Rickwood Field: A Century in America's Oldest Ballpark - Allen Barra

Rickwood Field: America’s oldest pro ballpark
"Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Ala., lays claim to being the oldest intact and functioning professional baseball field. Inspired by Forbes Field in Pittsburgh and Shibe Park in Philadelphia, it was built in 1910, two years before the next longest surviving park, Fenway Park. It housed Birmingham-based minor league teams full-time until 1987, and now is the home to the Rickwood Classic, a yearly game pitting the Birmingham Barons against one of their rivals in throwback uniforms. It also hosts many college, high school and amateur games every year. It has a colorful history. Steel executive Rick Woodward, inspired and assisted by Connie Mack’s Shibe Park in Philadelphia, built what was then a state-of the-art concrete and steel ballpark to house his fledging minor league team, the Birmingham Barons. It also hosted a well-respected Negro league franchise, the Birmingham Black Barons. Both became successful franchises in their respective leagues. Allen Barra’s Rickwood Field: a Century in America’s Oldest Ballpark has the look on the cover as being an extended valentine to the old baseball park, near which the author grew up."
Hardball Times

"Those fortunate fans who attended Opening Day on August 18, 1910 could not have had the slightest inkling that their brand new stadium would one day be the oldest active professional ballpark in America. Nor could they have possibly imagined how dramatically baseball would transform itself over the course of a century. Back then there were no high-powered agents, no steroids dominating the sports headlines, no gleaming, billion-dollar stadiums with corporate sky boxes that lit up the neon sky. There was only the wood and the raw hide, the mitt and the cap, and the game as it was played a few miles from downtown Birmingham, Alabama. Allen Barra has journeyed to his native Alabama to capture the glories of a century of baseball lore. ..."
amazon: Rickwood Field: A Century in America's Oldest Ballpark

The House That McGraw Built - John Thorn

"Call the roll of Yankee greats, past and present, and one names so many of baseball’s all-time heroes—Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mantle, and more—that it is easy to think that they alone made the Yankees. Likewise, the unparalleled Yankee record and the pride that goes with it might lead one to believe that the club had always been successful, that its tradition truly begins with that first flag in 1920. But the path of history is not that simple, of course, and it stretches back toward a hazy and inglorious beginning—in Baltimore of all places.
          Why, in an article about the early history of the New York Yankees, would we write of John McGraw and his boisterous Baltimore Orioles? Because the past matters in baseball as in no other sport, and because a special interest attaches to how the Yankees’ birth and antecedents molded their spirit and shaped their destiny. Before they came to be known as the Yankees, as astute fans know, the New York franchise in the American League was known as the Highlanders, who debuted at Hilltop Park in northern Manhattan in April 1903, twenty years before The House That Ruth Built. Few, however, know that the Yankees’ Book of Genesis begins at an even earlier page, and that the Bronx Bombers were begat from the odd couple of Ban Johnson and John McGraw. ..."
Our Game

The T206 Collection: The Players & Their Stories

"The T206 Collection: The Players & Their Stories is a tribute to the men featured in the greatest baseball card collection that has ever existed. This book is for baseball fans, hobbyists, and history buffs. The brief biographical narratives along with the personal and professional statistics of each player offer you a peek into the developing world of baseball during the early part of the 20th century. The stories of the amazing array of T206 players from all walks of life with dramatically different skill levels will give you a real sense of how our national pastime was shaped by the events and players of that era. The last chapter discusses the value and grading system of this storied collection and brings the reader full circle. You will learn how a card like Kitty Bransfield’s with the Sweet Caporal back is graded and valued. In addition, elsewhere in the book, you will learn about the 'Bransfield Curse' and what it meant to Pittsburgh Pirates fans."
The T206 Collection: The Players & Their Stories

