Gambo and T_Wil1 Photopack

[KenRaffensberger16]

Originally Posted by DeweyintheHall

Here's one - I think TV may have released a couple of him with the Yankees. Now, if you can find an image of him with the Phillies, THAT would be an accomplishment!

Yes, one with the Phils would be nice. I think that due to his short stay with the Phils pix of him with that team are rare.

[DeweyintheHall]

I believe Merkle indicated in an earlier post that Dineen with the Phillies is one of the many rarities contained in the legendary Brace collection which, sadly, is unavailable due to ongoing legal wrangling. Can't help but wonder what other gems, white whales and unicorns are lurking there...

[cheech411]

someone made this pic i have no idea who??passing it along

[Merkle923]

Yes, George Brace shot Kerry Dineen with the Phillies, either on September 6 or 7, 1978, at Wrigley Field. Up until last year you could have ordered a Dineen/Phillies 5" x 7" print from Argenta Images for $10. It might have been a mediocre pose or a scratched up negative, but it would be there.

To give an idea of the breadth of the Brace collection, we know he started as an assistant to the legendary George Burke in 1929, switched almost overnight from black and white to color in 1959, retired in 1994, and died in 2002. I long ago printed out the inventory of images sold first by his daughter and later Argenta, and have reproduced Dineen's page below. Please also note that there is no indicator of the volume of different poses per player per team, only records of the player's name and with which team he was depicted.

The part of the list shown below - Dineen is at about the midpoint of the right-hand row - is page 9 of 39. Each full page lists about 270 guys (the 39th page has only about 40 names). We are thus talking about one photographer shooting 10,300 different players and other uniformed personnel. Unless somebody wants to take the time to count the number of teams listed for each player, there's no way to even guess how many total distinct player/team matches there are. Even then, there'd be no indication of how many times Brace shot each player with a given team. The entry for Tommy Davis lists eleven teams, but he spent seven full years with the Dodgers and nearly four with the Orioles, and if Brace only shot him once a year and only three poses per shoot, that's at least 57 images just of Tommy Davis.

There was also a separate index of group shots. I no longer have a copy, but I'm confident it exceeded another 750 groups.

So that this post isn't an entirely academic exercise, if you'd like to decode this page, the team ID's are in league and chronological order: A1 Boston AL, A2 Chicago AL, A3 Cleveland, A4 Detroit, A5 New York AL, A6 Philadelphia AL, A7 St.Louis AL, A8 Washington (Original or Expansion), A9 Baltimore, A10 Kansas City A's, A11 Los Angeles AL, A22 Minnesota, A23 California, A24 Oakland, A25 Seattle Pilots, A26 Kansas City Royals, A27 Milwaukee Brewers, A28 Texas, A29 Toronto, A30 Seattle; N1 Boston NL, N2 Brooklyn, N3 Chicago NL, N4 Cincinnati, N5 New York Giants, N6 Philadelphia NL, N7 Pittsburgh, N8 St.Louis NL, N18 Milwaukee Braves, N25 Los Angeles NL, N26 San Francisco, N27 Houston (Colts or Astros), N28 New York Mets, N29 Atlanta, N30 Montreal, N31 San Diego, N32 Florida.

[Buccos]

I downloaded the Brace single player list when it was available at bracephoto.com, 273K filesize. Can I upload it here so all can peruse?

[Merkle923]

Just back from the scanner at the photo shop is this excellent shot of Hal Reniff, who concluded his Major League career in 1967 after a mid-season trade from the Yankees to the Mets.

Reniff had taken the National League by storm. In his first nine appearances with the Mets he was credited with three wins and four saves, gave up just six hits and two walks, and struck out ten in eighteen innings. He would never record another major league win or save, get racked up in Spring Training of 1968 (when this image was taken), and be released by the Mets. Just 29, he went back to the Yankees and pitched five years out of the bullpen with their AAA farm club in Syracuse, including a star turn as the relief ace of the 1970 Junior World Series champions.

[tnfoto]

Originally Posted by SPORTSMEM817

1932 White Sox player Bill Chamberlain ....thanks for looking guys

Originally Posted by Cusick

This photo appeared on eBay in 2013, posted by seller catspajamas.

Here is a clearer version of the photo shared by Cusick, still available from thecatspajamas99.

[rico43]

With the images of the Brace Collection taking on an almost mythical status, I tried to track its status through the Internet. What I found (or think I found) is pretty darn fascinating. I'll try to be concise, and source each piece of information.

