To celebrate Major League Baseball's All-Star break, let's have a look at an original 1911 illustration from Puck by Samuel D. Erhart (1862-1937) about America's pastime. At lower left a pair of boys sneak a peak at a ball game through a hole in the wall encircling the field, while up above at least a dozen far luckier young boys get a bird's eye view of the event from a far better vantage point. The are seated—barely—on the open-air wings of a biplane, without any cumbersome harnesses or restraints. Not one boy has lost his hat to the wind. The American fascination with aviation came, apparently, without concern for safety, expense, noise, or practicality.
The illustration itself hints at the artist's broad lack of understanding of the game. There is no pitcher's mound, raising the possibility that this could be a softball game, then called "mush ball" or a variety of other names. Softball would seem unlikely, though, given the size of the crowd in attendance. The players in the field are not shown to be wearing gloves, also suggestive of "mush ball"—only the catcher's mitt is visible. There are no umpires to be seen and there is no third base coach. The runner on first base is not taking a lead, again possibly hinting at this being a softball game. The fielding position of the third baseman right against the foul line is highly suspect. Most egregiously, the right fielder seems to be positioned deep in foul territory. The game has no doubt changed a lot since 1911, but it seems probable that neither baseball nor softball were well-understood by Erhart, who may have conflated the two. |
| The full sheet |
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| Detail of the game |
The original art is available from the Argosy Book Store: |
Samuel Ehrhart
Argosy Book Store
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Note: I would like to hear from anyone who has the 1911 issue of Puck in which this illustration appeared. I am also interested in opinions about whether a baseball or a softball game has been depicted here.
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