Induction weekend in Cooperstown is the best baseball bash of the year. For me, it’s a house full of friends and family, an always fun porch party filled with baseball talk, pizza, and beer, and any number of surprises. One year, Bill Lee appeared on my porch!
Last year, Todd Radom, the foremost sports graphic designer in the country, author, and all-around mensch and good friend, was a last-minute addition to the festivities as part of the Dick Allen contingent. Todd’s arrival was the first great surprise heading into the weekeånd.
On Saturday, Todd and I strolled to Main Street, a few minutes’ walk from my house. A stop into Yastrzemski Sports was preordained. Yaz Sports is the perfect local card store. They have everything from high-end to low-end. My favorite place to look in is the $5 bin. You never know what’ll be there.
When Baseball Nostalgia, another legendary card shop, closed in Cooperstown, some of its inventory found its way to Yaz. Baseball Nostalgia was created as a flagship store for TCMA/SSPC cards in the 1970’s, and some of the original snapshots from the cards would find their way into the cheapie section.
While browsing and chatting, I came across this photo of Reggie Jackson, which I assumed was from the Baseball Nostalgia archives. It’s a cool shot of Reggie as an Oriole, and that was enough for me. Until Todd and I got back home and sat at the kitchen table.
What was this picture, and why was it taken? Reggie spent the summer of 1976 in Baltimore, so that’s interesting, maybe enough to warrant bringing your camera to the game, maybe not. The key was in the background; Todd, as expected, clearly saw that the Oakland A’s were in town! Now that is worth recording – Reggie, in his new home, playing his old team. It seemed exciting to me, though clearly less to the sparse crowd at Memorial Stadium.
I was quickly obsessed. When was this taken? When did the A’s come to Baltimore?
The first scheduled visit for the A’s was a three-game homestand between April 30-May 2. It was a big deal, and NBC had it featured as the Game of the Week, hoping Reggie would play. He had started the season late, a spring holdout for $200,000 per year from Oakland leading to a trade to Baltimore on April 2 and a delayed start to his season. Reggie probably sat out Friday night thinking that his first game of the season should be before a national audience!
Best laid plans, and so on. The game was rained out and rescheduled as part of a May 2 doubleheader.
Todd and I tried to identify some of the players in the background as a starting point. We spotted Phil Garner, but that was no help. Garner played in every one of the A’s-O’s games. In the outfield was a player with a single-digit uniform number. Probably Bill North, but again, no help. It could also have been Cesar Tovar or Denny Walling, but that didn’t get us any further.
As our focus alternated between Retrosheet boxscores of all of the April games the A’s played in Baltimore and the photograph, we saw, relatively clearly, a lefty pitcher in the middle of the picture. Now we were getting somewhere. That could only be reliever Paul Lindblad. That was important and the key clue.
Obviously, our photographer recognized the historical import of Reggie’s first game against the only team he’d ever played for, got a fantastic seat behind the Orioles dugout, and took a great photo of Reggie. The photo had to have been taken before the bottom of the 5th, 6th, or 7th, when Lindblad would have been around the mound as the Orioles got ready to bat. Mystery solved!
But was it? I wasn’t so sure. The bleachers are nearly empty, and the stated attendance for the May 2 doubleheader was 24,819, pretty solid for Baltimore, though you’d expect more for Reggie’s first appearance against the A’s. Maybe people had left, tired after Game 1, but by the 5th inning? No way. Also, the sunset that day was at 8:01, and it’s clearly nighttime. Mystery unsolved!
The A’s returned to Maryland for a three-game stand from August 23-25. Vida Blue, a lefty, pitched a complete game shutout in Game 1, but Blue wasn’t a white lefty. The 23rd was easily eliminated.
On the 24th, Lindblad pitched, the only lefty appearing in a game that saw both Mike Torrez and Stan Bahnsen pitch for Oakland. Attendance was abysmal, 9,482, so that checks. And it was a night game!
The 25th was easy to ignore. It was a righty-only night of pitchers for Oakland – Paul Mitchell, Dick Bosman, and Jim Todd.
This photo was taken on August 24, entering either the bottom of the 8th or 9th inning. Reggie was headed to the dugout for the Orioles’ turn at bat. Mystery re-solved!
Reggie, looking right at the camera, and me, knew I’d get it all along.
Discovery and Primary Research, Jim Chapman; Supplementary Research, Justin McKinney; Editor, Mark Fimoff.
Fabulous panoramic photos of the Cubs’ home West Side Grounds (WSG) can be found on the covers of Deadball Stars of the American League and Deadball Stars of the National League, depicting scenes from 1908 (just below) and 1907 (2nd from top), respectively. This ballpark was home to the Chicago NL club from 1893 through 1915.