The headline is that much of the collection -- at least "250,000 images of players" -- were approved for immediate sale by the judge overseeing the dissolution of John Rogers' memorabilia asserts. In an article published in the Arkansas Business Journal on June 22, 2015, Judge Chris Piazza rejected a third offer to buy all of Rogers' assets by an Atlanta-based shell company called Red Alert Group, or rather "Red Alert Media Matrix," which was a branch formed in Arkansas specifically for the purchase. The offer was initially signed off on by court-appointed receiver Michael McAfee, but McAfee changed his ruling when Red Alert could not or would not supply proof of funds in an offer of $18 million plus a billion (with a "b") shares of unregulated illiquid (a new word for me!) stocks. Two weeks after the offer, Judge Piazza gave it a thumbs down. Red Alert had even issued a press release indicating the assets' acquisition.

But at the end of the story, almost as an afterthought, it indicated Piazza had approved McAfee's request to sell the 250,000 images considered to be all or nearly all of the Brace collection in Rogers' possession. What had earlier been made clear is that Rogers had earlier sold or traded away hudreds of Braces images while he was supposedly digitalizing them for their previous owner, Mary Brace.

Mary Brace had filed suit against Rogers in June of 2014 after he defaulted on a $1.5 million purchase of the Brace archives. He made only one monthly payment of $85,000 before defaulting, leaving him owing Mary Brace $765,000, according to a July, 21, 2014, edition of the ABJ. An August 14, 2014, artricle in the Chicago Tribune indicated that the collection was already being broken up within weeks of its sale to Rogers. A line in the stor read, "Even though Mary Brace no longer has possession of her father's collection..."

A release from Courthouse News Service from January 14, 2015, said that "Rogers consented to a $765,000 judgement in the Brace case." Which, to my reading, left Rogers with the images at that time.

McAfee was appointed receiver of the assets by Judge Piazza in July of 2014 after he was nominated for the job by the First Arkansas Bank and Trust, one of Rogers' main creditors. (ABJ, July 29, 2014). In the aftermath of Red Alert Media's purchase attempt, McAfee has been able to gather all of the exisitingConlon Collection glass plate negatives that Rogers had purchased.

Who bought the Brace archvie? And for how much? I can find no report, but it would seem that neither Mary Brace, John Rogers or Michael McAfee have it in their possession. At the very least, Mary Brace no longer has any legal say about their usage.

Also, Rogers was arrested in December after he had improperly entered his former business, SportsCards Plus, in August of 2015 and under the cover of darkness and taken three hard drives from computers that reportedly held over a million scanned images. (ABJ, December, 4, 2015)

[rico43]

Walt Bond was only 29 when leukemia claimed him in October of 1967. Herman Hill was a mere 25 when he drowned in Venezuela during winter baseball. What they have in common is that they spend a brief time with the Minnesota Twins in the final year of their life. And photos of both with the Twins are on the scarce side.
Lexibell folders opened recently found nice press photos of both. Bond, on the right, is pictured with Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew and fellow infielder Rich Reese in the spring of '67. The head shot of Hill indicates it is from the spring of 1970.

[Terry D]

The Brace thing is frustrating. Just on the one page of the list posted here I noted two elusive players from the era I focus on, Steve Dillard with the White Sox and Frank DiMichele with the Angels. Oh well, if the photos still exist maybe we can still hope that they will become available some day.

[baseball-birthdays.com]

you won't find any white whales, but for those who might have an interest the book The Game That Was: The George Brace Baseball Photo Collection can be had in hardcover from Amazon for as little as $2.75 plus shipping. I bought a copy a few years ago.

[rico43]

Here a rather tough image, courtesy the Lexibell archives: Floyd Robinson with the Reds, 1967. I've seen a Getty image in color of him jumping rope(!), so at least here he's in a baseball pose.
Left to right, Reds outfielders Dick Simpson, Art Shamsky, Robinson and Tommy Harper. All were considered candidates for the right field job.

[rico43]

Originally Posted by oldtimers

Hello All, Does anyone have any pics of Jack Reed for the Yankees? Other then the ones that are here now? Thanks for any help.

Found one additional Jack Reed in the Lexibell archives. Like that you can see his uniform number.

[Cusick]

After spending a couple of hours reading various articles on the John Rogers situation, I would conclude that the collection is still in the hands of Michael McAfee. The primary reference is an article in Sports Collectors Daily, dated January 5, 2015, which reported:

"An Arkansas judge has placed four businesses once controlled by sports memorabilia and photo dealer John Rogers into receivership.

According to Arkansas Business, Pulaski County Circuit Court Judge Chris Piazza appointed Michael McAfee as receiver for Sports Card Plus Inc., Pulaski County Arkansas Circuit CourtPlanet Giant LLC, Digital Stock Planet LLC and Photo Archive Partners LLC.

A brief hearing was held Monday, during which an attorney for First Arkansas Bank & Trust contended that the businesses are out of money.

McAfee will be in charge of preserving the collections, including thousands of photographs that are in dispute and reporting to the court on significant offers made for assets.

