I am the latest to join the Kreindler Club; me and Yogi and Rapid Robert, how about that? An 85 pound crate arrived in Honolulu yesterday, within Graig's latest opus,
Cobb Stealing Third. Graig's technical skills have been made abundantly clear in the other "Kreindler" posts. It is his ability to take an image to the next living, breathing level that is his great gift. He has rendered "the storm of dirt and spikes" Charles Conlon's
eye saw on that July day in 1910 as he shot his iconic black-and-white photo, and for me, it is like a big screen freeze frame from that
hot corner of a century ago.
Big Thanks to you, Graig, for this wonderful painting. Amazing that you're only 29. I look forward to the day when the Barry Halper Gallery at Cooperstown hosts an exhibition of your works. Gonna happen, brah. Special thanks to Agent Dean Lombardo for getting that nuke proof parcel from New York to Hawaii.
This is what Charles Conlon, photographer of baseball's golden age, had to say about the taking of this picture on 23 July 1910:
The strange thing about that picture was that I did not know that I had snapped it. I was off third, chatting with Jimmy Austin, third baseman for the New York club. Cobb was on second, with one out, and the hitter was trying to bunt him to third. Austin moved in for the sacrifice. As Jimmy stood there, Cobb started. The fans shouted. Jimmy turned, backed into the base, and was greeted by a storm of dirt, spikes, shoes, uniforms—and Ty Cobb. My first thought was that my friend, Austin, had been injured. When Cobb stole, he stole. Spikes flew and he did not worry where. I saw Ty's clenched teeth, his determined look. The catcher's peg went right by Jimmy, as he was thrown on his face.
But in a moment I realized he wasn't hurt, and I was relieved because Jimmy and I were very close friends. Then I began to wonder if by any chance I had snapped the play. I couldn't remember that I had, but I decided to play [it] safe and change plates anyway. I went home kicking myself. I said, "Now there was a great picture and you missed it." I took out my plates and developed them. There was Cobb stealing third. In my excitement, I had snapped it, by instinct.