runningshoes' Classic Photo Thread

[runningshoes]

I created a similar thread a few years back with cubshub hosting the photographs, but he was hacked and they disappeared. Now that I have time, I'm going to recreate the thread, but instead of having them hosted, I'll save them directly to Baseball Fever. That should prevent them from disappearing again. I'll identify players, places and times where I'm able. If I'm having difficulty, please feel free to help me out. I'm not sure if these photographs exist elsewhere in the baseball photography forum, but if they do, please let me know and provide a link to the photo. I'm not sure if Bill saved any of them when they were up before, but I had only posted a small number of the ones I have.


I'll start out with a photograph of Al Simmons, Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth and Jimmie Foxx at the Polo Grounds during the 1934 All Star Game.

Carl Hubbell struck out these four future Hall of Famers, and Joe Cronin, consecutively during the first and second innings to set an all star game record. I don't know if this record still stands. If anyone knows, please let us know. Thanks

The American League won the game 9-7

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Members of the 1917 Cleveland Indians do close-order drilling. Most teams used bats in place of rifles, but here the players are using actual rifles. The St. Louis Browns won the $500 American League President Ban Johnson provided for the best close-order drill, although only 13 Browns enlisted during World War I. The Detroit Tigers contributed the most in the league with 25. The Brooklyn Dodgers and the Pittsburgh Pirates tied for the most in the National League with 18 enlistees, while the Cincinnati Reds provided only six.

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Hank Aaron and Harvey Kuenn before the second 1960 All Star Game at Yankee Stadium.

Starting in 1955, fans voted Aaron to 20 straight all star teams.

Kuenn played for Detroit Tigers (1952–59), Cleveland Indians (1960), San Francisco Giants (1961–65), Chicago Cubs (1965–66) and Philadelphia Phillies (1966). After retiring, he served as the Milwaukee Brewers interim manager in 1975 and as manager in 1982, taking the Brewers to their only World Series appearance. Kuenn died in 1988. He has a plaque at Miller Park.

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Ted Williams with 3-year-old Patricia Ann Lewis in a photograph from 1944. I don't know where it was taken. Lewis was born at Pearl Harbor just before the Japanese attack and was evacuated with her mother shortly after.

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In 1948 Cleveland Indians owner Bill Veeck purchased Luke Easter's contract from the Homestead Grays. Easter started the 1949 season in the minors after suffering a knee injury. He was brought up at the end of the season and the Indians were so impressed, they traded all star first baseman Mickey Vernon to make room for 34-year-old Easter the following season. After three solid seasons, Easter's knee problems and age brought his major league carer to an end. He died in 1979 at the age of 63.

The photograph was obviously taken at Cleveland Municipal Stadium, but I'm not sure of the year.

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Future Hall of Famers Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker and Eddie Collins helped the Philadelphia Athletics to a second place finish in 1928.

This was Cobb's and Speaker's last major league season. Collins would play in only nine games in the next two seasons before retiring.

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Joe Cronin played for The Washington Senators from 1928 to 1934. I don't know the date of this photograph.

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Josh Gibson of the Negro National League's Homestead Grays rounds third at Washington's Griffith Stadium.

Gibson, known as "the black Babe Ruth," played for the Grays from 1930 to 1931, 1937 to 1939 and 1942 to 1946. He is considered one of the best catchers and hitters to have played in any league. He died from a stroke at the age of 35 in 1947, only three months before Jackie Robinson first took the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Thanks to BSmile for dating the photograph.

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Jerome "Dizzy" Dean throwing during spring training in 1938.

Dean is the last National League pitcher to win 30 games in a season, accomplishing the feat in 1934 with the St. Louis Cardinals. He won 28 games the following year and 24 the year after that.

He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1953.

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74-year-old manager Cornelius McGillicuddy ("Connie Mack") puts the Philadelphia Athletics through their training paces in Mexico City in 1937. Mack was hit in the right shin by a ball that spring and was injured so painfully that he was taken by train to a hospital on a stretcher.

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(From left) Bill Killefer, Ed Burns, Joe Oeschger, George "Possum" Whitted and Ed Rixley relaxing during Spring training in St Petersburg in 1915.

