The Federal League in Film - Part II: "Hearts and Diamonds"

Last month I posted about a new discovery: footage from a Federal League ball game between Buffalo and Brooklyn on July 6, 1915. Prior to this find, there was only one known example of moving images from a Federal League game: action preserved in a silent movie titled “Hearts and Diamonds.”

This latter film, shot during the summer of 1914 and released in late September of that year, starred John Bunny, a famous, beloved, but today much-forgotten comedian who died from kidney disease just half a year after the movie opened. On April 27, 1915, the day after Bunny’s untimely death, the New York Times wrote: “Wherever movies are exhibited, and that is everywhere, Bunny had his public. It is perfectly safe to say that no other camera actor was as popular in this country.”

John Bunny (right) and William Chase Temple attend the 1913 World Series at Shibe Park

Bunny was a fervent baseball fan. He attended Game Four of the 1913 World Series, his appearance causing the crowd to cheer wildly as he walked to his front row seats at Philadelphia’s Shibe Park. Sitting next to Bunny that day was William Chase Temple, the part-owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates who two decades earlier had established the Temple Cup, an early World Championship series played from 1894 through 1897. Interested readers may wish to take a look at my earlier blog post about Henry Sandham’s painting of the 1894 Temple Cup Series.

Produced by Vitagraph Studios in Brooklyn, “Hearts and Diamonds” is a rather uninspired two-reeler that transparently plods its way from scene to scene to provide Bunny a couple opportunities to perform his comic shtick. Those interested in watching the movie can find it on KINO International’s two-DVD compilation of early baseball movies titled “Reel Baseball.” In past posts, I have discussed a couple of other films from this treasure trove.

• A 1906 short titled “How the Office Boy Saw the Ball Game
• Babe Ruth’s memorable 1920 silent movie, “Headin’ Home”

The plot of “Hearts and Diamonds” revolves around the widower Tupper and his attempt to woo the wealthy Miss Rachel Whipple, an ardent baseball fan. After attending a baseball game with Miss Whipple, Tupper finds to his dismay that what she really loves is baseball players, not fans. Tupper’s chance meeting with pitching star Matty Christheson (get it?) results in a plan: the widower will put together a baseball nine to challenge Matty’s club, with the latter player assuring Tupper “I’ll see that you win.” This leads to the main comic sequence on the ball field that ultimately results in Tupper’s inept team completing a ninth-inning comeback, thanks to the widower’s improbably home run. This victory fails to bring about Miss Whipple’s full affections, but Tupper lucks into a fortuitous rescue of the spinster, saving her from the clutches of Jack Zinn, an insane baseball player who had just escaped from a mental institution. This heroism does the trick and Tupper and Whipple embrace. A rather unnecessary side plot running throughout the movie (you have to fill 30 minutes somehow) involves Tupper’s two daughters and the young men with whom they elope.

How popular was John Bunny? Well, after the initial introduction of his character, the intertitles generaly dispensed with the charade of using his character’s name, instead simply referring to him as “Bunny.”

Beyond Bunny, the film’s only other actor of note is Flora Finch who plays the role of the wealthy Miss Rachel Whipple. Bunny and Finch worked together in anywhere from 100 to 160 films (source differ) during the early 1910s.

The first baseball scene of interest occurs about six minutes into the film when Miss Whipple’s automobile arrives at the ballpark. The baseball action, as we will see, was shot at Brooklyn’s Washington Park, a brand new, steel and concrete stadium, which replaced the old wooden park (also known as Washington Park) that stood on the same lot. Here we see the exterior of the park:

I am aware of very few pictures showing the new Washington Park from the outside. Here’s one that shows the park as it was being built. Comparing the photo to the movie still, one can see the same ticket booth as well as some other matching features.

About seven minutes into the movie we see Miss Whipple in her grandstand seat. Tupper sits down in the same row and eventually moves his way right next to her.