Photos taken of and in WSG from the period 1901–1915 are plentiful and easily found. Over those years, a series of modifications and additions are apparent. During the 1908 season, upper deck seating was added running down both the left and right field foul lines. The left field line addition is seen in the 1908 photo when comparing it to the 1907 and 1904 photos (red arrows). Analysis of WSG photos and debunking of bogus claims has been covered here before: Reflecting the Past Number 2016:1 Jan. 2016 Reflecting the Past Number 2014:1 April 2014, Pictorial History Committee Newsletter Number 2010:3 October 2010
Some photos from the Chicago History Museum’s Chicago Daily News collection, taken inside the park in 1901, are shown here, with Bert Cunningham posing left, and Rube Waddell standing in front of some dirty laundry hanging in front of the center field clubhouse. The collection has no WSG photos prior to 1901.
We also present a view from the 1902 season that depicts Jim St. Vrain on the mound with a clear view of the left field line grandstands, just below. An image of Dusty Miller from the same year provides a view of the roofed grandstands just behind home plate. Though the ballpark opened in 1893, we had never seen any earlier WSG photos anywhere. The 1890s at WSG were oddly dark.
A few known woodcut images from Chicago newspapers did create some illumination. The WSG grandstand under construction is shown below as it appeared in the 04-14-1893 Chicago Record. The description therein reads:
New West Side Ball Grounds…Seats for Thirteen Thousand…A small army of workmen is engaged on the new ball grounds of the National League club at Lincoln and Polk streets…put in readiness for the opening Sunday game on May 13.
These grounds will be the scene of the Sunday games played by the league club this year…The present calculation is for a seating capacity of 13,000…Mr. Hart says that no more will be admitted to games than can be supplied with seats…Experience has shown…[that] crowds are much more unruly if not seated, and inasmuch as we expect to have the best decorum at Sunday games, we will not tempt the disorderly element by letting them in without having a place for them to sit.”
The grandstand is to be the largest in the country, but no work has yet been done on the bleachers [take noteof that]…they may eventually skirt the entire outfield…The worst defect about the grounds is a short right field…
The grandstand faces southeast, the main entrance being at the corner of Lincoln and Polk streets, but there will also be gates at which tickets will be sold to the bleachers.
A contemporary 1893 drawing of the plan for West Side Grounds appeared in the Chicago Tribune as the ball park neared completion.
The caption read: The above cut shows the plan of the new West Side baseball grounds at Lincoln and Polk streets, now rapidly approaching completion. The grounds can be reached by the Ogden Avenue, Van Buren, Harrison, Taylor, and Twelfth street cars. They [the grounds] are 475 feet square, exclusive of the carriage yard [i.e. parking lot]. The seating capacity is enormous, consisting of 3,000 folding arm chairs, 500 arm chairs in fifty-six private boxes, 4,500 seats in a covered pavilion, and 5,000 open ones. Eight hundred thousand feet of timber were used in the construction of the stands. The diamond will be 90 feet from the grandstand. The right field and left field fences are 340 feet from the home plate, the extreme center filed is 560 feet. The Cincinnatis will open the park May 14. It is probable that after this season all the games will be played there.
We should take note of the planned capacity of 13,000. That’s all very nice, but still no photo.
My jaw dropped when collector/researcher Jim Chapman sent me this scan:
It was in a scrapbook with a label below the photo reading, “Ball Park West Side – Chicago.” Though there is some difference in ballpark structure when compared to the 1902 version of West Side Grounds, it was apparent that this was indeed an image of the same place, and if the seemingly contemporary caption written on the photo is to be believed, this dates to when the N.L. had a team in Baltimore. So, when would a Chicago vs. Baltimore matchup been possible at the West Side Grounds? That would have been between 1893 and 1899, after the West Side Grounds were built and both teams played in the National League. Let’s first compare this photo to West Side Grounds in 1902.
Below we have the left field line area seating from the photo in question at top, and the left field line seating at West Side grounds as seen in 1902 at bottom. For spatial reference, the dotted black line squares denote the same building in both images. The green and red boxes outline the same sections of seating in both images. The yellow outlined section of seating is present in 1902, but is missing from the photo in question. It is reasonable to think that the scrapbook photo is therefore at least pre-1902. Note particularly the double dividing fences between the red and green sections (white arrows) which seem to have a unique structure and are identical in both photos. Also note that matching details for the fencing in front of the seating (solid base for bottom half, screen with fence posts for top half, light blue arrows).