Among the collections Rogers has defaulted on according to creditors include The Conlon Collection of over 8,000 original negatives taken by Charles Conlon in the first half of the 20th century and the George Burke and George Brace Collection, another huge archive of photographs including thousands of sports images.

Arkansas Business spelled out details of the other assets that could soon be up for grabs."

When Rogers was arrested in December of 2015 for breaking into his former store, Sports Cards Plus, the associated article mentioned that the store was currently under the ownership of the First Arkansas Bank and Trust. rico43 had previously reported that that bank had nominated Michael McAfee to be the conservator of the assets.

McAfee's April, 2015 official report on the assets in his custody may be seen at the following URL: https://assets.documentcloud.org/doc...ceivership.txt

Unfortunately, the details of the photos in custody are simply listed as Exhibit A, and we are not given the benefit of seeing what is in Exhibit A. So this document does not confirm whether the Brace Collection is among the assets in the report or not. I would assume that the collection is among the photos in the North Little Rock location.

[rico43]

Your information is right up to the point, but the June 22 article implies that the Brace collection has been separated from the overall Rogers archive. But there is a big, fat question mark as to where they went or how they were sold or going to be sold.

An except from that:

In other orders at the hearing, Piazza approved:

* A request by affiliates Digital First Media of New York to enter the case. In a separate lawsuit, Digital First accused John and Angelica Rogers of fraud, breach of contract and selling its copyrighted images and asked for the return of its newspaper archives.

* Digital First's request for a temporary restraining order to prevent the sale of its disputed archives. Rogers acquired the archives of 21 newspapers operated by Digital First.

* A settlement contract between the receiver and Fairfax Media Management PTY Ltd. to complete an archive digitization contract. Fairfax rescinded its $244,000 sales contract with Rogers after learning that he was selling photos before providing a digital copy of its archives. The Fairfax photos came from the Sydney Morning Herald and other publications in Australia and New Zealand, as well as some photographs from non-Fairfax sources.

* A $150,000 working capital loan request by McAfee to fund the Fairfax contract. The loan is from First Arkansas Bank & Trust.

* The receiver's request to sell part of the epic George Burke & George Brace Collection of an estimated 250,000 original negatives of baseball players.

[Merkle923]

This is from spring training, St. Petersburg, either 1960 or 1961:

[hobbs11]

Originally Posted by Cusick

Unfortunately, the details of the photos in custody are simply listed as Exhibit A, and we are not given the benefit of seeing what is in Exhibit A. So this document does not confirm whether the Brace Collection is among the assets in the report or not. I would assume that the collection is among the photos in the North Little Rock location.

Sheesh. I'll look for this as part of the 30 for 30 series. Right behind the "orchestrated" move of the Rams back to LA...

[rico43]

In 1952, the Braves' final season in Boston, owner Lou Perini came up with what was then a novel, if not pioneering concept: a baseball show on televison. WNAC-TV carried a weekly 15-minute show called, reasonably enough, "Baseball In Your Living Room," featuring then-manager Tommy Holmes and members of the Braves as they taught baseball fundamentals.

The shows began during spring training, and a Lexibell folder revealed two publicity photos tied around the show.



The first shows coach Johnny Cooney (left) talking outfield fundamentals to Bill Bruton, Pete Whisenant and Bob Thorpe. What makes the photo such a novelty is that Bruton never played for the Boston Braves; he was sent down to Class AAA Milwaukee, then broke in the following season with the newly relocated Milwaukee Braves.



The second photo includes, left to right, George Crowe, Gene Conley, rookie third baseman Eddie Mathews, manager Tommy Holmes, Jim Solt and Leo Righetti. Solt was a career minor league catcher who was in the Braves' system from 1951-58. Righetti, father of future Yankee pitcher Dave Righetti, had signed with the Braves as a minor league free agent for 1952, but when told at the end of camp he would be returned to AAA, he threw a chair at a Braves official and was instead released!

[Merkle923]

Between 1940 and 1955, outfielder Elmer Valo played 1352 games for his first - and to that point, only - major league team, the Athletics.

But on May 21, 1956, the A's released Valo, and in the six seasons that followed he played for (counting franchise shifts) nine different teams. His longest stint was two full seasons with the Brooklyn and then L.A. Dodgers. I don't see a color image of him in their uniform in either city (although his 1958 Topps card actually shows a whitewashed '57 Brooklyn cap, and his 1960 card shows him in an L.A. uniform at the Coliseum in '58).

The color is a little wacky, but 'the' collection contains an image of Valo from L.A.'s spring training camp at Vero Beach in 1958.

[baseball-birthdays.com]

Terry Hughes with the '74 Red Sox, courtesy of ebay seller andy1921