostate cancer awareness. Some players even wore "eye blue" instead of eye black.This was a good one, with the Birds winning 4-2 to maintain their surprising grip on first place. Young Hayden Penn won his second career game while pitching into the seventh inning, and B.J. Ryan notched his 18th save. Rafael Palmeiro's sixth-inning two-run home run was the big blow. Manager Lee Mazzilli had his most memorable moment in a short tenure at the helm of the O's, earning an ejection while arguing a near-miss foul ball hit by Chris Gomez in the sixth inning should have been ruled a home run. Replays would later show that the umps got the call right, but the sight of Mazzilli tossing a tray full of chewing gum from the dugout onto the field delighted fans who were starved for a taste of Earl Weaver-esque histrionics.
The above picture was taken in the top of the third inning, when Closser walked with one out but was wiped from the basepaths by Eddy Garabito's inning-ending double play grounder, 3-6-3. I love the rich detail of Upper Deck's photography. It makes it so easy to do a little sleuthing and to identify the specific moment in time that they've captured.
7 comments:
Kevin,
Great job of sleuthing - I also love being able to determine the exact moment and location where a shot was taken. Given the angle of the shot and the inning that you determined, it is most like that the "blurry teammate in the outfield" is Eli Marrero getting one of his rare starts for the O's.
Love when you do these card and game moments. I go to a few O's games and try and collect cards related to my games, unfortunately this isn't one of those games.
On another note, that card is arguably the last high water mark for the Orioles. After this win the O's were 14 games over .500 and had a 3 game lead in the AL East. A bright half-season buried within this dismal decade of Orioles baseball.
Ahh, the first half of 2005, those were the good old days....
Tim - Thanks! I assumed that it was Marrero, but it also looked like it could have been Matos.
deal - I went to the game in late 2007 where Dave Trembley was ejected and then pantomimed throwing out the umpire. I would love to see THAT on a card!
Tim (2nd comment) and Sac Bunt - Yeah, no matter what lies ahead, it's hard to imagine a season being more depressing than the second half of 2005.
Is it just me or does Tejada have the most midair moment cards throughout his career than any other player? I know I have two or three late 90's cards with him on the A's that capture a gymnastic move...
GCA - Now that you mention it, he's had a lot of those. Pretty interesting for a guy not known for his defense.
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