This scene was also shot at Washington Park, home of the Federal League Brooklyn Tip-Tops. According to an article in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle of July 22, 1914:

Yesterday morning [Brooklyn Tip-Tops] Manager [Bill] Bradley had his charges out bright and early at Washington Park and put them through a long hitting practice preparatory to opening the all-important series with Chicago, which begins this afternoon. Many a ball was lost during the workout in being driven over the right field wall, to the edification of the several hundred movie actors and actresses who sat in the stand waiting for a scenario in which they were showing to get under way.

Thus it appears that most of the scenes of fans in the grandstand were shot on July 21, 1914, an open date for the Brooklyn Tip-Tops.

The Federal League game action takes place next and there are basically four distinct sequences that are presented.

First Real Game Sequence

The first real game sequence takes place about 7½ minutes into the film. Here we see a high wall in right field, the scoreboard in center, and the bleachers in left: all perfectly matching the configuration of Brooklyn’s Washington Park in both 1914 and 1915. And the large advertisement on the right field wall (seen prominently later in the movie) reads “Ward’s Tip-Top Bread,” the company run by club owner Robert Ward.

While the quality of the footage is rather poor, a careful review of the game action shows a right-handed pitcher with a dark cap and all-dark stockings delivering the ball with no men on base. A right-handed batter with a light-colored cap and two-tone stockings grounds the ball up the middle. The second baseman goes to his left, makes a nice pick-up, fires to first, and apparently retires the batter-runner.

What can be made of the uniform information? First, the home club Brooklyn Tip-Tops wore uniforms with dark caps and all dark stockings in 1914. (Actually, the stockings were dark blue with a red stripe, but on film the difference between these colors cannot be discerned so the stockings simply appear dark.) Thus, Brooklyn is the team in the field in this first sequence.

Second, we know that the road club is the one that wore the light colored cap and two-toned stockings. As it turns out, five of the eight Federal League clubs wore such uniforms on the road in 1914: Chicago, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis.

Second Real Game Sequence

After a cut to the stands, action returns to the field, where it appears the sides have now switched, Brooklyn at bat and the visitors in the field. 

The pitcher (a right-hander) wears a light-colored cap and two-tone stockings and the batter (a lefty) wears a dark cap and all-dark stockings. Two pitches are delivered in this sequence, the batter taking the first one and swinging and missing at the second.

Third Real Game Sequence

After yet another cut to the actors in the stands in which Tupper gets into a brief fight with another fan, a third on-field sequence takes place. 

As with the second sequence, the pitcher wears a light cap, but now the batter (in a dark cap) is right-handed and there is a runner is on first base. We see three pitches delivered. On the third pitch the runner on first takes off for second, but apparently the pitch was called a ball, and the batter trots to first.

Fourth Real Game Sequence

Yet another cut to the grandstand is followed by a fourth sequence on the field.

In the movie clip above we see a left-handed batter with a light cap bats against a right-handed pitcher with a dark cap. So we’ve returned to Brooklyn in the field and the visitors at bat. The batter connects for a hit to left field. There are runners on first and third and both score as the batter-runner sprints toward third base. However, after a brief cut back to the grandstand, we see the batter-runner head back to second, apparently changing his mind about going for a triple.

Fictional Game Footage

About ten minutes later, the next in-park sequences take place. This is the scene in which Tupper and his team play baseball against Matty Christheson’s club. While the actor who portrays Christheson is on the mound, the rest of his team is apparently comprised of members of the Tip-Tops.

At one point during this fictional game, we see Bunny coaching first base:

In the background we can see the bottom of the center field scoreboard. Here’s a detail from the clip above:

Though a bit difficult to discern, careful review of the footage shows the following partial line scores:

NEW YORK   2 0 2 0 0
PITTSBURGH 0 1 0 0 0

CHICAGO  0 0
NEW YORK 0 0

Also visible at the very bottom of the scoreboard are the words “ST. LOUIS HERE” with some undecipherable words that follow. This suggests that the next club scheduled to visit Brooklyn would be the Federal League St. Louis Terriers.

