Ranger Pictures: Raffy Hits #500
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On Mother's Day 2003 - May 11th, Rafael Corrales Palmeiro hit his 500th career home run. I was there to witness it, and I had been taking my digital camera with me to the last few games to get pictures of it should I be there when it happened. This page has the pictures I took (that were good, anyway <g>) from that event. The picture above is a certificate that the Rangers handed out to everyone there to show that you were there. It was quite the moment. Here's what I wrote about the game on my daily game commentary page for May 11th...
Yeah, the Rangers scored 17 runs. Yeah, we gave up 10. Yeah, I got sunburned sitting at the game, but it all doesn't matter. Raffy got his 500th home run, and I was glad to say I was there to see it! It was funny, because when Raffy popped out after the sixth inning, quite a few people left the stadium. Fools! I bet all of them that left will be telling folks that they were there to see it.
This was an odd game for me, because I always score the game. I had gotten comp tickets from my ticket agent, and was sitting in Sec 26 Row 23 - roughly 20 rows right behind home plate. However, I left the scorecard at home, and I can't score on the one in the program, because I feel the scorecard is too restrictive, I track far more info than the basic stuff. So I didn't score. I was watching the game, and as been chronicled, when Raffy came up for his final at bat, I had a feeling that he wasn't going to do it. Even moreso when he was down to two strikes.
But then he did it. It was quite the moment. My wife was jumping up and down, and was all excited. I was trying to be all excited while still taking pictures and making sure I didn't miss the moment. It was quite cool to be there (unlike the thousands of people that probably will say they were there when they weren't).
I took a bunch of pictures from the game, you can check 'em out here. I know I didn't write a lot, but it's one of those "moments" that lives in your mind, but you find it hard to describe. I did have two armfuls of goose bumps while it was happening, though. :)
-- Joe Siegler
Pictures from the event
All pictures on this page were taken by me. You can click on any of them for a larger picture. There's a few other picture groups from the game. They are:
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Indians batting practice |
The grounds crew gets things ready | The scoreboard before the game | Raffy's 499 banner |
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More groundscrew work |
The Rangers Captain | The Rangers Captain | The Rangers Captain |
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The Rangers Captain |
The Rangers Captain |
Kids out for first pitch ceremonies | Raffy's intro during the player announcements |
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| The Rangers Captain during the national anthem | The crowd to my right | This has nothing to do with Raffy, but I found this guy's T-Shirt "interesting". He was sitting right in front of me and my wife. | You know Where's Waldo? Where's Zonk? :) |
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Raffy waiting to bat |
Raffy heads to the plate... | ...in the bottom of the 5th |
Raffy bats in the 5th |
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| Raffy bats in the 5th | Raffy comes up in the 7th | Raffy bats in the 7th | There it goes! |
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Raffy rounds the bases as the crowd goes nuts |
The fireworks go off | ...and his team meets him at home plate.. | More celebration |
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More celebration |
More celebration |
More celebration |
More celebration |
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A new thing on the outfield to commemorate the home run |
Raffy takes a curtain call | Raffy heads back to the dugout | The center field banner is changed |
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Grounds crew took all the bases and replaced them. Presumably the bases are going to the HOF or something. |
There was a scoreboard countdown of all the 500 home run members between the 7th and 8th innings | Raffy takes the field in the 8th | The end of the 500 home run club video shows Raffy |
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The facing of the Upper Home Run Porch shows a "Congratulations Raffy" sign all across the front. |
All of the top HR hitters in center | This shows where I was sitting. The woman in the front towards the left wearing a red shirt and blonde hair is my wife. I was sitting next to her. | The game is over |
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The Rangers celebrate the win...and Raffy |
Hello Win Column! | The scoreboard at the end of the game | Rudy Jaramillo waving to the crowd |
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Raffy interviewed at the end of the game |
A closer view of the 500 HR banner in center field |