Bowa or Schmidt?

[Guest AG/DC]

Is the guy in the front row, third from the left, Larry Bowa or Mike Schmidt?



Lurkers, what better time could there be to register and vote?!

[MFS62]

I thought it was the wrong type of moustache for Schmitt and I don't remember Bowa wearing a moustache.

Later

[seawolf17]

Good call. There's no way it's Schmidt. You're fooled by the mustache.

Bowa all the way.

It's not Warren Fucking Brusstar. Brusstar was a piddling middle reliever who was either hurt or in the minor leagues most of 1979, and would not have been invited to go on the trip.

[Guest holychicken]

I was barely alive at that point I am pretty sure I had no idea WTF baseball was. . . but looking at pictures I would have to say it is Bowa, with a mustache.

[soupcan]

Its Bowa. Get past the mustache. That's Bowa's face and the guy is not big enough to be Schmidt.

[Guest AG/DC]

Zachry. Look how short the legs are compared to Garvey's. And Garvey wuddn't a big guy.

[batmagadanleadoff]

soupcan wrote: the guy is not big enough to be Schmidt.

Good point Soupie. Now I'm on the fence again. Anybody here know a hardcore been a Phillie fan for 30 years (or longer)? That person would know instantly.

[batmagadanleadoff]

I think this mustache below matches the one from Japan. Plus that dimpled indentation right above the chin. I'm back in the Schmidt camp.

[batmagadanleadoff]

The October 6, 1979 Sporting News has the original Japan tour rosters. The NL roster is identical to the original roster I posted in the Pillbox thread. TSN reported that the exhibition was to consist of nine games; NL v AL seven times and two MLB v Japan games. Dodgers Lopes and Cey were added to the tour after the original roster was announced but before the seven NL additions were announced. This TSN also reported that Jim Palmer suspects (suspected) that his GM Hank Peters was secretly responsible for Palmer's exclusion from the AL roster. Peters did not respond to any questions.

[Guest AG/DC]

Schmidt had wavey auburn hair. That's guy's a curly brunet if I ever saw one.

[Centerfield]

No way that is Mike Schmidt.

[Frayed Knot]

soupcan wrote: Its Bowa. Get past the mustache. That's Bowa's face and the guy is not big enough to be Schmidt.

Oh yeah, I'm listening to the guy who can't recognize his own kid in a photo.

[Guest AG/DC]

Schmidt had the features of Teutonic Northern Euoropean ancestry.

Our front row kneeler has the features of swarthy Southern European ancestry.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I've been swayed by arguments on both sides but for purposes of voting I stuck w/ my orignal assumption.

Michael Jack.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Use your fingers to cover up his entire face - but not his mouth. That's Schmidt's mouth. Anyone disagree on the mouth?

[metirish]

It's him , the eyes ,look at the eyes.

[batmagadanleadoff]

I looked at a couple of pictures of Schmidt's glove on the web. All of the (half a dozen or so) images I looked at show a glove with an open webbing, like the glove shown below. In Japan, the front-row Phillie appears to be holding a glove with a closed webbing, although the Japan photo, like this theory, is not entirely conclusive.

[soupcan]

Frayed Knot wrote: Oh yeah, I'm listening to the guy who can't recognize his own kid in a photo.

Well there is that.

But that is Larry Bowa!

[Guest themetfairy]

This is the reply I received from a particularly classy Phillies fan whom I know -

]I am 100% certain that it's Bowa. Schmidt always had a sour look on his face like he was doing you a big favor just being out there.

[Centerfield]

[batmagadanleadoff]

According to this website, Bowa participated in the MLB 1979 tour of Japan.

That '78 Topps Bowa card looks a lot like the ambiguous front-row Phillie.

[batmagadanleadoff]

This might be the motherlode clue. This link http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/events/japan_series/history.jsp

is to MLB.com's section on MLB tours of Japan. There's a link to video of the 1979 All Star Tour. The video link appears under the year 1980 (a mistake - there was no American tour of Japan in 1980, either by a team or by a collection of players). I can't get the video to play. Maybe someone here will have better luck.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Mustached Bowa on a 1981 Kellogg's card. If the card's from '81, the picture was probably taken in 1980, within a few months of the Japan tour. The card establishes that Bowa wore a mustache near in time to the Japan tour.

[Guest Rockin' Doc]

I feel pretty positive that the Phillie is question is Larry Bowa and not Mike Schmidt.

That crouching Phillie (Bowa) isn't big enough to carry Schmidt's jock.

[batmagadanleadoff]

This 1980 Bowa Kellogg's picture is a closer match to the phront-row Phillie phrenologically. Schmidt's face is longer, more oval-shaped than Bowa's. I'm switching to Bowa.

[batmagadanleadoff]

More mustachioed Larry. 1981 Topps:

[Zvon]

No doubt it's Bowa.

[metirish]

This is fascinating , we might need the Feds on this case.

[batmagadanleadoff]

="Zvon"]No doubt it's Bowa.

You're right. That's definitely Bowa on each of those three cards.

[seawolf17]

The 81 Topps card seals it. Bingo. Don't know why I stopped looking at 1980. I knew I'd seen that picture with the mustache and the afro before.