Rare deadball ERA video

I'm not sure if any of you guys ever saw this old baseball video, but I believe it's fantastic. There's clips of all time greats like Shoeless, Babe, Cobb, Collins and many more.

There's even some clips of the series between the Reds and White Sox from the Black Sox Scandal series.

It's a great video.

If you enjoy baseball you'll enjoy this.

 

Cubs in the World Series? Now that's old!

 

Very cool clips.

It was interesting to see that in the footage of the 1919 Series, in the two force plays involving White Sox players (Buck Weaver and Felsch), neither player went in with a hard slide in an attempt to break up the relay throw, as is virtually automatic now -- they just trotted across the base and headed for the dugout.

Nowadays, even when players are out by five steps, they'll almost always do a half-hearted slide, if nothing else to kick up some dirt in the infielder's face. You never know.

 

Excellent video. Couple of things I noticed:

1. The video says that the Giants were World Champions in 1904. They were the NL champions, but John McGraw refused to let them play the Red Sox in the World Series because he didn't want to give credibility to the AL. I think, with the 1904 flag raising, that video was from the opener in 1905. One thing you can see with the tape is McGraw leading the group on the field, and he tips his hat. Mathewson walks by and looks at the camera a few seconds later.

2. Someone on the Youtube site mentioned Chick Gandil getting called out on third in a close play in the 1919 Series. Gandil didn't slide. Hmmm.

3. Cobb and someone else in the 1909 Series hit home runs, yet no one greeted them at home plate. Thought that was pretty funny.

 

Wow that clip is worth the price of admission to SJ today.

Some thoughts:

Amazing that the game has changed so little in 100+ years. Still doing fungo, still have huge billboards in the outfield, ballparks still adorned with patriotic banners, Chris Berman still doing the "back back back" call.

One major difference: The infields were huge. Almost looked like a rec league softball infield.

 

early Babe Ruth footage, pre-uniform numbers.

You see pictures of Babe and he looks like a lumbering out-of-shape old guy, but this is young Babe

 

That's a hell of a sweet little dance by the third-base coach about 50 seconds in.

 

Hughie "Eee-Yah" Jennings, manager of the Tigers in the 1900s. Used to do stuff like that, somersaults, handsprings, etc etc., in the coaching box.

If the current Tiger third-base coach, Gene "The Human Stop Sign" Lamont, tried any of that stuff, they'd need a forklift to carry him off the field.

 

Liked how Babe would tip his cap (no batting helmets yet) to the crowd when he rounded second.

If a player did that today, though, he'd get one in his earhole the next time he batted.

 

Another thing that hasn't changed -- the A's touting their "$100,000 infield." Of course, now it's for entirely different reasons.

 

Hughie Jennings had a few lose screws, but he was really entertaining to watch.

The A's "100,000" infield was simply incredible led by Eddie Collins.

I loved the jackets that the Giants wore in that clip. It was fun to watch Ty Cobb hit a home run, since he was more line drive/infield hit type of hitter.

Honus Wagner and Ty Cobb standing side by side brings chills to my spine, two of the greatest hitters of all time. Till this day I still believe Wagner is the best shortstop to ever play this game.

 

Got a kick of that little kid (bat boy?) out there with the umps and managers. Surprised he was not smoking a cigarette.