Throwback Thursday: Spring Training 2009

 


When I saw Darren O'Day in a 2009 spring training game in Fort Lauderdale, I couldn't have imagined that a dozen years later, he'd join New York's other team. Catch him walking toward the team bus after getting in some work in an exhibition game.

But that's the life of a relief pitcher. Now 38 and having worked for five clubs over the last dozen seasons, he turned his sparkling performance with the 2020 Braves (4-0, and a 1.10 ERA) into a guaranteed one-year deal with the Yankees.

You can see his claim to fame, a sidewinding underhanded delivery designed to confuse righthanded batters.

Things went well during Grapefruit League play. O'Day began 2009 on the Mets roster -- but lasted just four games before being dropped from the roster. He returns to New York with a guaranteed contract worth $2.45 million as one of the arms to replace Adam Ottavino and Tommy Kahnle in Aaron Boone's 2021 relief crew.

It's more than a little ironic that my images of O'Day were taken at Fort Lauderdale Stadium, for so many years the spring training home of the Yankees. A now-abandoned field where Mantle, Maris, Ford, Stottlemyre, Murcer, Munson, Guidry, Jackson and Randolph got ready to make history in their time.

(My images are from the Mets/Orioles game at Fort Lauderdale Stadium on March 20th, 2009.)

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