In 1987, Hensley Meulens gave the world its first real preview of what the Yankees hoped would be the power source of their new youth movement. He tore into Carolina League pitching to the tune of a .300 batting average, 23 doubles, 103 runs batted in and 28 home runs, breaking the franchise record of 25, set by Lorenzo Bundy of the Alexandria Dukes. That, despite spending the first 17 games of the season playing with Fort Lauderdale of the Florida State League.
I managed to snag this cool 1987 team photo of the Prince William Yankees and am hoping to dig up all of the team photos featuring Mr. Meulens (that's him, front and center). It's interesting, in a hobby where people seem to buy and sell absolutely everything, there's a substantial shortage of minor league team photos available from 1988-2000. If anyone knows of any good sources (aside from eBay) for these, please let me know!
Since posting this, I've now found the exact spot where this photo was taken. At this link to Panaramio, you can see other photos of the spot at Tackett's Mill shopping center in Lake Ridge, Virginia:
Through several changes in affiliation since the team's founding in 1978, the team has also progressed through several changes in name, from the Alexandria (the city) Dukes to the Alexandria Mariners, back to the Dukes, then to the Prince William (the county) Pirates, to the Yankees, to the Cannons, to the Potomac (the river) Cannons and since 2005, the Potomac Nationals. On August 27th, Tyler Moore, of the Potomac Nationals, hit home run number 29 of the season, breaking Hensley Meulens' previous franchise single season record of 28, which had stood for 23 years.
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Do you have a higher resolution photo of this? Would love to give it to Hensley when I see him next month.
ReplyDeleteI can just scan it again and update the photo here. Check back tomorrow.
DeleteI have replaced the team photo image with the high-quality scan. It is now 3952x3013 if you click the image.
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