The Men Of T206

"The next time you’re at your favorite sports bar with friends, toss out the names of Stoney McGlynn, Kitty Bransfield, Dode Paskert, or Hunky Shaw. Unless you are sharing a cold one with hardcore baseball historians or serious card collectors, you’ll probably get a lot of blank stares. Then, casually ask if the name Dummy Taylor rings a bell. When you get more questioning looks, tell your buddies all about this New York Giants pitcher who was completely deaf and is credited with establishing the use of hand signals so pitchers could communicate with catchers and players could send signals to one another in the infield. By this time, your friends will either be amazed with your baseball knowledge, or ready to toss you out of the place for being a know-it-all. If the latter is threatened, remind them to be careful because Bugs Raymond died of a fractured skull at the age of 30 after being involved in a bar brawl."
PSA Card

The T206 Collection: The Players & Their Stories

"Baseball cards have been around for almost as long as the game itself. The collaborative project of Tom Zappala and Ellen Zappala, and with the assistance of Lou Blasi, The T206 Collection: The Players & Their Stories is an impressive 224-page compendium featuring beautifully reproduced images of the early baseball card T206 series featuring 393 players. Enhancing this outstanding collection of 500 baseball cards, each of which is flawlessly reproduced in full color, The T206 Collection: The Players & Their Stories includes succinct biographies of all the T206 players, as well as player anecdotes revealing the earliest days and evolution of baseball. Of special note is the informed and informative chapter on baseball card grading and valuations making The T206 Collection: The Players & Their Stories an especially valued and valuable addition to both academic, and community library collections — and an absolute 'must' for all dedicated baseball card enthusiasts."
amazon

St. Louis Terriers

Hughie Miller, St. Louis Federal League

Wikipedia - "The St. Louis Terriers were a baseball club that played in the short-lived Federal League in 1914 and 1915. They played their home games at Handlan's Park. The St. Louis Chapter of SABR placed a marker at the site of Handland's Park, now on the campus of St. Louis University, on October 17, 2007. The team was owned by ice magnate Phil Ball, who later was owner of the St. Louis Browns. In their inaugural season, the Terriers posted a 62-89 record (.411) and finished in last place, 25 games behind the league champion Indianapolis Hoosiers. The team improved significantly the next year as they were pennant contenders up until the last game of the season. The Terriers had a 87-67 mark (.565), ending up in second place 1/10 of a percentage point behind the champion Chicago Whales, who finished 86-66 (.566). Among the St. Louis Terriers players who had experience in the American and/or National Leagues were Al Bridwell, Mordecai Brown, Ward Miller (baseball), Bob Groom, Fielder Jones, Eddie Plank, Jack Tobin and Ed Willett."
Wikipedia

1914 St. Louis Terriers Roster

"The 1914 St. Louis Terriers team roster seen on this page includes every player who appeared in a game during the 1914 season. It is a comprehensive team roster and player names are sorted by the fielding position where the most number of games were played during the regular season. Every player's name links to their career statistics. Below the main roster you will find in the Fast Facts section: a 1914 St. Louis Terriers Opening Day starters list, a 1914 St. Louis Terriers salary list, a 1914 St. Louis Terriers uniform number breakdown and a 1914 St. Louis Terriers primary starters list. These team rosters are presented only when and where the data is available."
Baseball Almanac

St. Louis Terriers: Home/Road

"The St. Louis Terriers were originally owned by brewer Otto Stifel and E. A. Steininger. Before the 1914 season, Stifel sold out when the losses got to be too high. Refrigeration magnate Phillip De Catesby Ball stepped in to infuse new capital into the organization. The team was first managed by future Hall of Famer, Mordecai Brown. Brown pitched and managed the club for the majority of the 1914 campaign but was traded near the end of the season to Brooklyn. The team was mired in the bottom division at the time. Fielder Jones replaced Brown as manager for the team. Jones managed the team for the 1915 season, and the team rose from last place in 1914 to second place. The Terriers just missed first place by .001 winning percentage, the closest in major league baseball history. The team's nickname was the Terriers, but when Mordecai Brown was manager, the newspapers often referred to the team as the "Miners" and "Brownies" in reference to their field general."
The Federal League Teams

