Early integrated baseball images [Archive]

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11-03-2007, 08:55 PM

Posted By: Brian C.Early images of integrated teams are particularly unique. Please post any you'd like to share. Here are three of mine: Photo #1: a cabinet photo from a California Winter League game played on November 16, 1912. I've revised my description of what is going on in this image based on the enormously helpful input of a board member. The photo shows Pete Hill of the Chicago American Giants arguing a call in a game against the San Diego Bears. Chief Meyers is the catcher with his back to the camera. Another member of the Chicago American Giants (believed to be first baseman Bill Pierce) can be seen just to the left of Meyers' head. Irv Higgenbotham, who played in the Pacific Coast League, is the tall guy with his head down who is walking away on the right side of the photo. An article that appeared the next day in the San Diego paper shows Pierce being escorted off the field by the policeman with the tall hat to Pete Hill's left in this photo. Pete Hill was the captain of the Giants, and in this photo he is apparently arguing a call on behalf of his teammate Pierce. I believe that this 1912 image is one of the earliest original photos of integrated professional baseball. <img src="http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j154/bcampf/scan0001.jpg"> Photo #2: a real photo postcard of the ca. 1910-15 Homestead Giants. Here's a close up of the players. This one is unique in that there are 12 African American players and two white players. <img src="http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j154/bcampf/homesteadgiants2.jpg"> Photo #3: a real photo postcard of an integrated Connecticut team. Their expressions are priceless. <img src="http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j154/bcampf/integratedteam.jpg">

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11-03-2007, 09:04 PM

Posted By: Dan BrettaCirca 1880-90s cabinet photo...I do not know if the African American man on the left is with the team or not, but they included him in the photo. <a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b331/nudan92/Vintage%20Baseball%20Memorabilia/baseballcabinet1Small.jpg" border="0" alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket"></a>

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11-03-2007, 09:08 PM

Posted By: Brian C.Nice one, Dan! Keep 'em coming.

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11-03-2007, 09:28 PM

Posted By: ramramGeorge Wilson - great Negro League pitcher. Rob M. <img src="http://home.kc.rr.com/ramram/1907%20Manitowoc%202.jpg">

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11-03-2007, 09:46 PM

Posted By: Ryan ChristoffBrian, Can you post a detailed scan of the American Giants player in the first photo? Are you certain it's Pierce? It looks an awful lot like Pete Hill to me, but it's hard to tell without seeing his face clearer. Awesome photo! -Ryan

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11-03-2007, 09:57 PM

Posted By: Brian C.Hi Ryan, your question is very interesting in that there was some discussion amongst myself and a few others knowledgable in the area about whether it is Pete Hill or Bill Pierce. I'll forward you the image to your personal email address. You can enlarge it to focus on his face and see what you think. Feel free to post the close up image if you can (I don't know how to enlarge the scan and then save it to post). Thanks, Bri.

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11-03-2007, 11:41 PM

Posted By: Brian C.See my revised description to my original post in light of the following helpful insights (slightly edited for brevity) from board member and Negro League / Cuban auctioneer Ryan Christoff, who presently is running a great auction at <a href="http://www.cubanbaseballauctions.com/auction.asp" target="_new" rel="nofollow">http://www.cubanbaseballauctions.com/auction.asp</a> : "After looking at the close-up I am still going to have to say it's Pete Hill. ... I do believe Pierce is in your photo, however. If you look between the legs of the catcher and between the legs of the guy in the sweater to the left of the catcher you will notice there are socks without the horizontal stripes that the San Diego players are wearing. They are solid white socks, EXACTLY the same ones Pete Hill is wearing. Also, between the shoulders of those two San Diego players you can see part of the face and head of the player I believe to be Pierce. "So the way I interpret this scene is that Pierce is fiercely arguing with the umpires, which might explain why he is completely surrounded by four (white) San Diego players and Pete Hill is out there as manager to dispute the call or stick up for his player or whatever else a manager should do in that situation. ... I am almost positive that is Pete Hill. Put it this way, if you want to sell it to me, I'll buy it as it being Pete Hill."

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11-04-2007, 12:36 AM

Posted By: Rob Lhere's your blowup of the photo: <img src="http://www.network54.com/Realm/tmp/1194071757.JPG">

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11-04-2007, 01:03 AM

Posted By: Brian C.That's very kind of you Rob, thanks.

