04/26/24
October 02, 2014
Watch the Senators beat the Giants in the 1924 World Series. : The Library of Congress recently found nearly perfectly preserved nitrate film of a "Kinograms" newsreel showing the Washington Senators winning the World Series over the New York Giants and fans storming the field at Griffith Stadium to celebrate.
posted by Ufez Jones to baseball at 02:57 PM - 3 comments
Amazing! I wonder if someone will do a little research into former owners of the property where the film was found to find out the connection. It could be that someone who owned or worked in a movie theater lived there and had the film left over from showing it.
What really got to me while watching it were the names. These were players my dad talked about when I was just becoming a sports fan. Bucky Harris, Walter Johnson, Muddy Ruel were active when my dad was in his twenties. Thanks so much for sharing, Ufez.
posted by Howard_T at 10:12 PM on October 02, 2014
takes off his glove and starts working the ball with his hands
I was thinking this might have been due to a dirty or beat-up ball, but Ray Chapman was killed in 1920, so it might be the opposite, trying to beat it up and pop the seams out to give the pitcher an advantage. Or maybe it was just a sign of the times, like wearing an onion on your belt.
Thanks Ufez.
posted by yerfatma at 08:28 AM on October 03, 2014
Great stuff. Interesting thing I noticed -- after Walter Johnson induces a pop up to the third baseman (around 2:40 mark of the video), the third baseman, after catching the ball, takes off his glove and starts working the ball with his hands (presumably before returning it to Johnson). Kind of similar to what you see with cricketers in polishing the ball, although obviously this is not done in baseball any longer by fielders (and not sure if it was done frequently back then) -- though pitchers obviously themselves engage in some of the same action with the ball on and around the mound.