how gcrl got his groove on

a few months ago, my siblings and i were going through some old family photos. it was a task that remains unfinished, but we came across some pictures that we had not seen in decades which was fun. some of those pictures documented my first visit to anaheim stadium back in 1979.

1979 was a special year for the california angels, and i remember following them pretty closely. part of that was due to the fact that they added rod carew to their roster, but don baylor was still my guy - my favorite non-dodger.

baylor's nickname, as proven by this 2006 fleer greats of the game nickname greats card, 

was "groove", and he was in a groove in 1979, on his way to the american league mvp award and the first ever postseason appearance for the halos.

my dad drove our family down to anaheim one weekend in august to see a game and visit disneyland. although we had a camper, we stayed in a motel not too far from the stadium. anyway, i was sure to wear my homemade baylor t-shirt to the game, but i also made sure to wear my dodger helmet from a stadium giveaway, too. here's some photographic evidence:

yep. that's 8 year old gcrl getting his groove on along the left field railing at the big a. the angels' bullpen coach bob clear is walking on the grass. i recall the female usher noting that i was a fan of baylor's and asking me if i was related to him. sadly, i am not. 

here's a photo that i likely made my dad take during baylor's at bat in the sixth inning

he flew out to center with dan ford on first. you can see the blue jays' shortstop (future dodger alfredo griffin) looking up and heading towards center. 

here's a photo of the angels' bullpen during the game

this was obviously after the team relocated the big a structure out to the parking lot and were preparing for the seating expansion to better accommodate the los angeles rams as tenants.

going back to the first inning, here's rod carew being thrown out at first base

this was my first time seeing him play in person, and i was pretty excited about it. this game was also the only time i ever saw danny ainge play a professional sport.

back to "groove", i see that the fleer greats card shows baylor wearing number 12, and i do not recall him doing so. thanks to baseball reference, i know now that baylor wore number 12 in 1977, his first year with the angels, because number 25 was being worn by bobby bonds. when bonds went to the white sox for the 1978 season, baylor switched to his more familiar 25 (and yes, that is a 25 on the back of my t-shirt).

speaking of bonds, he made an appearance in one of the photos we found

my dad was in bonds' foursome in a local celebrity golf tournament back in 1981. this was the tournament's second year, with the first year having been played under the name "don sutton celebrity golf tournament". with sutton in houston in 1981, he was no longer the "host". i believe i got bonds' autograph later that evening at the banquet (it could have been at a hot stove dinner a different year), but i do know for sure that my dad said bonds could hit the ball "a ton". groovy.

as an aside, here is jack clark's nickname greats card from that same set as baylor's

why am i showing this? because, while i did not get a photo with baylor at the game i attended, i did find a forgotten picture of me and jack the ripper at a hot stove event. the dodger fan in me can't bring myself to post it though.