Baseball was American's game to young boys growing up in small-town America in the 1940s and early 1950s. Basketball and football were in their infancy but baseball the unrivaled favorite. Countless small towns all across America had a local minor league club. In my case it was a Class D team but the players were still heroes and I was thrilled whenever I saw one of them around town.

For the most part, however, our visual images of these early heroes of the diamond were limited to a few seconds of coverage in MovieTone newsreels. There was no television coverage and when coverage did begin to emerge it was confined to the large cities. Charles M. Conlon's photographs of early baseball players represents the first time I have seen an image of many of these legendary players.

Conlon's collection includes legendary Hall of Fame players that many will recognize by name: Christy Mathewson, Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth, Grover Cleveland Alexander, and Ty Cobb. Others who were famous in their day are probably less familiar to many: Push'em up Tony Lazzeri, Earl Averill, Bob Feller, Enos Slaughter, and Hank Greenberg. Some were just young kids stareting their careers when Conlon photographed them: Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, Al Simmons, and Bill Dickey.

Conlon didn't focus only on the players. Photographs of wives and children, club owners, managers, and umpires also appear in these pages. Conlon worked in New York so the New York clubs are heavily featured. Players for other teams in the east – Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Chicago – also appear prominently.

Conlon continued to work through the 1930s, but his advanced age and the entry of the U. S. into World War II conspired to end his illustrious career. If I have one regret it is that I would love to see a companion volume featuring the players of the 40s and 50s. ( )