mvp

In 1910, Johnson caught a ceremonial opening pitch of a baseball from President William Howard Taft, inaugurating an annual Presidential "first pitch" tradition for the first Washington D. C. home game. Answers.com says: "In 1913, at the age of 26, Johnson turned in probably the most dominating season by any major league pitcher in history. 'The Big Train' won 36 games, lost 7, had a miniscule 1.09 earned run average, and struck out 243 batters in 346 innings. Johnson completed 11 shutouts and threw 56 consecutive scoreless innings during one stretch. No pitcher ever again won 36 games in a season. For his efforts, Johnson won a new Chalmers automobile as the American League's Most Valuable Player."

Wystan, Thanks for the additional information on the event depicted here. We will add a bit more detail to the caption when we update this record.

Oct 4, 1913 Brooklyn Dodger Jake Daubert earns a new Chalmers auto as the first baseman won the Chalmers Award, a precursor to the National League MVP There have been three different "most valuable player" awards in baseball since 1911. The Chalmers Award was the first of those three and it was presented by between 1911 and 1914 by Chalmers Automotive — a Detroit based automobile company. www.baseball-almanac.com/awards/aw_chalm.shtml en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalmers_Automobile

nudecowboy: Thanks for the additional information on this photograph. We'll add to the description when we update the record!

Not sure where the Oct. 4 date came from in Kilted Cowboy's post, above. I didn't find it in the cites. Most likely this is Oct. 7, the first game of the World Series, judging from the crowds in the Polo Grounds. We know they aren't there just to see a Dodger! (see next picture of Mayor Kline).

it's been a long time since this post, I may have just fat fingered it...

From the car, the timing (before the first game of the World Series) and the position of Larry Doyle (seated on the running board), I'm going to say this was the award ceremony for the National League MVP (known then as the Chalmers Award, and accompanied by a Chalmers vehicle) to Larry Doyle. This matches up with other Chalmers Award photos in the Bain Collection.

artolog: Thanks for your comment about the Chalmers award photos. We will include some information about it in the description for this and the other images which you have identified.