A Boy's Baseball Fantasy

There is nothing predictable about the antique business. If it does not surprise you, you aren't paying attention. It's true in every field, and it's true with early baseball photography. If you are even able to find one, you would expect a baseball carte-de-visite to record an image of a team or group of players in a studio. Once in a long while an outdoor image of a game or players would turn up in a carte, but seldom. But this particular image I could have never anticipated.Is it a childhood fantasy recorded on a CdV? A young player in full uniform posing as if to hit an incoming pitch, with his other bats at his feet. This may be what is going on, but it's hard to figure out. Even the photo studio is weird - is that a 3-dimensional set with a fence and leaves? What part is the backdrop? Are those plants real? Wait! Maybe he is out of doors.However, there is another clue, this one on the back. The photo was taken in the baseball crazy town of St. Louis. Written in period blue ink on the back is "Willie in Feldspiel." This last word is an approximation from a smudge, but "spiel" is definitely the last part. Spiel means "play" in German, and St. Louis was a German town in the 1860s. Maybe our 'Willie' is getting his photo made at an early amusement park in the city. That could explain the unusual set in which the boy is posed. I have nothing but good feelings about this picture. I hope Willie had a fine time playing ball.Please comment below and let me know what you think.