Old Honus

In honor of the Bucs beating the Cubs on the North Shore tonight, a shot of an older Honus Wagner (1916) sliding back into first base at Weegham Park.



The image comes from the Library of Congress collection, featuring hundreds of great shots from the Chicago Daily News.

I made this old Dead Ball Era movie about three years ago using many of those shots...55K views, Holy Cow!

Old Burgh Ephemera

There were 13 daily and weekly newspapers in 1864 Pittsburgh.

And five street passenger railways.

Old Sacrifice

A summer evening in Pittsburgh, June 1943, around the time my friend Bob was headed over to China to fly the Hump:

"OPA (Office of Price Administration) lawyers hold nightly hearings for offenders in the pleasure driving regulations. Policemen, accompanied by OPA investigators, stop the drivers, question them. If there is any question about their reason for driving, they are asked to appear at a hearing that same night or any time in the next three days. This man is furious because his gas ration book was taken away when he was caught driving to a baseball game."

Something to keep in mind when stuck in traffic headed to the next Bucco game...

No Special Burgh Affinity Here

From Edwin James' account of S.H. Long's expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains in 1819-1820:

"Pittsburgh has been so often described, the advantages and disadvantages of its situation, and the gloomy repulsiveness of its appearance, have been so often and so justly portrayed, that we should not think ourselves well employed in recounting our own observations."