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11-04-2007, 04:12 AM

Posted By: barrysloateDan- that is a superb photographic composition, and it is both interesting and sad to see the African American sitting at the edge in the back, clearly segregated from the rest of the team. It's as if he wouldn't dare sit among them for the photo.

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11-04-2007, 05:55 AM

Posted By: Jason MishelowThis is a woodcut from Noah Brook's Fairport Nine 1880- not only one of the first works of baseball fiction but also possibly the first story of an intergrated team as one of the boys is a black <img src="http://www.network54.com/Realm/tmp/1194094403.JPG">

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11-04-2007, 09:09 AM

Posted By: Brian C.Here's an important image from a 1905 Wesleyan University Yearbook. It pictures the baseball team with coach Branch Rickey (top left) and African American catcher Charley Thomas (center). The team traveled in Spring 1904 to Indiana to play Notre Dame. The hotel refused to permit Thomas to stay there. Rickey persuaded the hotel to let Thomas sleep on a cot in his room. Thomas is said to have wept and wished that he could turn his skin white. Years later, Rickey would tell that story and say that he vowed that other Americans would not suffer the same humiliation. Forty two years after this photo was taken, in 1947, Rickey would sign Jackie Robinson to a minor league contract. <img src="http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j154/bcampf/rickeyyearbook.jpg">

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11-04-2007, 09:43 AM

Posted By: ClintIntegrated or segregated teams form Kansas are impossible to find. Here's as close as I can get. I have one yearbook from Kansas University 1892 that that has one African American on it. If anybody has a photo of Frank Wickware I would like to see it. Clint <img src="http://www.network54.com/Realm/tmp/1194108082.JPG"> <img src="http://www.network54.com/Realm/tmp/1194108104.JPG">

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11-04-2007, 01:16 PM

Posted By: dennisthis thread got me wondering, is there any pics of say paiges all stars playing white major leaguers?

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11-06-2007, 09:15 AM

Posted By: Jim VBDennis, Don't have a picture, but on another thread (Interesting Magazine) I posted a clipping of a game between the Pittsburgh Crawfords and the Brooklyn Bushwicks. The Bushwicks were a "mixed ethnicity" semi-pro team that, occasionally, hired major league players. The clipping I posted describes them hiring the Dean brothers for the following weekend to pitch against Paige. The owner of the Bushwicks, Max Rosner, also pioneered the use of lights for night baseball in, I believe, 1930. This was about 5 years before the Major League got interested in lights.

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11-07-2007, 09:31 PM

Posted By: gregor197"Integrated or segregated teams form Kansas are impossible to find. Here's as close as I can get. I have one yearbook from Kansas University 1892 that that has one African American on it." Here is the 1898 Kansas State Normal School (now Emporia State) baseball team featuring shortstop Gaitha A. Paige, back row second from left. <img src="http://s238.photobucket.com/albums/ff150/gregor197/1898KSNbaseball.jpg">

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11-08-2007, 02:53 PM

Posted By: ClintGreg, I think I may have that yearbook, that photo looks awfully familiar. I'm going to go through my storage over the holidays and see if I can find it. Thanks for posting it. Clint

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11-08-2007, 03:45 PM

Posted By: DennisI don't know anything about St. Columbia, but this mounted photo seems to fit this thread because of the bat boy. Not a very good scan ...sorry. Dennis <img src="http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc160/FlowageGuy/integratedbbimage.jpg">

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11-09-2007, 08:26 PM

Posted By: Brian C.Here's one of the most unusual photos in my collection. Sorry for the bad scan; the original is in my safety deposit box, but I have a photocopy of it that I've scanned below. I was surprised to find and buy a pin of this very image on ebay. It's the Wilmington, Delaware "AA" 1902 team. <img src="http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j154/bcampf/wilmington.jpg">

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11-10-2007, 07:47 AM

Posted By: ramramSome others that I no longer own (an 1870's team / Grant "Home Run" Johnson and Bud Fowler's 1894 Findlay, Ohio team / and Jack Frye's 1886 Pennyslvania team): Rob M. <img src="http://www.network54.com/Realm/tmp/1194622259.JPG"> <img src="http://www.network54.com/Realm/tmp/1194622399.JPG"> <img src="http://www.network54.com/Realm/tmp/1194622859.JPG">