Friends,
This is one of my favorite photos. I’d played on the G&H Pools team for a few games in their ’73 season when I broke my arm at school. My teammates were thrilled, considering my roughly .025 batting average and the mountain of unforced errors I’d racked up during my time in right field. This shot was taken very soon after I’d parked my skinny butt on the DL that year.
Dad took time off work for the photo shoot and you can tell. Work boots, pack of smokes in the breast pocket, lit cigarette in his hand. Me? Oversized glove (didn’t help), vinyl cleats with plastic spikes that were so high as to make me wobbly during normal walking (running was nearly impossible), utilitarian Toughskins, and my jersey number obscured by the sling.
That number was thirteen. Surprised?
There’s at least one more photo floating around. The fabled “rookie card” shot. Once I find it, I’ll put it up here and on Facebook.
– bob