Red Sox/Yankees At Fenway Park - My Pictures From 40 (or 36?) Years Ago

On August 22, I posted some pictures I took at my first game at Fenway Park, way back in 1976. At the end of that post, I said I had also converted some slides from a Red Sox/Yankees game on September 9, 1978. It turns out that I was mistaken. I have pictures, but from a different game.

While preparing this post for the 1978 anniversary date and trying to identify various players, I kept running into problems. Sparky Lyle's number was being wore by a black man and there was a white guy at first base for the Red Sox instead of George Scott. A Boston player was wearing #11, a number no one wore in 1978. The visiting pitcher's number listed on the scoreboard belonged, not to Ron Guidry, who I saw pitch, but to Domingo Ramos, who had made his major league debut the night before.

Plus, there were several pictures taken from right field - both before and during the game, something I know the 14-year-old me did not do. ... Then it hit me. Was THIS the game I had tried to find with a "Tracer" in 2008? My friend Ray and I had gone to Fenway in 1982, but I did not know which game we saw. From what little I remembered, I tried to figure it out - and these pictures prove that my guess was correct.

Ray and I were at Fenway on September 25, 1982, and that is where all of these pictures were taken! Not 1978, but a little more than four years later.

Yankees - 001 010 310 - 6 11  1
Red Sox - 010 010 000 - 2  9  1

Looking at them, I can see how I was fooled. Dennis Eckerlsey started both games for the Red Sox and - amazingly - he was relieved by Tom Burgmeier both times. ... There was a #11 in 1982, infielder Dave Stapleton, and seeing him in a group alongside Jerry Remy, who played for both the 1978 and 1982 teams, makes sense. And that's why #51 (Reid Nichols) in standing next to right fielder Dwight Evans instead of Fred Lynn (#19) during a pitching change.

So: Here are some pictures from Game 154 in 1982, which the Yankees won 6-2. (No pictures exist, sadly, of the backpack that was stuffed with clanking beer bottles that we slipped past the ticket-taker. At the exact moment I was going through the turnstile, the guy turned away and I zipped right on in!)

If anyone can identify the players in the uncaptioned photos, please leave a comment.

John Mayberry. He would play his last major league game three days later.

Jerry Remy and a MFY observe something.

Another Remy sighting.

If that is a 3 on his back, this is pitcher John Tudor.

Dave Stapleton, perhaps. (More importantly, what's the hell is going on with the guy on the back of the warning track vehicle?)

Remy and Dave Stapleton.

Our seats were out in right field. The old wall and screen look so bare now.

A member of the grounds crew gathers batting practice balls from the bottom of the screen.

Dennis Eckersley is on the mound and Wade Boggs is playing first base.

One big reason I kept thinking these were from 1978 is because #16 was Burgmeier. But, as noted, he also took over on the mound after Eck in 1982! Dwight Evans and Reid Nichols.

Left-hander Shane Rawley on the hill for the Yankees, Steve Balboni at first base, and Jim Ed Rice taking a lead. Rawley went the distance, so this could be from either the first, fifth, or seventh inning. If it's the fifth, Evans is on third and will score on a double by the now-batting Stapleton (who might be hitting said double right there).