Original glass negative of Ty Cobb produced by noted Chicago photographer Francis Burke. This spectacular action scene, taken at Chicago's West Side Grounds during the 1908 World Series, captures Cobb as he slides into home plate as Cubs catcher Johnny Kling looks on. An etching at the base of the negative reads "World Series Cobb in His Slide to Home Plate." Research indicates that this play occurred in Game 3 on October 12th. Cobb scored from third on a sacrifice fly in the eighth inning and was caught trying to steal home in the ninth. The fact that Kling is holding the ball in his hand, combined with the pained look on Cobb's face, makes us reasonably sure that the photo captures the unsuccessful steal attempt. Detroit won Game 3 by score of 8-3, and it marked their only win of the Series. This image of Cobb sliding was later used in Cobb's Royal Tailors advertisement and was reproduced in both the 1909 Spalding and Reach Guides. It should be noted that the only known Type I photograph of this image, made from this very negative at the time, recently sold at auction for $32,400. While there may be other Type I photographs of this scene yet to be discovered, there is only one negative, which was on the field at the very moment this wonderful image was captured for all posterity. The negative (7x5") displays minor flaws, mainly along the periphery, common to nearly all early 1900s glass negatives, as well as a darkroom stain that affects the central image area. GD-VG. Francis P. Burke (1871-1949) was a prominent Chicago newspaper photographer whose work ranged far beyond baseball. He took thousands of images of immigrant life in Chicago and, in 1912, opened a photo studio with Henry A. Atwell (1879-1949), known as Burke & Atwell, that specialized in theatrical, magazine, and newspaper images. Sometime prior to 1929, Burke severed his partnership with Atwell and opened another studio known as Burke & Koretke. Burke had been the Cubs' official photographer in the early 1900s but was later replaced by George Burke (in a story that has been told many times, and which may be apocryphal, Burke lost his job as Cubs photographer simply because a Cubs employee couldn't remember his first name and mistakenly confused him with George Burke). Nevertheless, he was still a frequent visitor to the ballpark and between the approximate years 1909 to 1916, Burke earned extra income by selling his baseball images to various Chicago-based businesses, including Rueckheim Bros. & Eckstein (Cracker Jack), Max Stein, Novelty Cutlery, Crystal Pure Candy Co., Carl Joseph & Co. (tailors), Royal Tailors, and Irwin Howe's Baseball Correspondence League of America, which published a "Pitching Course." To baseball collectors, Burke’s images are ubiquitous and instantly recognizable. Despite the range and relative scarcity of his work, his baseball images are arguably among the best of the deadball era.