1) As part of a project to help the Tennessee Smokies come up with throwback Negro league uniforms for the Rickwood Classic (vs. the Birmingham Barons), Mark Aubrey has posted some marvelous images of 1920s and 30s Knoxville Giants players and teams (from the Beck Cultural Exchange Center in Knoxville as well as the University of Tennessee). They include the best photo of Walter Claude “Steel Arm” Dickey I have ever seen.
Left, Steel Arm Dickey; right, Knoxville Giants mid-1930s
2) Dwayne Isgrig keeps posting cool stuff on his St. Louis Giants Facebook page, including these images (from the St. Louis Argus) of slugger Charlie Blackwell and utility man Sidney Brooks.
3) Christopher Lamberti has taken this panoramic photo of Schorling Park from 1923 and done some amazing work discussing the placement of the park in relation to Chicago’s neighborhoods, the racial/political context (including the race riot of 1919), and identifying the buildings in the background.
For what it’s worth, the Monarchs were probably the team in the field (in dark uniforms), meaning that we know who some of those tiny figures are. José Méndez is the left fielder, Hurley McNair is in center, and if you look closely, Heavy Johnson can be seen over in right; Dobie Moore is at his place at short, and Bubbles Anderson is at second base. It seems that not everbody has made it out on the field yet: third baseman Newt Allen is missing, Bullet Rogan is not on the mound, and I can’t see whether the catcher (Frank Duncan) or the first baseman (Lemuel Hawkins) are there. One more Monarch seems to be standing between the mound and home plate.
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