VON HAYSY MEMORIES:

Franco marks 25th anniversary of debut (Anthony DiComo, 04/23/2007, MLB.com)

Twenty-five years has its way of blurring memories. So it is with Julio Franco, who, on the silver anniversary of his big-league debut, can't dig out details of the night that became the intro to an epic.

But the scraps of memory that do exist are historical artifacts, the last remnants of a banner day. No pictures, no souvenir balls, no jerseys -- just dusty recollections. [...]

[A]pril 23, 1982, became Franco's night to shine, batting seventh against a Cardinals team that went on to win the World Series. It was one of just 29 at-bats the 23-year-old Franco would receive that year and one of only eight hits.