Hilltop Park, Manhattan, NY, July 23, 1910 – Here is a Don Stokes colorization on perhaps the most iconic photo taken during the deadball era by one of the legends of photography, Charles M Conlon. And by luck one of the players in the photo is arguably one of the greatest hitters of all-time, and controversial as well, in Ty Cobb.
The game was between the Detroit Tigers and New York Highlanders on a Saturday afternoon at the location that today stands Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center. Cobb was on second base when he noticed the Highlanders third baseman Jimmy Austin was creeping in for a possible bunt, so the great opportunist that the Georgia Peach was, he naturally bolted for third on the next pitch. Austin vainly tried to get back for catcher Fred Mitchell’s throw when all three, Cobb, Austin and the ball, arrived at the same time and in the confusion the ball sailed into the outfield.
And Conlon and his tripod Garaflex camera were fortunate enough to be stationed just outside third base, as the photo shows.
And seeing that Cobb came sliding in with spikes high, Conlin was immediately concerned about Austin’s, a friend of his, well-being. In a 1937 interview with The Sporting News, Conlon said, “My first thought was that my friend, Austin, had been injured. When Cobb stole, he STOLE. Spikes flew and he did not worry where. I saw Ty’s clenched teeth, his determined look.
“The catcher’s peg went right by Jimmy, as he was thrown on his face. I went home kicking myself. I said, ‘Now, there was a great picture and you missed it.’ I took out my plates and developed them. There was Cobb stealing third. In my excitement, I had snapped it, by instinct. The picture was not printed the next day. It did not appear until the Spalding guide came out the following spring and has since been published in more than a thousand papers.”
As far the game, the Tigers would end up with the 6-2 win with the help of a Donnie Bush home run. The contest was close throughout until the final frame when Detroit would push across three insurance runs.
-RB
Photo Colorization – Don Stokes https://www.facebook.com/Don-Stokes-Old-Time-Baseball-Colo…/
Info Source – Wikipedia (Charles M. Conlon page); Dave Pincus, SB Nation
