Antique Baseball Photograph - Dating? Identifying?

Hello all,

Purchased this little fellow for my personal collection today.


The uniforms look to say, "Plains R. B."

The background looks to be a farm, so possibly the mid west?

Any opinions would be greatly appreciated!

Warm Regards,
Jon

 

Can you get some that focus on the equipment they're holding/wearing? Particularly the ones with gloves. Seems I remember something about the "evolution" of baseball gloves that *might* help date it.

If Plains is the name of the place/town, there's Plains, Georgia of course and I have a friend who used to live in West Plains, Missouri (whether there's a "plain" Plains nearby, I'm not sure.)

 

Jimmy Carter's Pa might be there!

--- Susan

 

Why do some of the shirts have "R B" under "Plains"? What could that mean?

 

Does that kneeling fellow holding the vertical bat look like he's wearing a glove with padded fingers (as opposed to the web arrangement they use now?)

The fellow sitting (first row on the right) - is that a wire catcher's mask on his knee?

I wondered about the different shirts too, yourturn.

 

If those are ball gloves , I believe the webbing was added at a certain date.
may help..

 

He's def got a glove on with padded fingers, pre webbing, but I don't know if it's just he has an earlier glove and is playing a little bit later on.

It does look like a wire catchers mask

 

3 other guys in the back row have the same gloves..

 

Here's an interesting history of baseball equipment - complete with photos and vintage catalog pages. It's multiple pages, so click on "Equipment continued" at the bottom of each page to see more.

http://www.19cbaseball.com/equipment.html

The padded finger gloves and early style wire masks are in there. Plus (on page 3 I think) there are catalog entires for various caps.

 

The fellow in the back left also has a glove.

 

or....very large hands !!!! hahaha!!!!!!

 

Couple of the pics.

 

I think we're looking at 1900 give or take 10 years in either direction. I saw a 1905 Spalding catalog with very similar gloves and references to the use of catcher's mitts being common by 1890.

The true "webbed glove" (as we know it) wasn't invented until 1920, although that same catalog in 1905 had some more primitive ones.

 

I notice the hills in the background... many parts of the Midwest do not have that type of topography, although some probably do. I think figuring out the R. B. might help, if it turns out to be a geographical abbreviation.

 

I find it interesting that some of the Jerseys have the extra letters. Great hats!

 

Wonder if that is R.B. or B.B. Found pics of baseball teams from this period with an organization name on the front of their jerseys followed by initials of the town.
Example: Modern Woodmen of America of Twin Rivers, Wisconsin.

MWA
T. R.

The style of the caps they are wearing might be called the "Chicago cap." According to the following website, these caps had horizontal stripes and solid colored bills. Seems they were popular in the big leagues in the late 1880s. By 1900 only a few clubs wore them. As this pic is not of a big league club, no doubt these caps were probably dated by the time these boys got a hold of them.

"The 'Chicago Cap' (No. 5) was the same shape as the 'Parti-Colored Cap,' but featured horizontal (rather than vertical) stripes and a solid-colored bill. The style was one of the most popular among big league clubs of the late 1880s, but by the turn of the century only a few clubs were still donning caps of this type."

#5 cap in the picture of the "Spalding Pitches Caps" about 1/3 of way down the page:
http://exhibits.baseballhalloffame.org/dressed_to_the_nines/caps.htm

--- Susan

 

I think your prolly right about it being a location. If you look at the 4th photo I posted, you can see the bottom of the R. So it's def R. B. But I have no idea what that means

 

It's pretty definitely an R. Although a few are partially blocked, that lower line doesn't bulge like a B would.