My First Cards

Doesn’t he look like he was standing in his stance, but then he noticed something down towards 2nd base, and so he slooped to peer at it like he’s trying to look through the pitchers legs? You could probably throw a 40 mph pitch right by him when he’s distracted like that. Crazy stance.

Junior Kennedy broke into the major leagues the day he turned 24, with the Cincinnati Reds. He played a mere 22 games that first season but posted a bizarre-ish .360 OBP. I say bizarre, because that’s tough to do when your batting average is just .185. So they sent him back to the minors until 1978. He was your typical below average hitter with a good glove.

Enough about his career though, ’cause I really find this card interesting. It’s one that makes me wonder if I can figure out what game it was. There’s a number of clues—

• It’s a not-so-sunny day game
• Reds are wearing away uni’s
• Several fans seem to be wearing something white on their heads (rally caps for the home team?)
• The on deck circle has a pitcher warming up to hit (hint: jacket’s on)
• The visiting dugout is lined with blue.
• He has tan lines on his arms (indicating this is likely not an April or May game)

Junior only played in just 3 games in 1981 that were both a road game and a likely day game (Weekends or Wrigley games) outside. One of those possibilities was May 31 in Dodger Stadium, but when I look at the box score, I have to scratch this off. He pinch hit for the pitcher in that game, so there’s no way someone with a jacket would be in the on deck circle waiting to hit next. Besides, I think Los Angeles would be sunnier.

Another possibility would be a Sept 5th game in Philadelphia’s Veteran’s stadium, but, he was a defensive substitute in this game and never had a plate appearance.

This leaves us with the Reds & Mets game on Sunday afternoon, August 30, 1981 at Shea Stadium, which also happens to be mentioned on the back of the card…

Isn’t that cool?? This would also explain why Topps made mention of that game on the back of the card. Most cards in the 1982 set will refer to a game from 1980 or earlier, and they certainly could’ve done that with this one too. After all, Junior K had a couple of 4 hit days that season and it would’ve made for a better trivia note.

The fans wearing white caps could really be rally caps, since the Reds won 6-3 that day. If I’m right and those are actually rally caps the fans are wearing, then it would mean this photo was taken late in the game, right?

Well the play by play beneath the boxscore to this game gives some interesting details. In the top of the 9th, Junior Kennedy did come up to bat. He hit a single to left field, then pitcher Mike LaCross came to bat next and laid down a sacrifice bunt to get Kennedy into scoring position.

That scenerio fits perfectly with what we see on this baseball card! I could be wrong, but chances are, moments after this photo was shot, Junior pulled a single into left field trying to give the team an insurance run in the 9th.

Also note a couple other things on the back of his card. He drew exactly 1 walk in 1981, and that walk was in this game. The leadoff hitter for the Mets in the game was Lee Mazzilli, who was mentioned here on Junior’s card.

Considering that Mets home games usually start at 1p and this game lasted 2:53, this photo was very very likely shot at approximately 3:30p ET on August 30, 1981. Give or take 10 minutes.

Now that I know the story to this scene, it’s one of my favorite cards.