DATE: 1950s ORIGINAL or REPRINT: Type 3 - Second or later-generation photo, printed from a duplicate negative or wire photo process, within about 2 years of when it was shot TEAM: Brooklyn Dodgers SUBJECTS: Rogers Hornsby, Lefty O'Doul, Eddie Stanky APPROXIMATE SIZE: 8"x10" NUMBER OF PHOTOS: 2 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: Rogers Hornsby (Rajah) was born in Winters, TX and died in 1963 in Chicago, IL. He played major league baseball from 1915 to 1937 as infielder for the St. Louis Cardinals, Boston Braves, Chicago Cubs and the St. Louis Browns, appeared in the 1926 and 1929 World Series, and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1942. Hornsby is among the greatest hitters in baseball history. He is the greatest hitter who regularly played a position other than outfield or first base, and he is arguably history's best right-handed hitter. He is the only player to win the National League Triple Crown twice. His career batting average of .358 is the highest in National League history, and also the highest in major league history for any right-handed hitter. His batting average for the 1924 season was .424, a mark that no player since has matched. In a deal that shocked the baseball world, the Cardinals traded Hornsby on December 20, 1926, to the New York Giants for Frankie Frisch and Jimmy Ring. Hornsby's offensive numbers rebounded in 1927, as he hit .361 and led the league in runs scored (133), walks (86), and an on-base percentage (.448). In the off-season he was again traded, this time to the Boston Braves. Undaunted by the second change in affiliation in less than two years, Hornsby was again the league's most productive hitter, winning his seventh batting title in 1928 with a .387 average, and also leading the league in on-base percentage (.498, a figure that only Hornsby himself topped among National Leaguers in the 20th century), slugging percentage (.632), and walks (107). At the end of the season, the Braves sent Hornsby to the Chicago Cubs for five players and $200,000. Hornsby duly had another career year, hitting .380 in 1929 while recording 39 home runs and leading the league with a .679 slugging percentage. The 156 runs scored by Hornsby in 1929 were the most by a right-handed batter in the National League during the 20th century. Hornsby collected his second Most Valuable Player award that year, and for the second time he won a National League pennant. The Cardinals made Hornsby their player-manager in 1925, and he piloted the team to a World Series victory in 1926. Hornsby was his own manager for each of the remaining years of his playing career, except for 1927 with the Giants (though he served as acting manager for a few games that year), and 1929, when Hornsby and his fellow Chicago Cubs were led to a pennant by Joe McCarthy. As a manager, Hornsby had trouble relating to his players, who did not always share his zeal for winning. It was for this reason that Hornsby changed teams so frequently during the second half of his career. As Bill Veeck related in his autobiography, Veeck as in Wreck, his father Bill Sr., who was President and General Manager of the Chicago Cubs, had hired Hornsby, and soon disposed of him when the usual problems surfaced. Some years later, in 1952, when the junior Veeck hired Hornsby to manage his St. Louis Browns (Hornsby's second term as the Browns' field boss), his widowed mother wrote him a letter asking, "What makes you think you're any smarter than your Daddy was?" After a near-mutiny by the players, Veeck let Hornsby go, and his mother wrote back, "Told ya so!" Veeck was also awarded an engraved trophy by his own players as a thank you for letting Hornsby go. Hornsby returned to manage the Cincinnati Reds during 1952 and 1953. In his later years, Hornsby's disdain for younger players only increased. According to the book Can't Anybody Here Play This Game?, Hornsby was hired by the fledgling New York Mets to scout all the major league players. His report was not especially useful, as the best compliment he could come up with for anyone was "Looks like a major league ballplayer"—his assessment of Mickey Mantle. In another anecdote, Hornsby was reviewing a group of major league players with his customary none-too-complimentary remarks. Among the group were Chicago Cubs' third baseman Ron Santo and outfielder Billy Williams. Hornsby had just gotten through dismissing one player with the comment, "You'd better go back to shining shoes because you can't hit," when Santo whispered to Williams, "If he says that to me, I'm going to cry." When Hornsby came to Santo, he said, "You can hit in the big leagues right now," then turned to Williams and said, "So can you." In another quote attributed to him while coaching for the 1962 Mets, Hornsby was asked how well he thought he could hit the current crop of pitchers if he were playing today, to which he replied "I guess I'd hit about .280 or .290". When asked why he'd hit for such a low average, Hornsby replied "Well, I'm 66 years old, what do you expect?" Hornsby is mentioned in the poem "Lineup for Yesterday" by Ogden Nash: H is for Hornsby; When pitching to Rog, The pitcher would pitch, Then the pitcher would dodge. Francis Joseph O'Doul was born in San Francisco, CA and died in 1969 in San Francisco, CA. He played major league baseball from 1919 to 1934 as outfielder and pitcher for the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, New York Giants, Philadelphia Phillies, Brooklyn Robins, and Brooklyn Dodgers, appeared in the 1933 World Series, and was selected in 1933 as an All-Star. O'Doul returned to the Pacific Coast League as manager of the San Francisco Seals from 1937 to 1951, later managing several other teams in the circuit and becoming the most successful manager in PCL history. One of his outstanding accomplishments while managing the Seals was developing the young Joe DiMaggio, who went on to a Hall of Fame career with the New York Yankees. O'Doul refused to take credit for DiMaggio's success, saying "I was just smart enough to leave him alone." O'Doul's fame and popularity live on in his hometown of San Francisco: the popular restaurant and bar he founded still operates as Lefty O'Doul's Restaurant and Cocktail Lounge on Geary Boulevard, and a bridge over McCovey Cove, near the Giants' home field of AT&T Park, is named the Lefty O'Doul Bridge in his honor. O'Doul was also instrumental in spreading baseball's popularity in Japan, serving as the sport's goodwill ambassador before and after World War II. The Tokyo Giants, sometimes considered "Japan's Baseball Team," were named by him in 1935 in honor of his longtime association with the New York Giants. O'Doul was inducted into the San Francisco Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame in 1981 and the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 2002. Edward Raymond Stanky (The Brat or Muggsy) was born in 1915 in Philadelphia, PA and died in 1999 in Fairhope, AL. He played major league baseball from 1943 to 1953 as infielder for the Chicago Cubs, Brooklyn Dodgers, Boston Braves, New York Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals, appeared in the 1947, 1948 and 1951 World Series, and was selected 3 times as an All-Star. His Giants manager Leo Durocher once summed up Stanky's talents: "He can't hit, can't run, can't field. He's no nice guy... all the little SOB can do is win." SKU: XP12035
Item: XP12035
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