Contributed by Darrell Pittman
Looks like this is going to be one of those rare double column days.
Apparently inspired by our powerfully intriguing “Mystery Pitcher” article of one hour ago, friend and research colleague Darrell Pittman sent me the above photo of two “Gay Nineties” women representing one of the various positions in base-ball as one card entitled “Black Stocking Nine.”
Draw your own conclusions as to how far this demonstration could have traveled through additional cards showing other various baseball position possibilities.
The card also ooks like further proof that objectification of beautiful women for the sale of tobacco and alcohol started pretty early in our American culture.
“Early Base-Ball! ~ Who says it was only a game?”
We do have to ask, given the title of this piece: If either of these ladies on the card is recognizable as your great-great grandmother, please step up to the plate and let us know her name with a post in the comment section. History owes their identities, at least, that much redemptive service – if possible.
Tags: mystery baseball women
The Pecan Park Eagle 
February 12, 2015 at 4:42 am |
It looks like she’s leading too far with her hips. Yowza!
February 12, 2015 at 5:15 am |
They look like they could be the Indigo Girls, when they were much younger, of course!! 😉
February 12, 2015 at 1:39 pm |
I’ve seen various years cited for this series – 1884, 1885, and 1886, but not as late as the 1890’s. It was produced by Allen & Ginter Tobacco Cards to advertise Virginia Brights cigarettes.
February 12, 2015 at 2:00 pm |
Potbelly Peaches McGurgle at the plate…she was famous for hitting cross-handed and never wearing her girdle while in uniform. A power hitter she swung from the heels shown by her grip on the bat from way down on the end. Her career lasted for twelve years. She hit three home runs. The catcher had a short career. Immortalized in nickname as Headless Helen Hart she was nearly decapitated once due to her penchant for setting up so close to the hitter’s swing zone. Doctors were able to reattach her head and she lived into her late 80s. However, they never quite got it on straight and she was forever walking into walls and doorways. She died in 1939 while trying to walk down a sidewalk but found herself veering into the adjacent highway.
February 12, 2015 at 3:23 pm |
Thanks for making my morning hot tea sort of spill from laughter, Greg! I loved your play-by-play on the forms and fates of our two lovely mystery baseball women.
February 12, 2015 at 4:54 pm |
Oooh, the things you said about my great-grandmother. Never wanting to waste anything in Maine, family legend has it that they took her baseball pants and made a pair of serviceable drawing room curtains. Stories about her “lazy eye” abound. It’s pretty easy to see how it allowed her to keep one eye on the pitcher and the other on her “no good” second husband often sitting along the first base line.