Vintage Dead Ball Era Photo: 1913 White Sox in Front of Hotel Oakland



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 “1913 Dead Ball Era” Photo Gallery
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Vintage Deadball Era Photo:

1913 White Sox in Front of Hotel Oakland

To our many readers who are fans of the Dead Ball Era, here’s a repost of a real gem – one of the best Dead Ball Era team photos you’ll ever see.

Our baseball researcher par excellence, Don Stokes, found this beauty a while back on EBay. It’s the 1913 White Sox during Spring training in Oakland, California. The photo shows a split White Sox squad in town play against the Oakland Oaks. It says on the photo they were at the Hotel Oakland from March 6 until March 30, 1913. Usually you get a nice sampling of “Americana” in period photos, and this one is no exception. It even includes some vintage 1913 photobombs!

Big Ed Walsh

According to a newspaper account Don found with the photo, this was the “1st team” and was managed by Jimmy “Nixey” Callahan; while the “2nd team,” which included regulars such as Eddie Cicotte, Jim “Death Valley” Scott, Doc White, Reb Russell, Jack Fournier, and Ping Bodie, was managed by Kid Gleason. 

As fans of the Dead Ball Era, we always enjoy trying to figure out who the players are. Don and I worked on the names and I think we got almost all of them:

L-R: Phil Douglas, Frank Lange, Wally Mattick, unknown, Harry Lord, Pop-Boy Smith, Morrie Rath, Big Ed Walsh, George Mogridge, John “Shano” Collins, Jimmy Johnston, “Butcher Boy” Joe Benz, Red Kuhn, Trainer Bill “Doc” Buckner. In the car is Ray “Cracker’ Schalk.

Here’s a couple interesting observations:

  • Check out the neat team carriage, vintage 1913. On the door it says: “ACME Auto Taxi Car.”
  • Ironically, Morrie Rath was the Reds’ batter hit by Eddie Cicotte in the 1919 Black Sox World Series as Cicotte’s signal to gamblers that the “fix was on.”
  • George Mogridge went on to have a 15-year major league career, with some decent years with the Yankees, Senators, and Braves, including a win in the 1924 World Series for the World Champion Senators.
  • “Shufflin’ Phil” Douglas, shown at a young age here, pitched in the 1918 World Series for the Cubs and the 1921 World Series for the Giants. He was eventually banned for life by Judge Landis after a dispute with McGraw. 
  • Shano Collins and Ray Schalk were still with the team at the time of the infamous 1919 Black Sox scandal, but they were always considered clean. Collins eventually managed the Red Sox.
  • Hall-of-Famers in the photo are Ray Schalk and Big Ed Walsh. 
  • Legendary trainer Bill “Doc” Buckner was one of the first African-American trainers in the game.
  • Not sure who the little girl is, possibly a child of Ed Walsh.

So let’s take a moment to fully enjoy this great photo, taken over 107 years ago.

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