Some Baseball Cards and the Photographs Upon Which They Were Based

Many baseball cards of the first half of the 20th century featured illustrations of ballplayers that were based upon actual photographs. Here are just a few.

White Border (T206) Hal Chase (Holding Trophy)

This card of Hal Chase was based upon an image shot by legendary baseball photographer Charles Conlon. The picture of the talented first baseman was captured at New York’s Hilltop Park on May 3, 1909. For more about this Chase card (pun intended) and the silver “loving cup” he is holding, refer to my blog posting of November 2009.

Turkey Red (T3) Jordan and Herzog

This card issued in 1910 shows Brooklyn’s Tim Jordan and Giants base runner Buck Herzog in a play at first base. The card’s beautiful artwork was based upon a photograph of the two ballplayers taken at New York’s Polo Grounds in 1908.

Cracker Jack (E145) Butch Schmidt

Boston Braves first baseman Charles “Butch” Schmidt is seen leaping high for a catch on this baseball card produced in 1914. The photograph the card was based on was taken during spring training at Atlanta’s Ponce De Leon Park, in either 1913 or 1914.

Goudey (R319) Babe Ruth

The 1933 Goudey (R319) set features four cards of Babe Ruth. Three of these cards, including the card seen here (number 144), were based on a 1927 photograph taken by Charles Conlon at Yankee Stadium.

Goudey (R319) Lou Gehrig

Perhaps the same day that Conlon captured the above image of Ruth, the photographer also took the picture of Lou Gehrig that was used as the basis of both of his two 1933 Goudey (R319) cards, numbers 92 (seen here) and 160.

Play Ball (R336) Ted Williams

This 1941 baseball card of Ted Williams features a portrait of the Red Sox star that was based on a picture taken by another great of the baseball photography world: George Brace. The Brace photo, shot in 1939 (note the barely visible edge of the “Baseball Centennial” patch on Ted’s left sleeve), was also the basis of his 1940 “Play Ball” (R335) card.

Bowman 1951 Mickey Mantle

This baseball card of rookie Mickey Mantle features wonderful artwork that was based on a photograph of the future Yankees star taken at Phoenix’s Municipal Stadium during spring training of 1951. The story behind this photo is detailed in my blog post of February of 2016.

Some Very Fortunate Footage

A few months ago, I learned of the stunning archival holdings at the University of South Carolina's Moving Image Research Collections. Thanks to the invaluable help of Production Manager Ben Singleton, I had the chance to review some amazing baseball footage, part of the Fox Movietone News outtakes that were donated to USC back in the early 1980s.

When you think about it, this collection of footage is doubly rare. Certainly, very few people have seen the film today. But, since this footage didn't make the cut for the original Movietone News reels shot in the 1920s and '30s, it is likely that few beyond a handful of editors actually saw this footage back in the day.

Given my interest in baseball history, I was entranced by most every frame I viewed, but I was especially fascinated by some footage marked A7378 to A7382. The date associated with the footage was noted as June 1, 1925, but my experience researching some other footage in the collection taught me that these dates did not necessarily correspond with the date the film was shot. For example, different footage (A4510) marked "November 7, 1924" clearly showed Babe Ruth at Washington Park in Los Angeles. But Ruth's appearance there was on October 27, not November 7, 1924.

The footage marked A7378 to A7382 starts with a batter taking his cuts at the plate:



There's no question about the identity of the man with the bat. His powerful upper body, his grip at the very end of the bat (unusual for the time), his distinctive stance and swing. It's clearly Babe Ruth. The Babe is wearing Yankee pinstripes, so going on the tentative assumption that action is from June 1, 1925, this would imply the game took place at Yankee Stadium.

Now let's take a closer look at the opposition catcher:



Note that he wears two-toned stockings, an all dark cap (backwards under his mask), an all-gray uniform and his left sleeve is adorned with a small dark emblem of some sort. That description matches the road uniform of just one American League club during the entire decade of the 1920s: the Washington Senators of 1924 and 1925. Here's baseball researcher Marc Okkonen's drawing of that uniform, as found at the National Baseball Hall of Fame's online exhibit Dressed to the Nines:



After a number of pitches, Ruth finally hits a fair ball and begins running towards first. As the camera follows him towards first, he slows down, turns towards the third base line and heads to the Yankees' dugout, obviously having grounded out to end the inning. As he starts across the diamond, the pitcher for the Senators heads towards the first-base visitors dugout. His lanky form is unmistakably that of pitching legend Walter Johnson.



Certainly Ruth faced Johnson a number of times at Yankee Stadium in 1924 and 1925, but thanks to Dave Smith of retrosheet.org, I was able to confirm that the footage was indeed from June 1, 1925. First, it was easy to verify that Washington played at New York on June 1, 1925. Second, play-by-play from that game corroborated perfectly with action from the at bat captured in the footage.

Ruth came to the plate three times in the game. His first at bat occurred in the second inning as he led off with a grounder to Johnson. Since it was the first out of the inning, it was not this plate appearance that we see in the Movietone outtake. His second time up came in the fourth inning and resulted in a walk. Also not a match.

Ruth's final trip to the plate came with one out in the sixth inning, with teammate Earle Combs already on first base. According to the play-by-play account, Ruth grounded out to second base. This matches nicely with what we see in the footage. But it is another part of the at bat that ultimately convinced me that we're seeing action from the June 1 game.

At one point in the footage, with the count 2-and-1 on Ruth, we see the Senators catcher receive a pitch from Johnson (ball three) and then quickly fire the ball toward the infield. His throw is nothing like his normal, leisurely tosses back to Johnson. It is clearly a throw to second base. This corroborates perfectly with the play-by-play from the June 1 contest which notes that, during Ruth's at bat, Combs tried to steal second, but was retired: catcher Muddy Ruel throwing to shortstop Roger Peckinpaugh for the putout. A perfect match between footage and play-by-play. There's no question that we're seeing Ruth's sixth-inning at bat on June 1, 1925.

One key to dating early baseball footage is to ask oneself, "For what reason did the news service want to cover what we're seeing?" Unlike the situation today, where it seems that everyone and everything is captured on video all the time, in these earlier days, a conscious decision was made before sending a cameraman and equipment out on assignment. But what was so special about this June 1, 1925, game that footage would be wanted? Why cover this contest?

For the answer, we need to look back to early March of that year. As was often the case throughout his career, Ruth fell ill during spring training. However, this time his sickness was much worse than usual. The Babe was hospitalized and ultimately required surgery. Rumor had it that the Babe had serious digestive problems, brought upon by overeating, but this was a charge that Ruth himself denied. Nevertheless, sportswriters quickly dubbed the illness "The Bellyache Heard 'Round the World." The result was that the Yankees lost their star (and biggest drawing card) for the first month and a half of the season. Given that Ruth was the most dominant player of his day, most anything Ruthian was worth capturing on film. But it was simply a "no brainer" to send a cameraman over to Yankee Stadium in the spring of 1925 to cover Ruth's first game back after a long, serious illness.