Baseball History: Remembering the St. Louis Terriers

Doc Crandall

"The National League and the American League were the two most prominent baseball leagues at the turn of the 20th century, eventually becoming the two rival leagues which define Major League Baseball to this day. However, during the early 20th century, there were several other professional baseball teams playing in competing leagues. One such team was the St. Louis Terriers, who played in the Federal League from 1914-1915. Founded in 1912, the Federal League was the last serious organization to compete with the National and American Leagues for baseball dominance. The future of the Federal League looked bright in 1914, as several Major League baseball stars jumped to this rival organization, including Hall of Famer Walter Johnson, and established stars like Doc Crandall, Tom Seaton, and Claude Hendrix."
Yahoo

W - 1915 St. Louis Terriers season

Rube Waddell

"George Edward Waddell (October 13, 1876 – April 1, 1914) was an American southpaw pitcher in Major League Baseball. In his thirteen-year career he played for the Louisville Colonels (1897, 1899), Pittsburgh Pirates (1900–01) and Chicago Orphans (1901) in the National League, and the Philadelphia Athletics (1902–07) and St. Louis Browns (1908–10) in the American League. Waddell earned the nickname 'Rube' because he was a big, fresh kid. The term was commonly used to refer to hayseeds or farmboys. He was born in Bradford, Pennsylvania. Waddell was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1946. Waddell, a remarkably dominant strikeout pitcher in an era when batters mostly slapped at the ball to get singles, had an excellent fastball, a sharp-breaking curve, a screwball, and superb control (his strikeout-to-walk ratio was almost 3-to-1)."
Wikipedia

"Legend: Rube Waddell was the first pitcher in major league history to strike out three hitters in one inning on only nine pitches. Fact: On July 1, 1902, in his first home appearance as a Philadelphia Athletic, Rube Waddell struck out three Baltimore batters in the third inning on only nine pitches, the first documented case of a 'perfect inning.' The feat is even more amazing when you consider the American League had not yet adopted the 'foul strike rule.' Rube The Screenplay. 'Rube' is the incredible true story of the most colorful character in the annals of American sports. George Edward 'Rube' Waddell was consummate 'Peter Pan,' a child's mentality trapped in a giant, powerful body. Rube, the screenplay, has the elements of a classic Greek tragedy, with Rube Waddell cast as the classical, flawed mythological hero - he had an 'Achilles brain.'"
Rube Waddell

SABR: "He entered this world on Friday the 13th and exited on April Fools Day. In the 37 intervening years, Rube Waddell struck out more batters, frustrated more managers and attracted more fans than any pitcher of his era. An imposing physical specimen for his day, the 6'1", 196-pound Waddell possessed the intellectual and emotional maturity of a child--although a very precocious and engaging one at that. 'There was delicious humor in many of his vagaries, a vagabond impudence and ingenuousness that made them attractive to the public,' wrote the Columbus Dispatch. Waddell's on- and off-field exploits became instant legends."
SABR

Rube Waddell: Pitching Giant, Mental Midget
"... Charles Edward 'Rube' Waddell was born in the small, farming community of Bradford, Pennsylvania on October 13, 1876. He died of either pneumonia, tuberculosis, or (depending on your sources) the cumulative effects of lifelong alcoholism on April 1, 1914. In the intervening 38 years, he achieved immortality as America's greatest southpaw pitcher, alligator wrestler, firetruck chaser, actor, bigamist, obsessive fisherman, rugby player, baton-twirling parade leader, Herculean drinker and philanthropic live-saving hero. Perhaps the flakiest, and most undependable major league star of all time, 'The Rube' was known to show up drunk for games regularly. His teams would usually play the soused Waddell anyway; with Rube generally pitching brilliantly, but fielding horribly. His penchant for holding marathon marbles sessions with street urchins caused him to be continually late for games. He was prone to running off the mound (and out of the stadium!), mid-windup, in pursuit of passing fire engines. He would often disappear for weeks at a time (once, at the height of the 1905 pennant race), only to reappear with offerings of catfish for his irate managers."
Rube Waddell: Pitching Giant, Mental Midget by the venerable Garrick H.S. Brown

