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Year-end countdown: #2, 1919 World Series film footage

Redland Field, 1919 World Series

Between now and New Year’s Eve we’ll run down the top ten stories covered on Ballpark Digest in 2014, determined by page views. At #2: an amazing film from the 1919 World Series.

If you work in baseball, you tend to love stories of old ballpark, those old MLB shrines of yesterday. We have photos from the beginning of professional baseball, but we don’t have much in the way of film.

That’s why many readers responded to the discovery of film from the 1919 World Series. Yes, that World Series: the infamous “Black Sox” World Series, where Eddie Cicotte and his alleged gang of cohorts (Shoeless Joe Jackson, Swede Risberg, Buck Weaver, etc.) were accused of throwing the Series in a fix arranged by gambler Arnold Rothstein. Included in the film: some incredible shots of World Series, Redland Field (later named Crosley Field) and Comiskey Park.

This footage from British Canadian Pathé News is out of order: it shows Comiskey Park in Game 3 at the beginning of the footage and then shifts to Cincinnati, showing the Reds hosting the opening game of the World Series in Cincinnati, with Cicotte throwing the game won the Reds, 9-1. The clip also shows the Reds’ pregame ceremonies, some game action where Cicotte is highlighted, and an aerial shot of the ballpark. Amazing stuff, really.

You can check it out here.

As noted, we’re running down the top 10 stories of 2014 on Ballpark Digest. Previously:

#3, Montreal and MLB
#4, Simmons Field restorations
#5, a unique ballpark proposal
#6, New Oakland A’s ballpark
#7, Petco Park upgrades
#8, new Charlotte/El Paso ballparks
#9, ugly Christmas unis
#10, Fifth Third Ballpark fire

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