Footage of Babe Ruth's first game back in 1925 is interesting, but perhaps not worth blogging about. However, it was not this portion of the film that excited me. Instead, it was other footage, shot earlier that same day, that caught my attention. This pre-game footage showed Ruth taking batting practice, tossing the ball around and posing for the camera in front of the Yankees dugout. Here's are a pair of frames from this section of footage:





Behind Ruth, at far left, is a familiar Yankees player: Lou Gehrig. The previous season, Lou had a breakout year with Hartford of the Eastern League, batting.369 with 37 homers in 134 games. But at the moment we see Lou on the bench behind Ruth, Gehrig had played just 11 games with the 1925 Yankees, posting a meager .174 average while seeing intermittent action as an outfielder and pinch-hitter.

That afternoon, just two innings after Ruth's ground out had been captured on film, Gehrig was sent to pinch-hit for shortstop Pee Wee Wanninger. Lou flied out to Goose Goslin in left field.  But more importantly, it was the first game in which he had participated in four days. The next day, Gehrig started at first base, went 3-for-5 at the plate, and didn't take another day off until May 2, 1939.

In short, not only does the footage capture Ruth's return to the Yanks in 1925, but it also gives us a glimpse of Lou Gehrig on the very day he began his famous streak of 2,130 straight games played, a mark that remained unbroken for well over half a century. In hindsight, some very fortunate footage shot by a very lucky Fox Movietone cameraman.

---

Update of March 25, 2014:

Thanks to Ben Singleton at University of South Carolina's Moving Image Research Collections, here's a portion of the historic footage discussed above. The first scene is Ruth's sixth-inning at bat that, by comparing to the play-by-play data, helped confirm the date of June 1, 1925. The second scene shows Ruth outside the Yankees dugout prior to the game. The final scene shows Ruth in the dugout, with Lou Gehrig in the background at far left. Enjoy.

---

Update of October 10, 2018:

For the final scene in the footage above, I had previously misidentified the player behind Ruth in the dugout and at far right (see blue arrow below) as Earle Combs. In fact, the player is Wally Pipp, ironically the very Yankees first baseman whose job was taken over by Lou Gehrig!

A Yankee Stadium Mystery: Rare Footage of Babe Ruth and the Puzzling Panorama of a Packed Park

Back in October of 2009, New York Times reporter John Branch broke a story about some newly discovered footage of Babe Ruth. The "never-before-seen" film was found in a collection of home movies belonging to an unnamed individual in New Hampshire and ultimately ended up at Major League Baseball's Film and Video Archive. The folks there suspected that the footage dated from 1928 and, according to archivist Frank Caputo, guessed that "it could be a world series game, could be opening day, maybe a holiday, July fourth?" But, as noted in a video accompanying the Times article, "the archivists are still trying to pin down the exact date of the footage."

Soon after the story came out, I decided to take a crack at solving the mystery.

Of course, it was simple to confirm that the location seen in the footage was Yankee Stadium. Not only do shots showing its structure match perfectly to the well-known stadium, but the Yanks are wearing their familiar pinstripes. That part was a piece of cake.

Next, I needed to establish the correct year of the photograph. Outfield advertisements can often be helpful in dating baseball images. They generally change every season (sometimes multiple times within a season) and can act as chronological "finger prints" that are uniquely associated with a particular year. (Outfield advertisements at New York's Polo Grounds were instrumental in solving a mystery in my blog titled "Take Me Out to the Ball Game Polo Grounds.")

Here is a frame from the new footage showing some of the outfield advertisements beyond the left field bleachers.



Alas, the sun is shining brightly on the walls, washing out many of the distinctive graphics. Still, take a look at the picture below, taken during Game Three of the 1928 World Series and published the following day in the Hartford Courant. While the quality of this halftone image is not great, careful examination shows that the outfield advertisements match those seen in the still from the footage:



While this comparison was helpful, I hoped to find a higher quality photo that would show the exact same advertisements as seen in the footage. I turned my eyes to this magnificent photograph from the collection of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum:



The panoramic image, shot by the Cosmo Foto Service, is actually a composite of three separate photographs, each "seamed" together to make a single, large-format picture. The process is less elegant than the stunning images made by special panoramic cameras (see my blog titled "Nix Flicks Sticks in Box for Sox in Rox"), but it is still an effective way to create a dramatic print.

According to the caption written contemporaneously on the front of the photograph, the image was taken at the 1928 World Series between the Yankees and the Cardinals. Since the outfield ads matched those seen in both the Hartford Courant and the footage, my initial reaction was that the panorama confirmed the year as 1928. But after a closer look, I began to worry ... not about the year, but about the claim that it pictured action from the World Series.

An article in the Washington Post published the day after the first World Series game at Yankee Stadium that season stated that "the grand stand tiers were bedecked in bright bunting and the national colors in much more profusion than ever before." But the panorama showed the famed park devoid of the traditional decorative bunting.

Furthermore, when I examined the player closest to the camera, the right fielder, I saw that he was wearing a uniform inconsistent with what the Yankees or the Cardinals wore during the 1928 World Series:

Note that the player's cap, pants and jersey are light-colored and his stockings are dark-colored with two white stripes. Now take a look at this photograph of Cardinals manager Bill McKechnie and Yankees skipper Miller Huggins posing at Yankee Stadium during the World Series:


New York Yankees History

Huggins and the Yankees wore pinstriped uniforms with dark caps and dark stockings ... quite different from the outfit worn by the left fielder. McKechnie and the Cardinals also wore pinstripes, and their stockings are nearly the opposite of those worn by the left fielder: light colored with multiple dark stripes.

In short, the player in left field was neither a Yankee nor a Cardinal, and the park was not decked out for an occasion such as the World Series. And yet the shot is certainly from 1928, as the outfield ads matched those seen in the 1928 Hartford Courant photo. What was the scoop?

In 1928 only one major league club wore road uniforms consistent with that worn by the right fielder: light-colored uniform and cap, and dark-colored stockings with a pair of white stripes. That club was the Philadelphia Athletics. Here are drawings of the uniform worn by the 1928 Athletics from the National Baseball Hall of Fame's online exhibit, Dressed to the Nines:



For this reason, it seemed likely that the team in the field as seen in the panorama was the Athletics.  Embracing this theory, I set out to see if I could come up with an exact date for the image.

The Athletics played 11 games at Yankee Stadium in 1928. Checking attendance records for each of these games, I found that only one date attracted the astounding crowd seen in the panoramic: a doubleheader played on September 9. On that day a record 85,625 fans packed Yankee Stadium. All signs point to the panorama capturing the scene at Yankee Stadium that very day.

