Given the era, what else could there be lurking in The Commons, but baseball pics?
I loathe baseball. I’ve always suspected it of being a lazy man’s sport, with all that standing around and that tidy little square to run around in. Now it’s even worse, with the sport being dominated by a pack of juiced up sluggers and logo salesmen, a televised celebration of the ugly American. But there’s something seemingly sympathetic about the turn of the 20th Century, that makes it appear interesting and tolerable to me.
Damn, this is a good photograph. That’s why it’s here. Look at that shadow, neatly in line with his throw, the good focus on a moving subject. The ball is just leaving the frame, the background is soft, but not blurry. Great depth of field going on here.
At Top: Willets, Wash., 1912 glass plate negative, from the George Grantham Bain Collection
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