A review of big league game scores from 1914 reveals only one date in which the partial line scores on the scoreboard match up with actual game line scores: Saturday, July 25, 1914. On that day, the Giants beat the Pirates 4-2, with Christy Mathewson (yes, the real Christy Mathewson) earning the victory. The full line score was:

NEW YORK   2 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 X
PITTSBURGH 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0

And the White Sox topped the Yankees 1-0 (in 13 innings) with the following line score:

CHICAGO  0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
NEW YORK 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Additionally, the next series that Brooklyn would host started two days later, July 27, against the Federal League St. Louis Terriers.

So far, all signs point to the fictional game being filmed at Washington Park on July 25. But the Tip-Tops hosted a doubleheader against Chicago that day. How could they make time for a movie shoot? No. It is more likely that the Tupper vs. Christeson game was shot the following day (an off-day for Brooklyn), with the partial line scores from the previous day’s games left on the scoreboard as they were.

With filming of the fans taking place on July 21 and the fictional game most likely on July 26, it seems likely that the real game action was shot at around the same time. Brooklyn’s schedule during their 15-game home stand in late July reads: Chicago July 22, 23, 24, and 25 (doubleheader); St. Louis July 27, 29, 30 (doubleheader); Indianapolis July 31, August 1, 3; Kansas City August 4, 5, 6.

Now, of the four real game sequences detailed above, only the final one provides enough details to reasonably find an exact match to a play. As a review, a lefty visiting batter faces a right-handed visiting pitcher with men on first and third. The batter hits a double to left, scoring both runners.

I began “fishing” by looking in box scores for any game in the home stand noted above in which a lefty visiting batter had at least one double and two RBI. I found that happened three times:

• July 23: Chicago’s Dutch Zwilling had a double and two RBI
• July 25 (game two of doubleheader): Chicago’s Jim Stanley had a double and two RBI
• August 4: Kansas City’s Duke Kenworthy had a double and 2 RBI

Next I examined these three possibilities closer. I eliminated Dutch Zwilling’s double on July 23, because he also had a home run that day. This means that at least one of his RBI came on his homer, and thus he couldn’t have driven in two runs with his double. And while Duke Kenworthy’s double in the August 4th game did indeed score two runners, one of these runners was injured at the plate. But in the footage, we see both runners score without incident. This leaves only Jim Stanley’s double of July 25th’s second game. Here’s the play-by-play of the top of the sixth inning as reported in the Brooklyn Standard Union the following day. With Brooklyn’s right-handed pitcher Happy Finneran on the mound ...

[Harry] Fritz struck out. [Jack] Farrell was hit by a pitched ball. [Mike] Prendergast singled to right. [Austin] Walsh singled to right, scoring Farrell. Stanley doubled to left, scoring Pendergast and Walsh.

The scenario matches perfectly with the fourth sequence that we see in “Hearts and Diamonds.”

What about the third sequence? Did it occur in either game of July 25? Recapping the details: With a runner on first, a right-handed visiting pitcher walked a right-handed Brooklyn batter. Unsurprisingly, this not-too-uncommon scenario occurred twice that day. We are seeing one of the following two instances:

• In the first game, in the bottom of the fifth, with Grover Land on first and Tom McGuire pitching, Tom Seaton walked.
• In the second game, in the bottom of the fourth, with Steve Evans on first and Mike Pendergast pitching, Solly Hofman walked.

In hindsight, and from a practical point of view, it makes sense that Vitagraph would film on a day in which a doubleheader was scheduled. Why spend a day shooting just one game, when you can spend the same day shooting two?

In summary, “Hearts and Diamonds” featured three types of baseball footage, all shot at Brooklyn’s Washington Park: Scenes of fans in the stands, scenes of a fictional game, and scenes of a real game. Most, if not all, of the fan shots were taken on July 21, 1914, an open date on Brooklyn’s schedule. The fictional game footage was almost certainly shot on July 26, 1914, another opening date for the Tip-Tops. And the real game footage was filmed during the Chicago vs. Brooklyn doubleheader of July 25, 1914.

