What first drew my attention to this 1915 photo composite was the central image of the baseball superstars of the Deadball Era exploding out of a baseball. Cobb, Wags, Wajo, Matty, Shoeless Joe and friends were irresistibly appealing. Indeed they are literally bursting at the seams to start the season which is indicated to be 1915 by the day/date correlation shown on the plug on the back of photo. I have rarely, if ever, seen such artistry in a composite baseball photo from the 1910s.
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1915 Baseball Stars closeup.jpg
1915-Baseball-Stars-back-web.jpg
Only when I had the photo in had did I become curious about the underlying image of the baseball game. The photo was found in the Boston area and I quickly deduced that Fenway was a likely possibility. I did a little research and first came across this image of Fenway from a real photo postcard from the 1912 World Series. The building profiles in the distance, the flag and the wall proved a perfect match.
1912 World Series postcard.jpg
I then purchased SABR’s outstanding book Opening Fenway Park with Style, The World Champion 1912 Red Sox. As always, SABR came through in a pinch, even if Matty didn’t.
The key is The Wall (as it was known before the Green Monster). In particular the Thomas W Lawson and Everybody’s Magazine ad. The captions tell the whole story below, but is sum these were only up during the 1912 World Series as they covered the out of town portion of the scoreboard which obviously wasn’t needed for the World Series.
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Lawson-Ad.jpg
Now look at the closeup of the subject photo. Most of the content on The Wall and outfield fence has been artistically obscured by the photographer, the brushstrokes are clearly visibily. The outline of all the ad boards is the same as shown on the 1912 RPPC. But the bottom of the line of the Lawson and Everybody’s ads are still faintly visible “Who Smashes” and “The System’s Slate”. So, the photo is from the 1912 World Series at Fenway. The uniforms depicted match the 1912 Red Sox and Giants.
Close-Up-of-Wall-ad.jpg
But now look again at the closeup of the Wall, notice the empty bleachers near the left field line in front of the Wall. The Royal Rooters, Boston’s original rabid fan group, several hundred strong had sat there during the Series, but as shown in the photo and caption below their seats were sold out from under them in Game 7 so they boycotted Game 8, thus the empty seats. So, I would posit it is possible and perhaps likely this photo is from Game 8 when the Royal Rooters were boycotting. If so, Matty is on the mound and hidden behind the baseball, covered in part by superimposed Matty. Note the baserunner’s leg emerging from the baseball at bottom right.
Royal-Rooters.jpg
The temporary seats were removed after the Series and inclined Duffy’s Cliff, as shown in the circa 1913 photo below, was cleared for game use.
Duffy's-Cliff.jpg
Can anyone provide me with additional information on the photo. Anyone seen the original photo of the game? Anyone seen a comparable composite photo from the era? I assume the photos and artwork were done by the American Press Association.