Rube Waddell: The Peter Pan of Baseball - John Thorn
"George Edward 'Rube' Waddell was baseball's most kaleidoscopic character. In 1903 he began the year sleeping in a firehouse at Camden, New Jersey, and ended it tending bar in Wheeling, West Virginia. 'In between those events,' wrote Lee Allen, 'he won twenty-two games for the Philadelphia Athletics, played left end for the Business Men's Rugby Football Club of Grand Rapids, Michigan, toured the nation in a melodrama called The Stain of Guilt, courted, married, and separated from May Wynne Skinner of Lynn, Massachusetts, saved a woman from drowning, accidentally shot a friend through the hand, and was bitten by a lion.' The stories go on and on about this wild and crazy guy and, remarkably, most of them are true. Playing marbles under the stands at game time while his teammates searched for their starting pitcher; being paid his year's salary of $2,200 in one-dollar bills because he was so impulsive a spender; hurling both ends of a doubleheader just so that he could get a few days off to go fishing; calling his outfielders to the sidelines, then striking out the batter."
Mr. Baseball

Young Rube Waddell
"George Edward Waddell, called Eddie, was born in October 1876 in Bradford, Pennsylvania near the New York border. As a teenager, he moved with his family to a farm in the town of Prospect, north of Pittsburgh in Butler County. In his youth, he attended school and worked the fields. Part of his responsibilities included chasing off crows who fed on the harvest. He did so with rocks, becoming proficient in both accuracy and sheer force. Growing to over six feet and weighing around 200 pounds, Eddie would later intimidate batters as he did the scavenger birds. In 1895 at age 18, Waddell joined the Butler team, a mediocre club which held contests with other local nines. It wouldn’t be long before the rest of the state and Organized Baseball started hearing about this impressive lefty who sent more than his share of batters back to the bench. He would soon be known as the first great lefthanded strikeout pitcher."
Baseball History

amazon: Rube Waddell: The Zany, Brilliant Life of a Strikeout Artist

lazy

"Describing a ball without great velocity. 1ST USE. 1907. '[Ed] Reulbach drew a base on balls and was out at second on [Kid] Durbin's lazy grounder' (Chicago Tribune, Apr. 7: Peter Morris).
Paul Dickson, The Dickson Baseball Dictionary

Wezen-Ball - How "Scientific Baseball" Has Changed the Game by Larry Granillo

New York Times

"The illustrious Tommy Bennett passed along a link yesterday that could only be more in the Wezen-Ball wheelhouse if it was about Ferris Bueller doing a home run trot while reading Peanuts. Needless to say, I couldn't help but write about it. Every Sunday, the website Sunday Magazine publishes interesting articles that appeared in the Sunday issue of the New York Times exactly 100 years ago. Over the weekend, they finally got around to publishing articles from the April 30, 1911, edition of the paper. Among the stories featured was a well-illustrated article called 'Scientific Baseball Has Changed The Old Game'. That's right. 'Scientific baseball' has changed the 'old game'. In 1911."
Baseball Prospectus

NYT, April 30, 1911: Scientific Baseball Has Changed The Old Game
Google

Scientific Baseball Has Changed The Old Game
"Scientific baseball of to-day — 'inside ball' they call it — consists in making the opposing team think you are going to make a play one way, then shift suddenly and do it another. The modern game has developed quick thinkers and resourceful players such as the pioneers of the game never dreamed of. There are few of what were known as 'good all-around' players nowadays. The inside game has developed teams made up of baseball specialists. They excel in one position, are trained with that object in view, and are never called on to play in any other position."
Sunday Magazine - PDF