Why did so many fans attend that game? Well, first of all, it was a Sunday doubleheader. And secondly, there was the very real feeling that the Sunday twin-bill (along with the subsequent two games of the four-game series) would have a major impact on just which club would advance to the post-season. The A's entered the day with a half-game lead over the Yankees, but after losing both games of the doubleheader and splitting the last two contests, Philadelphia left the Bronx trailing by 1.5 games. As the Yanks went 10-5 over their remaining 15 games and the A's posted an 8-5 mark in their final contests, one could argue that the four-game set was indeed the difference-maker in the pennant chase.

Taking another look at the mislabeled panoramic, I noted that the shadows were quite short. Thus, the photographs making up the panoramic image were assuredly taken early during the first game of the doubleheader. The second game can also be eliminated as a possibility since lefty Rube Walberg pitched the first 6.2 innings of that contest and the pitcher in the panoramic is right-handed:



With the date and game nailed down, a look at the box score revealed just who was in the field for the A's. On the mound was Jack Quinn who, at 45 years of age, was the oldest player in big league baseball. Catching the veteran moundsman was Mickey Cochrane, who ultimately earned the Most Valuable Player Award that season. Around the infield was Jimmie Foxx at first, Max Bishop at second, Jimmy Dykes at third, and Joe Boley at short. And the outfield featured Al Simmons in left, Mule Haas in center, and Bing Miller (whose stockings were so helpful in researching the photo) in right.

Just why the panorama was misidentified is not known, but I suspect that the folks selling the picture figured it would sell better if they passed it off as a World Series game, instead of a regular season contest.

Having gotten significantly sidetracked clearing up the misinformation written on the front of the panorama, I returned my attention to the newly discovered footage and the parade of batters captured on film.

Early in the footage, a left-handed batter is seen swinging and running to first. The stride and follow-through is unmistakably that of Yankees legend, Lou Gehrig:



The footage then quickly cuts to another unmistakable lefty at the plate: Babe Ruth. Interestingly, in this same scene, we see Gehrig (far left), who had failed to reach base just moments earlier, returning to the Yankees dugout:



However, the narrator of the New York Times video states that "Lou Gehrig waits on deck as the great Bambino strikes out."

Wait a second. How could Gehrig be waiting on deck when he just completed his at bat and is seen returning to the dugout? Here's how: That isn't Lou Gehrig waiting on deck!

Sure, throughout their careers together, Gehrig almost always followed Ruth in the batting order: Ruth batting third and Gehrig batting cleanup. But, in this particular footage, that just wasn't the case.

It's not clear who misidentified the on-deck batter, the folks at the New York Times or the folks at MLB Productions, but even though the quality of the video is rather poor, one can tell the on-deck batter is taller and leaner than Gehrig. More about that fellow in a moment.

At this point I had established that the action in the film took place at Yankee Stadium in 1928 and that Gehrig batted ahead of Ruth. A quick check at the always-useful retrosheet.org web site revealed that manager Miller Huggins flip-flopped Gehrig and Ruth in the batting order for a stretch of some four weeks near the end of the season: from August 25 (starting in the second game of the double-header) to September 20.

Here's what was reported in the New York Times the day after the of August 25 doubleheader:

After our boys, in the first game, had given one of the most terrible exhibitions ever seen of bad pitching  puny hitting and general indolence, Miller James Huggins instituted the most drastic shake-up of the last several years.

What Miller James did to the batting order between games was nobody's business. He took it apart to see what made it tick and then threw the pieces together in a very careless manner.

The one and only Babe Ruth was dropped from third to fourth place. Henry Gehrig ascended from fourth to third, Joseph Dugan was made lead-off man, Combs fell to second and Mark Koenig landed with a sickening thud in sixth. To make matters unanimous Tony Lazzeri was benched and [Leo] Durocher played second base.

One of the few Yankees to be unaffected by the line-up reshuffling was the man who batted fifth: Bob Meusel. He remained in that spot during Huggins' late-season switcheroo. Indeed, that's the 6' 3" Meusel seen waiting on deck during Ruth's at bat in the footage, not the 6' 0" Gehrig. Here's another frame from the film, showing "Long Bob" Meusel (at left) leaning on his bat as Babe Ruth stands at home, clearly upset that he was called out on strikes:



At this point, I had made good progress with the footage, determining that it was shot sometime between August 25 and September 28, 1928. I next took a closer look at the opposing team's catcher. Here's a still from the footage:



We can determine the following about his uniform: the crown of his cap is light-colored and his stockings are dark-colored from knee to shoe, possibly with light-colored stripes. This combination of cap and stockings was worn by only one American League club on the road in 1928. That club was none other than the Philadelphia Athletics.

The Athletics played just four games at Yankee Stadium during the time-period noted above: the doubleheader of September 9, and games on September 11 and 12.

Hold on! Is it possible that the film footage was taken on the same day as the mislabeled panoramic picture? Certainly the massive crowd shown in the footage points to that date, but I wondered if there might be a way to tell for sure that they matched. Happily, I found a way.

I decided to overlay a still from the footage (below) on the panoramic picture. Both images show the crowd down the third base line.



Despite the fact that the cameras shot action from significantly different angles, I was able to align the images such that the gates at the bottom of stairways (see arrows) were aligned perfectly:



Note that some of the fans in the front row have draped clothing atop or over the railing. While the still from the footage is much blurrier than the photograph, I was able to match the shadows created by the clothing (see arrows). Take a look:



There's really no question about it. The footage and the panoramic picture were both shot at Yankee Stadium during the first game of a doubleheader against the Philadelphia Athletics on September 9, 1928. In fact, reviewing play-by-play of the game, the action captured in the film fits perfectly (and only) with what occurred in the bottom of the fourth inning. After Mark Koenig led off the frame with a single to left field, Gehrig popped out to second. Ruth then struck out, after which Meusel flied to center. No other sequence in the game matches what we see in the footage.

I found additional corroboration of these findings in a Boston Globe story published the day after the game:

When the Yankees came up again, Koenig snapped out a sprightly single to left but Gehrig popped out to Bishop. Ruth fanned again and Meusel flied out to Haas. The canny Quinn pitched low and outside to the Babe, to prevent a rightfield catastrophe. The Babe was considerably peeved when the third strike was called and threw his bat toward the stands, narrowly missing [New York City mayor] Jimmy Walker.

To bad the footage didn't stay on Ruth a bit longer so we could witness his bat throwing tantrum. Oh, well. At least now the mystery has been solved.

By the way, back in 2009, Keith Olbermann also came to the conclusion that the footage came from the September 9, 1928, doubleheader. Both of our work was featured in John Branch's follow-up New York Times article.

