Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Jackie Robinson Doc by Ken Burns airing on PBS

I enjoyed what I have seen from Ken Burns in "Baseball" and his other films. This week his latest project a Biopic on Jackie Robinson is airing on PBS.

Tonight will feature the second half of the doc, but I doubt you need to fret over missing the first half.  I am sure the will be broadcast a few times in the upcoming weeks and across different platforms every spring for the next several years.


2016 Topps Berger's Best #BB-5 Jackie Robinson

This Near Mint specimen is, of course, not an original 1956 Topps card of Jackie Robinson. It is a reissue which was inserted into 2016 Topps. 

2016 Topps Berger's Best #BB-5 Jackie Robinson (b-side)

Yes we see a lot of the same cards issued repeatedly in Topps insert sets each year. I prefer this years card discussion on the back of the cards over the straight reprint of the original backs.

Although there is a bit of slight of hand in the description. The text mentions that the action shot is a steal of home and then goes on to mention Robinson stole home in the World Series. This however is not the Series Steal.

We searched Corbis Images (a first for team Phungo) and found the image on the card. Corbis was good enough to give us a lot of info, the picture is from a game played on August 29th 1955 during a Dodgers 10-4 victory over the Cardinals. The Batter (#45) with his back to us is Phillies one time pitching coach Johnny Podres and the St Louis catcher is Bill Sarni.

According to Corbis the Photographer was Frank Jurkoski. I didn't find much on Jurkoski, my limited digging found that he was a Sports Photographer, Beyond Corbis, I was able to find his credits for New York Journal American and International New Service.

I did find that the action shot on  1956 Topps #18 Dick Donovan was one of Jurkoski's photos.

Sources and Links
NJ Baseball
Jackie Robinson HoF Index
Corbis Images 
Ken Burns
Popular Photography
Oklahoma History 
Harry Ransom Center UT Austin

No comments:

a thousand words

a thousand words
2008 World Champions