1908 Snapshots: Wagner at Bat, Thomas Gets a New Watch

[Jobu]

On June 1, 1908, the Pittsburgh Pirates bought Roy Thomas from the Philadelphia Phillies. On August 8, 1908 the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Philadelphia Phillies 4-2 at the Baker Bowl in Philadelphia (aka National League Park, The Philadelphia Baseball Grounds).

During this game, the players on the Phillies made an official presentation to Thomas of a gold watch. I am not sure why this game and series was selected as these two teams played each other both before and after this, but the presentation is discussed in the Pittsburgh Sunday Post on August 9, 1908.

Below are two fan snapshots from that game, one of the presentation of the watch and another that clearly shows the hulking Honus Wagner at bat (he went 3-4 that day along with the winning hit in the 10th). The presentation of the watch is a neat photo as this type of thing doesn't really happen any more, but the Wagner at bat photo has two things that jump out at me, beyond Wagner: the massive hat of the woman seated in front of the photographer on the left and the number of people who were seated on the field. The latter was a fairly common practice in this era, but it is hard not to think about how many people got drilled with hot shot foul balls.

1908-8-8 Roy Thomas Type 1 Photo a.jpg

1908-8-8 Roy Thomas Type 1 Photo b.jpg

1909-8-8 Honus Wagner Batting Type 1 Photo.jpg

1909-8-8 Honus Wagner Batting Type 1 Photo b.jpg

And here is the article that discusses the game - neat descriptions of the crowd on the field, Wagner, and the whole scene.

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