Finally, if you're interested in obtaining a copy of the rare 1928 panoramic image, don't hesitate to contact John Horne in the Hall of Fame's Photo Department (jhorne@baseballhall.org).

The Diamond Anniversary of a Diamond Gem

On June 10, 1989, the United States Postal Service issued a stamp honoring Lou Gehrig created by artist Bart Forbes.



According to an article in the Chicago Sun-Times of April 16, 1989:

The design of the stamp showing the profile of Gehrig in Yankee pinstripes was taken from a picture owned by Mike Aronstein of New York. The foreground figure of the left-handed slugger is from a 1939 photograph by Herman Seid.

Here's the photo upon which the "foreground figure" was based:


Collection of the National Baseball Library

The photo can also be found at the Getty Images web site. Here is their watermarked version:


Getty Images preview image #82985728

The caption supplied by Getty Images reads as follows:

CHICAGO - 1938. Lou Gehrig whacks a double into left center in a game at Yankee Stadium in 1938. Luke Sewell is the catcher for the opponent White Sox.

So, the Chicago Sun-Times and Getty Images disagree on the year of the image. And the Getty Images caption disagrees with itself, first stating the image is from "CHICAGO," then citing the location of the game as Yankee Stadium. What are we to believe?

First, take a close look at Gehrig's uniform:



Since Gehrig is wearing a jersey with the words "NEW YORK" across the chest (sans pinstripes), this is clearly a road uniform. So the photo is not taken at Yankee Stadium.

Also, a patch can be seen on the left sleeve of Gehrig's jersey. This was a special patch worn by all three New York-based big league clubs (the Yankees, Giants and Dodgers) in 1938 to promote the following year's 1939 World's Fair. Here's a better look at the patch as worn by Lou Chiozza of the Giants:


National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum online exhibit Dressed to the Nines

Having established that the photo was taken in 1938 with the Yankees on the road, what is to be made of the Getty Images claim that the opposing club was the Chicago White Sox? Take a close look at the catcher's stockings:



According to the Dressed to the Nines uniform database, the White Sox of 1938 lived up to their name and wore all-white stockings. In fact, the only major league club whose 1938 home uniforms featured dark-colored stockings with stripes as seen in this photo was the Cleveland Indians. Here's what their uniform looked like in 1938:



Since the catcher is with the Indians with the Yankees on the road, the game must have been played in Cleveland. Thus, it appears that other than the identification of the batter (Gehrig) and the year (1938), the Getty Images caption is completely erroneous.

So, what can we determine about the photo?

According to the Indians' schedule of 1938, the Yankees visited Cleveland on four separate occasions:

• May 22 and 24
• June 21, 22 (doubleheader) and 23
• August 5, 6 and 7
• September 13

One of these dates must be the date of the photograph. But which? One clue that may help is the fact that from 1932 through 1946, the Indians played their home games at two different parks: League Park (also known as Dunn Field) and Cleveland Stadium (also known as Cleveland Municipal Stadium). By determining which park is pictured in our photo, we can narrow down the possible dates that it was taken.

Here's a well-known photograph of Joe DiMaggio hitting in his 56th straight game on July 16, 1941. The game took place at Cleveland's League Park. (His record streak ended the next night, but that game was played at Cleveland Stadium.)



Now compare the DiMaggio image to that of Gehrig:



Note the tarp rolled up in the background behind DiMaggio, as well as the gate in the low wall, just to the right of the left knee of Indians catcher Gene Desautels. Though the photo of DiMaggio photo was taken three seasons after the picture of Gehrig, it is clear that they were taken at the same location: League Park.

Of the ten games played between the Yankees and Indians in Cleveland in 1938, just four took place at League Park. These were the games of May 24, June 21, June 23 and September 13. According to box scores of these games, the following individuals umpired home plate and caught for the Indians:

• May 24: Home plate umpire Harry Geisel and catcher Frankie Pytlak.
• June 21: Home plate umpire Harry Geisel and catcher Rollie Hemsley.
• June 23: Home plate umpire Harry Geisel and catcher Frankie Pytlak.
• September 13: Home plate umpire Joe Rue and catcher Frankie Pytlak.

Here's a close-up of the catcher from the Gehrig photograph:



Now compare this individual's face with that of Frankie Pytlak:


Baseball in Wartime Blog

… and the other potential catcher, Rollie Hemsley:


The Conlon Collection

There's little question that the catcher is Frankie Pytlak, so we can eliminate June 21 from the possible dates.

Now for the umpire:



Is it Harry Geisel?



Or Joe Rue?



Again, it's not tough to identify the umpire as Geisel, so we are now left with two possible dates: Tuesday, May 24 and Thursday, June 23.

Searching newspapers that covered these games, I found the following photo as reproduced in the Cleveland Plain Dealer of June 25, 1938:



Of course the image is not identical, but at first glance it appears that the shot may have been taken just seconds after the photograph used in the stamp. However, despite the graininess of the halftone image, a close look reveals that neither Pytlak nor Gehrig are wearing the dark, long sleeves seen in the other photograph.

Why would the players dress differently for the two games? Take a look at the weather report for the two dates:

• May 24: 12:30 pm — 46 degrees and partly cloudy.
• June 23: 12:30 pm — 77 degrees and clear.

It would make sense that long-sleeved undergarments would be appropriate for the May 24th game, not the game of June 23rd. So, all signs point to May 24, though we still have not tracked down the exact same photograph used for the stamp.

As luck would have it, the photograph we're examining is in the photo collection of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, and was donated to the institution by a gentleman named Carl Seid. Carl was the son of Herman Seid, a longtime photographer for the Cleveland Press. Undoubtedly, the Gehrig photo was taken by Herman Seid. Indeed, a number of sources on the web credit the photograph to Seid, pictured below in 1954:


Cleveland Memory

Just two days before the Gehrig photograph was taken, in an Indians-Yankees game at Cleveland Stadium, the "Iron Horse" had rapped a long double to right-center field in the top of the sixth. As he headed into second, Gehrig felt a sharp pain in his back and thigh. He eventually managed to score, but Babe Dahlgren replaced him in the bottom of the inning. Rain canceled the game of May 23, but Gehrig came back to start on May 24, playing the entire game and going 1-for-3 with a double and two runs scored in a 9-5 loss to the Indians. Just one week later, back at Yankee Stadium, Gehrig played in his 2,000th straight game.

So, the stamp was based on a photograph of Gehrig taken by Cleveland Press photographer Herman Seid 75 years ago, May 24, 1938, at League Park, as the Indians hosted the Yankees.

