Papergreat: Philadelphia Phillies spring training photos from March 1984

Sunday, March 22, 2020

Philadelphia Phillies spring training photos from March 1984

Dad snapped these photographs while the two of us were at a Philadelphia Phillies spring training game in March 1984. The Phillies were on the road that day. It looks like they were playing against the New York Mets, which might make this Al Lang Stadium in St. Petersburg, Florida.

As we lived in nearby Largo at the time, we went to a lot of spring training games; the Phillies' spring training home was (and still is) Clearwater. One day in Clearwater, Dad was able to get Richie Ashburn's autograph, which I related in a 2011 post.

These photographs from 36 years ago feature the late Frank Edwin "Tug" McGraw Jr., Hall of Famer Michael Jack Schmidt and the Phillie Phanatic, among others. The player stretching and wearing No. 11 is Ivan DeJesus, who the Phillies acquired in 1981 by trading Larry Bowa to the Cubs (and throwing future Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg into the deal). The Phillies were coming off an appearance in the 1983 World Series, which they lost to the Baltimore Orioles. The Mets were beginning to put together the team that went on to win the 1986 World Series.

As the COVID-19 pandemic makes it impossible to predict when Major League Baseball (and other sports) will return, I'm going to finally buckle down and try to finish some of the baseball-themed posts I've had on the backburner for far too long. We need a diversion, just as we did in 1994, when a strike stopped Major League Baseball and I created "Baseball Flashback" at The Gettysburg Times. Along those lines, I'm planning to write the definitive history of the Steve Jeltz Fan Club, an ode to MicroLeague Baseball on the C-64, and an inning-by-inning essay about PHL-17's telecast of the surreal Game 5 of the 1980 National League Division Series between the Phillie and Astros.

Here are the rest of those March 1984 snapshots...