Rare Padres Cap Pics from The Topps Vault

As I was checking out the latest negatives up for auction from The Topps Vault, I came across two new pictures showing the short-lived 1972 Padres wide-spanning yellow panel:

That is a whole lot of yellow!  The player in both pictures is Al Severinsen.

According to a story a few years back by Paul Lukas on his amazing Uni Watch site, these caps were only worn for Sunday home games during the 1972 season, which helps explain why there aren't that many pictures showing this unique cap.

Even though this was apparently only a "Sunday Special", the design does show up in a couple of other interesting places.  Here is a picture of the Padres Bullpen Buggy, and its got the wide-spanning panel on the cap:

 

And finally, here is a 7-11 Slurpee Cup featuring Leron Lee, who is shown sporting the wide-spanning panel cap:

What is Going On Here?

In looking over some negatives that The Topps Vault has up for auction, I came across this interesting shot of Willie McGee:

There are a number of rather strange things going on in this picture.

First, the mismatched uniform with the white home jersey and the blue road pants.   I've never seen the Cardinals wear this combination before.  I know its just Spring Training, but still this is a very strange look.  We can tell that this was just not a case of Willie being mixed up with what to wear since the other player in the picture also has the same combination.

Speaking of which - it looks like the other player is passed out or has been knocked unconscious!
 

What in the world happened to this guy?  Did he have a few too many the night before, or did Willie just take him out with his bat?


Finally, take a look at Willie's cap.  Lets take a closer look at what has been written:

It looks like Willie is keeping track of his stats on the underside of the brim of his cap, or perhaps those are his goals for the upcoming season.  It looks like he is shooting for 100 runs and 50 stolen bases.

Topps says the negative is from 1986.  If that is the case, then this picture would have made a much more fun choice than this:

UPDATE:

Thanks to madding from Cards on Cards for pointing out that Willie can also be seen wearing what appears to be this same cap on his 1985 Fleer card:

As this looks to be the same cap, it would appear that the picture that Topps indicated from 1986 is more likely from Spring Training 1984.

Thanks also to Paul Lukas from Uni Watch for providing the complete rundown of what is written on the cap.  According to Paul, "The stuff written on his underbrim is his uni number (51) plus his statistical goals for the year: a .320 batting average, 100 runs, 50 SBs, 15 HRs and 80 RBI."