The Pride of the Yankees Seeknay

Ever hear the story about the classic movie "The Pride of the Yankees" and how director Sam Wood turned the hopelessly right-handed actor Gary Cooper into a believable version of lefty baseball legend Lou Gehrig? Here's how Jeffrey Meyers related it in his biography of the Hollywood star, Gary Cooper: American Hero:

Since Cooper couldn't hit left-handed, the technicians devised an ingenious method of getting around the problem. They reversed the number on his uniform, had him run to third instead of first base and then reversed the print of the film.

Seems like a plausible way to solve the problem, but an awful lot of work. Like a complicated conspiracy theory, every aspect of the plan would have to have been carefully planned out and perfectly executed:

• every other player in the shot would also have to don backwards uniforms
• the second baseman, third baseman, and shortstop would all have to be left-handers and wear gloves on their right hand
• as for a catcher, they'd have to track down both a left-handed mitt and a lefty to wear it and look believable behind the plate
• the running lane halfway down the first base line would have to be removed, and a mirror version placed down the third base line
• every shot would have to be carefully set up so that, when reversed, there would be nothing to belie the trickery: no outfield advertising, no ballpark features that are non-symmetrical, etc.

So, did it really happen? We'll see. First, let's examine what the newspapers of the day had to say about the story.

On December 31, 1941, just about a month before shooting for the movie began, the following Associated Press story ran in the Atlanta Constitution:

To Frank (Lefty) O'Doul, manager of the San Francisco Seals and former New York Giants outfielder, goes the task of coaching Gary Cooper for his role of Lou Gehrig in the film version of the late Yankee first baseman's career.

O'Doul, retained by Sam Goldwyn as technical adviser on the picture, will have as his first assignment teaching Cooper to throw and bat left-handed.

Then, three weeks later, the following story appeared in the January 21, 1942, issue of the Christian Science Monitor:

"The Pride of the Yankees" is the name of the moving picture based on the life of Lou Gehrig, for which Lefty O'Doul is now teaching Gary Cooper to throw left-handed. O'Doul has Cooper chopping wood, bowling, punching the bag and even tossing pebbles in the southpaw fashion.

Then, another month later, with shooting well underway, the following note appeared in the Hartford Courant of February 24, 1942:

Latest reports from the scene of action are that Gary Cooper, who is playing Lou Gehrig, with no previous experience at base ball, is still too rusty in both left-handed throwing and batting. Coaches are working feverishly to polish off the rough edges.

And, on July 13, 1942, just days prior to the movie opening, Shirley Povich of the Washington Post wrote:

Samuel Goldwyn, who produced "The Pride of the Yankees," the story of Lou Gehrig, did not completely trust Gary Cooper's ability to simulate a left-handed ball player, which, of course, was a prime essential in the script.

A heap of hokum came out of Hollywood concerning the efforts of Lefty O'Doul to teach Cooper how to throw and catch a ball left-handed. O'Doul, the old Giant who is a left-hander himself, was supposed to have converted the right-handed Cooper into some semblance of a southpaw first baseman, but apparently it didn't work out very satisfactorily.

In the "Pride of the Yankees" you'll see Cooper as a left-hander, wearing the first baseman's mitt on his right hand, taking throws pretty well and throwing the ball left-handed. But, chums, it will be an illusion. Everything you see Cooper doing left-handed in the picture, he's actually doing right-handed.

The camera men finally took charge of the job of converting Cooper into a left-hander. They had the valuable assistance of the wardrobe department. The first move was to rip the letters off the Yankee uniform of the cinema Gehrig and sew them on again, this time exactly as they would appear in a mirror-backward.

Then, to complete the illusion, they stationed Cooper not at first base for the fielding shots, but at third base. They let him throw right-handed and take all balls right-handed. Then they reversed all of the negatives, and the effect was complete. The word "SEEKNAY" was transformed into "YANKEES" across the chest of Cooper and his right-handed actions became left-handed in the reversed negatives, and everything worked out beautifully.

Here, Povich states that the film was flipped in order to compensate for Cooper's inability to catch and throw left-handed, making no mention of him batting right-handed and running down the third base line. (Never mind the erroneous assertion that Cooper wore a jersey with the words "YANKEES" (or "SEEKNAY") in the film. The road uniforms used in the movie featured "NEW YORK" across the chest, not "YANKEES.") Nevertheless, even before the movie had been released, some version of the reversal story was already public knowledge.

Before examining the truth behind that story, a couple of words about my research:

First, I examined every scene in the final cut of the movie, as well as a number of publicity stills, for evidence of the film being flipped. However, I cannot vouch for what may have taken place in scenes that ended up on the cutting room floor.

Second, it is important to keep in mind that continuity and accuracy in movies in "the old days" were simply not as important as they are today. A movie released in 1942 was meant to be seen once, maybe twice, in the movie theater. When its run was over ... it was over. Today, a movie has a significant life after its initial release. It is meant to be seen numerous times, not just in the theater, but also on television and at home, via DVD rentals and sales, as well as internet, on-demand delivery. Quite simply, given these multiple viewings, today's film fans are more likely to notice movie gaffs and thus movie-makers pay more attention to continuity and accuracy.

And now, on to the movie.

The first scene we'll examine is about 20 minutes into the film, and features Gary Cooper portraying Gehrig as he takes batting practice while playing for Columbia University.



There are a couple of clues in this scene that suggest that the shot is not reversed. First, notice that Cooper's Columbia jersey buttons together such that the left portion of the shirt placket is on top of the right. In other words, the buttons are attached to the right portion of the shirt and the button holes are on the left portion. This is, and has long been, the common pattern for men's shirts. Unless a special jersey was created that not only had backwards lettering ("AIBMULOC"), but a backwards-buttoning placket, the shot we see here was not reversed. Having the wardrobe department go to the trouble of fashioning a backwards-buttoning jersey would have been wasted effort. With limited viewings, movie-goers simply would never notice or care about the subtlety. Still think that might have happened? If so, they'd have also had to create a special, backwards-buttoning jacket and vest for Walter Brennan (at far left in the background). Nope. It just didn't happen.

Additionally, a second clue points to the shot not being flipped. Take a close look at the bat in Cooper's hands. The oval center brand reveals that it is a Louisville Slugger. And just above the brand is the angled "Powerized" logo. Here's a close-up of a different bat with these same markings:


From a distance, the center brand will look essentially the same, whether a shot is reversed or not. But since the "Powerized" logo is at an angle, even a somewhat blurry movie frame may belie if the shot has been flipped or not. In the above scene, the "Powerized" logo on Cooper's bat is correctly angled (bottom left to top right), and thus the shot is not reversed.

Anyone out there think that the movie-makers had Hillerich & Bradsby manufacture backwards-branded bats? Well, if they had gone to all that trouble, you'd think they might have gone to the trouble of finding out that the "Powerized" logo wasn't even introduced on bats until 1931, years after the scene was supposed to have taken place. Nope. It just didn't happen.