A Second Look at the Illustrations in "Our National Game"

In early 1887, Liebenroth, Von Auw & Company, publishers of blank books, produced what is now one of the most sought-after of 19th-century baseball collectibles, a scrapbook titled “Our National Game.”



The earliest notice of the scrapbook can be found in the March 3, 1887 issue of “The American Stationer.”





The book was apparently produced in two different sizes, 11" × 14" and 12" × 15", and contained around two dozen blank pages. The title page features an illustration of a baseball club, and interspersed throughout the rest of the scrapbook are five additional color lithographs depicting baseball action. Each drawing bears its own title: “Home Run, “Foul Ball,” “Wild Pitch,” “Caught Between Bases,” and “Fly Ball.”













On April 17, 1887, the day after both the National League and American Association celebrated their season openers, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle made note of the scrapbook:

A New York publishing firm have [sic] just published a pretty base ball scrap book containing pictures of the base ball grounds at St. George, Staten Island and Washington Park. It is well adapted for baseball picture collections.

The suggestion that the pictures in “Our National Game” depicted actual ballparks was news to me, so I thought I’d take a closer look at the images to see if they really do match up with these ball parks.

St. George Grounds, Staten Island

The St. George Grounds on Staten Island (not to be confused with St. George’s Cricket Grounds in Hoboken, New Jersey) was home to the Metropolitan Club of the old American Association in 1886 and 1887, and was the site of nearly two dozen games for the National League’s New York Giants during the 1889 season. I am aware of only two images of the park. The first is a woodcut published in Harper’s Weekly of May 15, 1886:



The second image of the park is an advertisement promoting the park's “Fairyland” concerts, water fireworks, and illuminated geysers for the summer of 1886.



Not only is this latter image simply gorgeous, but in the background one can distinctly see the Statue of Liberty, which would not be officially dedicated until October 28, 1886.

Washington Park, Brooklyn

I discuss Washington Park (the first of a number of ballparks of the same name) in my blog post titled “There Used to Be a Ballpark Right Here - Washington Park.” Home to big league baseball in Brooklyn from 1884 to 1890, the park had a number of distinctive features, two of which are worth pointing out here. One is that the park was located in a deep basin such that the ground just inside the outfield walls sloped up drastically towards the fences at ground level. This unique characteristic can be clearly seen in this illustration from an 1886 baseball board game:



The other feature of note is that a large archway is visible at the back of the stands, behind and just to the first base side of home plate. It can be seen in the background of this illustration published in the January 24, 1884, issue of Harper's Weekly:



... and in this photograph taken at the park on May 30, 1887:

Comparing Pictures

Notice that the scrapbook images titled “Home Run,” “Foul Ball,” and “Wild Pitch” all show ballparks with sloped outfield grounds topped by tall fences. These match quite well with what is seen in the board game illustration of Washington Park. Furthermore, the distinctive arch of Washington Park can be seen in the background of the scrapbook picture titled “Fly Ball.” Clearly these four scrapbook illustrations were based upon Washington Park, though the hills and buildings beyond the fences are assuredly the result of artistic license.

The scrapbook picture titled “Caught Between Bases” does not show the ground sloping up toward an outfield fence. Instead, there appear to be fans gathered behind a low fence in the outfield. Beyond the low fence there appears to be a stone wall topped by a taller fence. This outfield configuration does not match what we see in the board game illustration of Washington Park. Perhaps, as suggested by the Brooklyn Daily Eagle article, this picture shows the outfield at St. George Grounds? With no known images of the outfield configuration at that park, it is hard to make this claim with any certainty.

There Used to Be a Ballpark Right Here - Washington Park

Recently, I was contacted by three gurus of baseball board game collecting: Butch, Kerm and Win (they wish to remain otherwise anonymous). The trio of passionate collector/historians run a web site devoted to this niche hobby, and in the past have helped me with a number of research requests. This time, however, they came to me with a question ... one which led me to write this post, the third installment of my "There Used to Be a Ballpark Right Here" series.

They were curious about a game produced in 1886 titled, simply, "The Game of Base Ball."


