TASR: 2009 Topps #390 Joey Votto - Game Dating

This is our second column in our series dedicated to Joey Votto's 2009 All-Star Rookie Cup Card. 

Today we are going to try and Game Date the Photo. For those of you that weren't with us last week you can go here to see the original posting - for purposes of this column here is a reminder of the card:

2009 Topps #390 Joey Votto

Game Dated Card*

I am opening with minor asterisk here by noting I am not positive on this one. The evidence we find in baseball-ref while not conclusive does appear to point to a specific at-bat. That likely plate appearance was in the fourth inning of a Reds game at Shea Stadium on May 10th 2008. 

How did we arrive here?

1) This appears to be Shea Stadium in it's closing season of 2008. Within Getty Images we were unable to find the picture on the card, However there was this series of photos of Votto that were all taken on May 10th    

This doesn't confirm the date but it is similar enough to verify we are dealing with the Mets and Shea Stadium.

2) This is a big one - According to baseball_reference Joey Votto played only 2 games at Shea Stadium. Those two games were on the proposed May 10th date and the following day May 11.

Now that we are down to 2 games we can look at the details. 

3) Now we switch over to retrosheet because their play by play is a tad more descriptive and we find this within the May 10th game:

 

YAHTZEE!!!

It is the only time that "Bunt" is mentioned with Votto in the play by play for either game within retrosheet or baseball_reference. 

That's good enough for me. We got ourselves down to two games and within one those two games we found documentation of a bunt attempt. 

Exceptions: Of course this is not conclusive, Votto could have attempted a bunt in any of his other plate appearances and fouled off the pitch and that would not be recorded by retrosheet or baseball_ref. Regardless we definitely got the card of a potential Hall of Famer down to a single series in May of 2008. 

Bonus Evidence

4) This is all just supplementary evidence that doesn't prove anything but does support the case we made in points 1-3 above

We return to Getty Images and find a photo from the other game (May 11th)

This photo looks a lot different because it's from the opposite camera well. There is another detail of interest. Look at the bat - it's a natural wood stain. Now return to the top and look at Votto's bat when he's bunting. It's black - the 3 photos from May 10 all black bat. 

There is one other photo from May 10 which is from the first base angle and it also shows black bat. 

Now this doesn't mean that Votto didn't have an AB with a black bat May 11 but so far every AB on May 10 is black bat and the only AB on May 11th is natural

Looking Back

In last weeks column we discussed that Joey Votto had 8700 PAs without a sacrifice, well he wasn't sacrificing here either. Votto was leading off the inning so this was not a sacrifice attempt. It was likely a good strategic move, Votto a Left Handed Hitter was leading off facing the tough Southpaw Johan Santana on the mound. Right Handed Slugger Edwin Encarnacion was on deck and in fact did hit a Home Run off Santana. 

Sources and Links

Joey Votto Index

2009 TASR Index

Game Dated Cards Index

baseball_reference

retrosheet

Getty Images

Rich Pilling Photography