Subscribe to Baseball History Comes Alive! for automatic updates (sign-up block found in right side-bar)

As a Free Bonus for subscribing, you’ll get instant access to my two Special Reports: Memorable World Series Moments and Gary’s Handy Dandy World Series Reference Guide!

 1903 Photo Gallery
Click on any image below to see photos in full size and to start Photo Gallery:

Beautiful Restoration/Colorization From the 1903 World Series!

Learn Why It’s Very Significant for Us!

The dysfunctional 2020 regular season is over, the playoffs are in full swing, and the 2020 World Series is on the horizon, so I’ll continue with my theme of highlighting different World Series. 

With this new restoration/colorization by the very talented Chris Whitehouse, it’s a good time to feature the very first World Series, played from October 1-13, 1903 between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Boston Americans (later to become the Red Sox). There’s also something significant about this photo we know all baseball history fans who read our page are sure to enjoy.

THE FIRST WORLD SERIES, 1903

Some of you may remember my post from a while back about Deacon Phillippe. I called him “The Greatest Dead Ball Era Pitcher Most Baseball Fans Don’t Know.” He was the Pirates’ starting and winning pitcher in the first World Series game, striking out 10, while defeating the great Cy Young. Deacon Phillippe actually pitched five complete games in the series, posting three wins and two losses.

I also mentioned that we’d been contacted by actor Dean Phillipi, a distant relative of Deacon Phillippe. Dean is one of my Facebook friends and a reader of our Old-Time Baseball Photos Facebook page.  Shortly after that, it occurred to me that another one of the regular readers of our Old-Time Baseball Photos Facebook page and our Baseball History Comes Alive web page is Jim Phelps, the great-grandson of Eddie Phelps.

And who was Eddie Phelps? Eddie was none-other-than the Pirates’ starting catcher for the 1903 World Series, Deacon Phillippe’s catcher! Eddie Phelps was the starting catcher in all eight games of the series.

So 117 years after the 1903 World Series was played, whoever would have imagined that here on our humble little web page – dedicated to preserving baseball history – we now have as readers of our site relatives of Deacon Phillippe and Eddie Phelps, the battery mates in the very first World Series game! They were on the field and in the lineup together for five of the eight games of the Series.

We think that’s pretty neat…and we’re very happy to share this information with our readers.

To highlight the occasion, I’ve reposted this combined team photo of the Pirates and the Americans from the 1903 World Series, now beautifully restored and colorized by Chris Whitehouse. It’s amazingly clear for a photo taken in 1903. Eddie Phelps is in the top row, third from the left. Deacon Phillippe is also in the top row, fifth from left. I did the player IDs on this one a while back, so see if you can pick out some names before looking at the complete identifications below.

Since I once highlighted Deacon Phillippe, here’s a little “equal time” for his battery mate, Eddie Phelps: Eddie played 11 seasons in the majors, all in the National League: Pirates (1902–04, and 1906–08), Reds (1905–06), Cardinals (1909–1910) and Dodgers (1912–13). Over his career, Eddie hit .251 with 460 hits, 186 runs, and 205 RBI. He helped the Pirates win the 1902 and 1903 National League pennants, and, as I mentioned, was the starting catcher in the 1903 World Series, won by the Americans five games to three. In the series, Eddie hit .231, with 26 at-bats, six hits, one run scored, and one RBI.

My Facebook friend Jim Phelps doesn’t have a lot of information about his great-grand dad, but he told me Eddie was instrumental in starting the Albany Twilight league; and that he managed the Albany Generals for a couple of years after his major league career was over. Jim also says he is proud that Eddie Phelps’ love for baseball has been passed down over the years through the Phelps family, which now includes another generation of baseball-playing Phelps,’ Jim’s teenage son Colby. Jim says Colby enjoys hearing about his great-great granddad and his unique connection to the history of the game.

1903 WORLD SERIES PLAYER IDENTIFICATIONS:

Top Row, L-R (all Pirates): Claude Ritchey, Harry Smith, Eddie Phelps, Ginger Beaumont, Deacon Phillippe, Sam Lever, Bucky Veil, Gus Thompson, Tommy Leach, Jimmy Sebring, “Junkyard” Kennedy, Fred Carisch, Honus Wagner.

Middle Row, L-R (all Boston players after Clarke): Fred Clarke (Mgr.), Jimmy Collins (Mgr.), Chick Stahl, Bill Dineen, Buck Freeman, Cy Young, Candy LaChance, Patsy Dougherty, George Winter, Duke Farrell, Jack O’Brien, Tom Hughes

Front Row: Freddy Parent, Lou Criger, Hobe Ferris. Mike McGreevy “photo bombs” between Sebring and Kennedy in the top row.

Five Hall -of -Famers in the photo: Honus Wagner, Fred Clarke, Cy Young, Jimmy Collins, and a recent inductee Bill Dineen who went in as an umpire. Also, Hall-of-Fame umpires Tom Connolly and Hank O’Day were on the field.

Gary Livacari 

Photo Credits: Colorization by Chris Whitehouse, Mancave Pictures https://www.facebook.com/mancavepictures/

Check out my latest book, recently nominated for the SABR 2020 Lawrence Ritter award: Reflections On the 1919 Black Sox: Time to Take Another Look now available on Amazon in e-book and paperback. All profits go to the Illinois Veterans Foundation

Add your name to the petition to help get Gil Hodges elected to the Hall of Fame (with voting now postponed until December 2021: https://wp.me/P7a04E-57h

Vote In Our New Poll: How Do You Feel About New Rules Changes?https://wp.me/p7a04E-7Ov

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Click here to view Amazon’s privacy policy