The History of How We Follow Baseball

1912, Boston Red Sox, New York Giants

"... He's just lucky he lives in this century. Its a luxury of modern sports that you can bring the game with you. Santorum was watching football on a small tablet; he could as easily have been streaming a ballgame over an iPhone, or watching a constantly-updated gamecast. Should he have had more discretion, he could at a minimum have peeked at scores over the web. A hundred years ago, sports fans -- read: baseball fans -- were not so lucky. In 1912, the Red Sox played the New York Giants in the World Series. Here's how people in Washington watched that game..."
The Atlantic, Oct. 2011 (Video)

The Washington Post

Action Jackson: Watching Baseball Remotely, Before TV
"With the weather turning crisp in October of 1916, sports fans across North America were looking forward to the World Series. There had been great pennant races in both leagues, and the upcoming battle between Brooklyn and the Boston Red Sox looked like a good one. Though Toronto was still more than sixty years away from joining the American League, interest there in the Series was high. The city was already a hotbed of minor-league baseball. Like most cities, Toronto once had a great many more newspapers that it does today. Among the most prominent in 1916 were the Star and the Globe— today’s lone survivors of this time period—as well as the Telegram, the World, and the News. All of them devoted a lot of copy to the upcoming Series."
SABR

Baseball Cards, 1887-1914

"This collection presents a Library of Congress treasure -- 2,100 early baseball cards dating from 1887 to 1914. The cards show such legendary figures as Ty Cobb stealing third base for Detroit, Tris Speaker batting for Boston, and pitcher Cy Young posing formally in his Cleveland uniform. Other notable players include Connie Mack, Walter Johnson, King Kelly, and Christy Mathewson."
Baseball Cards, 1887-1914

"... Major leaguers account for more than three-quarters of the images in the collection. Great pitchers from the period include Cy Young, Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson, Smoky Joe Wood, Chief Bender, Joe McGinnity, Eddie Plank, Rube Marquard, and Rube Waddell, among others. Hall of Fame field players include King Kelly, Cap Anson, Home Run Baker, Dan Brouthers, Ed Delahanty, Eddie Collins, Buck Ewing, Wee Willie Keeler, Napoleon Lajoie, and Zack Wheat. Researchers may also find notable player partnerships, such as the immortal Cubs infield trio of Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers, and Frank Chance or the talented Red Sox outfield comprised of Tris Speaker, Duffy Lewis, and Harry Hooper. Connie Mack, John McGraw, and Charles Comiskey are among the game's outstanding early managers depicted."
Baseball Cards, 1887-1914: About the Collection

"Baseball cards from 1887-1914. Includes the most rare of all cards, the 1909 T206 Honus Wagner card and the back of the card that Wagner objected to that makes it so rare. Last card is Babe Ruth's rookie card. Background song is 'Take Me Out To the Ball Game' by Edward Meeker. It is the September 1908 recording by Edison Record with the original 1908 lyrics."
YouTube - Baseball Cards 1887-1914

Babe Adams

Wikipedia - "Charles Benjamin "Babe" Adams (May 18, 1882 – July 27, 1968) was an American right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball from 1906 to 1926 who spent nearly his entire career with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Noted for his outstanding location control, his career average of 1.29 walks per 9 innings pitched was the second lowest of the 20th century; his 1920 mark of 1 walk per 14.6 innings was a modern record until 2005. He shares the Pirates' franchise record for career victories by a right-hander (194), and holds the team mark for career shutouts (47); from 1926 to 1962 he held the team record for career games pitched (481)."
W - Babe Adams

"Best remembered for pitching three complete-game victories as a rookie to help the Pittsburgh Pirates win the 1909 World Series, Babe Adams was one of the Deadball Era's greatest control pitchers. His record of 1.29 walks per nine innings over the course of his 17 years in the majors, all with the Pirates, ranks second on the modern list behind only teammate Deacon Phillippe's 1.25. To put Adams' mark in perspective, the preeminent control pitcher of today, Greg Maddux, based on his numbers after the 2002 season, would have to pitch another 206 consecutive nine-inning games without a walk to lower his lifetime walks per nine innings to the same level."
SABR

