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Posted By: runscott

but much more poorly...everything in the photo is in keeping with my experience, especially the way the dirt is flying, although admittedly no one ever bothered to take my picture and I was thinking more about attaining the base than physics.

When you slide, you push dirt - it doesn't trail behind you like smoke - even the famous photo of Cobb sliding into Jimmy Austin shows a load of dirt flying past the bag. The dirt that you see behind a sliding ball player is dirt that he has pushed up and then slid through (I know this is academic). Could be that in this instance Cobb hit the dirt a bit late, but there is probably more dirt that is simply out of the photo.

But I realize that you don't think it's Cobb and that there's something strange about the slide. I guess it all comes down to personal opinions, but the fact is that this isn't a highly valuable card, regardless of who the player is or where he's heading with that slide.

Another explanation: the diagonal white base-line we are seeing might not really be a base-line - it's fairly light and might just be part of the coach's box, or deceptive lighting. Maybe the base-line actually runs horizontal across the bottom of the photo, even with the bottom part of the bag? If so, this looks extremely similar to the photo of Cobb in his famous "Cobb/Austin" slide.

I'm going to give up at this point - anyone want to debate whether or not Ruth called his shot? I have evidence that he did (evidence anyone can easily obtain)