Induction weekend in Cooperstown is the best baseball bash of the year. For me, it’s a house full of friends and family, an always fun porch party filled with baseball talk, pizza, and beer, and any number of surprises. One year, Bill Lee appeared on my porch!

Last year, Todd Radom, the foremost sports graphic designer in the country, author, and all-around mensch and good friend, was a last-minute addition to the festivities as part of the Dick Allen contingent. Todd’s arrival was the first great surprise heading into the weekeånd.

On Saturday, Todd and I strolled to Main Street, a few minutes’ walk from my house. A stop into Yastrzemski Sports was preordained. Yaz Sports is the perfect local card store. They have everything from high-end to low-end. My favorite place to look in is the $5 bin. You never know what’ll be there. 

When Baseball Nostalgia, another legendary card shop, closed in Cooperstown, some of its inventory found its way to Yaz. Baseball Nostalgia was created as a flagship store for TCMA/SSPC cards in the 1970’s, and some of the original snapshots from the cards would find their way into the cheapie section. 

While browsing and chatting, I came across this photo of Reggie Jackson, which I assumed was from the Baseball Nostalgia archives. It’s a cool shot of Reggie as an Oriole, and that was enough for me. Until Todd and I got back home and sat at the kitchen table.

What was this picture, and why was it taken? Reggie spent the summer of 1976 in Baltimore, so that’s interesting, maybe enough to warrant bringing your camera to the game, maybe not. The key was in the background; Todd, as expected, clearly saw that the Oakland A’s were in town! Now that is worth recording – Reggie, in his new home, playing his old team. It seemed exciting to me, though clearly less to the sparse crowd at Memorial Stadium. 

I was quickly obsessed. When was this taken? When did the A’s come to Baltimore?

The first scheduled visit for the A’s was a three-game homestand between April 30-May 2. It was a big deal, and NBC had it featured as the Game of the Week, hoping Reggie would play. He had started the season late, a spring holdout for $200,000 per year from Oakland leading to a trade to Baltimore on April 2 and a delayed start to his season. Reggie probably sat out Friday night thinking that his first game of the season should be before a national audience!

Best laid plans, and so on. The game was rained out and rescheduled as part of a May 2 doubleheader. 

Todd and I tried to identify some of the players in the background as a starting point. We spotted Phil Garner, but that was no help. Garner played in every one of the A’s-O’s games. In the outfield was a player with a single-digit uniform number. Probably Bill North, but again, no help. It could also have been Cesar Tovar or Denny Walling, but that didn’t get us any further.

As our focus alternated between Retrosheet boxscores of all of the April games the A’s played in Baltimore and the photograph, we saw, relatively clearly, a lefty pitcher in the middle of the picture. Now we were getting somewhere. That could only be reliever Paul Lindblad. That was important and the key clue.

Obviously, our photographer recognized the historical import of Reggie’s first game against the only team he’d ever played for, got a fantastic seat behind the Orioles dugout, and took a great photo of Reggie. The photo had to have been taken before the bottom of the 5th, 6th, or 7th, when Lindblad would have been around the mound as the Orioles got ready to bat. Mystery solved!

But was it? I wasn’t so sure. The bleachers are nearly empty, and the stated attendance for the May 2 doubleheader was 24,819, pretty solid for Baltimore, though you’d expect more for Reggie’s first appearance against the A’s. Maybe people had left, tired after Game 1, but by the 5th inning? No way. Also, the sunset that day was at 8:01, and it’s clearly nighttime. Mystery unsolved!

The A’s returned to Maryland for a three-game stand from August 23-25. Vida Blue, a lefty, pitched a complete game shutout in Game 1, but Blue wasn’t a white lefty. The 23rd was easily eliminated. 

On the 24th, Lindblad pitched, the only lefty appearing in a game that saw both Mike Torrez and Stan Bahnsen pitch for Oakland. Attendance was abysmal, 9,482, so that checks. And it was a night game!

The 25th was easy to ignore. It was a righty-only night of pitchers for Oakland – Paul Mitchell, Dick Bosman, and Jim Todd. 

This photo was taken on August 24, entering either the bottom of the 8th or 9th inning. Reggie was headed to the dugout for the Orioles’ turn at bat. Mystery re-solved!

Reggie, looking right at the camera, and me, knew I’d get it all along.