Buck. The Babe & friends in Spring Training. The Tilden Flash. Satchel & Jackie. The Say-Hey Kid.
In 1962 Buck O’Neil was named a coach for the Chicago Cubs and therefore became the first Black coach in Major League history. He stayed with the Cubs as a coach through the 1965 season before leaving to become a scout for the club. While it’s awesome that Buck became the first Black coach in the Majors, it’s also bittersweet because the team did not allow him to be on the actual field as a First/Third Base Coach and he was eventually skipped over as a potential Manager for the club.
March 6th, 1930. Babe Ruth plays some Spring Training pepper with teammates (from L to R) Jimmie Reese, Allen “Dusty” Cooke, and Bubbles Hart. What I realized is odd about this photo is that Jimmie Reese is wearing Babe Ruth’s #3 uniform. He actually wore #25 that season with the Yankees. I know it is Spring Training and numbers are not always solidified for Rookies & newcomers but you would think the Babe’s #3 would be off limits to anyone. In addition, Dusty Cooke actually wore #6 that season also not the #31 he’s wearing here, so who knows what was up in St. Petersburg that Spring . As far as “Bubbles Hart” goes, I have no idea who the guy was but his name is interesting.
Richie Ashburn, the Hall of Fame slugger for the Philadelphia Phillies looking so very awesome in this photo. Choked up on the bat, nice high stirrups, the classic uniform, cut off under-shirt, and no helmet. It don’t get much better than this.
A great photo of Satchel Paige and Jackie Robinson while they were both teammates in 1945 on the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Leagues. At the time this photo was taken who would have guessed that in a near future both Jackie and Satchel would both be Major League All-Stars and even win World Series rings during their time in the big leagues. You can’t look at this photo and not fall in love with it.
Everyone on the face of Earth who remotely knows anything about Baseball has seen video & photo from Willie Mays’s famous catch from game 1 of the 1954 World Series more times than they can count. Well I recently found this photo taken from Centerfield that captures the infamous catch from an angle I have never seen before. Pretty cool stuff if you ask me.
ninety feet of perfection. 
I think you might be the first person to ever refer to Richie Ashburn as a slugger (http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/a/ashburi01.shtml). That being said it is a great pic.
You are definitely right! I use that word too liberally when it comes to great hitters. In my head I guess I consider a “slugger” as anyone who was a great hitter, not necessarily a power hitter. With 29 career dingers, Ashburn didn’t really demand the status of a power hitter whatsoever!
in reference to the picture containing dusty cooke, dusty cooke was my great uncle, he is actually the player on the far left wearing babe’s #3 jersey. i read in another reference article that babe had not yet signed a contract by spring training, he was holding out, i read that as a joke they had my uncle dusty wear his number during that game that day. this was obveously a picture taken that day.
Mark, that is very cool that you commented on the photo. Thank you very much, that is very interesting! – Duane/90feetofperfection