El Paso Herald · El Paso, Texas · 1913

How Great Men Play the Game: Frank Baker

Scar takes up Home Run Baker of the Athletics in August 1913: a man of exceptional stride and tremendous swings, a third baseman who throws from any angle, and did you ever notice he never misses a chance on a week end to make a real one?

“Frank Baker, Third Base, Phila. Athletics” hardly needed the introduction by August 1913, and Scar leads with the nickname’s paperwork: “The name ‘Home-Run-Baker’ is well applied to a man of his exceptional stride and with his tremendous swings he tallies often those pretty things called - there’s no place like it.” The dash into the old song lyric does a lot of work. Home runs, there’s no place like them.

The fielding notes are all urgency. “On a deep play back of third with no time to turn, Baker makes the throw from any angle,” drawn with the arm coming from somewhere behind his ear. “He comes in at top speed on slow bunts, scoops ‘em up and makes the throw with one movement of the arm,” a maneuver rendered as a man diving at the grass with everything committed.

The corner box tracks his production like a payroll clerk: “And did you ever notice? He never misses a chance on a week end to make a real one.” The inset shows Baker legging it toward a little house labeled HOME, smoke coming off the base path. Baker led the American League in home runs that year with twelve, which was a mountain of them in 1913, and evidently arranged his schedule so the biggest crowds got the show.