Tris Speaker, Babe Ruth, and Ty Cobb photograph

Date1941 July 29

DescriptionA black-and-white 3/4 length posed portrait photograph of Tris Speaker, Babe Ruth, and Ty Cobb in uniform mimicking their batting stance. Speaker, far left, is shown in profile wearing a long sleeve shirt underneath a Boston Red Sox home uniform. Speaker, in adopting his batting position at the plate, raises his front right elbow away from his side, almost shoulder height. Speaker places his left hand over his right on the grip of the baseball bat angling the bat backwards towards his back left shoulder. Turning his head to his right, Speaker looks to a point above and to the right of the camera. Ruth, posed between Speaker and Cobb wears a New York Yankee home uniform and a long sleeve shirt underneath his jersey. Ruth's upper body adopts his batting stance. Slightly raising his front right elbow, Ruth holds the bat close to his back left shoulder and the left side of his face. While gripping the bat Ruth places his left hand over his right keeping his left elbow down close by his side. Ruth looks forwards to a point slightly above the camera. Cobb, posed far right, wears a Detroit Tigers road uniform. Cobb, adopts his characteristic batting position by placing his left hand over his right on the bat, leaving several inches of space between his grip. Cobb lifts and extends his front right elbow away from his body angling the bat back towards his back left shoulder. Cobb slightly smiles while looking at a point to the right of the camera. The occupied stadium in the background indicates that this image was captured before the start of a game, rather than afterwards. The series of notations that resemble the letter 'K' indicate where the photo is to be cropped for publication. Based on these notations this photograph will exist as both a group portrait cropped at the waist, as well as an individual portrait of Cobb with the background modified to establish a greater focal point on the subject. Handwritten notes can be seen on the surface of the image below where the photograph is to be cropped. Pasted on the reverse (not shown) is a newspaper clipping of the published image with the caption that reads, "YESTERYEAR- L(...)NC(..)!- Three of the greatest outfielders (...) time, Tris Speaker, Babe (...) Ty Cobb, left to right, get together at an amateur day celebration in Cleve-land. A mighty threesome, Speaker boasts a lifetime batting average of .345, Ruth .341 and Cobb .367. International News Photo." Stamped on this clipping, on the reverse (not shown), in purple ink, is the date "JUL 29 1941," the probable publication date of this photograph. All three former players wear historical uniforms from the time period during which they played for each respective team, rather than those that are contemporaneous to when the photograph was captured.

Object numberBL-1968-00196-055

Publisher New York Journal-American

Subject Cobb, Ty, 1886-1961

Subject Ruth, Babe, 1895-1948

Subject Speaker, Tris

Subject Detroit Tigers (Baseball team)

Subject New York Yankees (Baseball team)

Subject Boston Red Sox (Baseball team)

Subject Cleveland Guardians (Baseball team)

Subject American League of Professional Baseball Clubs

Attributes

Classificationsphotographic materials

Collection NumberBA PHT 032 New York Journal-American photographic materials

Dimensions8.25 x 6.25 in.

Copyrighthttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/

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