The Faces and Voices of Baseball's Deadball Era

A slideshow featuring pictures of baseball stars from 1900-1920. The soundtrack is clips from Lawrence Ritter's interviews with "Wahoo" Sam Crawford, Hans Lobert and Jimmy Austin which he used to write "The Glory of Their Times" in 1966, as well as the voices of Ty Cobb and Cy Young.

• Category

  Sports

[Colin2k41]

wrong... a good player in 1911 would be the best in 2011

[leboharold]

im sure if you took the steroids out of todays ballplayers they would get their asses kicked by these fellas with no problem the deadball era was a matter of skill and strategy unlike today where its all show

[coolmamac]

Balls were different in this era; they did not go as far when hit.

[coolmamac]

Ragtime. Look up Scott Joplin. Many other excellent player/composers.

[jab3785]

No it's because the balls weren't tightly wrapped, therefore it was difficult to hit them a long distance. Of course spitballs and other freak pitches were legal until 1920.

[vsqzstv]

i write this with honesty no malice in my heart i am aboriginal native of this land the caucasion players that so many admire are good but so too were the afro players some were tuff and why i write this is to say we will never really know who was great because ignorance of hatred prevented from seeing greats like josh gibson satchel page against ted williams and joe dimaggio and joe jackson was good but kicked out 4life thats why i can never be satisied of saying who because it never happened

[MrHorrorble]

Why was it called the Deadball Era? Because of the tabacco juice warping the ball?

Please forgive my ignorance.

[iscafan]

Excellent, thanks for posting. 

[SC Smith]

Thanks.

[gtbkc]

The style of music with this video is ragtime. The most famous composer of rags was Scott Joplin.

[brokenhoghead]

I agree there was no Josh Gibson or Satchel Paige to compete against. However, until Marvin Miller (RIP) changed the landscape, most players up to the 70's had other jobs.

This did not water down the talent, in fact, these players lived and breathed the game (their words not mine). Having to fight for their livelihood every year with NO guaranteed contract tells me they worked their asses off to be the best they could be. Can't say the same today.

[TheKingofSwing714]

See, also, the YouTube Video "Hot Springs Baseball" & "Hot Time In The Hot City" - a musical slide-show of the absolutely amazing history of Major League and Negro League Baseball in Hot Springs, Arkansas - where half of all Hall of Famers played - from Big Hoss Radbourne to Young Henry Aaron!