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 “Norman Rockwell and Baseball” Photo Gallery
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Norman Rockwell and Baseball, Part II:

“The Dugout”

Three weeks ago, I posted an essay featuring Norman Rockwell’s iconic painting, “The Three Umpires.” Today, I’ll follow that up with a repost of an essay I wrote four years ago about another classic Rockwell baseball painting and a companion to the “Three Umpires”: “The Dugout.” At the time, I did some research into the background of the painting, which I think you’ll find interesting. -GL

The Dugout by Norman Rockwell (1894-1978) is one of baseball’s most iconic images as well as one of his best-known Saturday Evening Post covers. Many people think this great painting was what started the Cubs’ image as “The Lovable Losers.” That got me thing thinking more about it.  I did a little research and found some interesting tidbits:

• The image, a watercolor on canvas, appeared on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post on September 4, 1948.
• The youth, Frank McNally, was actually a batboy for the Boston Braves, not the Cubs. He donned a Cubs uniform just for that occasion. Rockwell and Post art director Kenneth Stuart traveled to Braves Field to take photographs of him during the May 23, 1948, Boston-Chicago doubleheader (the Cubs lost both games).
• In an interview decades later, McNally remembered that they had to do a lot of work to get him to look sad: “Mr. Rockwell kept changing the tilt of my cap and doing facial expressions to demonstrate how he wanted me to look. He finally asked me if I had a dog.  When I told him I did, he said, ‘Try to think how you would feel if your dog died – that’s the look I want!’”
• McNally was paid five dollars for the modeling job which he said took two to three hours. After the issue of the magazine was published, he was presented with a Rockwell-signed copy of it during a pre-game ceremony at Braves Field.
• The Cubs players are, from left to right: pitcher Bob Rush, manager Charlie Grimm, catcher Al Walker, and All-Star pitcher Johnny Schmitz.
• The daughter of Rockwell’s next-door neighbors, Ardis Edgerton, is the fan razzing the Cubs through her hands. She was a frequent Rockwell model.
• Charlie Grimm owned a charcoal draft of The Dugout, on which Rockwell had inscribed: “To Charles Grimm, a long-suffering but wonderful manager, Norman Rockwell.” 
• Charlie once commented on the painting: “What an artist.  But he wasn’t really accurate. As bad as we were, the fans didn’t really boo us. Maybe they should have. ” [The Cubs won only 64 games in 1948 and finished last in the National League.]

Here’s some information about Norman Rockwell (Wikipedia):

“For 60 years, Rockwell painted familiar, everyday scenes. He created more than 300 covers for the Post and more than 4,000 total works of art. His works were greatly influenced by his
childhood visits to the country. Rockwell disliked cities and viewed them as overcrowded areas with unfriendly people. He relished his memories as a child playing in the clean country air and wide-open spaces. He remembered all the friendly people there. He decided early on in his career that his artwork would depict this type of idyllic life. His paintings celebrate kindness, decency, friendships, love, traditions, family ties and patriotism.”

Check out the photo gallery to see more beautiful paintings by Norman Rockwell. In future posts, I’ll be featuring more of “Norman Rockwell and Baseball!” 

Gary Livacari 

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