Dusty Rhodes. This is a PMT, a photo mechanical transfer. It's the basis for the image on card #1 of the 1955 Topps. Rhodes nudged out Ted Williams (card #2) for card #1 honors. Dusty has just gotten his 1954 World Series MVP honors... he went 4 for 6, 2 HR, 7 RBIs. He pinch hit and stayed in to play for the first 3 games. Giants manager Durocher didn't need him for game 4. The Giants defeated the Cleveland Indians, 4 games to none.
Rhodes had played in the Kitty League for the Hopkinsville Hoppers in 1947; and that is most likely how he and my grandfather would have met. Daddy Wake, as I knew him, just barely, was an old, tall, white headed, slender fellow, in his 80s, when I first recall having seen him. Back in the 30's and 40's he lived in and near Hopkinsville, Kentucky. On his dresser in his bedroom was this photo, in a metal picture frame. The only team that I new of in New York would have been the New York Yankees. I knew the Giants were in San Francisco, but had no idea they'd ever been anywhere else. Anyway, this photo was an enigma to me as a young kid.
Years later I wrote him, sending him several reworked prints of this 8"x10", without his endorsement and signature, and an SASE. I asked that he sign 2 and send them back to me (one for me and one for my cousin). He signed 2, kept the rest, and we corresponded a bit.
In that image, he's wearing a road uniform. So where is he? Ebbett's Field, which would have been close to his home park. It's certainly not the Polo Grounds. I think it's in Cleveland Stadium, pointed out toward center field, close in time to when game 3 or game 4 of that 1954 World Series. The outfield billboards aren't clear. I've always wondered what that white patch beside his right shoulder was about. Where do you guys think those outfield are located?
https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1679107265