The Baseball Film They Mislabelled for 100 Years — & The Dark Reason Why (Library of Congress 1920)

In 1920 — the most dramatic and tragic season in baseball history — a professional film crew captured Babe Ruth, Carl Mays, Tris Speaker, Wally Pipp, Bob Meusel and Jack Quinn on film using cutting edge slow motion technology. The footage ended up in the Library of Congress where it has sat largely unexamined for over a hundred years. Today I am presenting it in full for the first time with the complete historical context it deserves. And I am raising questions about this footage that should have been asked a long time ago. The Library of Congress catalogues this film as filmed in Cleveland Ohio in 1920. I believe that is incorrect. The primary demonstration footage in this reel — including Carl Mays pitching and Babe Ruth batting — was almost certainly filmed at the Polo Grounds in New York City, not League Park in Cleveland. The evidence is visible in the footage itself. Look at the outfield wall behind Carl Mays as he pitches. The Hotel Commodore — a Manhattan luxury hotel connected to Grand Central Terminal that opened in 1919 and advertised at the Polo Grounds. A Cleveland hotel of the same name did not exist until four years later. Look at the scale of those grandstands. League Park held 21,000. The Polo Grounds held over 38,000. And ask yourself — why would a commercial film company invest in expensive cutting edge slow motion technology to film an away game in Cleveland rather than set up at the Polo Grounds in New York where Babe Ruth was playing at home in front of over a million fans? But the location question is not even the most significant thing about this footage. Carl Mays is prominently featured in this reel demonstrating his famous submarine delivery. On August 16 1920 — at the Polo Grounds in New York — Carl Mays threw the pitch that killed Cleveland Indians shortstop Ray Chapman. Chapman remains the only player in Major League Baseball history to die from an on-field injury. The film was released commercially around 1923 — three years after it was filmed. I believe the footage was commercially unusable in the immediate aftermath of Chapman's death and was shelved until the outrage surrounding Mays had cooled. When it was released it was labelled as Cleveland — the one city that would draw the least attention to the Polo Grounds and what happened there in August 1920. Whether that mislabelling was deliberate or simply careless I cannot say. But the Hotel Commodore advertisement does not lie. And in over a hundred years of baseball historians knowing this footage existed — nobody caught it. Tonight we are asking the questions. Part 2 will have the answers — and for the first time in over a century, you will see this footage in full color. A short colorized clip from this reel has previously appeared on social media but the full story has never been told and the historical discrepancies have never been examined. That changes tonight. If you can identify any advertisement, architectural detail or stadium feature that confirms or contradicts the location of this footage — drop it in the comments. I am contacting SABR — the Society for American Baseball Research — and the Library of Congress Motion Picture division directly with these findings. If this footage is from Cleveland — show me where the Hotel Commodore is. Original source: Library of Congress — Baseball slow motion pictures, how Babe Ruth knocks a home run — Call Number FPE 5661 — LCCN 93511484 Research, narration and presentation: Eugene McCormick - The Cleveland Leader If this deep-dive research and the correction of 100+ years of baseball history resonated with you, consider supporting independent work like this with a small donation. Every contribution helps cover the time and resources that go into uncovering these stories. PayPal: [email protected] Venmo: @eugmc Cash App: $eugmc