Panoramic Photo Above:
Sportsman's Park, St. Louis
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Baseball Clubhouses Photo Gallery
Red Sox Spring Training Clubhouse, Vintage 1928!
My recent post from the 1912 New York Giants spring training workout showing them on what appears to be a cow pasture, got me thinking about other baseball facilities from bygone eras that – shall we say –are not quite up to modern standards.
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In the featured photo from the Leslie Jones Boston Public Library collection, we see a scene from the Red Sox clubhouse at Fenway Park, vintage 1928. Check out all the details of what a clubhouse from years ago actually looked like. I believe that’s a cast-iron furnace and the trainer, Bits Bierhalter, is taking out a “hot stone.” Must have been a cold day in Boston! Quite a contrast from today’s luxury clubhouses and lavish weight rooms (see photo gallery).
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I was able to identify Jack Russell sitting on the left, Charlie Berry standing and Danny MacFayden with the glasses (one of the very few ballplayers from this era to wear glasses).
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Here’s some info on trainer William “Two-Bits” Bierhalter (1869-1941) I found on Baseball Reference:
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“Bits Bierhalter began his career as an umpire in the minor leagues. He was apparently suspended from umpiring in 1915 and became an athletic trainer. From 1918 to 1923, he worked for the St. Louis Browns and in 1924, he moved to the Boston Red Sox.”
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“On four occasions between 1918 and 1924, he was pressed into service as an umpire when the regular umpires either did not show up or were unavailable. This used to happen regularly back then, and substitute players or coaches would usually be asked to take over, but in Bits’s case, his experience as a professional umpire meant that he was a lot more ready for the emergency work.”
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Be sure to click on the photo to get an even better look. Then check out the photo gallery to see a few more vintage pics inside the clubhouse: from modern days – to days gone by!
Gary Livacari
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Photo Credits: All from Google search
Gary,
I believe that clubhouse picture for the Red Sox was not taken at Fenway Park but at their Spring Training facility at the time in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
My error. I have that picture in one of my old Red Sox folders listening it in Hot Springs, but I just googled and the Sox were back in Florida for Spring Training by 1928.
Thanks Paul…I’ll add that info as an update.
Gary.
No, it looks like it IS Fenway. My first resource was wrong.
Sorry for the mixup. I have for years been under the assumption that was HotSprings.
I should have known not to question the old time photo expert.
Haha! Now I’ll have to re-reupdate!
🥴 🫣😬
That’s OK Paul…you’re forgiven!