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."
4 comments:
That's very odd! I have never seen that uni combination, either. We've seen this cap before, or at least something similar, however.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_yG6okqaH09g/S9fbEMDA9-I/AAAAAAAAIiM/EO2t7o6BiEM/s1600/mcgee85fleer.jpg
Great catch on the cap! It sure looks to be the same cap. Since that is a 1985 Fleer card, it looks like the Topps picture is probably from the 1984 Spring Training, and not 1986.
I think a different photo from this same photo session was used for a card in a small set Topps made for Woolworth in 1986.
It appears I'm a decade late to the game on this, so maybe I'm the only who'll ever see this. However...
I'm thinking 1984. Mike Ramsey wore #5 for the Cardinals from the beginning of the 1981 season to his 1984 trade to Montreal, and he's pictured with a full beard at both the end of '83 and with the '84 Expos. (See his 1985 Topps card for the latter.) Mike Heath, who wore #5 for the Cards for just a few months in 1986, was clean-shaven. (I can't find a record of anyone wearing the number for the team during 1985, but I'm sure someone wore it in spring training.)
I'm guessing there were shipping issues with the uniforms. (The more things change...) The victory blue would imply 1984 or before, but that's no guarantee. I think they used the red BP jerseys with blue pants during part of spring training in 1985 even though they used gray throughout the season.
Still: 1984 seems like the smart guess. Wonder whose fault the delay was on the spring training uniforms? (If that's what it was.)
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