A Little Mystery

Well, I can’t help myself.  I bought another two batches of snapshots taken at Comiskey Park, six in all and all apparently from 1946.  They come from an antique store in Georgia, so I see this as a form of rescue and repatriation.

Two of the photos have comments written on the back.  Tigers’ outfielder Dick Wakefield is described as “The very nicest of all players.  Posed for me on request.”  Added beneath that is “Detroit paid plenty for him but he ‘copped out.’”  How quickly an opinion changes.  Wakefield batted .293 in a nine-year career, mostly with the Tigers.

Then we have the snapshot of Luke Appling, Old Aches and Pains.  On the back it says, “I can’t believe this is Luke Appling, who was with the Cardinals in St. Louis when they won their first pennant.  Dizzy Dean, Paul [Dean], Appling, [Leo] Durocher and many others were with Card[s] then.  It was in the ’30ies I believe.”

Well, yes and no.  The Dean brothers and Leo the Lip did in fact play for those Gashouse Gang St. Louis teams of the 1930s, but not Appling; he spent his entire career, 1930-1950, on the South Side.  Either Luke was toying with the person who wrote that, or somebody’s memory failed.  I checked the St. Louis rosters from 1932-38, and no one has a name that even comes close to Appling.  A mystery in black and white, this is.