We next see Gary Cooper in action during a montage of shots in which Lou Gehrig learns to play ball at Hartford, his stint in the minor leagues. For now, we'll skip over that section of the movie and instead take a look at a sequence about half an hour into the film: Gehrig’s Yankee Stadium debut.

Here we see a shot at what is purportedly Yankee Stadium, but in actuality was Wrigley Field in Los Angeles. Wrigley Field was the longtime home of the Los Angeles Angels of the old Pacific Coast League, but is perhaps better remembered today as the location of numerous movie and television shoots.



In this scene, Gehrig's parents are seated in the stands, awaiting the appearance of their son. His mother was played by Elsa Janssen, whose Hollywood career is otherwise forgettable. His father was played by Ludwig Stössel, whom you might recall from an uncredited role as Mr. Leuchtag (at center in the screen shot below) in a movie released the following year: Casablanca.



Remember the following exchange between Mr. and Mrs. Leuchtag at Rick's?

Mr. Leuchtag: Frau Leuchtag and I are speaking nothing but English now.
Mrs. Leuchtag: So we should feel at home when we get to America.
Carl (the waiter): A very nice idea.
Mr. Leuchtag: To America.
Mrs. Leuchtag: To America.
Carl: To America.
Mr Leuchtag: Liebchen, uh, sweetness-heart, what watch?
Mrs. Leuchtag: Ten watch.
Mr. Leuchtag: Such much?
Carl: You will get along beautifully in America.

But back to "The Pride of the Yankees," note the long shadow cast by a light standard attached to the first-base-side roof. First, of course, this is historically inaccurate, as big league baseball didn't stage night contests until May of 1935 and it was not until May of 1946, almost four years after the movie's debut, that a game was played under the lights at Yankee Stadium. More importantly, however, shadows may help us determine whether or not a shot was reversed. Here's a fire insurance map of Wrigley Field:



courtesy of the Ball State University Libraries GIS Research and Map Collection

In this map, North is to the left. So the morning and mid-day sun would cast a shadow of the first-base-side light standard onto the field. But by the afternoon, these shadows would be gone, and shadows of the third-base side roof would fall onto the field. Good information to know as we examine more scenes in the movie.



Here we see Cooper entering the field, his jersey-buttons revealing that the shot is not reversed. Playing a southpaw, he wears his first baseman's mitt on his right hand.

A few minutes later in the film, Gehrig gets his big break when, as the story goes, Yankees first baseman Wally Pipp gets a headache. (That tale has been debunked, by the way. You can read about it at snopes.com.)



Here we see longtime minor league ballplayer George McDonald portraying the unfortunate Wally Pipp in action purportedly at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Note that there was no need for the movie-makers to flip this particular shot. Both Pipp and McDonald were lefties, so they simply had McDonald bat as has he normally would. Thus, we can use this most-certainly unflipped view of the Wrigley Field grandstand behind home as a reference for future shots. Note the two prominent angled features that I have highlighted in red below. If these were later seen to be reversed, it would prove that a shot had been flipped.



With Pipp quite literally out of the picture, Gehrig steps to the plate.



Note that both Gary Cooper's shirt buttons and the angled elements in the background grandstand reveal that the shot is not reversed. Furthermore, there is one additional clue to corroborate this. Take a look at this actual image of Lou Gehrig taken at Comiskey Park in Chicago:



... and now let's take a look at a detail from that image.



It's not often that one gets the chance to do baseball research by taking a close look at Lou Gehrig's crotch, but here's an opportunity. Note that, like the situation with men's buttoned shirts, flies similarly lay with the left side of the pants on top of the right side. In the shot of Gary Cooper at bat above, his fly is not reversed, thus the shot was not flipped.

Cooper doesn't actually take a swing in this shot. Instead, the director cuts to a shot taken from behind the backstop, showing a batter (presumably Gehrig) swinging, hitting the ball, and running to first. Since there is no continuous shot showing Cooper swinging and then running, there is no need to put him in a backwards uniform and flip the film. Instead, in the long shot, a double for Cooper portrayed Gehrig swinging and running to first.



The double was none other than Babe Herman, the veteran of 12 years in the big leagues and by this time a first baseman for the Hollywood Stars of the Pacific Coast League. (A few years later, Herman would make a brief return to the Brooklyn Dodgers for his 13th and final big league season.) Indeed, the Los Angeles Times of January 22, 1942, stated that "Hollywood's Babe Herman probably will double for Gary Cooper in the long-action shots of the Lou Gehrig film." In the photo below, Babe Herman (center) and Lefty O'Doul (right) teach Gary Cooper how to bat left-handed.



Babe Herman was an excellent double for Cooper. From a distance, the two men looked similar, as Herman was 6'4" and Cooper was 6'3". But Herman had the advantage of being a left-handed batting, left-handed throwing first baseman, so there was no need for his sequences to be flipped.

It should be noted that a different bit of Hollywood trickery was used in this distant action shot. Here's that shot again, but this time I've added a red line cutting the image in half:



The scene below the red line is footage shot for the movie at Wrigley Field. Everything above the red line was a matte painting of Comiskey Park overlaid to make it appear as if the action took place at that ballpark. The grid pattern of the backstop fencing conveniently helps to obscure the horizontal line between the two halves of the frame.

Also, notice how close in the right fielder is playing, especially against a lefty batter. The fielder plays so far in because, in order to appear in the action portion of the frame, he needs to be positioned below the red line. If he were further back, he would be obscured (or, even worse, partially obscured) by the overlaid matte painting. This movie "magic" is used elsewhere in "The Pride of the Yankees" to fake action at other ballparks such as Yankee Stadium and Sportsman's Park in St. Louis.

About 40 minutes into the film we once again see Cooper at the plate. (The screen shot below includes the faint remnant of a dissolve from an earlier shot of a Boston Braves jersey.)



Note that Cooper's jersey buttons, his fly, and the "Powerized" logo on his bat each indicate that the shot is not reversed. Right after Cooper's swing, the film cuts to a shot of the crowd, then a distant shot of the field. So, once again, there was no continuous shot of Gehrig batting and then running, so there was no need for the backwards trickery.

Half a dozen minutes later, we see Babe Ruth ground out to end an inning and Gary Cooper head towards first base for the bottom half of the inning. Notice the sun is at his back, with his shadow pointing towards right field.



In the next shot, Cooper picks up his left-handed first baseman's mitt from the ground near first. Notice that his jersey buttons are not reversed and his shadow still points towards right field. The shot is not flipped.



The final shot of the sequence shows Cooper apparently catching with his right hand during infield warm-ups.



