Tag Archives: Lost Pictures

Lost Pictures–Rube in Kenosha

17 Jan

Rube Waddell’s short stay in Wisconsin in 1901 has been written about extensively.

When Waddell took the mound for the Kenosha Athletics for the first time on October 13–after facing them as part of the Burlington club earlier that month–The Kenosha News said:

“(W)hile  a crowd of 1500 rooters shouted themselves hoarse Waddell kept the heavy batters of the Chicago Spaldings, the crack amateur team of the West, on his staff, and after nine of the fastest innings ever seen on the Kenosha diamond the Chicago players were forced to concede the victory to Kenosha by a score of seven to two.”

The News said Waddell spent a total of 27 days town, and the newspapers there and in nearby Racine sometimes battled over which town Waddell preferred. When Rube left Kenosha to play football in Racine after the baseball season, The Racine Journal Times taunted:

“Rube Waddell, the widely known baseball pitcher has made up his mind to locate in Racine and bid adieu to Kenosha and all the people of that town…Waddell says he is through with Kenosha for all time and will pack his trunk and move to Racine this afternoon.”

The paper also said:

“Rube says he is done with professional baseball and hereafter will be found in the amateur ranks. He prefers football to baseball every time.”

Waddell did stick around Kenosha long enough to be photographed with the Athletics:

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The 1901 Kenosha Athletics—Top, Jack Conney,, William Eaton, manger Edward Alleman, team secretary William Swift, George Steffen, Gus Freitag, Fred Hanks; center row Babe Ollenbook, William Bowman, Bob Henderson, Arthur Hubbard, R. Klpf; first row Rube Waddell, umpire Joe Percente, and Peter Breen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One final note, Percente, the umpire, was also a fairly famous boxer in the Midwest, who fought lightweight champion Battling Nelson four times. Knocked out in the second round by Nelson in 1900, in 1901 Percente  beat him in a six round decision and less than a week later, the two fought to a six round draw.  Nelson won their final fight, an eight round decision in 1902.

 

 

 

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Lost Pictures: Griffith Dedicates Radbourn Memorial

28 Jun

 

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Clark Griffith dedicating the Charles “Old Hoss” Radbourn plaque at Bloomington (IL) Cemetery, May 1, 1941.

Griffith told a reporter for The Associated Press:

“It’s been 20 years since I’ve been back where I spent part of my boyhood. I lived in Normal (the town separated by only a street from Bloomington from my seventeenth to twenty-first year and it was Ol’ Hoss who taught me the first rules of pitching.”

Griffith said of Radbourn:

“He was a husky, durable fellow, but to watch him was to be impressed by his keen pitching brain rather than by his strength. I pitched against him in several town games and was always amazed with the way he worked on tough hitters seldom giving them the kind of pitch they liked.”

The plaque, which like Radbourn’s grave and Hall of Fame plaque, spells his name with an “e” at the end. The one  dedicated by Griffith was apparently replaced–either because the original was damaged or stolen–by a nearly identical version. When Griffith died in 1955, The Bloomington Pantagraph said the original plaque was still place–however, several articles in the paper after the Bloomington City Cemetery and the Evergreen Cemetery were combined in 1963 said the plaque was “put there by Pontiac Correctional Center inmates” sometime after 1955. None of the 1941 stories mentioned the origin of the plaque.

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The plaque 

 

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The current grave site photographed before the dedication of the new wood carving made from the trunk of a dead 150 year-old tree adjacent to Radbourn’s grave.

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Lost Pictures: 1935 Newark Dodgers

14 Jun

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A second team photo of the 1935 Newark Dodgers of the Negro National League.

Front row: Homer Craig, James Williams, Ted Bond, Melvin Markham, Frank McCoy, Johnny Hayes, Burnalle “Bun” Hayes, Paul “Sonny” Arnold

Back row: Willie Burns, Ray Dandridge, Bert Johnston, Leroy Miller, William Bell, Percy Lacey, Robert Evans, James Starks

The picture would have been taken after May 24 when, according to The Brooklyn Citizen, Dick Lundy–who was feuding with Dodgers’ owner Charles Tyler–was traded to the Brooklyn Eagles for Bun Hayes–William Bell replaced Lundy as manager. Lundy ended up finishing the season with the New York Cubans as a result of what The New York Age called, “a ruling of the moguls” which allowed him to join that club.

