Black and white photography literally grew up alongside the game of baseball. Pictured here are cabinet photos, press photos, magazine clippings, team issued premiums and fan snapshots — all preserving what the game looked like in the early and mid-20th century. The players pictured include stars like Honus Wagner, Dizzy Dean and Joe Dimaggio, along with dozens you've likely never heard of. While most of those who took these photos are unknown, a few of the images were captured by some of the most famous baseball cameramen of the day, like George Burke and George Bain. There are also photos showing baseball being played in the Pacific Theater during World War II, women in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, and African-Americans and Cubans competing in their respective leagues.
Baseball in Black & White
Photographs offer a far more comprehensive look at baseball than trading cards, which are concentrated on major league players, and weren't issued in every year or city. This page is full of surprises — my favorites include a team of c. 1910 cowboys, a signed snapshot of the ill-fated Willard Herschberger, a WWII era snapshot of Ted Williams in the U.S. Navy, a snapshot of Yogi Berra with the Newark Bears, a pair of images of Jackie Robinson, a signed snapshot of Minnie Minoso, Larry Doby and Luke Easter, two snapshots of Satchel Paige (one with the Browns an one with the minor league Marlins) and two pre-rookie photos of Frank Robinson. Along the way, you will find photos of Grover Cleveland Alexander, Edd Roush, Rogers Hornsby, Charlie Gehringer, Stan Musial and Warren Spahn, along with very early images of Pee Wee Reese and Early Wynn. You will also see a variety of ballparks, including Crosley Field, Ebbets Field — and Patterson Field at Guadalcanal, where just months earlier, thousands died in battle.
While the late 1940s and 1950s were mostly captured by photographers in black and white, color photography began to appear after World War II. The first image shown below is a color-tinted B&W photo of an amateur San Francisco Bay Area team from 1939 known as Pyramid — I found the ball field on Google maps. The others are color snapshots — color photography became far less costly in the 1960s, and snapshots from that decade are mostly done in color. Also displayed are an unidentified pair of AAGPBL players (late 1940s), Frank Leja of the New Orleans Pelicans (1958), Crosley Field (early 1960s), Bobby Tolan (c. 1970), five snapshots of a California Angels game from 1970 — the pics show the "Big A" scoreboard, Jim Fregosi, Jim Spencer and Clyde Wright — and Vada Pinson (c. 1972). More recently, I've added snapshots of Johnny Mize, who's dressed up for an old-timers game, and yours truly, playing for the Dodgers in the South Sunrise Little League in Orange, California (1972).
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