“Babe Ruth” Witch-E Base-Ball Game
c.1920 - Baltimore Novelty Co., Inc.
Young Babe Ruth Readies For the Camera - 1920
The movie camera and wooden fence in the background indicate that this might be a photo taken during spring training. The “1084” code number on the right looks like a still image marker from a studio…yet it doesn’t seem to be from “Headin’ Home”. If it were during the movie shoot, he’d be in heavy makeup and not wearing the Yankee pinstripes. Although uncredited (and Babe is essentially not posed), it looks like this picture may have been snapped by famed baseball photographer Paul Thompson.
1920 Babe Ruth “Headin’ Home” Glass Slide
Glass slides like this were used as promo advertisements for upcoming features in movie theaters. Needless to say, very few exist intact today.
1915 New York Yankees Team
An often told tale is that the Yankees switched their uniforms to pinstripes to cover the girth of the newly acquired Babe Ruth in 1920 (who wasn’t even that heavy…well not yet). That is purely a false myth, as evidenced by the use of Yankee pinstripes five years earlier here in 1915.
1920 New Haven Weissmen Team
Some well known names on this team, none bigger than player/manager Chief Bender who went 25-12 with a 1.94 ERA en route to the 1920 Eastern League Championship. Of course, also of important note is HOF executive George Weiss whom the team is named after. Weiss would later become the Yankees GM (1947-60) as well as the first President and GM of the New York Mets (1961-66).
