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1903 World Series Photo Gallery
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Now This Is Exciting!
Check out this great photo from the first World Series, played from October 1-13, 1903 between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Boston Americans.
There’s something significant about this photo that we here at Old-Time Baseball Photos are proud of; and we know it’s something baseball history fans who read our page are sure to enjoy.
Some of you may remember my post a couple days ago about Deacon Phillippe. I called him the “The Greatest Dead Ball Era Pitcher Most Baseball Fans Don’t Know.” He was the Pirates’ starting and winning pitcher in the first World Series game, played on October 1, 1903, striking out 10, while defeating the great Cy Young. Deacon Phillippe actually pitched five complete games in the series, posting three wins and two losses. I also mentioned that we had been contacted by Dean Phillipi, a distant relative of Deacon Phillippe. Dean provided much of the information about Deacon Phillippe that I used in the post.
Shortly after that, it occurred to me that one of the regular readers of our Old-Time Baseball Photos Facebook page is Jim Phelps, the great-grandson of Eddie Phelps. And who was Eddie Phelps? He was none-other-than the Pirates’ starting catcher during the 1903 World Series, Deacon Phillippe’s catcher! Eddie Phelps was the starting catcher in all eight games of the series.
So 113 years after the 1903 World Series was played, here on our humble little Facebook page – dedicated to preserving baseball history – we now have as readers of our page relatives of Deacon Phillippe and Eddie Phelps, the battery mates in the very first World Series game! They were on the field and in the lineup together for five of the eight games of the series. We think that’s pretty neat…and we’re very happy to share this information with our readers.
To highlight the occasion, I’ve reposted this combined team photo of the Pirates and the Americans from the 1903 World Series. It’s amazingly clear for a photo taken in 1903. Eddie Phelps is in the top row, third from the left. Deacon Phillippe is also in the top row, fifth from left. I did the player IDs on this one a while back, so see if you can pick out some names before looking at the complete identifications below.
Since I highlighted Deacon Phillippe a few days ago, here’s a little “equal time” for his battery mate, Eddie Phelps. Eddie played 11 seasons in the majors, all in the National League: Pirates (1902–04, and 1906–08), Reds (1905–06), Cardinals (1909–1910) and Dodgers (1912–13). Over his career, Eddie hit .251 with 460 hits, 186 runs, and 205 RBI. He helped the Pirates win the 1902 and 1903 National League pennants, and, as I mentioned, was the starting catcher in the 1903 World Series, won by the Americans five games to three. In the series, Eddie hit .231, with 26 at-bats, six hits, one run scored, and one RBI.
Jim Phelps doesn’t have a lot of information about his great-grand dad, but he told me Eddie was instrumental in starting the Albany Twilight league; and that he managed the Albany Generals for a couple of years after his major league career was over. Jim also says he is proud that Eddie Phelps’ love for baseball has been passed down over the years through the Phelps family, which now includes another generation of baseball-playing Phelps,’ Jim’s 13 year-old son Colby. Jim says Colby enjoys hearing about his great-great granddad and his unique connection to the history of the game.
1903 World Series Player Identifications:
Top Row, L-R (all Pirates): Claude Ritchey, Harry Smith, Eddie Phelps, Ginger Beaumont, Deacon Phillippe, Sam Lever, Bucky Veil, Gus Thompson, Tommy Leach, Jimmy Sebring, “Junkyard” Kennedy, Fred Carisch, Honus Wagner.
Middle Row, L-R (all Boston players after Clarke): Fred Clarke (Mgr.), Jimmy Collins (Mgr.), Chick Stahl, Bill Dineen, Buck Freeman, Cy Young, Candy LaChance, Patsy Dougherty, George Winter, Duke Farrell, Jack O’Brien, Tom Hughes.
Front Row: Freddy Parent, Lou Criger, Hobe Ferris. The Royal Rooters’ Mike McGreevy “photo bombs” in the top row between Sebring and Kennedy.
Five Hall -of -Famers in the photo: Honus Wagner, Fred Clarke, Cy Young, Jimmy Collins, and a recent inductee Bill Dineen who went in as an umpire. Also Hall-of-Fame umpires Tom Connolly and Hank O’Day were on the field.
Gary Livacari
Photo Credits: From Jim Phelps’ personal collection; and from Google search; Colorization of Eddie Phelps by Don Stokes
Information: Excerpts edited from the 1903 World Series Wikipedia page.
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Gary:
I’m the grandson of Bucky Veil. You may want to check out http://www.buckyveil.com for more photos.
Hi Fred-
Thanks for contacting me. I’m very familiar with your granddad Bucky Veil, and I’d really like to do a little write up about him with some input from you. I’m sure you saw from reading my article that I’ve been contacted by descendants of Pirates’ pitcher Deacon Phillipe and catcher Eddie Phelps, the battery mates in the first World Series, and teammates of Bucky Veil. So now hearing from you makes this even more special. I already looked through your web site and found it very impressive, with plenty of good information.
We love it when we’re contacted by relatives of former players, so this would make for a nice post. Since I can get plenty of information about his career, I don’t need much from you, maybe just a couple personal family anecdotes or tidbits that you’ve heard about your granddad over the years. I realize Bucky passed away in 1930, so you don’t have any first-hand interactions to share. Any personal information you can send my way will make for a nice article. It’ll go first on my Old Time Baseball Photos Facebook page, which has over 70K followers, and then on my Baseball History Comes Alive web site, where I’ll include a nice photo gallery to go with the article. Our readers love these type of personal articles with information from the players family members, so I’m sure this would go over real well.
I’ll also share information about you with Jim Phelps, Eddie Phelps’ great-grandson. Jim is a real nice guy, and I’m sure he’ll find this interesting and may even want to contact you.
Anyway, if you’d like to pursue this furhter, I hope you won’t mind taking a couple minutes to share some personal family info about Bucky, and I’ll start putting the article together. I’ll probably contact you for some follow up questions as I go along.
Thanks again!
Gary