436 KISSES FOR PITCHER: Women Wait for "Babe" Adams, but Baseball Hero Escapes Them
NYT October 19, 1909: "Charles "Babe" Adams, who pitched three of the seven games of the world's series for the Pittsburg National League team and won them all, escaped the fate of Hobson only by the quickest kind of work. He made a flying retreat from his home on Mawhinney Street shortly after noon and deliberately hid from his admirers in a hotel."
NY Times

fence buster

"1. A long-ball hitter; esp., a slugger who hits home runs. '[Shoeless Joe] Jackson and [Happy] Felsch, famous in their day as fence busters' (The New York Times, Oct. 7, 1919). 1ST USE, 1907 (New York Evening Journal, Apr. 8; Edward J. Nichols). Syn. 'fence breaker.' 2. A home run."
Paul Dickson, The Dickson Baseball Dictionary

The Old Ball Game - Frank Deford

John McGraw

"... Tributes to eras one did not grow up in or later cover are quite rare, which makes Frank Deford's portrait of John McGraw and Christy Mathewson, whose symbiotic brilliance never shone brighter than in 1905, all the more alluring. The Old Ball Game: How John McGraw, Christy Mathewson, and the New York Giants Created Modern Baseball tips a journalist's fedora, rather than a child's cap, to one of the most remarkable pairings in sports history. 'Never,' Deford writes, 'were two men in sport so close to one another and yet so far apart in ilk and personality.' His proclamation is tough to dispute. Muggsy McGraw, a squat, pugnacious Irishman, had made his name years before becoming manager of the New York Giants by starring for the roughhouse Baltimore Orioles, a virtual street gang that spiked shins with abandon and brazenly cheated their way to pennants."
NYT: The Old Ball Game

"Frank Deford writes with a felicitous pen and with a charming approach to the game of baseball. He creates beautiful images of the game and in an almost melodramatic manner ties the lives of Muggsy (John McGraw) and Matty (Christy Mathewson) together. His writing is peerless, to borrow another baseball nickname. When describing McGraw's penchant for gaining weight. Deford states that McGraw went 'from being a beardless Katzenjammer Kid to a paunchy dead ringer for W. C. Fields' (p. 66). Throughout the book, Deford's delightful images spark the reader's mind if they are old enough to remember either the crazy Katzenjammers or the quaint, naughty, and off-beat humor of W. C. Fields's comedy. Perhaps the only visual image of the two friends that Deford evaded was that of Mutt and Jeff; but I may have just missed it."
NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture

Christy Mathewson

"When John McGraw stepped down in 1933 after 31 years as manager of the New York Giants, the team had won 10 National League pennants and three World Series trophies--and baseball had become the national pastime. McGraw--known somewhat redundantly as 'Little Napoleon'--was the most well-known personality in the game during his early years at the Giants' helm, but his celebrity was soon outstripped by his star player, the game's first 'hero,' pitcher Christy Mathewson, who won 30 or more games in each of McGraw's first three full seasons as his manager. Deford, a senior contributing editor at Sports Illustrated and author of 14 books, does much more than make a case for his two subjects' sporting legacy. He portrays their fame and emerging preeminence in America's consciousness as parallel to and emblematic of baseball's explosion in popularity, showing in the process how the growth of sport was made possible in the early years of the twentieth century by the rise of the middle class and the increase in disposable income. With McGraw as the gruff but fair father figure and the college-educated Mathewson as the golden boy whom parents wanted for their daughters, the pair became the first sports figures to intrigue the public as individuals. Deford effectively weaves the threads of these two touchstone lives into the broader tapestry of an ascendant sport and a rapidly modernizing America. A fine baseball book but just as fine a study of American popular culture." Wes Lukowsky, American Library Association
amazon: The Old Ball Game

