Napoleon 'Larry' Lajoie in wheelchair 1905
This photograph is of baseball player Napoleon “Larry” Lajoie, an American of French-Canadian descent, and one of the games all-time great hitters. After winning three consecutive batting titles in 1902, 1903 and 1904, Larry (also called Nap) Lajoie was side-lined when an untreated spike injury became infected. After recovering he found a new challenger for the batting crown — Ty Cobb — and the two had an ongoing rivalry for the next ten years. This photo was taken in July of 1905 as he recovered from that leg infection.
The photographer was Louis Van Oeyen, who was a staff photographer for the Newspaper Enterprise Association at the time. Van Oeyen also worked for the Cleveland Press, and is considered a pioneer of sports photography. His collection of nearly 3,000 negatives and and equal number of historic photographs has been preserved, and can be found at the Western Reserve Historical Society. Most of the images are from the 1920s and 1930s, but the collections spans from 1890 to 1945. Van Oeyen was official photographer for the American League from 1908 to 1922. Louis Van Oeyen was born 17 January 1865 in Dayton Ohio, and died 12 December 1946 in Cleveland.
