1919 Zeenuts Middleton - Pose?

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Posted By: Joann

I'm twisting myself into a pretzel here trying to figure out what this pose is.

The grip is a left-hand batting grip. And position of arms and bat are from the follow through of a swing. But if he has just swung the bat, then he's on the toe of the wrong foot. And he is also be looking in the opposite direction from the pitcher.

Is this from using a photo negative and it's just backward? It has to be, right? I've seen many portraits where the picture is reversed from one set compared to another, but never in an action shot. Is this uncommon for action shots? Does it happen in certain sets more than others?

Also, from the photo it looks like the bat has almost no taper at all. Since one of my biggest reasons for liking vintage cards is watching how equipment changes, I'm very interested in the lack of taper here. Is that real, or is it a result of photo cropping?

Thx,

Joann

Edited to add scan. Duh.

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Posted By: Cobby33

Joann:
I think it's the baguette-as-bat pose.

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Posted By: warshawlaw

It's the beating the Frankenstein monster peasant pose.

Looks like a fungo bat.

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Posted By: fkw

He is a LEFTY and when he followed through he brought his back foot (left) around like a pitcher. Common way to hit fungos as the bat will pull you around some. Im a lefty and have hit fungos 10,000+++ times.

Also could have been a "butcher boy" swing (fake bunt swing) and bat was cropped a bit. ???

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Posted By: Joann

Oh OK. I can see that. You mean the front foot came all the way around and ended up behind? lol. I tried every way from which way to set my hands and feet like that after a lefty swing and just couldn't. Fungo bat also makes sense - I thought it was maybe in photo adjusting.

Joann

Oh, and Cobby, you are sooooo California! Baguette-as-bat???? Up here in the Midwest we would say Breadstick-as-bat. Or maybe Beer Pretzel-as-bat. Not Baguette. lol