The Knights
The Ansco READYFLASH (made in Binghamton, NY) cost $14 in 1953. For that price you got the camera, a gadget bag, six flashbulbs and a roll of film.
I don’t know where I got this camera. After processing the film I found three exposed frames.
Of course I don’t know where this baseball field is located but I’ll bet it’s still there. I’m sure you have one just like close to your home, if you live in a baseball-playing country that is.
“Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball, the rules, and reality of the game.”
– historian Jacques Barzun
The MC/M Knights look like a typical Little League team. Real uniforms and three coaches. Little League coaches don’t get uniforms. You have to get to the big time for that. High School or Legion ball.
Someone made the decision to have these guys pose without gloves or bats. My Little League teams posed with gloves and bats. Maybe it was a regional thing. They’re probably sitting on their gloves.
I don’t think they’re sitting on their bats.
I’d be willing to bet a box of wine that the kid in the first row on the far left was the catcher. He looks solid, slow and predictable. He always forgot his sneakers and was the best spitter on the team.
Not much has happened in photo number two of The Knights. The coach on the far right is distracted. He doesn’t have a hat so I guess he’s less of an official coach than the others.
He’s probably looking at the neighborhood bar and hoping for rain. Knight number three from the right (front row) may have dropped his gum or is about to flatten an insect that wandered into the photograph. We’ll never know. Sometimes when I can’t sleep, I wonder about things like that.
