@1921 Lefty Grove Photo

[leftygrove10]

Here is a 1933 Worch Cigar. The uniform in this picture shows the A on the uniform. The hat likely has an A on it as well. But here you can see more similar socks to the eBay picture. So the Athletics were known to wear socks like those shown in the eBay picture.

[leftygrove10]

Here are enlargements of the picture of Connie Mack and his son Earle from 1925 and the eBay picture of Lefty Grove. I think the jackets and hats are the same in the two pictures. Both would have been issued by the team, so it makes sense that both would be the same.

The players in the 1920 Martinsburg Mountaineers picture above are wearing dark hats -- not white hats like Lefty. Also, it appears to me that their socks are different in that picture than what Lefty is wearing in the eBay photo. The hat in the picture of Lefty does not appear to have an M on it.

Nobody has presented any evidence so far that indicates to me that this picture of Lefty is from earlier than 1925 (or even 1926). The fact that 1921 was written on the back of the picture holds no weight in my mind. Anybody can write anything they want on the back of a picture. So the date itself doesn't prove anything to me.

[nolemmings]

I agree it looks more like the A's than either Baltimore or Martinsburg given the white cap. The jacket does look to be the same as well, although that leaves the year undecided. FWIW, according to Marc Okkonnen's database, the A's would have worn socks like that-- top half dark bottom half white-- during 1921-23. They only wore socks like the one in Brad's photo in 1924. I believe Okkonen has been wrong before, but is usually pretty accurate.

The team could have worn that same style jacket for years--too bad he has it on, since Okkonen shows a dark elephant for 1921-23 and a white one for 1924-26.

[leftygrove10]

Here is a 1930 Draper and Maynard book with Lefty on the cover. In this picture, he is clearly wearing the same hat (the Athletics hat from 1925 to 1928) with the same socks as the eBay photo.

[RCMcKenzie]

Originally Posted by leftygrove10

Here is a 1930 Draper and Maynard book with Lefty on the cover. In this picture, he is clearly wearing the same hat (the Athletics hat from 1925 to 1928) with the same socks as the eBay photo.

I'm convinced. Nice work. Looks like 1925-1928 A's. Still a cool photo.

[nolemmings]

How is the pre-1925 hat different than the 1925-28 hat?

Okkonen's site is down, and I came to rely on it so much that I put his book in storage, so I can't look it up right now, but my recollection is that the caps are the same 1921-1926 (at least)--otherwise we could use that as the distinguishing characteristic without need of looking at the socks.

If the caps are the same from 1921-1926 then the Maynard Draper photo is by no means dispositive.

[RCMcKenzie]

The photo is stamped "Mar 23 1926", so I'm thinking with the hat and socks match from the Maynard book, that the stamp is probably a fair indication of it's age. I could still change my mind if y'all found more evidence to the contrary.

[leftygrove10]

Originally Posted by nolemmings

How is the pre-1925 hat different than the 1925-28 hat?

Okkonen's site is down, and I came to rely on it so much that I put his book in storage, so I can't look it up right now, but my recollection is that the caps are the same 1921-1926 (at least)--otherwise we could use that as the distinguishing characteristic without need of looking at the socks.

If the caps are the same from 1921-1926 then the Maynard Draper photo is by no means dispositive.

Lefty played for Martinsburg in 1920. He played for Baltimore from 1920 to 1924. He played for Philadelphia from 1925 to 1933. Since he started playing in Philadelphia in 1925, I haven't been concerned about what the Philadelphia uniform looked like before that. I guess one could argue that he might have been wearing 1924 left-overs in spring training of 1925.