The Artistry of George Grantham Bain - a Home Run Baker photo study

[T206Jim]

Here are two photographs of Frank "Home Run" Baker by George Grantham Bain taken in March 1916 during Baker's first Spring Training with the Yankees.

Batting front.jpg

Fielding front.jpg

The backs are remarkably similar, they were obviously printed together.

Batting back.jpg

Fielding back.jpg

I found this copy of a March 1916 newspaper that displays these images together.

The_Fort_Wayne_Journal_Gazette_Mon__Mar_27__1916_cropped-web.jpg

I also found these crops of the photos in The Library of Congress George Grantham Bain Collection of original glass negatives. They are identified as being by Bain in 1916 by SABR.

LOC Batting.jpg LOC Fielding.jpg

Note the "49" in white on the full and cropped photos of Baker batting and "51" in white on Fielding (the 51 is just visible at the bottom right of the cropped image). Also note Baker's name and “Yanks” are visible in black on the crops but not on the full images. It is also interesting to note the glove on the ground in the batting image and the bat at the extreme lower left in the fielding image.

I believe the full images were printed very soon after being taken and were before Bain blocked out and cropped the player images and added the black lettering for the more commonly seen cropped images.

Here is one more Baker shot from that series numbered "52".

No 52.jpg

Obviously these were all taken together at a photo session. It would be interesting to know whether there are more photos, or more players, in the series given the high numbering on the photos.

I believe they were likely taken in Central City Park in Macon, Georgia where the Yankees trained in 1916. Has anyone seen any other photos in this series or have images of the ballpark in Macon, Georgia circa 1916?

Here is the current resting place for the photos.

Baker-Bain-framed-web.jpg