In this Major League Baseball team photo of the 1886 Boston Beaneaters, pitcher Charles “Old Hoss” Radbourn extends his middle finger for the photograph, immortalizing himself in the trivia books as the first person to be pictured flipping the bird…

(via Retronaut)

Update: Some commenters have suggested that it looks like a cigar. It does, that’s true. However it seems relatively well-documented that it’s him flipping the bird. And, it turns out, this isn’t the only time he did it.

Here’s the story of the two incidents as told by Edward Achorn in his book Fifty-nine in ’84: Old Hoss Radbourn, Barehanded Baseball, and the Greatest Season a Pitcher Ever Had…

Charlie dutifully rested his right hand on the shoulder of the teammate sitting in front of him. But at the last minute, wearing a straight face…he lifted his left hand above his teammate’s other shoulder, firmly thrust out his middle finger, and held it rock steady so that it would remain sharp and clear in the captured image…. Charlie was seemingly the first man in history whose use of the obscene gesture was preserved on film. He may well have been the second, too. The following year, posing for his photograph on an Old Judge Tobacco baseball card, Radbourn placed his hands on his hips and, wearing a bland expression, subtly extended the middle finger on his left hand. Click.

Here’s that second pic…

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