Shoebox Memories: 2002 Fleer Jay Payton

The card above is from the 2002 Fleer set.  I came across it recently while cleaning out and organizing baseball cards that haven’t been seen by the author in quite some time.

What was the date of the game played?  Can we determine the exact play in the game?  Was Jay Payton safe on the play?  Who is the umpire, and who is the opposition player also shown on the card?  Did the Mets win the game?  Let’s take our Sherlock Holmes deerstalker hat off the wall and note, while we try to solve all of the mysteries posed by this card, that:

1. Payton is wearing the team’s home uniform, the playing surface is grass, and it’s a day game, so we’re looking for a home game played during the day in 2001.
2. The opposing player is seemingly named Williams and is wearing uniform number 9.
3. The umpire is wearing a number that is either 5 or starts with the number 5.  This will be a rather important fact as we determine the play in question.

Once our Internet searching machine is fired up, and we’re online with Baseball Reference, we see:

1. Bernie Williams, Gerald Williams, Matt Williams, and Woody Williams were the only Williams playing in the majors in 2001 and only Matt Williams, who played third base for the Diamondbacks, wore number 9.
2. From the online 2001 Mets schedule, the Diamondbacks visited Shea only 3 times in 2001, from May 3-5.
3. May 3rd was a Friday night game, so that game can be safely eliminated from consideration.

In the May 4th game, to start the bottom of the third, Payton singled and went to third on a single to short left field/center field by Robin Ventura. Payton then scored on a double to left by Todd Zeile, tying the score at one apiece. Matt Williams played third base that game.

However, we have a second possible play.

In the bottom of the 7th, Payton singled off of Russ Springer and went to third on a line drive to right field by Edgardo Alfonso. He later scored on a sacrifice fly by Robin Ventura.

For the rest of the game on the 5th, and in the day game played on May 6th, Payton never reached past first base, leaving us either of the above to choose from.  We do know that Payton was safe on both plays, and that the Mets won the game played on May 5, 2001, 8 – 1 over the Diamondbacks.

Before leaving it there with a partial victory and hanging our deerstalker hat on the wall, let’s note a few other items of interest on the card that may help us make a choice between either the third inning play or the seventh inning play:

1. The third baseman Matt Williams has his neck turned toward left field. In the third, Ventura’s ball was hit to left/left center as described in the box score on Baseball Reference.  In the seventh, Alfonzo’s hit was to right field.
2. Payton has his right arm up (note the scar running down his elbow) as if to protect his head/ear from a throw from left field.
3. The umpire has that number that starts with the number 5.  He also has a ball bag on his right hip, just as a home plate umpire would.  The third base umpire on May 5th was Doug Eddings. The home plate umpire was Eric Cooper.  Doug Eddings’ uniform number is 88.  Eric Cooper’s umpire number was 56 until his untimely death in 2019.
4. Which of the two plays was more likely to have an umpire rushing up the line to cover a play at third because the third base umpire was out covering another part of the field?  Likely a hit to short left center, perhaps to see if the ball was trapped, rather than a line drive to right field.

Let’s call this case through.  We’ll have other Shoebox Memories soon since a lot of cards were cleaned out and disposed of.

Shh, we don’t really ever dispose of cardboard treasures.

Comment below on your agreement with the analysis, or provide a card you would like to see analyzed here at MMO.

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