1945 World Series
In October, 1945, when the Detroit Tigers played the Chicago Cubs for the World Series, World War II had just ended, but many of the best major league players were still in military service. When asked which team would win the series, one commentator said "I don't think either one of them can win it."
These photos are from the LIFE photo archive. None of them were published in the magazine.
Congratulating a player in the Cubs locker room. Note they're both smoking, something that was common then but unthinkable for pro athletes today. Photo by Myron Davis.
Detroit won the series 4-3. This is the Tigers locker room after the final game. Reporters are clustered around slugger Hank Greenberg, who had been discharged from military service early and was clearly the star of the series, hitting two home runs for the Tigers, scoring seven runs and driving in another seven. In the background, you can see some other players naked. Players didn't worry about being naked around reporters, or even photographers. Photo by Frank Scherschel.
And in this classic Frank Scherschel photo, we see Hank Greenberg, casually naked, swigging a beer to celebrate the World Series win as reporters interview him.
It's such a striking image, I couldn't resist colorizing Hank in the photo, just for fun. The guy at the bottom is looking out as if to say to me, "Really? You colorized it?"
4 comments:
Ah, for that kind of casual response to nudity to return would be great.
Interesting that Greenberg, who was Jewish, is definitely circumcised, while the naked man in the first pic appears to be intact. Circumcision in the US for non-religious reasons started being popular around the turn of the century, but didn’t become truly widespread until the vast majority of babies were born in hospitals. The first man probably was not. (Time to do away with the tradition entirely, IMHO!)
Even then there were social axes. Like I grew up in a largely indigenous community and only white boys were circumcised.
What’s great post. Such a variety of photos and men.
Really excellent!
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