Ahh, Spring is in the air - Deadball era baseball footage

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Posted By: ramram

For those that may not have seen this yet, here's some neat footage on Youtube -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wz8CC-kwtU

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Posted By: barrysloate

Hey Rob- thanks for that, it was spectacular. Everybody on the board should take ten minutes to watch it. I especially enjoyed the footage of the 1919 World Series...the White Sox didn't look like they were playing that hard.

Okay, jokes aside, it was interesting to see how relaxed Buck Weaver looked, as well as Ed Cicotte right before throwing the first pitch in the series. And what was going through his mind at that moment?

And to see Matty pitching, and Cobb and Wagner chatting it up at the 1909 series...amazing.

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Posted By: Chris Counts

Thanks for the link ... that was great! Now who is that third base coach busting the dance move at 0:50? Could it be Hughie Jennings?

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Posted By: barrysloate

Chris- as soon as I saw that I said "must be Jennings."

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Posted By: S Gross

How great is that. The chill is still running up my spine !!!!

Although there was no chest bump, I liked the way Collins and Baker both hopped on home plate upon scoring on Murphy's double.

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Posted By: Mark L

Wow. I've seen some parts of those clips before, but much of it is new to me. I agree with everyone else. And as a lifelong Pirates fan, I particularly liked the footage from the 1909 series. Since they are filming at Forbes, I going to guess that they are showing us the first game of the series. On that day, the Bucs hit one home run. And since you can see some fans cheering in the foreground it was probably a Pirate dinger. If that is it, then we see Fred Clarke rounding the bases and right hand hitting Honus Wagner stepping up to bat next. Never thought I'd get a chance to see something like that. Thanks for pointing that out.

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Posted By: Frank Wakefield

That clip is nice... thanks for posting it.


It has some screwy editing. There in the clips showing the 1919 World Series that's KM Landis making a fist... He wasn't Commissioner in 1919 !!!!! It wasn't until sometime in November of 1920 that he became Commissioner.

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Posted By: bmarlowe

The 4 Cubs visible in the 1:07-1:11 sequence in Philly are L to R Chance shaking hands with Davis, Sheckard, ?, Schulte.

The Murphy 2-run double (1:56) occurred in game 4 of the 10 WS at West Side Grounds, so its likely that the pitching sequence (1:24) is also game 4 (Bender is pitching). The only attempted bunt in game 4 that I can find in pitch by pitch game accounts (Chicago Tribune 10-23-1910) would indicate that the batter is King Cole, bottom of the 3rd inning. After the attempted bunt was missed (strike 2), he struck out on the next pitch - which appears to be a dropped 3rd strike in the video.

Since that batter is quite tall and thin - he may very well be Cole. One weird thing, the batter appears to have a capital "T" logo on his jersey - what is that about?

Note that with Bender pitching game 4 in Chicago, we can see Ira Thomas catching and Jack Barry at SS.

In the Murhpy double sequence at 1:56, Jimmy Archer is catching, Tinker is at SS, and we get a quick look at Steinfeldt at 3rd at the end of the clip.

The "1904 World Champion NY Giants" sequence starting at 6:12 shows a 1905 celebration of the Giant's 1904 NL pennant (no WS in 1904).

At 7:41, it switches to film from the 1906 season in which the Giants wore those "World's Champions" jerseys to celebrate their 1905 WS win.

This clip of the Pirate's 1909 WS bench pans from R to L, so I'll provide a few ID's in that unusual order: R to L: Bobby Byrne, Mike Simon, ?, ? (coughing) , Bill Powell (likely), Chick Brandom, ?

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Posted By: Frank Wakefield

Those 1905 (I think) Giants walking to the dugout, some wearing sweaters...

Those men walk like BALLPLAYERS, men who're about to hold school, about to teach their opponents how the game is played.

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Posted By: Steve F

1904 World Champions NYG's!?!.. Ahh, I think not. McGraw couldn't stand to watch his NL take another drubbing by the AL.



Awesome footage, thanks for sharing.

fixed a fact

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Posted By: JohnnyH

It was great watching that, it would be fun to just step through the screen and see what it was really like. It was really cool to see Chief Bender pitching, I grew up about 30 miles from where he did.

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Posted By: Marty Ogelvie

That was fantastic. My 4 year old daughter sat on my lap the entire clip asking me questions and pointing out things she knew like catching the ball, running to home plate.. she a pretty sharp kid. When I saw Joe Jackson, I said 'hey, there is Shoeless Joe Jackson'! my oldest son is named Jackson so my daughter says, 'I want to see Shoeless Joe Julianna!'. I am still laughing.

marty

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Posted By: hennessey

great video
one question. what year did the pitchers mound become a mound. back then it looked flat like a sandlot game

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Posted By: Stephen Mitchell

Thank you for passing along the link to a great oldtime baseball video. Cobb, Wagner, Jackson, Jennings, Matty, Baker and quite a few other identifiable Deadball Era players came to life once again. It was a time so long ago!

Steve Mitchell

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Posted By: dennis

the mound was 15" high back then(1903-68),lowered after 1968 to 10".

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Posted By: B O'Brien

Super cool footage, thanks! It was good to get the feel again.
I don't know about you guys, but I want Buck Weaver on my side when a good night at the bar goes wrong. He looks tougher than a bag of week old biscuits, and just about as sharp.
Take care,
Bob

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Posted By: Paul M

The fact that not only was it filmed , but that it survived is amazing ! There is also some footage on this site of the 1897 presidential inauguration and an 1897 fight between Bob Fitzsimmons and Jim Corbett ! This leads me to ask : is the 1905 footage of the '04 Giants celebration the earliest known baseball film ?

Also, does anyone know if there is any surviving film footage of Cy Young pitching (excluding old-timers games)?

Thanks,
Paul

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Posted By: bmarlowe

It's not the oldest - go here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdEVbProsRo

This 1898 Edison sequence has not yet been researched by HoF to my knowledge.

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Posted By: Ken McMillan

Wonder if there is footage of the Yankees first World series?

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Posted By: Mrc32

Awesome to see Ty Cobb and Honus Wagner like that.