The Random Phone Call

Back in May, I received a random voicemail on my home phone. Yes, I still have a home phone, but that's not the point of the post. The guy gave his name and phone number and said that he had some baseball questions for me. While I had no idea who this person was, I called my mom to see if she knew this gentleman since they share the same area code. I thought that maybe my mom had a conversation with a neighbor or friend and somehow the fact that I am a baseball fan came up. When I talked to my mom, she didn't know this person and thought it was a scam. Still, while random and unusual, I didn't think this was a scam. Then, before I called back, I had a revelation.

(Not sure if this video fits with my "revelation," but I like it.)

I share a first and last name with a fairly prominent individual in the online sports, and in particular, baseball community. We definitely don't share a household name, but the other Sean runs websites visited by many sports fans looking for historic information and data. There have been several times over the years where people contacted me thinking that I'm him. Generally, it's as a Facebook friend request. So before I called the guy (let's call him Greg) back, I figured out that he thought I was the other Sean and randomly found my home number thinking I was him.

Greg is probably in his 70s or 80s and is a lifelong Boston Red Sox fan. Apparently, his relative came across some negatives of old Boston Braves players including Babe Ruth. He was trying to contact the other Sean to try to identify some of the players in the pictures. We had a nice conversation about baseball, Fenway Park, and more, and it concluded with me trying to be the middleman between Sean and him.

I contacted Sean and gave him Greg's contact information. Sean replied and indicated that one of his customer service folks would reach out to him. After two weeks of not hearing anything, I contacted Sean again, but he replied that he never heard back from Greg. I tried Greg again asking if he was able to connect with Sean and his company. I also wrote that I would love to see some of the pictures if he didn't mind sending them. This is what he sent:

Now I'm not a baseball historian, and I don't play one on the internet. However, I clearly recognize this picture as Johnny Damon who played on the Boston Red Sox (and not the Boston Braves) from 2002-2005. Greg and I have not had any additional correspondence.

UPDATE!

Several hours after this post went live, I received an email from someone at the sports website "referenced" above. It turns out that Greg did contact them and provided several photos though not negatives and not all Boston Braves players either. The website was able to identify two photos of Jimmie Foxx, one of Lefty Grove, and one of Mel Ott and Wally Berger together. There was no additional contact from Greg after the website wrote back with the IDs.

Yankee Stadium Poll

2008 marks the final season that the New York Yankees play at Yankee Stadium. "The House That Ruth Built" opened in 1923 and is the third oldest stadium in baseball behind only Wrigley Field in Chicago and Fenway Park in Boston. No baseball field has hosted more World Series games and some of the greats such as Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Reggie Jackson and Roger Maris called Yankee Stadium home.

Although I have attended baseball games at over a dozen stadiums, Yankee Stadium is not one of them. I think there is an expectation from passionate baseball fans that I should attend a game at Yankee Stadium before it closes at the end of the season. However, with limited time available to attend a weekend game over the next few months (it is doubtful that I would be able to take time off from work to go during the week) and the high cost of tickets, I am questioning whether or not I should try to go. In addition, in his book "God Save the Fan," Deadspin’s Will Leitch wrote, "As far as I’m concerned, there’s not a stadium in all of sports that’s a less enjoyable place to watch a sporting event than Yankee Stadium." (There’s more about this at River Ave. Blues.) That’s not exactly a glowing recommendation.

Therefore, I put the decision in your hands. Please take the poll on the right side of the page and add any comments below.


If you think that this post was just an opportunity for me to use the poll feature, you would be partially correct.