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Great Dead Ball Era Footage!
If you’re a Dead Ball Era fan and you’ve got 10 minutes to spare, I highly recommend you check out this great film clip. It’s unquestionably the best DBE footage I’ve ever seen. I remember viewing it a number of years ago on the Baseball Fever web site, and had forgotten about it. I luckily stumbled upon it recently on Youtube and it’s even better than I remember.
You’ll see footage from the 1904-5 Giants, the 1909, 1910, 1913 World Series, plus the best clips ever from the 1919 Black Sox World Series.
Just some of the notables scenes include: Hughie Jennings doing his “dance” at third base (you’ve got to see this!); Frank Chance and Harry Davis shaking hands before the 1910 World Series; Chief Bender and Christy Mathewson pitching; the A’s $100,000 infield posing together, including Frank “Homerun” Baker, Eddie Collins, and Jack Barry); Danny Murphy hitting batting practice; “Highpockets” Kelly playing firstbase; “Shoeless” Joe Jackson in the batter’s box; the 1905 Giants being caravaned onto the field in vintage 1905 autos; John McGraw walking on to the field and tipping his cap to the camerman; Pat Moran and Kid Gleason shaking hands at the 1919 WS; Gleason hitting grounders during infield practice with Ray Schalk catching for him; Eddie Collins and Heine Groh at the home plate conference with the umpires; and Eddie Cicotte warming up before the start of the infamous Game One of the 1919 WS (I wonder what was going through his mind as this was being filmed!),
Others featured include: Jake Daubert, Judge Landis, Buck Weaver, Dickie Kerr, Ray Fisher, Hap Felsch, Chick Gandil, Swede Risberg, Dutch Reuther, Hooks Wiltse, Ty Cobb, and Honus Wagner. Two of McGraw’s pets even make appearances – but you have to look real close to see them!
Do yourself a favor and check out this great footage. Trust me on this one…you won’t regret it. The clip of a laughing Buck Weaver during the 1919 World Series is priceless and I still get misty-eyed every time I see it, thinking about what lie ahead for him. Also priceless is the close up of Joe Jackson followed by a clip of him at the plate; and Ty Cobb and Honus Wagner chatting during the 1909 World Series. And believe me, there are plenty of other gems. Plus the entire footage is accompanied by great music.
If you have any questions about who’s who at any spot in the clip, just drop me a note in the comments section…I can probably help you out, as a few years ago I went through the entire footage doing player identifications and I still remember most of them.
By the way, if you’re in the mood for more of the Dead Ball Era, you might want to check out a nice photo gallery I put together recently featuring some of our favorite DBE pics:https://www.baseballhistorycomesalive.com/tribute-to-the-de…/
Hope you enjoy this as much as I did!
-Gary Livacari
Interesting the 1904 Giants were billed as World Champs when there was no World Series that year
Yeah I saw that too.