As with the prior shots in the sequence, Cooper's jersey buttons the normal way and the lighting remains consistent, with the shadows pointing towards right field. Though Cooper's catch is not particularly smooth (he actually makes a bit of a stab at the ball), the actor succeeds at the task without the need to flip the image.

To review, the challenge for the movie-makers was to make the right-handed Cooper a believable left-handed Gehrig. To do this, he must appear to catch as a lefty, bat as a lefty, and throw as a lefty. How hard is it for a right-handed thrower to use his right hand to catch? Actually, catching with the opposite hand isn't very difficult. What about swinging left-handed? That, too, can be done with just a bit of practice. (Remember, he only needs to swing left-handed, not necessarily hit the ball as a lefty.) But it is almost impossible to teach a right-hander to throw left-handed so that it appears believable. Even the most accomplished of players, when asked to throw with their opposite hand, will look foolish. Throughout the movie, we see Cooper actually swing left-handed and in one shot (the one above) actually catch as a lefty. But throwing lefty was a different story.

Just a minute later in the film, we see Cooper once again swinging left-handed in an unreversed shot. This time he does so while winning prizes at a fair while on a date with his future wife, Eleanor (played by Teresa Wright).



Note that not only does Cooper's vest button the normal way for men (red arrow), but a woman in the background wears a dress showing the reverse style of buttoning (blue arrow) used by the opposite sex.

An hour into the film, with the Yankees playing the Cardinals in the 1926 World Series at Sportsman's Park, we see Cooper in a number of batting sequences. Each of the shots turns out to be unflipped, as evidence by the usual clues: how the actor's jersey buttons, the angle of his bat's "Powerized" logo, and the background angles of Wrigley Field's grandstand.







About 20 minutes later, Cooper portrays Gehrig on his wedding day, batting at Yankee Stadium.



As usual, the background angles of the Wrigley Field grandstand, the angle of the "Powerized" logo and the way Cooper's jersey buttons confirms that the shot was not flipped.

Before Cooper even takes a swing, the scene cuts to a long shot of Yankee Stadium:



As was the case with some of the earlier distant action shots, the bottom portion of the frame contains footage taken at Wrigley Field, while the top portion is a matte painting of Yankee Stadium. As we saw earlier, the batter portraying Gehrig in this shot is Babe Herman. And, once again, check out how ridiculously far in the right fielder is playing.

A dozen minutes later we see Gary Cooper getting ready to bat as he portrays Gehrig playing in his 2,000th straight major league game:



Note that his jersey buttons in the normal fashion and the "Powerized" logos on both of his bats are angled correctly. The shot is not reversed.

About five minutes later, the action moves to spring training in 1939 with Lou Gehrig experiencing problems related to his worsening illness. As Gehrig struggles, Bill Dickey (who plays himself) looks on. And his wife Violet also makes an uncredited, cameo appearance as herself.



In this scene, for the only time in the entire film, Cooper is seen batting and then running toward first base in a single continuous shot.





The sequence takes all of two seconds, but it is the only one in the movie that fits the story of reversing footage of Cooper batting right-handed and running to third. But did it really happen here?

At first glance there is nothing in the shot that belies whether or not the shot is flipped. Cooper wears a jacket and, at least in the actual batting sequence, we cannot see how it buttons. The bat is too far away to look for the "Powerized" logo, and there's little else to go on. The catcher is right-handed, so if the shot is reversed, the movie-makers would have had to find a lefty catcher. That seems highly unlikely, but still a possibility. At this point, the best evidence that the shot is not reversed is that the swing looks similar in style to lefty swings we've seen Cooper take earlier in the movie and it would seem strange that the trick would be used in this spring training sequence, but not in other more prominent scenes in the film.

As it turns out, however, a scene half a minute later provides a subtle clue. After discussing his troubles with manager Joe McCarthy (played by Harry Harvey), Cooper runs off into the distance. Since Cooper doesn't bat, catch or throw in this brief scene, it is a reasonable assumption that the footage was not reversed. As he runs, we can see that his right back pocket flap is tucked in, but his left back pocket flap is not.





Now look back at the batting sequence carefully. In the second shot above, where he has just finished his swing, one can see that his back right pocket flap is tucked in. In the third shot, in which he starts running towards first, we see the left back pocket flap is out. Again, it appears that Cooper has batted left-handed and run towards first base, with no flipping of the film.

We have now examined every scene in the movie that could conceivably have been reversed in order to compensate for Cooper's right-handedness, and in every case have found the shots to have remained as they were originally filmed: unflipped. Every scene, that is, except for those in which Gehrig is portrayed playing for Hartford. Let us now return to that minute-long sequence.

Ignoring the interspersed cuts in which we see Gehrig opening letters sent from home and newspaper headlines revealing his progress in the minors, here is a rundown of the sequence:

1. Cooper watches a right-handed first baseman take throws at first base from a left-handed coach. Afterwards, Cooper gives it a try and catches a ball thrown by the same lefty coach.
2. A base runner slides into a base.
3. Cooper wipes his brow.
4. Once again a base runner slides into a base.
5. Cooper takes fielding practice from a left-handed batter. First he catches a soft line drive and throws the ball back in. Then he fields a grounder and throws the ball.
6. Cooper practices some more at first base, taking throws by a right-handed coach.
7. Cooper wipes his brow again.
8. Cooper takes some batting practice against a right-handed throwing pitcher.
9. Cooper once again takes a throw at first base.

Suspiciously, in all but just a few shots in the sequence, Cooper and the coaches wear sweatshirts. Was this done to hide clues that might belie the reversal of the footage? Also, conveniently, the "H" logo on the caps of those seen in this sequence is symmetrical, so if the film were reversed, the caps would not give away the post-production trickery. Still, careful research will allow us to determine if any of these shots were flipped.

Here are three key frames from the initial scene in which Gehrig is being coached at first base. (Note that the third frame shows a bit of the dissolve into the next mini-scene, Cooper sliding into a base.)







A close look at the first frame reveals that the first baseman is none other than Gary Cooper's double: Babe Herman:


The Conlon Collection

As we've already seen, Herman was, like Gehrig, a left-handed batter. He was also a left-handed thrower. But in this sequence he is seen with a first baseman's mitt on his left hand, not his right hand, and he catches and throws flawlessly.

In the second frame we see the coach throw the ball with his left hand. But, for reasons we will see later on, the coach actually was right-handed.

Finally, as seen in the third frame, Cooper catches a ball at first base in a relatively smooth, seamless fashion.

In short, this first mini-scene has all the earmarks of having been flipped. And there's good reason to flip the shot, as it contained footage of Gary Cooper making a quality catch ... something that would have been very hard to do without this righty-lefty trickery.

There is not much to be learned from the sliding scenes. In both of the actual sliding portions of these shots, it is Babe Herman hurtling into the base, not Cooper. In the first of those shots, after the slide is complete, there is a jump cut to Cooper on the ground, but he didn't actually perform the slide. Note that Cooper's fly lays the normal way, but there would have been no need to reverse this shot anyway.



