eBay Item Of The Day

“Get off my unwatered, spotty-looking lawn!” -- Fenway head groundskeeper, ca. 1959

I’m wondering if it would be possible to determine the exact date this picture was taken from the available evidence. The seller states the card was mailed in 1959, which means it’s unlikely it was taken in 1959. Perhaps it was taken in 1957 or 1958 - or even 1956.

Clues:

That appears to be Ted Williams on deck. By the late ‘50s, Williams wasn’t playing a full slate of games. He was in 63 home games in 1957 and 66 in 1958, which helps narrow the search a bit.

It’s too bad the scoreboard isn’t sharper, that would help. Also, the portion of the board that gives the Red Sox score is just out of the frame.

The catcher appears to have a single-digit number. It would be nice to just declare it’s Yogi Berra and go from there, but it could also be Ed Fitz Gerald or Lou Berberet of the Senators or Hal Smith of the A’s or somebody else.

All American League uniforms look pretty similar at this resolution. (Including the National League, teams either had red, black or blue sleeves. The red sleeves were in the NL.) If you could figure out if there is a color stripe on the socks, that would narrow it down a bit as well.

Don’t look at Red Sox home shutout losses since they’re clearly scoring a run here - not that that eliminates a whole lot of games from the candidates.

The Boston pitcher reached base with a man on either first or second. Subsequent to that we have what appears to be this run-scoring single.

I’m sure I missed a few clues. This is a job for the late George Michael. He was a master at this sort of thing.

Good luck!