Monday, August 28, 2023

Wood vs. Wood #178

 Last time 1962 won, 4-2. Who will win this time?

Two nearly identical poses here, but Camilo Carreon has a nice background with the Yankee Stadium facade and left field bleachers. Carreon was a semi-regular catcher for the White Sox from 1962 to 1964 and also had brief stops in Cleveland and Baltimore. In 354 games he hit .264 with 11 HR and 114 RBI. After his career he was a youth baseball instructor in Arizona. He died of cancer on September 2, 1987, six days before his son Mark made his major league debut.

Cecil Fielder has a much simpler spring training background for his shot. Fielder played for the Blue Jays for parts of four seasons without making much of an impact. He played in Japan in 1989, where he refined his power stroke, and after signing with the Tigers for the 1990 season took the US baseball world by storm, becoming the first 50-HR hitter in 13 years. He led the AL in RBI three years in a row, and was still a productive hitter when the Yankees acquired him during the 1996 season to platoon with struggling 1B Tino Martinez. Fielder was a key part of the first Yankee world championship in 18 years, winning the Babe Ruth Award for most outstanding performance of the postseason, hitting .308 with 3 HR and 14 RBI. His biggest hit by far was his RBI double in Game 5 of the World Series, the only run in the Yankees' 1-0 victory that broke a 2-2 tie and set the team up to win the Series. He ended his career with brief stops in Anaheim and Cleveland, and overall in 1,470 MLB games he hit .255 with 319 HR and 1,008 RBI. Fielder currently makes a variety of appearances as a Yankees team ambassador. Like Carreon he is the father of a former big leaguer; Cecil and his son Prince are the only father-son combo with a 50-HR season each.


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