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slacks<<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).>>
It's academic, but I love it. I could talk about this all day. As if we have more pressing issues to discuss?
My point was that the granular part of dirt will precede the clouds. If you pick up a handful of dirt and toss it, grains will fly ahead and dust clouds will follow and dissipate. That's exactly what's happening in Conlon's picture (thanks, Julie) and the opposite of what appears in the inverse of this picture.
Your point about the line is certainly a good one. And of course they were much less careful about exactly where the lines were back then and making sure the bases were firmly attached to the ground - groundskeepers varied in expertise.
The last (?) point I thought of was that the stands seem an awfully long way away from the third base in the inverse picture. Those were "single-purpose" parks back then, and they usually crammed the crowds up pretty darn close to the action.
Good points, and I concede I have no hypothesis. But isn't it amazing how cool Conlon's shot is and how unrewarding this one it to look at?