Picture of the day..... Updated daily

[mchenrycards]

One of the things I like to "collect" is vintage or just plain cool sports photos. Now I don't own most of these photos in hard copy form but they are just collected off the internet from many sources. As a baseball history fan and a even larger fan of vintage sports I thought others might like to see some of these images that are out there on the 'net. I plan on updating the "photo of the day" on a daily basis and discussions of these photos are certainly welcome.

As I mentioned the sources for these photos are varied. I know a good number of Facebook friends who post vintage pictures and others I just come across while surfing the net. Regradless of how these are obtained, my hope is that you will look at the photos for what they are and take in the full picture and not just the main subject.

The first picture for Sunday September 8, 2013 is from Yankee Stadium, year unknown. In this photo we have Mickey Mantle taking a mighty swing while Roger Maris and a very sparse crowd looks on. I love the fact that this photo shows just how huge the original Yankee Stadium was. Hopefully you will like the first of what I hope are many "photos of the day".

 

[Krom]

That is a cool shot. Thanks for posting.

 

[CFD1415]

I Love The Idea Of This Thread. That Picture Is Stunning.

 

[cartersprings]

Great idea for a thread. I'll definitely be checking in each day.

 

[Sig40cal]

That's a great shot. I'll be watching this closely. Cheers!

 

[dbacksfan4life]

Love that pic! Will be going here every day

 

[tramers]

NICE

 

[A_Pharis]

Man, that stadium is massive!

 

[ASTROBURN]

So many empty seats... Nice classic pic. Will you be doing a new thread for each pic, like how there is a new morning thread each day?

 

[mchenrycards]

So many empty seats... Nice classic pic. Will you be doing a new thread for each pic, like how there is a new morning thread each day?

Actually I was thinking of keeping them all in the same thread and just adding each day. I will leave this up to everyone else but I really had wanted to keep the pictures all on the same thread so there would only be one place to come see them. What do others think?

By the way...I have a very cool pic already picked out for tomorrow!!!

 

[Austin]

So many empty seats...

Yeah, it's weird how few fans actually went to baseball games in the '50s and '60s.
The attendance at Yankee Stadium the day Roger Maris hit his record-breaking 61 home runs was only 23,000 people. Can you believe that?

You'd think Yankee Stadium would always be filled with all those great teams of Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mantle, Maris, Berra, Ford, etc.

But the average attendance during Ruth's and Gehrig's day was barely 13,000!
During DiMaggio's time it was 12,000.
And during the Mantle/Maris era, it was barely 20,000.

Here are the surprising game average and yearly attendance numbers from Yankee Stadium History:
New York Yankees Attendance Records by Baseball Almanac

 

[mchenrycards]

Austin, I agree with you that it is very surprising about the attendance. One would think that getting a ticket to a game was almost impossible but the opposite is true as tickets were easily obtained. It is very eye opening when you realize that not as many people attended games as the media had led us to believe through the years.

 

[DaBaddestHic]

Man, to think that people weren't flocking out to see one of the best baseball players of all time back in those days. Pretty crazy.

 

[ASTROBURN]

Actually I was thinking of keeping them all in the same thread and just adding each day. I will leave this up to everyone else but I really had wanted to keep the pictures all on the same thread so there would only be one place to come see them. What do others think?

By the way...I have a very cool pic already picked out for tomorrow!!!

Maybe its the reddit surfer in me that would wanna see a different thread for each days pic. See a pic, read two pages worth of comments, stories, etc. Then the next day a new thread, new pic, new comments, stories, etc. Just my 2 cents.

 

[mchenrycards]

Maybe its the reddit surfer in me that would wanna see a different thread for each days pic. See a pic, read two pages worth of comments, stories, etc. Then the next day a new thread, new pic, new comments, stories, etc. Just my 2 cents.

OK, I see your point and you might be right. So unless anyone else objects I will make a new post each day with the date in the title.

 

[RedsFan2993]

Yeah, seeing the attendance of games during that time makes you really grasp how important the growth of night baseball was to the economics of the sport.

 

[TBTwinsFan]

Love the thread idea, I'll be back everyday!

 

[rsmath]

Austin, I agree with you that it is very surprising about the attendance. One would think that getting a ticket to a game was almost impossible but the opposite is true as tickets were easily obtained.

I'd say it was harder to obtain due to more effort (edit: you had to travel to the stadium to buy a ticket or have a pre-purchased ticket pack). It's not like in the 50's or 60's you could go on Yankees.com and buy an e-ticket or go to the grocery store and buy a yankees ticket from the ticket broker counter at the store.

When I first saw the photo, I was thinking mid-week day game on getaway day -- so most people were working or kids in school rather than being at the park taking in a game. It's only after I saw some of the followup posts here that I saw that attendance was pretty bad. I wonder why you even build such a large stadium if typical attendance was so poor.

 

[RedsFan2993]

I'd say it was harder to obtain due to more effort (edit: you had to travel to the stadium to buy a ticket or have a pre-purchased ticket pack). It's not like in the 50's or 60's you could go on Yankees.com and buy an e-ticket or go to the grocery store and buy a yankees ticket from the ticket broker counter at the store.

When I first saw the photo, I was thinking mid-week day game on getaway day -- so most people were working or kids in school rather than being at the park taking in a game. It's only after I saw some of the followup posts here that I saw that attendance was pretty bad. I wonder why you even build such a large stadium if typical attendance was so poor.

I had no idea that this method existed.

 

[mchenrycards]

I'd say it was harder to obtain due to more effort (edit: you had to travel to the stadium to buy a ticket or have a pre-purchased ticket pack). It's not like in the 50's or 60's you could go on Yankees.com and buy an e-ticket or go to the grocery store and buy a yankees ticket from the ticket broker counter at the store.

When I first saw the photo, I was thinking mid-week day game on getaway day -- so most people were working or kids in school rather than being at the park taking in a game. It's only after I saw some of the followup posts here that I saw that attendance was pretty bad. I wonder why you even build such a large stadium if typical attendance was so poor.

Yankee stadium was built at a time when Babe Ruth was worshipped like a God and I have no doubt knowing they filled that place when he was in his prime. Not total sell outs each game but lots of tickets sold. When this photo was taken the team was at their peak but I think a sense of "whatever" creeps in since the Yankees were winning year after year back in the day. Even today we see stadiums that are not totally sold out when some teams get to the post season. I just think the Yankees were a victim of their own success as far as attendance goes.

Tickets may have been harder to get back them as there was no internet but I know, at least for the Cubs they would hold back a percentage of their tickets for the walk up customer. As a matter of fact that was one of their selling points in that if you woke up that day and decided to go to a game you could get a good seat when the box office opened two hours before the game. I know my dad and I did that numerous times in the early and mid '70's and were never shut out from seeing a game. I assume the practice of holding back seats for the walk up crown was a generally accepted business practice back then.