Charles M. Conlon

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The famous Charles M. Conlon photo: Ty Cobb stealing third, sliding into Jimmy Austin

Charles M. Conlon was an American photographer. He worked for New York City newspapers in the early 1900s. He took many photos of major league baseball players.

His most famous is the photo of Ty Cobb sliding into third base at Hilltop Park in 1909, upending the fielder, Jimmy Austin. However, to baseball historians or even casual fans, many of Conlon's photos of baseball's early stars are instantly recognizable, due to having been reprinted frequently over the years.

[edit] The Cobb photo

One day in New York, in 1909, Conlon snapped an action photo of Cobb sliding into third base. For publication, the original photo was cropped on the right, taking away almost half of the image. That is the version everyone saw until Baseball's Golden Age: The Photographs of Charles M. Conlon was published in 1993. The excised portion is included and shows more of the right-side bleachers, as well as the left arm of the third base coach.

Conlon was actually on the field with his big camera, a common practice of the day. He was positioned to the outfield side of the third base coach's box (in foul territory). Cobb was on second. New York third baseman Jimmy Austin was playing in for a possible sacrifice bunt. Cobb took off for third, but the batter did not get the bunt down. Austin backpedaled to take the throw from the catcher. Cobb spilled Austin and the catcher's throw sailed into left field. Presumably Cobb could have gotten up and scored, but the book does not elaborate.

Instead, the issue was whether Conlon got the shot or not. He changed plates, just to be safe, because he did not remember if he had squeezed the shutter bulb or not, and he knew it had potential to be a great shot. It turned out that he had, it was, and baseball had one of its iconic images.

[edit] References

Conlon, Charley. Three and One. The Sporting News. May 27, 1937. Accessed March 3, 2007.
McCabe, Neal. Baseball's Golden Age: The Photographs of Charles M. Conlon. Abrams, 2003. ISBN: 0810991195
The Conlon Gallery