New Babe Ruth footage

Very brief, but new:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/09/sports/baseball/09video.html?_r=1&hp

 

pretty cool stuff.

 

That's awesome.

 

Good stuff. I like how the Stadium used to have a track around the outfield and pathways to the stands.

One of my favorite clips of Ruth is when he hits a homer (I think it's in the first All-Star Game), and when he trots around first, he slaps the hand of the first-base coach, who spins around in the coaches box.

 

My computer's too slow at work to be able to see the clip yet, so I'll wait 'til I get home.

But after reading the story, I will say this: I sure hope the people at MLB aren't stubborn enough to ignore the massive expertise of SABR's Pictorial History Research Committee in conclusively identifying the clip. They do this stuff all the time, on photos and videos with subjects a lot more obscure than George Herman Ruth. I have no doubt someone in that committee could help them ID the exact date of that clip.

Can't wait to see it.

(And speak of the devil, I was just talking to a SABR guy tonight about what it's like to find a "holy grail" like this -- a forgotten piece of history in someone's attic somewhere. Very freaking cool.)

 

Very awesome video.

 

The clip is a fabulous piece of baseball history.

According to the video clip Frank Caputo, the chief archivist, used to be Wall Street credit analyst.

 

They can probably measure the shadows and angle of the sun and narrow the date down to within a few days, if not nail it. Very, very cool.

 

Well, not exactly. The clip's a little too old to use weather patterns, which aren't very precise anyway.

But there should be plenty of context clues for them to nail it. Usually, these guys use things like:

- stadium architecture, including ads on the outfield fences or temporary stands that may have been added for a World Series;
- specific uniform items (patches, sock patterns, hats, etc.);
- face or body recognition to identify who was in uniform -- if you're trying to determine whether it's a 1926 or 1928 Yankees photo, and spot the distinctive figure of Bill Dickey, you know it has to be 1928;
- identifying specific elements of the play by play -- if you have a clip of a Cardinals batter grounding out to shortstop then the next batter flies out to left field, you can look for that specific pattern in news reports or box scores;

Here's an example of how SABR's Pictorial History Committee does their work: http://www.sabr.org/cmsFiles/Files/Mysteryphoto9-09.pdf

 

Kind of amazing there isn't a little more footage of World Series games, etc etc.

Plus, considering New York was the undeniable media capital of the world in the 1920s, you would have thought at some point somebody would have trained a camera on Ruth through a whole game or something.

 

You mean the B.R.-cam instead of the T.O.-cam?