classic fernando

last year marked the 40th anniversary of fernandomania, and the dodgers made a point to celebrate throughout the year. this 2015 topps insert which also celebrated fernandomania

uses a photo that captures his signature "look to the sky" moment during his windup. i added this card to my dodger stadium collection since it features a piece of the old field level scoreboard behind el toro.

here is my most recent fernando card acquisition:

that is his 1983 topps card, sort of. it's actually his card from the 2016 topps archives 65th anniversary set that i think was a walmart exclusive. the main photo on the card features fernando warming up in the bullpen at candlestick park. it's a fitting card for this post in that the remainder is going to be about fernando pitching against the giants in 1983.

my family went to the greater los angeles area for memorial day that year and attended the dodger game on saturday may 28. fernando got the start against the giants and pitched a two-hit shutout as the dodgers won 5-0. i still have the program from the game, and sometime last summer my dad sent me the pictures that he took at the game. let's relive it together, shall we?

usually my dad would take a picture of the scoreboard at the beginning and end of the game, and he did that on this day. here's the right field scoreboard with the starting lineups

you can see that we were already a few pitches in to the top of the first. i was probably bugging him to buy me a dodger dog or cool-a-coo around the time of the first pitch.

i'll use baseball reference to fill in the action. unfortunately, it doesn't have pitch count data, but i will assume that with a 2-2 count in the top of the first inning, johnnie lemaster doubled. the next batter, darrell evans, flied out to center, but lemaster tagged and moved to third:

that brought up chili davis, who swung at at least one pitch

before hitting a comebacker to fernando, who tagged lemaster out

as he was caught in no-man's land, as vin scully used to say.

in the bottom of the first, steve sax singled and stole second:

second base ump ed montague is right there to make the call.

kenny landreaux followed sax, but struck out

moving to the bottom of the second, greg brock walked and stole second:

not sure if the dodgers were stealing on starter andy mcgaffigan or bob brenly, the giants' catcher that day.

after a walk to rick monday, steve yeager hit a sacrifice bunt:

to move the runners over. bill russell followed that with a two-run single, and then fernando came to bat and hit a single himself:

that brought russell home, as he had advanced to second on the throw home after his base hit. 

steve sax singled, and landreaux walked to load the bases, which brought up dusty baker. my dad was keen to capture a big hit:

but baker hit in to a force play:

still, fernando scored and pedro guerrero advanced to the plate with two on and two outs. he flew out to end the inning:

i believe we now move to the top of the fourth as fernando throws some warmup tosses:

my dad got a different angle on fernando as he faced chili davis leading off the fourth:

that's dutch rennert behind the plate, according to baseball reference. he had a pretty distinct third strike call as i recall.

my dad walked a bit further and was above home plate when jack clark came to bat after davis:

unfortunately he missed the "look to the sky" part of the windup. clark flew out in this at bat, but the next time up, he walked. he was immediately doubled up on a tom o'malley line out to end the top of the seventh: 

moving to the bottom of the eighth, pedro guerrero was up to bat with two runners on:

but fouled out against the final giant reliever, greg minton. i should note that it was the giants' first reliever, renie martin, who got the giants' second hit of the day.

ron roenicke had replaced rick monday earlier in the game, and got to bat after brock hit a sacrifice fly to score the dodgers' fifth run. i am guessing roenicke struck out on this pitch:

to the ninth, and leadoff man johnnie lemaster has just grounded out to bill russell:

i suppose i should mention that lee weyer was the third base umpire, and bob davidson was at first.

darrell evans grounded out for the second out, and then fernando got chili davis out on a called third strike:

to end the game. it would have been cool to have a photo of rennert ringing him up.

handshakes!

more postgame gathering:

with tommy lasorda and the infield of brock, sax, russell and guerrero still between the mound and home plate. yeager is walking towards bob welch, while fernando and roenicke look to be on converging paths. former dodger coach danny ozark is leaving the field near the first base line after coaching third base for the nocals.

here's the last look at the scoreboard:

two-hit shutout. classic fernando.