Boston Red Sox Spring Training
This is a rare photo, from the Ernie Harwell Collection, Burton Historical Collection of the Detroit Public Library. It is marked on the back "McGreevy Collection, Boston Americans (Red Sox) Hot Springs, Arkansas, 1908-09?" The large man in the dark sweater (second from the right) is famous hurler Cy Young, whose last year with Boston was 1908. The photo also lists (from left to right (with my additions in parentheses): Ralph Glaze (Red Sox pitcher, 1906-08), (George) Winter (Red Sox pitcher, 1901-08), Nuf Ced McGreevy (leader of the Boston loyalists, known as the Royal Rooters), Cy Young, (Rube) Kroh (Boston pitcher, 1906-07), and Charlie Green, Roxbury, trainer.
This copy raises a few questions while answering others:
- Hot Springs
The Red Sox trained in Little Rock, 1907-08, and then moved to Hot Springs, 1909-10. This is probably a 1908 photo, based on the names and the years they played for the Sox. (See above. Rube Kroh could have trained with the team in `08 but not made the final squad.) It is also possible that the pitchers went to Hot Springs ahead of the rest of the squad, and they went on to Little Rock later. - Unaccounted for Player
The copy lists only seven names, while the picture has eight men. The man in the middle appears to be a young Bill 'Rough' Carrigan, Red Sox catcher (1906-16), who would go on to manage the Sox to world championships in 1915 and 1916.