Eagles owners Abe and Effa Manley purchased the Dodgers after the 1935 season–reported to have been a settlement of a $500 debt Tyler owed Manley–and merged the clubs becoming the Newark Eagles.

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The other extant photo of the  Dodgers

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Lost Pictures: Van Haltren

31 May

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Seventy-two-year-old George Van Haltren (center, with Bill Steen and Jack Kennedy) at the San Francisco Seals’ third annual old-timers game on August 5, 1934.

Van Haltren was the oldest player to participate in  the game; The Associated Press reported that Connie Bigelow, who played for various San Francisco based teams in the 1870s and Mike Fisher, who played for local teams in the 1880s, were the only two present who were older, although neither played.

Van Haltren provided the biggest highlight of the three inning game. Abe Kemp, who covered baseball for The San Francisco Examiner for more than 40 years, said:

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Van Haltren’s hit

“George Van Haltren singles to right.

“Forty years ago, New York baseball fans expected such a thing to happen because it happened frequently, but when a fellow is crawling along in the seventies, as Van is, it approximates quite a feat; yet that is what this grand old warrior did yesterday in his first and only trip to the plate.”

Van Haltren’s Haverly’s lost 6 to 4 to the Pioneers.

 

 

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Lost Pictures: Hal Chase at Indy

27 Feb

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A 1911 photo of Hal Chase, with pitcher Russell Ford in the passenger seat, behind the wheel of a race car at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  The Indianapolis Times said Chase “has entered the ranks of the ‘speed kings.'”

While the New York Highlanders were playing a series of games before the 1911 opener Chase visited the speedway:

“The youthful manager of the Highlanders enjoyed the time annihilating sport and took the wheel…He reeled off a fast lap on the track, making the two and one-half miles in two minutes flat, or at the rate of 75 miles per hour,

“Chase said if he was not so busy trying to annex the American League Pennant, he certainly would be one of the starters in the 500-mile race at the Speedway on Memorial Day.”

In his only full season as a manager, Chase’s Highlanders finished in sixth place with a 76-76 record.

 

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Lost Pictures: 1898 PCL Santa Cruz Club

3 Dec

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A 1952 photo of 80-year-old Bill “Brick” Devereaux holding a picture of the 1898 Santa Cruz club in the Pacific Coast League.

The Oakland Tribune said Devereaux was able to remember the first and last names of every player in the photo “but one, Cristall, a pitcher.”

Devereaux said the other ten players, in addition to him and Cristall, were Jack “Ike” Walters, Lyle Gorton, Charles “Buck” Francks, Ernest “Kid” Mohler, Julius Streib, Bill Dunleavy, Pete Lohman, George “Hardy” Hodson, Walter “Judge” McCredie, Henry “Smilin'” Schmidt.

Devereaux who spent 1894 and ’95 primarily as a pitcher for teams in Lincoln, Nebraska and Troy, Kansas, told the paper after those two seasons he ‘refused to go east again,” and spent the next 17 seasons playing for California based clubs.  He only left the state to play for a team once, spending his final year in pro ball, 1914, in Calgary, Canada.

Devereaux was something of an eccentric during his playing day.  Del Howard told a story about Devereaux, late in his career, to The San Francisco Call in 1921:

“Brick swiped six bases during the battle (against the San Francisco Seals) and promptly claimed a world record.  ‘Not bad for an old man, eh?’ He chuckled.

“(Seals Manager) Danny Long, sitting on the Frisco bench shouted over ‘Record, where do you get that stuff?  When I was with the Baltimore Orioles I stole seven bases myself in one game.  Read it up.'”

Howard said Devereaux “grew red as a beet,” but didn’t respond.

“Next day, when he came up for the first time, Devereaux hit an easy grounder to short and was out at first base by 20 feet.  Instead of stopping, he turned first at full speed, dashed for the Frisco bench and slid feet foremost into the visitors’ pile of bats scattering them in all directions and throwing dust and cinders in Long’s face.

“Brick rose and carefully brushed off his uniform.

“Well, I’m the best base stealer in Alameda County, anyway, Danny.”

Note:  In the original posting, I misidentified the team shown as the 1902 Oakland Clamdiggers–I misread a caption on an old newspaper photograph.  Thanks for the sharp eye of Jeff Dunn from Santa Cruz who brought the error to my attention.

 

 

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Lost Pictures: Cap Anson, Politician

31 Aug

 

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A 1903 photo of Cap Anson on horseback which was printed with stories announcing his new foray into politics.

