Thread for player identification in team photos

[UKBaseballfan]

4 players who were members of the early season 1888 team played for Columbus in 1887. These were Charlie Pike, Buck West, Jack Handiboe and Pat Welsh. In 1887 Pike appeared for Columbus in 33 games, Handiboe in 25, West in 30 and Welsh in 12. The player in the lower row seated right appears to have a ball in his hand suggesting a pitcher. Eighteen year old, Jack Handiboe lead the club in wins that season. The 1887 team photo image also reveals a potential match with the player top left wearing a dark uniform in the 1888 team photo.

Separating the 1887 team photo into 2 rows of 5, the player 2nd from left in the lower row, to Manager Jim Gifford's right, appears to match with the player top left in the 88 image, strongly suggesting that he can be identified as Charlie Pike.

Almost certainly in the image is Ed Hutchinson (71 games played) , who could well be located in the top row second from left, image attached. Similarly Bill Schwartz (65 games played) should be present, final image attached. Is that him, bottom row second from right?

[prewinter]

Originally Posted by UKBaseballfan

4 players who were members of the early season 1888 team played for Columbus in 1887. These were Charlie Pike, Buck West, Jack Handiboe and Pat Welsh. In 1887 Pike appeared for Columbus in 33 games, Handiboe in 25, West in 30 and Welsh in 12. The player in the lower row seated right appears to have a ball in his hand suggesting a pitcher. Eighteen year old, Jack Handiboe lead the club in wins that season. The 1887 team photo image also reveals a potential match with the player top left wearing a dark uniform in the 1888 team photo.

Separating the 1887 team photo into 2 rows of 5, the player 2nd from left in the lower row, to Manager Jim Gifford's right, appears to match with the player top left in the 88 image, strongly suggesting that he can be identified as Charlie Pike.

Almost certainly in the image is Ed Hutchinson (71 games played) , who could well be located in the top row second from left, image attached. Similarly Bill Schwartz (65 games played) should be present, final image attached. Is that him, bottom row second from right?

Higgins was with the club from early July through early August. The Columbus Dispatch reported on August 3 he was suspended the previous day.

On August first the Dispatch published a letter of support for manager Jim Gifford signed by the following players:
William Schwartz, Ed Hutchinson, Charles Pike, William Baker, George Nulton, William Dale, Ben Stephens, J. Higgins, James Behan, Matt Keogan, Jack Handiboe, Moses Kingsley, John Murphy, and Albert Miller. Of these, all but two (Miller and Kingsley) were with the club the entire time Higgins was with the club. Miller and Kingsley overlapped by about a week before Higgins was suspended.

Four others (William Allen, John Cahill, Jack Niehoff and Louis Porter) overlapped significantly with the start of Higgins' stint with the club (2-3 weeks).

The photo has nine players plus the manager. Given the number of players in the photo, it seems like this could have been just the starting lineup for a specific game and not the full roster at the time.

Buck West arrived just after Higgins was suspended. Welsh didn't show up until September.

I buy the placement of Hutchinson and Schwartz.

[prewinter]

The photo itself came from the Columbus Library. Here is the original in their collection. The manager certainly looks like Gifford, but the photograph itself doesn't state it is the 1887 Buckeyes.

[UKBaseballfan]

Originally Posted by prewinter

This photo was posted on net54baseball with a collection of other photos, which reportedly belonged to Ice Box Chamberlain. (He is in all of them, which tracks.) It is of the 1887 Louisville club, probably taken in the spring. Identifications were make by RUKen. I'm posting it here so I can find it in the future. All of the players were identified as on the club in the Louisville Courier-Journal in April.

(I think there is some distortion in the scan, as some of the players' heads seem too wide. There are zoomed in scans in the thread on net54baseball.)

The photos posted there also include one of the Hamilton Clippers of 1885 and the Crandall club (of Buffalo, NY) of 1889.

Identifications courtesy of RUKen:
Top Row (L-R): Amos Cross, Jimmy "Chicken" Wolf, Paul Cook, John Kerins, Lave Cross, Hub Collins, Elton Chamberlain.
Middle Row (L-R): Pete Browning, William Veach, Guy Hecker, John Kelly, Tom "Toad" Ramsey, Bill White, Joe Werrick.
Bottom Row (L-R): Reddy Mack, Joe Neale, Phil Reccius (ID added by prewinter; RUKen left this as unknown).

I am confident that Bill White is located on the ground right not in the middle row. If Reccius is in the image then it opens up the placement second from right in the middle row.

Attachments show the player located bottom row, right and images of Bill EWhite from 85 and 86.

[UKBaseballfan]

2 Images of Reccius and the player second from right middle row..

[prewinter]

Originally Posted by UKBaseballfan

I am confident that Bill White is located on the ground right not in the middle row. If Reccius is in the image then it opens up the placement second from right in the middle row.

Attachments show the player located bottom row, right and images of Bill EWhite from 85 and 86.

Your examples of Bill White are a much better match for the player in the front row right than the one from Baseball-Reference that I was using. And I can see Reccius in the player that was previously identified as Bill White. Given when White showed up in Louisville (the day after the first game of the season), I think Reccius has to be in the photo, and this resolves that issue.

[RUKen]

Originally Posted by prewinter

Your examples of Bill White are a much better match for the player in the front row right than the one from Baseball-Reference that I was using. And I can see Reccius in the player that was previously identified as Bill White. Given when White showed up in Louisville (the day after the first game of the season), I think Reccius has to be in the photo, and this resolves that issue.

Craig Brown at Threads of Our Game has posted a description of this photo. Using input from several contributors, he has Reccius in the top row, far right; Chamberlain in the middle row, second from the right; and White in the bottom row, far right. After reviewing some images received in emails from him, I agree with all of these placements.

https://www.threadsofourgame.com/1887-louisville/

[Ilove_Telin54]

Originally Posted by prewinter

The photo itself came from the Columbus Library. Here is the original in their collection. The manager certainly looks like Gifford, but the photograph itself doesn't state it is the 1887 Buckeyes.

i notice it have player is African-American

[prewinter]

Originally Posted by Ilove_Telin54

i notice it have player is African-American

That player is believed to be J. Higgins, who played for Columbus for about a month in the middle of the season. No other information is known about him. Assuming this is the 1887 Buckeyes, his presence puts a well-defined time frame for the photo, with a well-defined set of players who could been the photo.

Robert Higgins, from Memphis, was an African American pitcher with Syracuse in the 1887 season. As far as I can find, there is no connection between the two players.

[Ilove_Telin54]

Originally Posted by prewinter

That player is believed to be J. Higgins, who played for Columbus for about a month in the middle of the season. No other information is known about him. Assuming this is the 1887 Buckeyes, his presence puts a well-defined time frame for the photo, with a well-defined set of players who could been the photo.

Robert Higgins, from Memphis, was an African American pitcher with Syracuse in the 1887 season. As far as I can find, there is no connection between the two players.

how old this J. Higgins have in photo?

[prewinter]

Originally Posted by Ilove_Telin54

how old this J. Higgins have in photo?

No one knows anything about him beyond the photo (assuming that is the 1887 Buckeyes) and the name J. Higgins. He joined the club in early July, and he was suspended in early August. There are no records of such a player before or after that point (or at least none I know of).

[cinemaodyssey]

Though this isn't a mystery as to who is pictured, I thought I'd post this photo of the 1891 Portland team to piggypack on the work we've done on the 1890 squad. It's obviously taken in the exact same spot as the 1890 team and with some of the same players. It was found in the 1/12/1908 edition of The Oregon Daily Journal.