Willie McCover-up

[nolemmings]

It's an odd shot for sure but it doesn't look to me like there's anything wrong with the ump. His hand is only showing the first two knuckles and thus his fingers are not elongated but rather gripped, and he easily could have been coming out of his crouched stance and thus not at full height. I also believe he could be looking in the same direction (mostly), although the odd thing to me is 1) seeing Willie McCovey swinging that late so as to foul the ball off basically behind the on-deck circle and fairly deep into the stands, and 2) all of these guys caring enough to look (obviously well out of play or Bench would have chased it and the ump would have followed). The outfield portion of the card looks weird though. Strange indeed.

[steve B]

Looking at the card along with the picture of the park, I think the photo may have had the background swapped out.

Using that pic, and the info about the ramps, to me the angle to pick up the ramps would be along the red line I've drawn (Poorly) That would leave the photographer in a prime spot to get clobbered by a ball fouled back.

But the players look like they were pictured from surprise surprise.. the area that's often a photographers area near the outfield end of the dugout. Blue line, also poorly drawn.