The Chicago Inter Ocean said:

Adrian Constantine Anson, who was captain of the Colts in the good old days when the National League pennant floated over the West Side ball grounds, has signed with another club , and will make his first appearance next Saturday when he will assume charge of the Chicago Democratic Club at its annual picnic.”

Among Anson’s duties were promoting Chicago Mayor Carter Harrison Jr. as a potential nominee for the presidency in 1904, and leading uniformed marchers at club events; at Anson’s first event, the group welcomed William Jennings Bryan, the Democratic candidate for president in the two previous elections.  Anson led a procession of more than 500 members of the club to meet Bryan at Chicago’s Northwestern Station and accompany him to the picnic.

The Chicago Evening Post said, “Harrison feels under much obligation to Anson for bringing all the baseball men over to him,”  during his first campaign in 1897.

Harrison fell short in his bid for the Democratic nomination in 1904, partly as a result of the negative national press he received after 602 people died in Chicago’s Iroquois Theater fire in December of 1903.

Anson’s role with the Democratic Club led to the party slating him as a candidate for city clerk in 1905.  According to The Chicago Tribune, Anson told the crowd when he received the nomination:

“I believe the baseball boys will roll up a big score for the captain of the ticket and the rest of us.  Now, I hope you’ll excuse me–I have the inclination to go on, and if I had the vocabulary I’m not sure I’d ever stop.”

He was elected clerk and served one term.  Two years later Anson was defeated in his campaign for Cook County Sheriff, ending his political career.

 

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Lost Advertisements: Hack Wilson for Mail Pouch

3 Aug

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A 1930 advertisement or Mail Pouch Tobacco featuring Lewis “Hack” Wilson of the Chicago Cubs:

“The fellow that invented Mail Pouch sure knew what he was doing.”

Wilson was broke four months before his death (in 1948, at age 48). In an effort to help him, he was promoted by the city of Baltimore from laborer to swimming pool manager; he told a reporter from the Associated Press:

“I guess getting back into baseball is all I think about now, but so far I haven’t had much success. I’ve written to almost all the important men I know, but the answer is always the same—‘sorry, we’re all filled up.'”

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Wilson talks with Baltimore children at the municipal pool he managed, July 1948

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Lost Pictures: Matty’s Outcurve

29 Jun

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The Washington Evening Star’s pitching tips for kids, 1912:

“Boys, it’s almost a cinch most of you have an idea that you will be a second Amos Rusie when you grow up. Maybe you if you stick to pitching practice. Any boy can throw curves if he will practice.

But before you start, here are a few things to remember:

Practice as often as you can.

Strive to get control.

Don’t overdo yourself.

Take good care of your arm.

Change your delivery until you get a style that does not make your arm sore.

Abandon every unnecessary motion that will give the base runner a big start.

An outcurve is the easiest of all. You can see in the picture just how Christy Mathewson of the New York Giants grasps the ball for an ‘out.’

The picture was taken just as the ball was ready to leave his hand. Notice the palm is upward. The ball shoots out between the first finger and thumb. The curve depends upon the rotary motion given. Be sure you do not hold the ball too tightly. This will prevent it getting the necessary rotary motion. You can start it underhand or overhand.

After you are sure you have the right grasp, practice. And don’t get discouraged if you don’t see the curve the first day. If you keep at it, you are sure to learn.”

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Lost Pictures: Mickey Doolan’s Glove

23 Jun

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In June of 1913, the Philadelphia Phillies were in first place.  The Associated Press said one of the reasons for the Phillies success was the fielding of shortstop Mickey Doolan.  A photo of Doolan’s glove was included with the story:

“See the glove.

“it is a baseball glove.

“The glove belongs to shortstop Doolan, of the Phillies.

“Doolan is one of the best shortstops that ever played ball.

“He and his palmless glove are two reasons why the Phils might win the National League pennant.

“The ragman wouldn’t give five cents for the glove.  Doolan wouldn’t take a hundred dollars for it.

“Doolan credits this ragged glove for the base hits he kills off every day.

“The center of the glove is the same things a doughnut surrounds.  The covering is ragged and the lining frayed.  Back of the hole, Doolan’s hand is a callous.”

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Doolan

Doolan hit just .218 but finished tied for 13th in the Chalmers Award voting.

The New York Giants knocked the Phillies out of first place at the end of June and ran away with the pennant.  The Phillies finished second, 12.5 games back.

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