More photo help...

[Abravefan11]

I think the photo was taken in April of 1913 at one of the ball parks in the Virginia State League. The Giants played the Richmond Colts the first week of April and may have played one of the other teams in the league before or after.

[thekingofclout]

What an absolutely fabulous photograph you have there! Just tremendous.

Best, Jimmy

[Ladder7]

Who let Mugsy wear sports socks! Great image

[Potomac Yank]

Not seeing Jim Thorpe in the foto posed a few questions.
I know that Thorpe appeared in 19 games of the 1913 season.
My questions are:
Did he get a try out in spring training?
He's found on the 1913 T200 NY Giants team card.
When was he brought up?
When was he sent back down?
It might be a piece of the puzzle to the dating of this fantastic photo.

[Kawika]

I gave the trusty old New York Times Archives a once over for the period of March 15 to April 15, 1913 and gleaned the following (all dates are of publication and not necessarily the date of the event, more likely the preceding day):
March 22 - break camp at Marlin Springs
-swing through Houston, Beaumont, New Orleans, Mobile
April 1- @ Birmingham
April 2- @ Marysville College at Knoxville
April 4- @ Norfolk
April 5- @ Richmond
April 6&7- @ Baltimore O's
April 8- @ Washington
April 10- @ Yale
Opened season at Polo Grounds vs Braves on April 10
Also did a search for "Thorpe Giants". He appeared to be injured part of the spring and was at some point relegated to the second team (Colts or Yannigans). There were no hits from March 25 to April 9. Make of this what you will.

Once in a while I get green with envy at another's pick-ups. This is one of those times. A most awesome photograph!

[slidekellyslide]

Those grandstands can be from any of those towns. There is not enough of the grandstands to probably ever be able to identify one conclusively. Perhaps a clue lies within the fans in the stands as to the whereabouts...is that a sailor to the far left in the front row?

[nolemmings]

Joe, according to baseball-reference.com Thorpe made his debut on April 14, 1913.

A few of the fans in the row immediately behind Matty are wearing what appears to be the same type of pin, bar or script on their lapels. Can that be blown up further and identified?

[Abravefan11]

First of all thanks for the great comments and help. Secondly this is not my photo, but here’s how I came upon it so to speak.

A few months ago I was doing some random searches at the library and one of the returns caught my eye. It was a photo of the NY Giants in a library owned collection. After a little more searching and I found out that the collection was donated to the library and was a compilation of work done by a local photographer in the early 20th century. Almost all of the photographs were of buildings or machinery except for this one. It’s actually a glass plate negative and after a little paper work and a little money the library provided me with a high resolution scan.

Since receiving the image I have wanted to try and accurately date it if I could as well as determine where it was taken.

As of yesterday I had it narrowed down to the first week of April if it was taken in Virginia. Given the rest of the photographers collection that was almost a given.

Originally Posted by slidekellyslide

Perhaps a clue lies within the fans in the stands as to the whereabouts...

Before leaving for the library today I was studying the photo and noticed this guy.



I noticed his hat had what looked like the letter Z and an O on it. After a little more looking I could barely make out a little bit of another O. ZOO! The Virginia Zoo was opened in 1892 in Norfolk in Lafayette Park and still exists today.

With that I headed to the library and looked at the Virginia Pilot newspaper for the first week of April 1913. On April 3 they printed a picture of the Norfolk Tars at Lafayette Park with what appears to be the same grandstand behind them.

Richmond opened a new ballpark that year (Broad Street Park) and it does not look like the one in this photo.

So the photo should have been taken April 3, 1913 in Norfolk, VA the day the Giants came to town.

An estimated 4,000 fans came out to watch Matty throw against the hometown club. The Giants won 10-4.

Edited to add: I'm not saying I'm 100% correct, let me know if you spot something that doesn't add up.

[mschrader]

That photo was taken April 4, 1913 at Lafayette Park in Norfolk, Virginia. The Giants played an exhibition game against the Norfolk Tars on their way back north that spring.

[bmarlowe1]

Originally Posted by mschrader

That photo was taken April 4, 1913 at Lafayette Park in Norfolk, Virginia. The Giants played an exhibition game against the Norfolk Tars on their way back north that spring.

See link from post #41 above:
http://sabr.org/cmsFiles/Files/Mysteryphoto5-10.pdf

[atx840]

bump.

What a great thread, awesome read and detective work gents.

[thecatspajamas]

Amazing detective work, and I hadn't seen this thread previously. Thanks for bumping!

Mark, is it still possible to get on the e-mail list for the Mystery Photo newsletter pdfs?