The "Joss Game" All-Stars

"On Friday, April 14, 1911, the baseball world was stunned by the news that Addie Joss, star pitcher for Cleveland, had died. The 31-year-old had succumbed to meningitis, an inflammation of the membranes surrounding the brain. Charles Somers, the owner of the Cleveland team, wanted to put together a benefit game for the Joss family. These games were a long-standing tradition in baseball, but Somers was calling for the greatest benefit ever seen, with some of the greatest players. On Monday, July 24th, they gathered to play and raised well over $13,000 for Lillian Joss. They are: back row (left to right): Bobby Wallace, Frank Baker, Joe Wood, Walter Johnson, Hal Chase, Clyde Milan, Russ Ford, Eddie Collins. Front row: Germany Schaefer, Tris Speaker, Sam Crawford, Jimmy McAleer, Ty Cobb, (his trunk got lost), Gabby Street, and Paddy Livingston."
Baseball Library

All-Star roots trace back to Naugatuck
"When baseball’s greatest stars gather in Anaheim for what they call the Midsummer Classic, broadcasters and print journalists will tell you that this is baseball’s 81st All-Star Game. They will also tell you that the first game was played in 1933 in Chicago. They will be wrong on both counts. And they surely won’t tell you about Naugatuck’s connection to one of the earliest All-Star-style games ever played. More on that in a bit. With the help of ace historians at the Society for American Baseball Research, we learned that the first time baseball stars gathered to play a game was July 24, 1911. The game was held in Cleveland in memory of, and to benefit the family of, one of the greatest pitchers that no one’s heard of, Addie Joss. Joss died at age 31 from tubercular meningitis. Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1978 by a vote from the Veterans Committee, Joss is the only player in Cooperstown to have played less than 10 years."
Off the Record

Addie Joss All-Star Game
"Addie Joss was one of the great pitchers in baseball history. On April 14, 1911, Addie Joss died suddenly from an attack of tubercular meningitis at age 31. Addie was so well thought of that a benefit all star game was set up to raise money for his widow and children. The game, which took place at Cleveland's League Park on July 24, 1911, was between Addie's Cleveland Naps and the American League All Stars. The all star line up was a group of the games greatest including: Ty Cobb, Home Run Baker, Smoky Joe Wood, Walter 'Big Train' Johnson, Hal Chase, Eddie Collins, Germany Schaefer, Tris Speaker, Sam Crawford and several other. The Naps had some legends on their side too, including Nap Lajoie, Cy Young and Shoeless Joe Jackson. The All Stars won 5-3 that day and the Addie Joss Benefit Game raised $12,914.00 for the Joss family."
Baseball Almanac

Hans Lobert

SABR - "Hans Lobert's game was built around speed. Aside from 1912, when an injury caused him to miss more than half the season, the stocky, bowlegged third baseman stole 30 or more bases each year from 1907 to 1914. At a field day in Cincinnati on October 12, 1910, Lobert rounded the bases in 13.8 seconds, considered a record at the time. He also raced against—and defeated—Olympic gold-medal winner Jim Thorpe, collegiate track-star Vince Campbell, and even a racehorse. One reporter suggested that if Hans put his mind to it, he could be the world-record holder in the 110 and the 440. But the hardnosed Lobert was far from one-dimensional. The lifetime .274 hitter batted over .300 four times and twice led National League third basemen in fielding percentage. The son of a cabinetmaker, John Bernard Lobert was born in Wilmington, Delaware, on October 18, 1881."
SABR: Hans Lobert

Wikipedia - "John Bernard 'Hans' Lobert (October 18, 1881 – September 14, 1968) was an American infielder, coach, manager and scout in Major League Baseball. Lobert was born in Wilmington, Delaware. Like shortstop Honus Wagner, a teammate of Lobert's when he first came to the major leagues, the German-American Lobert earned the nickname "Hans" as a familiar form of Johannes, the German version of his given name, and was dubbed 'Hans Number 2' by Honus Wagner. Lobert batted .274 for his career and played 14 seasons (1903, 1905–17) with five National League clubs, including regular stints as a third baseman for the Cincinnati Reds (1906–10) and Philadelphia Phillies (1911–14). He also played with the Pittsburgh Pirates (1903), Chicago Cubs (1905) and New York Giants (1915–17). During his career, Lobert was known as one of the fastest, if not the fastest, players in the game."
Wikipedia