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Detroit Tigers' Manager Hughie Jennings and Tiger's 3Bman George Moriarty confer with New York Highlanders player/manager Hal Chase and umpire Tom Connolly at Hilltop Park in 1911.

Thanks to GaryL for Identifying George Moriarty.

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St. Louis Cardinals player/manager Miller Huggins and New York Giants manager John McGraw confer with umpire Bill Brennan at the Polo grounds in 1913.

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Babe Ruth batting at Huggins/Stengel Field in St Petersburg Florida in 1928.

Thanks to Babefan for providing date and location.

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Members of the National League Pennant winning Brooklyn Robins. (from left) Jake Daubert, George Cutshaw, Ivy Olson and Harry Mowrey.

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Pete Alexander warming up at Wrigley Field 1922.

I've dated this Photograph based on his uniform. The 1921 uniform was not quite so white. If anyone has a different opinion, don't be afraid to say so.

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Washington Senators right fielder Gene Woodling watches one of Roger Maris' 61 home runs drop into the seats at Yankee Stadium in 1961.

Woodling played for many teams during his 17 years in the majors, including a six year stint with the New York Yankees from 1949 to 1954. He was involved in a record 17 player deal that sent him from the Yankees to the Baltimore Orioles where he spent the 1955 season before moving on to the Cleveland Indians. He retired a Met in 1962 at the end of the team's inaugural season. His most productive season was in Cleveland where he hit 19 home runs and drove in 78 runs in 1957.

Woodling is known for having helped bring the pension fund to major league players. He died in a nursing home in June 2001 at the age of 78.

Anyone who can provide the date of this photograph will get a special mention.

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First in line fans wait outside the Polo Grounds to get tickets for the 1954 World Series between the New York Giants and the Cleveland Indians.

The Giants swept the series in four games to win their first championship in 21 years. The heavily favoured Indians won 111 games during the regular season and had never been swept in the World Series before this. Game one of the series featured "The Catch" made by Willie Mays with his back to the infield off a Vic Wertz drive deep to center field. The series is also remembered for Giants utility player Dusty Rhodes' clutch hitting in three of the four games. This was to be Giants manager Leo Durocher's only World Series victory.

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Boston's famous Royal Rooter march around Fenway Park prior to game five of the 1912 World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Giants.

Because of a tie, the series went to eight games and when the Rooters showed up for the game they expected to occupy their usual seats. They were outraged to find they had been sold to others. The Rooters demonstrated noisily outside the park and held crowd numbers down to 17,000; half of what the park held. The Red Sox won the game , and the series, dramatically after coming from behind to beat the Giants 3-2 in a game that featured a pitching duel between Christy Mathewson and Hugh Bedient.

The game also featured a Fred Snodgrass' error that went down in history as "the $30,000 muff", a reference to the difference in the winner's and loser's share...... $29,514.

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All three of New York's teams are represented in this photograph most likely taken in 1942. (From left) New York Giants' Mel Ott, Brooklyn Dodgers' Billy Herman and New York Yankees' Bill Dickey.

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Several Chicago White Sox players gather around the cage to watch Mickey Mantle take batting practice before a game at Yankee Stadium sometime in 1962.

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Frankie Frisch, (left) Casey Stengel (center) and Frank "Pancho" Snyder inspect a shipment of new bats at spring training in San Antonio circa 1923.

Thanks to GaryL for indentifying Frank Snyder.

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Based on his uniform, I'm quite confident this photograph of Cobb was taken in 1921 at Navin Field (Tiger Stadium). If anyone feels or knows different, please let us know. Special thanks to Badge714 for identifying the other gentleman as William Jennings Bryan.

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It looks like the ball is going to get to Ron Santo's glove before Rusty Staub can reach the bag.

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Eddie Collins, Connie Mack and Ty Cobb visiting the Reach baseball factory in Philadelphia in 1927.

Reach produced American League baseballs beginning in 1901 and by 1927 the factory made around three million balls a year, not all American League balls, of course. Spalding, which made National League balls, and Reach made major league baseballs until Rawlings took over both leagues in 1970.

If you have an original Reach American League ball it could, depending on the logo stamp and condition, fetch you between 500 and 1500 dollars today.