Net54baseball.com Forums - Harry Hooper and baseball writer Doug Baldwin

Dear all,

I am home visiting family in Idaho, and was going through my old childhood collection in my Dad's storage shed of mostly "junk era" cards to find a few things I wanted to keep. Among my main targets now that I am into pre-war card collecting, I was very happy to "re-find" a HOF postcard and old baseball signed by Harry Hooper, personalized to "Doug Baldwin" (they were given to me one day by a friend of my Dad's who knew he had a son that collected baseball cards).

http://www.collectorfocus.com/images...r-harry-signed

http://www.collectorfocus.com/images...ry-ball-signed

http://www.collectorfocus.com/images...ry-ball-signed

I recently posted these in the autographs section, but thought I would also post them here in the main forum, as I am now seeking more than just autograph / ball info. Members from the autograph section were extremely helpful, and have helped date the ball to 1913-1917 (though it was not signed until June 16, 1952), as well as inform me that Doug Baldwin was in fact an old baseball writer (knowing little previously about the items, I had always just assumed he was an old autograph seeker, though I now realize that the items were signed approx. 20 years apart).

I am now trying to learn more about their apparent friendship / professional relationship. Thanks to Frank from the "Capitola Museum", I have now also managed to obtain a scan of an old article written by Baldwin in the Santa Cruz Sentinel from Feb. 5, 1937 with multiple Hooper references (I have it as a PDF if anybody is interested, though it exceeds size limits here; I therefore post a transcription below as it is interesting with other references to Ruth, Cobb, Speaker, and Comisky):

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"Doug-Outs with Doug Baldwin

Santa Cruz Sentinel, February 5, 1937

Some one reads this column besides us and the proofreader, anyway. Yesterday Sutton Christian, one of the two naturalists who captured an eagle in the wilds of Santa Cruz county hills with Les White Sunday, received two names for his new pet. Mary Ruth Jameson of 18 Columbia street submitted the name of “Longfellow,” after inquiring whether the bird was a “boy or girl” eagle. Hiram Jones of Rt. 1 Box 474, suggested Bismarck. What do you suggest? Call either Christian at the Sentinel or Les White at his office. We know they will be glad to hear from you, especially if you have a good name for the eagle.

Harry Hooper, postmaster at Capitola, former manager of the Mission Reds and before that time one of the greatest outfielders that ever trod the outer gardens of American league baseball parks, told the 20-30 club some interesting dope about the major leagues of 1910 to 1920, when he was the speaker, Wednesday noon. Harry is one baseball player who will always maintain there were many others better than he was, but when famous baseball writers, who have seen all of the really greats in action, write column after column telling that Hooper ranks up with the best of them, they must know what they are writing about.

Harry was persuaded to talk to the club, after turning down many other opportunities extended in the past. His talk Wednesday dealt some with the spring training days when he was one of the “boys.” Baseball players are always glad when the actual conditioning grind is over, one reason being because the pay checks do not start coming through until after the season has started, he said.

When he first went up to the Red Sox, in 1909, several of the ball clubs, including the Red Sox and Chicago Cubs, trained at Hot Springs, Arkansas. When the ball park was too wet to work out on, the team manager would send the boys chasing up and down hills, getting their under-pinning in shape. After Harry had made the grade and was one of the stars of the team, a big kid named Babe Ruth joined up with the club, as a pitcher. One thing in particular that Hooper remembers about the Babe is his first year at the training camp. The Babe was betting on the ponies, without much luck and when he left with the ball club, he owed over a year’s salary in debts, contracted when the ponies failed to win, as he had bet they would.

Tris “Spoke” Speaker, who made his name great while with the Cleveland Indians, was the finest all around outfielder that ever played in the American league, Harry believes. There were others who could run better, but none had all the qualities and could do them as well as the former Cleveland manager. Tris started out with the Chicago White Sox, but when, in 1915, he thought his services were worth $12,500 a season, Charles Comisky, the late owner of the cubs, sold him to Cleveland and termed his salary demand as “absurd.” Tris would get probably $25,000 a season now and wouldn’t have to hold out for it. At that time the great Ty Cobb, whom Hooper called the greatest base runner of all time, was only getting $7000 per season.

It took the outlaw Federal league, organized about 1915, to cause the major league clubs to boost the salaries of their star players. The Federal league didn’t last long enough to do any damage, but it did give the club owners some sleepless nights before it folded up.

When Harry started his career, players all dressed in hotel rooms and made the trip to the ball parks in horse drawn cabs. Sometimes the players would climb atop these carriages and had a swell time poking fun at the natives as they traveled in “luxury” to the parks. Now all ball parks have strictly modern dressing rooms under the stands and of course taxis and modern motor buses are used for transportation to and from the park."

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Does anybody happen to know anything further / have other articles with any info regarding the Hooper-Baldwin friendship or player-writer relationship? Also, to complement these pieces (I am keeping both), I am now also interested in eventually obtaining a pre-war Hooper card (unsigned), so I would love to see some examples of your pre-war Harry Hooper cards!

Thanks in advance for sharing and any help,

David