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 Honus Wagner Photo Gallery
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Baseball History Comes Alive Tops the One Million “Hits” Mark!

 

Today, June 10, 2023, at exactly 6:45 p.m. CT, the Baseball History Comes Alive website officially surpassed the milestone one million “hits” mark!

Thank you! -GL

Seven and a half years ago, on January 20, 2016, I launched the Baseball History Comes Alive website. My goal at the time was simple: I wanted to help preserve baseball’s glorious past and rich traditions through interesting essays and photos.

A Little Background…

This journey began back in 2005 when I was the unofficial “identifier-of-old-ballplayers” for the Baseball Fever website, working with my mentor and baseball researcher par excellence, the late Bill Burgess.  It was here that Don Stokes and I first became acquainted. Don – also a great baseball researcher as well as a wonderful artist – and I had a lot of fun working together identifying many players in old team photos. It’s a collaboration that continues to this day. It was also during this period when I was asked to become an assistant editor of the SABR Boston Public Library project, helping to identify ballplayers in almost 3000 old photos from the 1930s and ’40s. 

Then in 2014, following an invitation from Ron Bolton, the founder of the Old-Time Baseball Photos Facebook page, I became the site’s co-administrator and contributor. I began writing one or two short baseball history essays each week. I never dreamed Ron and I would still be at it almost nine years later and that our following would grow to over ninety thousand readers.

Baseball History Comes Alive is Born!

Following the success of the Old-Time Baseball Photos Facebook page, I decided to venture into “uncharted waters,” and create my own website. Knowing nothing about website construction, domain names, hosting, or SEO, I simply followed the instructions I found on one of those “Do It Yourself” website builder sites. I settled on what I thought was a “catchy” name and selected a highly visible Pinterest photo-friendly theme for the site. After much trial and error…voila!…my first essay for the Baseball History Comes Alive website appeared on January 20, 2016. I then anxiously waited around, wondering if anyone would actually visit the site. 

To my amazement, I soon realized I’d stumbled onto an underrepresented baseball niche: fans of old-time baseball who enjoyed reading about baseball history and looking at old baseball photos. The hits started coming, slowly at first, but before long the site began showing significant growth. I billed it under the rather bombastic subtitle, “The Internet’s Number One Site for Old Baseball Photos and Essays,” while sheepishly hoping others would come to agree with my bold claim. And now, here we are, seven and a half years later, and we’ve topped the one million hits mark. Today, if you do a Google search for “Baseball History,” this site comes up on the first page. 

Thank You!

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all my loyal readers whose continued positive feedback has always made my humble efforts to preserve baseball’s glorious past worthwhile. I’d also like to thank my regular contributors (especially Bill Schaefer and Michael Keedy), and my guest contributors, all of whom have helped me “carry the load.” They’ve all added much quality to the website. Special thanks also to my Old-Time Baseball Photos partner, Ron Bolton, and to our resident baseball artist, Don Stokes, who has always been very generous in allowing me to use his outstanding artwork. 

To celebrate the happy occasion of surpassing one million hits, I hope you don’t mind if I nostalgically repost my very first Baseball History Comes Alive essay and photo gallery which appeared on the day the website was launched, January 20, 2016:

Honus Wagner in the 1940s

“Bowlegged, barrel-chested, long-limbed… he was often likened to an octopus. When he fielded grounders, his huge hands also collected large scoops of infield dirt, which accompanied his throws to first like the tail of a comet.” –From the Honus Wagner biography on BaseballLibrary.com

Recognize the “Old-Timer” on the right? I’m sure you do…it’s none other than the great Honus Wagner in one of his many seasons as a Pirates’ coach. Not sure of the exact year,but it’s probably from about 1942-46. He’s giving batting tips to a couple of young Pirate “whippersnappers.” On the left is Jim Russell, who played for the Bucs from 1942-51; and on the right is Frank Colman, a Pirate from 1942-46.

Photo Credits: RMY Auctions, and from the Charles Conlon collection, the George Brace collection; and public domain.

Information: Excerpts edited from the Honus Wagner Wikipedia page
Statistics from Baseball-Reference.com

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