The Strong National Museum of Play

Published by McLoughlin Brothers, the leading board game manufacturer of the 19th and early 20th centuries, the game was made available in two versions: a high-end model, complete with hand-painted metal ballplayer tokens, and a low-cost model called "Home Base Ball."

Specifically, Butch, Kerm and Win wanted to know more about the artwork found on the game board of the low-end version:



They alerted me to an advertisement they found for the game in a McLoughlin Brothers catalog from 1886:



Intrigued by the statement that "the design is an accurate picture of one of our leading Base-Ball grounds," Butch, Kerm and Win asked if I happened to know what park it might be? Or did I think that the catalog description was mere hyperbole and the image simply a fictional, generic ballpark, the whim of one of McLoughlin Brothers' many talented artists?

These were great questions, so I decided to research the problem.

Working under the assumption that the illustration was indeed of an actual ballpark, I took a close look at the specific characteristics depicted.

First, the presence of numerous buildings and smokestacks beyond the outfield walls implied an urban setting. Second, the field appears to well-below ground level, as massive, sloping banks are seen in the outfield. And third, while only a small portion of the seating area is seen, what little there is shows a single-deck structure of a rather simple construction.

All three characteristics suggested one likely ballpark: Brooklyn's Washington Park. There have actually been a few ballparks in Brooklyn named Washington Park, but the park that fits the bill was the first to bear the name. That first version of Washington Park was home to Brooklyn big league baseball from 1884 to 1890.

Brooklyn, of course, satisfies the first characteristic: an urban setting. Bounded on the west and east by 4th and 5th Avenues, and north and south by 3rd and 5th Streets, the park was situated in a deep basin that some historians claim to have been over two dozen feet below street level. In fact, in the winter the outfield slopes of the park lent themselves perfectly to tobogganing. The following note was published in the New York Times of November 11, 1886:

TOBOGGANING IN BROOKLYN.
Washington Park, Brooklyn, presents many facilities for a good toboggan slide. The ground lies many feet below the surface of the roadway, making it easy to construct a slide with a great declination. President [Charles] Byrne, one of the lessees of the park and manager of the Brooklyn Baseball Club, has had plans drawn for an 18-foot slide, to start from the Fifth-avenue entrance to the ground. The incline will stop at the home plate, about 180 feet. The distance then to the end of the ground would be another 520 feet. Should the project be carried through three slides will be made and extra facilities will be introduced by which they will be saved the trouble of tugging their sleighs back up the hill.

At other times during the off-season, the park was partially flooded for ice-skating. The following woodcut titled "Base-Ball on Skates, Washington Park, Brooklyn" was published in the January 24, 1884 issue of Harper's Weekly:



Take a close look at the background of the woodcut and you can see wooden walls situated atop a steep incline, not unlike those seen in the image on the baseball game board. This incarnation of Washington Park clearly satisfies the second characteristic.

Alas, there are very few images of the park that show its grandstand. This one, from a May 30, 1887, doubleheader pitting the Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers against the St. Louis Browns, was taken from deep right field:



... and this one (quite possible from the same day) from deep left field:



The first image (taken from right field) reveals that the grandstand on the third-base-side has a single deck, thus satisfying the third characteristic of the image on the game board.

Though I was not able to track down any other large overview images of the park, a few images showing details from the ballpark can be found ... if you know where to look. In 1888, Joseph Hall took a number of photographs of baseball clubs at the ballpark. He seated the ball players near the end of the third-base-side grandstand for their portraits. For example, here are the St. Louis Browns of the old American Association:



Now compare this cabinet card with the top photograph of Washington Park. The red arrow points out the corner of the grandstand that can be seen in both images:



This "Old Judge" tobacco card of Brooklyn third baseman George Pinkney is one of a number of such cards taken in 1887 that show one of the grassy slopes at the sunken ballpark. Apparently, some seating was even built into the incline, though this is not seen in the game board picture.



Despite the fact that there are very few images of this first version of Washington Park, there's little question that the picture on the "Home Base Ball" game board depicts that very Brooklyn ballpark.