On the third mini-scene, sandwiched between the two sliding sequences, Cooper wipes his brow. At first glance, it seems that there is not much to this shot, but upon close examination this rather innocuous shot provides an important clue.



Note that Cooper's right hand has a significant bandage on the palm. With all the batting that Cooper did during the filming of the movie, it seems likely he would have developed blisters. And where would these blisters form? On his bottom hand while batting. Since we've seen that Cooper batted left-handed throughout the film, that would be his right hand. Thus, it appears that this shot was not flipped.

In the next sequence, Cooper takes fielding practice from a left-handed batter. Twice during this sequence we see Cooper throw with his left hand. But is it really his left hand? Take a close look at his hand after his follow-through:



There is the same bandage we saw seconds earlier, but this time it has magically jumped from his right hand to his left. More likely it isn't magic: it is simply the film being flipped in order to make a right-handed thrower look like a natural lefty.

The next sequence is a bit difficult to research, as some of the footage is obscured by dissolves in and out of a shot of a newspaper headline. There are two distinct parts to the sequence:

• Cooper, stationed at first base, catches and then throws a baseball.
• A right-handed coach throws the ball and we see the ball enter a mitt of a left-handed first baseman.

Here's that first part, in which Cooper catches and throws a ball:







As was the case in the previous parts of the Hartford sequence, it would seem that this shot had to have been reversed in order to make the actions of the right-handed Cooper believable. However, though it is a bit difficult to see above, the jersey Cooper wears reads "HARTFORD." If this shot really was flipped, the letters must have been sewed on backwards. We shall soon see that is exactly what occurred.

In the second part, we see the coach throw the ball.



This is clearly the same coach who was throwing to Cooper and Babe Herman in the first portion of this minute-long sequence. But in that shot, the coach threw with his left hand. Now he's a righty. Here's a side-by-side comparison of the coach throwing left-handed in the first portion of the sequence (at left) and right-handed in this latest shot (at right):



Not only is the coach's motion perfectly flipped, but the shadows and background stands are mirror images of one another, as well. Obviously, one of the shots has been flipped. But which? The answer is that the first shot, the one in which the coach throws with his left hand, is the one that was flipped. Not only did we already determine that shot was backwards due to the clues supplied by Babe Herman, but in a moment another clue will corroborate this fact.

After the coach throws the ball, a player catches the ball:



Since the coach is actually a right-handed thrower, this shot is not reversed. And since the first baseman's mitt is on the right hand and the catch is smooth, it is likely that the person catching the ball is not Gary Cooper. If it were, why not have the camera show him? No. It is much more likely that the mitt is on the hand of Babe Herman.

The next portion of the Hartford sequence is another shot of Cooper wiping his brow. The shot is very much obscured by a dissolve of a newspaper, but the keen-eyed observer can make out the bandage on Cooper's hand. As it is seen on his left hand, the shot has been flipped.



Next we see Cooper taking batting practice.



As he has done throughout the film, Cooper bats left-handed. The coach is throwing right-handed. And in the next shot we corroborate the coach is a natural righty:



Note that the background features an outfield wall with advertising that is not reversed. Thus, the coach is truly throwing right-handed.

In the final seconds of the Hartford sequence we see Cooper once again taking a throw at first base and then making a return throw.







Here we have a clearer view of the "HARTFORD" jersey worn by Cooper ... a jersey that buttons in opposite fashion from every other jersey seen in the movie. Look closely and you will see that the right portion of the shirt placket lays on top of the left. Of course, in reality, the jersey buttoned in the normal fashion and the letters forming the word "HARTFORD" were sewn on backwards. The shot was flipped in order to make Cooper's right-handed action appear to be left-handed.

So, in this 60-second sequence, we've seen that there are a number of action shots that have been flipped in order to show Cooper catching and throwing left-handed. And, in one sequence in particular, Cooper has been placed in a backwards "HARTFORD" jersey in order to make the effect even more believable.

In summary, as far as the final cut of "The Pride of the Yankees" goes, Gary Cooper never wore a backwards Yankees uniform of any sort. He never batted right-handed or ran to third base after swinging. He did indeed learn to bat left-handed. And only in a handful of shots during a brief sequence portraying Gehrig's days at Hartford did the movie-makers resort to flipping footage in order to make Cooper appear to be a natural left-hander.

Now, I wonder if the Western Costume Company, the folks who supplied the uniforms for the movie, still has a backwards "HARTFORD" jersey somewhere in their collection. What a find that would be.

---

Update of February 19, 2013:

Thanks to a tip from Richard Sandomir, the New York Times reporter who recapped my research in his article of February 8, 2013, I was able to track down a brief account of the "flipping" story as recalled by Gary Cooper himself. The interested reader can find it at The Gary Cooper Scrapbook web site. In 1956, The Saturday Evening Post ran an eight-part series written by Cooper (as told to George Scullin) titled "Well, It Was This Way." In the final installment, published April 7, 1956, Cooper reminisced about the film, a favorite of both Cooper and his father:

Another picture dad and I were fond of was Pride of the Yankees, in which I played the part of the late Lou Gehrig. I nearly lost the role when the studio discovered to its horror that I had never played baseball in my life. Than, after getting the part, I discovered, to my private horror, that I couldn't throw a ball. The countless falls I had taken as a trick rider had so ruined my right shoulder that I couldn't raise my arm above my head. 

Lefty O'Doul, now manager of the Oakland ball club, came down to help me out. "You throw a ball," he told me after studying my unique style, "like an old woman tossing a hot biscuit." But we went to work, and after some painful weeks he got my arm to working in a reasonable duplication of Gehrig's throw. There remained on outstanding difference. Gehrig was a southpaw, and I threw right-handed. To remedy this in close-ups, the letters on my uniform were reversed as in mirror writing, and the film was processed with the back side to the front. My right hand thus appeared to be my left.

Happily, the story Cooper told jibes perfectly with the research detailed above.

First, note that Cooper made no mention of issues regarding batting and/or running to third base. As we've already seen, these posed no problem, as Cooper simply learned to bat left-handed.

Second, Cooper noted that he had never played baseball and his right-handed throw was terrible. O'Doul came in to solve the most important problem: teaching Cooper to throw in a fashion that simply looked reasonable and not "like an old woman tossing a hot biscuit." Never mind that it was a right-handed throw, as that would be remedied by flipping the film.

Third, Cooper stated that the backwards trickery involved flipping "the letters on my uniform." He never stated that it was a Yankees uniform, and indeed it was just an altered Hartford jersey that made the movie's final cut.

In short, Cooper's statements are consistent with the results of the above research.