Every picture tells a story

The ever-growing digital collections now available at Hall of Fame’s PASTIME online collection are a treasure trove for the casual baseball fan as well as the seasoned baseball historian. The Hall of Fame’s release of newly digitized materials related to a number of baseball world tours provides the online visitor with interesting, entertaining, and often surprising insights into the history of the game.

Consider this photograph of a ball-playing entourage that traveled overseas in the offseason of 1888-89. Organized by pitcher-turned-sporting goods mogul Albert Spalding (in dark suit at center), the tour was originally intended to make stops in Hawaii (at the time called the Sandwich Islands), New Zealand, and Australia before returning to the States. But a change in plans had the group continue westward, making stops in such diverse locations as Sri Lanka (then known as Ceylon), Egypt, Italy, France, and the British Isles.

It was in Australia that members of Spalding’s Chicago White Stockings (the franchise known today as the Cubs) visited the Tuttle and Company studio to pose with their globe-trotting opponents, a team dubbed the “All-Americas” and consisting of star players from other major and minor league ball clubs.

Thanks to the Hall of Fame’s high-quality scan of this stunning photograph, zooming in on various details of this team photo reveals a number of hidden and rarely told stories. Here are just a few:

Uniform threads

The player standing at far right is Jimmy Manning, a 26-year-old light-hitting outfielder who, despite the lettering across his chest, never played for a Washington baseball club. Still, the uniform Manning wears is an excellent example of that which was donned by each member of the All-Americas: White jerseys and pants, blue stockings, and a silk American flag that served as a belt. The outfit had been designed by Helen Dauvray, a celebrated theater actress and the then-wife of John M. Ward, the star shortstop of the New York Giants and the appointed captain of the “All-Americas.” Ward can be seen sitting just to the right of Spalding.

Bat man

Just below Spalding sits Detroit center fielder Ned Hanlon, who followed his stellar playing career with a successful stint as a big league manager, piloting Baltimore and Brooklyn to a total of five National League pennants. Each member of the quintet at the center of this photograph — Spalding, Ward, Anson, Wright and Hanlon — ultimately earned induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Seen scattered in front of Ned Hanlon’s feet are various pieces of equipment: a cap, ball, catcher’s mask, glove, and pair of baseball bats. The bat on the left, as well as the bat held by tour mascot Clarence Duvall at the very far left of the photo, are Spalding black-tipped “Wagon Tongue” bats, first introduced by the sporting goods manufacturer in early 1888.

But, more remarkably, close examination of the bat on the right reveals it to be quite an unusual specimen. For most of baseball history, the rules of the game called for the bat to be round. But starting in 1885, bat regulations stated that “a portion of the surface may be flat on one side.” The odd provision, introduced in an effort to cut down on foul balls, ultimately failed and by 1893 had been dropped from the rule book. But the bat seen in the photograph is flattened on multiple sides, illegal even under the short-lived flat-bat rule.