This time the guessing is not based on stats, but visual evidence.
The place is Središće, Zagreb, my first baseball field.
The year is 1989.
Everybody but one person in this picture are neighborhood kids, members of OBK Središće, later BK Zagreb Wild Boars.
The guy pitching is not. Guess that player
Dude kinda looks like Sandy Koufax.
True. But is not
My last best guess is he’s Tyson Ross’ dad.
No, my actual last best guess is Mario Soto.
Heh.
No on both.
Steve Carlton?
Also, this reminds me of an interesting story I heard on the radio yesterday. Have you guys heard of Kevin Dillmon?
Nope, not Steve.
And I haven’t heard of Dillmon till now. High school athlete nicknamed Swede. Somewhere, Philip Roth must be smiling.
Also, I wish his teammate makes it to the NFL. Tristan Tristao is too good a name to pass on.
I’m thinking that Philip Roth might be pathologically incapable of smiling at this point in his life.
Don’t know who he is, but is he wearing the glove on the wrong hand?
Good point – sure looks like that
prolly not a lot of lefty gloves there.
my guess is Swen Nader…
Nope – this guy actually played in MLB
Dan.
Johnson.Plesac.Rickey
Thanks, and go As.
Agreed
he was left-handed
Cut him in half and he was both left AND right handed
winner!
He sure did fit the criteria!
Vida?
No on all guesses so far. One hint. The tan on his skin is from scanning a 20 year old newspaper clip, not from the original player.
My only guess is that it is a Croatian ballplayer, so I am gonna say it’s Pete Vuckovich, cuz that guy is too young to be Curtis Leskanic in the photo.
He’s ‘murican
well then I am stumped, B!!!
he looks more than anything like Joe Namath LOL
heh
Bwaha! That was my first thought, too.
That’s who I thought of as well.
too old to be Curt I mean
Tom Browning?
I’m guessing it’s either Riddick Bowe or Steffi Graf.
Lookin at the white shoes thinking its gotta be an A. Tim Birtsas?
OK, first hint. At the time this picture was taken, he was an MLB pitcher for an AL West team. He spent majority of his career in AL West, although he did pitch in AL East, NL East and NL West, too.
So he pitched in all four leagues as they were then. ;-)
Of course by leagues I meant divisions, but now knowing who it is he lasted into the six-division format.
Okay, my first guess is Charlie Liebrandt.
(Leibrandt)
Not bad, but he only played for NL West and AL West teams. Our guy played for AL East and NL East teams, too.
Whoops, yeah. I misread a couple of the teams when I was checking.
Wait..is it Jamie Moyer?
ding-ding :)
Ahh, the power of BB-Ref. So what was the story behind it?
Double-U sent him over to teach us a thing or two
Neat. For a moment I thought it might just have been Jim Abbott and the glove thing was a bit of a swerve, but he didn’t meet all of the requirements. Looks like you guys really did just have left-handed mitts.
Awesome.
a) Were you there?
b) Could he hit 90 with his fastball back in 1989?
IIRC, Moyer threw pretty hard early in his career. Then he got hurt and basically re-invented himself. I believe he came up through the Cubs system along with Greg Maddux.
If not those, Rick Honeycutt would be my last guess. Face is difficult to tell, though.
Moyer! Wow, that is cool.
Nice. What a cool experience. And how fitting that it was Jamie Moyer to help you along your path to ageless coolness.
That jacket looks familiar, like there’s some famous photo with another American athlete wearing it. I can’t place it though.