DATE: 1948 TEAM: Detroit Tigers SUBJECTS: Hughie Jennings, Rube Waddell, Jack Chesbro APPROXIMATE SIZE: 3-1/4"x5-3/8" MARKS / STAMPING: Note staining on Jennings and pin holes on Waddell and Chesbro. Waddell and Chesbro exhibits have also been laminated. Please bid accordingly. NUMBER OF PHOTOS: 3 COMMENTS / CONDITION: This is one of a large accumulation of vintage sports photographs, slides and negatives that we will be listing over the coming months. Wear on these, if any, is mostly confined to minor corner and edge wear, but see scans for further details including condition. We do not deal in stock images or modern reprints, and all scans shown are of the actual vintage photograph, slide or negative being sold. If you have any questions about a particular piece, please ask before the auction ends. BIO: Hugh Ambrose Jennings (Ee-Yah) was born in Pittston, PA and died in 1928 in Scranton, PA. He went to college at the Mansfield University of Pennsylvania. He played major league baseball from 1891 to 1918 as infielder for the Louisville Colonels, Baltimore Orioles, Brooklyn Superbas, Philadelphia Phillies, and the Detroit Tigers, and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1945. Jennings was a fiery, hard-nosed player who was not afraid to be hit by a pitch to get on base. In 1896, he was hit by a pitch 51 times – a major league record that has never been broken. Jennings also holds the career record for being hit by a pitch with 287, with Craig Biggio (who retired in 2007) holding the modern day career record of 285. Jennings also played on the Brooklyn Superbas teams that won National League pennants in 1899 and 1900. From 1907-1920, Jennings was the manager of the Detroit Tigers, where he was known for his colorful antics, hoots, whistles, and his famous shouts of “Ee-Yah” from the third base coaching box. Jennings suffered a nervous breakdown in 1925 that forced him to leave Major League Baseball. He died in 1928 and was posthumously inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1945. George Edward Waddell was born in 1876 in Bradford, PA and died in 1914 in San Antonio, TX. He played major league baseball from 1897 to 1910 as pitcher for the Louisville Colonels, Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago Orphans, Philadelphia Athletics and the St. Louis Browns, and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1946. Rube's pitching skills were only half of his fame. The other half of his fame rested on his various odd behaviors tied to his lack of maturity and zest for life. Since fires were a large part of his childhood life in Pennsylvania, Waddell had a fascination with fire departments. There are several documented examples of his working for fire departments and dropping what he was doing to chase fire engines or join crews working fires. He was a vibrant baserunning coach, shooing runners along, and mocking opposing pitchers. He would try anything - he proved that he could wrestle alligators (just once, earning the ire of a showman as well as his manager), would lead marching bands, he acted in a travelling play, was a master rifleshot, could play golf with skill and power, played soccer and football - even playing professionally for a football team Mack owned in 1902. He would play marbles with kids before and during games; fans loved him for his willingness to talk to and play with anyone at any time. Rube tended bar and tossed back plenty of beverages, getting him in trouble with his wives and his managers. He married two fame chasers (he was married three times in all), and then got involved in nationally famous divorces owing to the spectacular nature of the fights between spouses. Rube was easily distracted and could be convinced to play semi-pro baseball or go fishing (with or without manager approval), and he frequently forgot promises made to players and managers. He was a big kid in a man's body. At the same time, he had a heroic nature - diving into freezing water to help with rescue missions, or fighting fires, or working to save towns from floods. More stories about Rube have been passed down than most any other player; many being retold in the 1940s. Rube's life was an exaggeration, and those retelling his life for many years took liberties with the details. By 1910, he was released and sent to Newark in the Eastern League. Rube pitched reasonably well for the 1911 Minneapolis Millers in the American Association, but during spring training the following season, he got sick while helping the city of Hickman, KY deal with severe flooding. His selfless acts earned him the deserved reputation as a hero, but his inability to keep himself from getting even more sick destroyed what had been a near super-human physical presence. He pitched through illnesses with the Millers in 1912 and briefly in 1913 before being sold to a low level Virginia (MN) squad in the old Northern League. By the end of the year, Rube's health left him completely, contracting tuberculosis and dying in a sanitarium in San Antonio, TX on April Fool's Day, 1914. He was just 37. John Dwight Chesbro (Happy Jack) was born in North Adams, MA and died in 1931 in Conway, MA. He played major league baseball from 1899 to 1909 as pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates, New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox, and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1946. His 41 wins are the most ever for a modern-era baseball season. It is one of the oldest major records in baseball, or in any other sport. Like many of the pitching records set in baseball's first half century, it is virtually unbreakable under current pitching practices. SKU: L13911
Item: L13911
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