As I combed through last year's photographic leftovers, this photo of John Gibbons chatting with Bengie Molina caught my eye:

I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a bigger Frank Catalanotto fan than me.  You see the ball that's behind the Batter's Box logo at the top of this page?  That ball was autographed by the Cat.  Not only that -- he threw the ball to me during a game, and my wife got him to autograph it for me later.

This was back in 2003, when I made a giant banner that read VOTE CATALANOTTO in the same font and style as the VOTE DELGADO and VOTE WELLS banners on the outfield walls at the then-SkyDome, and brought it with me during All-Star voting.  One game a security fellow asked to see my rolled-up sign and got so excited by it that he directed me to sit in the left field corner and unveil the sign whenever possible.  I did, and that's when the Cat tossed me that ball.

Enjoy Texas, Frank.  I'll miss you, and I don't think I'm the only one.  And whenever someone loads up a page of Batter's Box, that ball you autographed for me will appear.

Here's Frank Catalanotto, one last time for your desktops:

It looks like we've seen the end of Gregg Zaun's time in a Jays uniform, which is a shame. His career turnaround has been one of those great baseball stories that will stick with me.

I'll say it again: all the guy has to do is make it to the playoffs to give The Gregg Zaun Story the rousing finale it needs to make it a successful Disney movie in a decade or two.

Here he is, for what is hopefully not the very last time:

Back when he was still an Athletic, I photographed Frank Thomas. I never thought I'd be repurposing those photographs now with the Big Hurt signed as a Blue Jay. But I am, and here he is:

This one's for the ladies. And, uh, for Bauxites Mike Forbes and Parker, who both requested it.

Not that there's anything wrong with requesting a desktop picture of Grady Sizemore!  And here it is:

For the offseason I'm going to continue to trawl through the thousands (literally) of photographs I shot this year for Batter's Box and present you something neat that I didn't put up the first time around. This week, by request, is young Felix Hernandez of the Seattle Mariners:

The season is done, and so for the long, cold winter you'll only be seeing a new photograph once a week.  It's not because I don't love you -- I sure do -- but because I don't have enough material to put up something daily all winter.  Plus, you know, I need to spend some time with my family.

Today we're featuring Kelly Shoppach, who did something in the batter's box that surprised me:

What do they say about desperate times?  That they call for desperate measures or something like that.  So here's Tigers hitting coach Don Slaught, in the hopes that the Photo of the Day Mojo will then spread to all of those hitters that he coaches.

Yeah, I'm rootin' for the Tigers.

So yesterday's photo-mojo experiment failed badly when the game was rained out.  Will Alexis Gomez fare better in his Photo of the Day debut?

Ivan Rodriguez is mired in a pretty ugly slump at exactly the wrong time for the Detroit Tigers -- can the magical mojo of the Photo of the Day help him out?

Tonight will be the truest test of the POTD effect.  Here's a photograph of Pudge rounding third after hitting a home run against Toronto: