for the hundredth time and for the first time

i usually try to watch all or at least part of ken burns' "baseball" each spring. i've been doing this since the mid-90's when i recieved the series on dvd. this year was no exception, and when i saw the episode that covered the 1950's, i decided to finally grab one of my jim barbieri cards from my collection to share in a post.

the reason for this is that at the start of the segment on the 1954 world series, footage is used showing a young barbieri throwing out the first ball, representing the little league world series champions. each time i've seen this part, i've found it interesting that john chancellor never pipes up to reveal that barbieri went on to play in the major leagues, making his final career appearance in the fall classic 12 years after throwing that ball. it is the type of tidbit that pervades the rest of the tv series.

at any rate, i grabbed barbieri's 1967 topps card (his only card from his playing days), and scanned it.  i have to admit, i was surprised to see the back

make mention of his "first ball" at the '54 series! i've owned this card for a long long time, and have looked at it many times, but i guess i never read the back or it didn't stick with me.  but that's not the only thing i saw for the first time.  here's the front of the card:

i gave this card a sideways glance as i was putting it away, and realized that good lord that's dodger stadium in the background!

barbieri is standing with the old left field scoreboard behind him, with the unocal 76 logo on top! in 1980, the dodgers upgraded to a rectangular diamondvision screen in left field, but have since returned to the elongated rhombus shape to match that of the right field pavilion scoreboard.  here's a photo i found online of left field during the 1966 world series:

if that photo is from game 1, it was taken just a short time before barbieri made his last big league appearance. he struck out as a pinch-hitter, and was the first of moe drabowsky's six consecutive strikeouts which is a world series record.

most dodger cards prior to 1973 featured photos taken at spring training or shea stadium or someplace other than chavez ravine. in fact, i had previously counted only the 1964 topps ron fairly and frank howard world series cards (the "dodgers celebrate" card actually features a photo from right after the game 2 win in yankee stadium, not game 4 in dodger stadium), the 1967 topps jim palmer world series card, the 1971 topps rich allen and dodger team cards, and the 1972 topps dodger team card as flagship cards that feature the stadium in the background before 1973, with the allen being the only player card of that bunch.  as a result, you can see why this barbieri is a very welcome addition to my dodger stadium collection indeed!