Who bought this??

[GKreindler]

Crap. Actually, I take it back. It IS the Polo Grounds. And it's really early. From what I found, it seems as if the third base-side/left field stands followed that design in 1901 at least. Check out this shot of Manhattan Field from 1901, with the Polo Grounds directly next to it.



And apparently, that design had already been changed by 1904:



So, whoever won it got themselves a pretty damn early image of Matty. Possibly from his first couple of seasons. That would certainly tie in with the Bucknell sweater.

Wowzas!!!

Graig

[slidekellyslide]

Great photo!

[prewarsports]

FYI, College guys used to wear their sweaters for YEARS after they graduated. It was a sense of pride for them especially Football guys (which Matty was). I bet I have 30 photos here at my house right now of athletes well after their graduations wearing their College sweaters.

Its a great photo and I bid on it, but it is not from his years at Bucknell I am 99.9% sure. He is older than in other pictures and I bet its from 1904-05.

Rhys

[BigJJ]

Originally Posted by GKreindler

It IS the Polo Grounds. And it's really early. From what I found, it seems as if the third base-side/left field stands followed that design in 1901 at least. Check out this shot of Manhattan Field from 1901, with the Polo Grounds directly next to it. And apparently, that design had already been changed by 1904.Graig

Thank you.

Would love to ID the one taller building in the photo, perhaps that would more firmly ID the place and time. would also love to learn when that Polo Grounds design began, if already in place in a photo in 1901. great info regarding 1904 change.

[ruth-gehrig]

So I have to ask....if Henry Yee sold it in his last auction it would have sold for $____.00

[Exhibitman]

Fantastic.
Another culver archive piece. We are in a golden age of photos due to all the archive closures

[Jaybird]

Here's a closeup of the glove from this photo on right, as compared to the 1906 photo that sold in Legendary last year. Looks like at least same manufacturer to me which is just more circumstantial information to bring this into his pro-career? I think 1904-05 sounds right as well.

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by Jaybird

Here's a closeup of the glove from this photo on right, as compared to the 1906 photo that sold in Legendary last year. Looks like at least same manufacturer to me which is just more circumstantial information to bring this into his pro-career? I think 1904-05 sounds right as well.

Nice detective-work, Jason.

[GKreindler]

So, I have been emailing back and forth with Jon, as well as researching, and I think I found a bit more information.

I had an image in a magazine that was of a game at the Polo Grounds from early May of 1903. I couldn't really scan it because of some clutter issues on my workspace, but I snapped a shot with my phone.



There you can clearly see that the leftfield stands are in the same configuration as the Matty photo. So, with that in mind, it's fair to say that they were changed sometime between then and the 1904 photo I posted a page back. I would imagine that the construction happened between seasons, so I would feel comfortable leaving off 1904 as an option all together. Granted, it could have certainly happened during the year - Yankee Stadium in '36 (bleacher configuration) and '37 (right field decks in foul territory) comes to mind, but I figured that it was an alright bet to think otherwise.

Interestingly enough, with the enclosed May of '03 photo, we can also see the actual advertisement on the wall - Pall Mall. It's not the same one in the photo of Matty. Typically, ballpark advertisements were changed in the off-season (though sometimes, it could happen in mid-season or before the World Series, and in some cases, even more than once in a season), so I might guess that the photo isn't from 1903, either. That would put it between 1901 and 1902. And really, if you look at the Polo Grounds Temple Cup lithograph from 1894, the stands seem to have that same configuration.



So, there's no reason not to think that they weren't like that in 1900, Matty's first year with the Giants.

I'll keep looking, but right now, I think the date of the image is somewhere between 1900 and 1902. Now, because it's tough to come across shots of the ballpark from the early turn of the century, I can't really say all of this with 100% certainty. But if nothing else, it's a good place to start.

And if it is from those years, definitely not a bad purchase. It's perhaps one of the earliest images of Matty in the pros.

Graig

[Dto7]

Originally Posted by Jaybird

Here's a closeup of the glove from this photo on right, as compared to the 1906 photo that sold in Legendary last year. Looks like at least same manufacturer to me which is just more circumstantial information to bring this into his pro-career? I think 1904-05 sounds right as well.

Here's that same photo that appeared in newspapers in 1905. November 22 and December 1, 1905.

[yanks12025]

I just found another one of this same photo sold back in 2002. But it's cut down more then yours.

http://www.legendaryauctions.com/Lot...entoryid=21272

[bmarlowe1]

Originally Posted by Jaybird

Here's a closeup of the glove from this photo on right, as compared to the 1906 photo that sold in Legendary last year. Looks like at least same manufacturer to me which is just more circumstantial information to bring this into his pro-career? I think 1904-05 sounds right as well.

FWIW - in 1906 the Giants uniforms said "World's Champions," not "New York." They also wore pillbox style dark caps in 1904 and 1905. The cap here (and in the photo that started this thread) is very different. This photo (just above) is very likely earlier than claimed, but is hard (for me) to date.

[Dto7]

Here's a photo of a football game at the Polo Grounds 9/27/1903 where the wall ads are in the opening photo.