The March 13, 1896 edition of the Chicago Tribune, page 8, is reproduced below. Also, a permit for the new construction was reported in the Tribune on April 3, 1896. While we can’t be sure whether or not any seating was actually provided for the red and green areas when the park opened in 1893, it appears that the red and green sections in the photo in question matches that in the 1902 photo (and, as previously stated, this includes the details of the dividing fence and fencing in front of the seating areas). Therefore it is a good bet that the photo in question depicts these new “bleachers” dating it to 1896 or later.
A woodcut depicting the new construction (above) appeared in the Chicago Tribune on April 30, 1896. The red and green seating areas are marked and the photo in question is again reproduced below the woodcut. The date of the further addition of the yellow section remains unknown. We only know that was after 1896 and earlier than 1902.
The Tribune’s phrase “double the seating capacity” raises some confusion. As previously shown, the original plan was for 13,000 seats. We can be certain that the 1896 construction did not come close to expanding the ball park to 26,000 seats. One source* pegs capacity at 14,200 in 1908, and that is after the addition of the yellow section, expanded outfield bleachers, and a modest amount of upper deck seating. Our best guess is that when it opened in in 1893, the park had substantially less than the planned for 13,000 seats (initially no seats in red and green areas?). We expect that the initial planned capacity may have been reached after the new construction in 1896. Then, a crowd of, say, over 15,000, would still result in noticeable fan overflow onto the field.
For Chicago, the 1896-1899 seasons were pretty miserable. To the contrary, for Baltimore, there was a National League pennant in 1896 (as well as 1894-5) and 2nd place finishes in 1897 and 1898. It seems like a good guess that one of those squads could draw an overflow crowd to WSG. Let’s see if we can narrow down the date. We can start by focusing in on the uniforms.
Zooming in on our photo, the truth is we can’t see much. One team is all in white, the other appears to be a few shades darker (like road gray) with dark caps and socks.
For 1899 things are a bit more interesting with the addition of a logo on the cap. If you are interested as to why there is a “Y”, it was a recognized representation used for the City of Chicago. Details are here, again courtesy of Craig Brown’s site. https://www.threadsofourgame.com/1899-chicago/
Given the lack of sharp detail for the photo under discussion, all we can say is that any of the above uniforms are consistent with it.
In the WSG photo the visitors are wearing dark caps and socks. Comparing this to Craig Brown’s road uniform renderings below, this is again consistent with the 1896 and 1897 seasons, but not 1898. The 1898 Baltimore team photo, taken on the road, does show white (or gray) caps. The 1899 team photo and also Threads rendering far right does show a reversion to dark caps and socks. This also indicates a likely date range for the WSG photo to 1896-1897, with 1899 still possible.
Given the large overflow crowd present in the WSG photo, let’s take a look at attendance figures for Baltimore visits to WSG in 1896, 1897 and 1899. These numbers are from the Chicago Tribune and The Daily Inter-Ocean reports. Note that the largest crowd for a Baltimore visit in 1898 was only 7,500, so that along with the uniform mismatch for both teams adds certainty to the elimination of 1898 from contention. The three candidates are shown in red.
1896
May 14 Thur
2,500
May 15 Fri
4,500
May 16 Sat
9,000
May 17 Sun
18,921
July 7 Tue
4,600
July 8 Wed
6,100
1897
May 30 Sun
17,800
May 31 Mon
2,650
July 15 Thur
4,135
July 16 Fri
5,184
July 17 Sat
10,280
July 18 Sun
12,250
1899
May 19 Fri
2,700
May 20 Sat
7,000
May 21 Sun
17,617
July 22 Sat
7,500
July 23 Sun
9000
July 24 Mon
2,700
July 25 Tue
3,000
Red indicates an expectation of considerable fan overflow onto the field.
It appears from the photo that the Baltimore pitcher was a right-hander. For the dates in red, righty Bill Hoffer pitched in 1896 and 1897, and righty Joe McGinnity was the hurler in the 1899 game. That is consistent with the photo, but no help in narrowing down the date.
The largest crowd was for the 1896 game, and the May 18, 1896 Chicago Tribune described the overflow of fans onto the field (see right). For the 1897 game, TheDaily Inter Ocean described a crowd “which poured out on the field.” Given the attendance figures, it seems that this must have also occurred for the 1899 game.
The 1899 game seems the less likely of the three due to the home team in the photo wearing light colored socks. What we can say is that, to date, this the earliest known photo of West Side Grounds and that it is a National League Baltimore vs. Chicago game action image that took place on one of three possible dates in the 1890s. That’s not bad.
Reggie Jackson Signs Autographs at Yankee Stadium May 14-16 1976. Focus on Sports photograph.