Baseball Reference

send to the showers

"To remove a player (esp. a pitcher) during the game, usually because of ineffectiveness. The player presumably heads for the clubhouse and a hot shower. See also knock out. Syn. shower. 1ST USE. 1912. "His teammates had given [Ray Caldwell] a two run lead and were threatening to send [Ed] Summers to the shower baths' (New York Sun, June 2; Peter Morris). EXTENDED USE. To remove from any activity. An early example alluding to World War I: 'No doubt Pershing and Foch has got the game sewed up tight or they would never take a chance and send me to the showers whilst they was more innin's to play' (H.C. Witwer, A Smile a Minute, 1919; David Shulman)."
Paul Dickson, The Dickson Baseball Dictionary

Lost (and Found) Baseball

Rob Edelman - "A gloomy fact of film history is that more than half the movies made during the silent film era (pre-1927) are lost—vanished into the mists with the passing generations. One of the culprits is the evolution of film technology. For decades, prints and master materials of films were generated on nitrocellulose film stock, which deteriorates over time. Across the years, archivists have recovered 'lost' films in rotting film cans that were hidden away under piles of boxes in grandma’s attic or deep in the bowels of motion picture studio storage facilities. When a can was pried open—if it could be pried open—all that remained was its contents in various stages of corrosion. The chemically deteriorating celluloid may have become sticky, or even solidified into a mass, or was coated in varying amounts of nitrate dust. Some images still could be seen and identified while those on other frames simply had dissolved. Beyond the issues relating to the longevity of film stock, another practical reality of motion pictures comes into play here. One can view a film as a reflection of history or a mirror of the era and culture that produced it. One also can view a film as a work of art. However, an unavoidable fact of the film industry is that a moving image (whether it was made by a major Hollywood studio, a poverty-row studio, an independent outfit, or a producer of newsreels) is a product, no different from an automobile churned out in Detroit or a keg of beer from Milwaukee."
Our Game - John Thorn: Lost (and Found) Baseball
Lost (and Found) Baseball, Part 2

The Glory of Their Times - Lawrence Ritter

Wikipedia - "The Glory of Their Times: The Story Of The Early Days Of Baseball Told By The Men Who Played It is a book, edited by Lawrence Ritter, telling the stories of early 20th century baseball. It is widely acclaimed as one of the great books written about baseball. Ritter got the idea for the book in 1961 upon the death of Ty Cobb, who had been regarded by many observers as the greatest player in the game's history. He was also influenced by the works of John and Alan Lomax, who traveled the country in the 1930s and 1940s with tape recorders seeking out old and almost forgotten American folksongs. Ritter realized that those who played baseball in the early years of the 20th century were now old men, and he resolved to interview as many of them as he could in order to record their memories. Ritter travelled 75,000 miles to interview his subjects, sitting for hours listening to them tell their tales into his tape recorder. The book retells their stories in the first-person, as they were told to Ritter."
W - The Glory of Their Times

Library Journal - "Shortly after the death of legendary baseball player Ty Cobb in 1961, Ritter, armed with a portable tape recorder, attempted to obtain an oral history of early-20th-century baseball from Cobb's contemporaries. The edited transcription of the interviews he obtained became a best seller and went to several editions. This audio, accompanied by a 32-page booklet of photos, is a modern release (also available on CD) of Ritter's interviews with Fred Snodgrass, Sam Crawford, Hans Lobert, Rube Bressler, Chief Meyers, Davy Jones, Rube Marquard, Joe Wood, Lefty O'Doul, Jimmy Austin, Goose Goslin, and Bill Wambsganss, as selected by producers Henry W. Thomas and Neal McCabe. It is quirky, charming, witty, and fun."
amazon: The Glory of Their Times