Boston Bloomers Women's Baseball Team PC

[jthorn]

I believe the male ballplayer seated in the front is Smoky Joe Wood, who signed with the Boston Bloomer Girls in 1905 or 1906 (at age 91 he said he was 15 when he signed with the Bloomer Girls, which would make the year 1905). He did not sign with the Red Sox until 1908.

john thorn

[jthorn]

More on this. I know the postcard was dated 1909 but the photograph may well have been taken earlier. Rogers Hornsby also played with a Bloomer Girls squad, though not necessarily the one from Boston. See attached for how well known was the mixed-gender status of the club.

john thorn

[slidekellyslide]

Originally Posted by jthorn

I believe the male ballplayer seated in the front is Smoky Joe Wood, who signed with the Boston Bloomer Girls in 1905 or 1906 (at age 91 he said he was 15 when he signed with the Bloomer Girls, which would make the year 1905). He did not sign with the Red Sox until 1908.

john thorn

I had this conversation a few years ago with Joann Kline when this same postcard showed up on ebay. I believed it to be Wood also, Joann did not...the price the card sold for indicated that I was not alone in my belief as it sold well above what most Boston Bloomer cards sell for. I believe that Wood started his career with a Western Bloomer club located in Kansas City at age 15 and later played for the Boston Bloomers for a short while in 08 just before he got called up to Red Sox in late 1908. There is a famous photo with Wood and the Boston Bloomers in front of a trolley car that I believe is in the Ken Burns Baseball book. I can't say for 100% that it's him in this postcard, but I think it just might be.

[aelefson]

Hi-
Thanks Dan and John! I had heard Wood played for a few women's teams but I had no idea he might be on this postcard. In fact, I bought it and a Western Bloomers postcard showing Maude Nelson from an antique dealer and he made no mention of a potential major leaguer or of Maude. I am hoping Mark might be able to help with this. If needed, I can provide a higher resolution scan of the postcard.
Thanks again,
Alan

[Brian Campf]

Deleted

[jthorn]

Wood himself stated to interviewer Joan Whaley, for an article published in Baseball Digest in May 1981, that he signed with the Boston Bloomer Girls at age 15. That he started playing with the Bloomer Girls in KC is likely. On page 157 of Glory of Their Times, the basis I suspect for later claims that he joined the Kansas City Bloomer Girls, Wood tells Ritter that he joined a TOURING Bloomer Girls club at the end of 1906.

john thorn

[slidekellyslide]

I checked my Ken Burns book and the photo is of Wood with the Western Bloomer Girls. I think in the Red Sox encyclopedia they mention Wood playing with the Boston Bloomers in 1908.

[jthorn]

Specifically to the point about the Western Bloomer Girls portrayed on page 19 of Ken Burns's Baseball, note that the Western Bloomer Girls were formed by Maud Nelson, not Galbreath ... in 1911. The man at the far right in the image is NOT Joe Wood. The caption identifies him as a "future pitching star" but by 1911 he was entering his fourth year in the majors and certainly did not moonlight with the girls... I think Walter Johnson, however, may be posed at the middle!

john thorn

[jthorn]

Whoops I meant write "That he started playing with the Bloomer Girls in KC is UNlikely." My reason for thinking this is that the owner of the Bloomer Girls club for which he played was, according to the "well-researched SABR biography," Logan Galbreath (not "Galbraith"), pictured in the postcard! He owned/managed the Boston Bloomer Girls baseball team from 1905-1925 and toured the midwest, southwest, and California. Babe Pinelli and Rogers Hornsby are among the future major leaguers to play with the Boston National Bloomer Girls Base Ball Club, who appear to have been confused in recent books with a perhaps nonexistent entity called the "National Bloomer Girls Base Ball Club."

I believe this error has been propagated on the net and in other scholarly titles beyond Robert Elias's 2006 book, which I believe is the first to make the claim. To prove me wrong--which would be perfectly fine with me--find a contemporaneous source (even pre-1960 would be OK) stating, as Elias does, without sourcing, that Wood started with a Bloomer Girls club based in Kansas City, Kansas.

john thorn