Sometimes photographs are great because of the story that they tell. It took a while for the story in this photograph to unfold. Like Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, this photo tells of Reggie Jackson’s past, present, and future in 1976.
Past
Jackson joined the Kansas City Athletics in 1967 and moved with the team to Oakland in 1968. With the Athletics, he was a six-time all-star, won a most valuable player award, and was the face of the team for a decade. Then the new era of free agency entered baseball in 1976, and it struck Oakland like a thunderbolt. Oakland owner Charles Finley tried to trade or sell many of the team’s marquee players. He was hoping to get something in return for them before losing them in the free-agent process. On April 2, Jackson, with Ken Holtzman and minor leaguer Bill VanBommel was traded to the Baltimore Orioles for Don Baylor, Paul Mitchell, and Mike Torrez.
Jackson had a love-hate relationship with Oakland and Finley. He enjoyed playing on a team that had been to the post-season five straight times and won the World Series three of those years. Jackson wanted to stay in Oakland because he and the other players knew the team had a unique chemistry. However, he and the other players hated playing for Finley. At the start of the 1976 season, Finley gave everyone on the team a 20% maximum pay cut. He knew he would lose most of the players to free agency after the season, so he decided to pay as little as possible. Jackson had his salary cut by $30,000.
In the photograph, there is a kid in the crowd wearing an Oakland Athletics hat. He is desperately reaching toward Jackson, trying to get an autograph. No one else in the group of autograph seekers seems to be working as hard as he is. Jackson probably does not see the kid because he is in his peripheral view. However, because of how the photograph is framed, it appears Jackson is ignoring him. It conveys Jackson’s bitterness toward Finley for taking him away from the teammates he loved playing within Oakland. At the same time, he could be trying to ignore his past in Oakland to look toward his future.
Present
Jackson may have had mixed emotions about leaving Finley and his teammates in Oakland. His feelings about landing in Baltimore were clear; he did not want to play on the East Coast. He claimed that his businesses outside of baseball in Oakland and Arizona would suffer if he were not on the West Coast. He asked the Orioles to make up the difference with an increase in his contract. The Orioles’ season started on April 9, just a week after the trade, and Jackson had still not joined the team. There was some question if he would join the team at all. Could he sit out the season and become a free agent at the end of the year? No one knew the answer because free agency was so new. The Orioles agreed to give him back the 20% pay cut Finley had taken to match his contract from 1975. On May 2, Jackson made his Baltimore Orioles debut, and it happened to be against his former team, the Oakland Athletics. He went 0-2 with a walk and an RBI and was hit by a pitch thrown by Rollie Fingers.
Things started rocky when Orioles’ manager Earl Weaver fined Jackson for not wearing a necktie during a road trip to Milwaukee. Jackson did not like wearing a tie because he thought it was an East Coast tradition, and he was a West Coast guy. However, for the rest of the road trip, he wore a different tie every day. He also received what he thought was an undeserved talking-to from Weaver for showing up five minutes late to batting practice. For the rest of the season, Jackson never got comfortable in Baltimore and sulked about how he was unappreciated.
The photograph taken between May 14-16, slightly less than two weeks into his time with the Orioles, shows how uncomfortable he appears in his new uniform. Sitting on the railing, he keeps his distance instead of standing at the wall to engage with the fans. His blank emotions and limp body language show his interest in signing autographs.
Future
At the end of the 1976 season, everyone wondered what team Reggie would sign with as a free agent. The Montreal Expos offered him the most money, but he was not interested in playing in Canada for the last-place team. San Diego Padres owner Ray Kroc offered him a chance to return to the West Coast. Jackson was not interested in playing for a team that finished 73-89. Finally, George Steinbrenner and the New York Yankees made their pitch to Reggie. Jackson, who once said, “If I played in New York, they would name a candy bar after me,” was going to get his wish. The situation had all the glamour of a large city with the fame and endorsements that Jackson craved. He was also excited about joining a team that had played in the previous season’s World Series. Jackson signed for 3.5 million dollars over five years. It was the largest contract in baseball history at the time.
What is Jackson doing in the photograph? He is reaching for the fan’s scorecard so he can sign it. However, there is more to it than that; the scorecard is a New York Yankees scorecard. It is like George Steinbrenner is handing him a contract to sign eight months before it happened. In Jackson’s mind, did he already know he was leaving Baltimore? Was he already planning on going to New York?
The photograph nicely captures Jackson’s past with the Oakland Athletics, his present with the Baltimore Orioles, and his future with the New York Yankees.
SABR's Pictorial History Committee 