Gambo and T_Wil1 Photopack

[Chickazoola]

While searching for another player, I "accidentally" located a nice team woodcut of the 1895 Fitchburg club which featured Tom aka "Tony" aka "Bushy" aka "Old Reliable" Hart, who caught for the 1891 Washington club of the American Association. The woodcut was featured in the April 30, 1895 Fitchburg Sentinel.

[Chickazoola]

I went looking for James Haley, but I found Ed Santry (1884 Detroit Wolverines) instead. He is pictured in the July 15, 1888 Chicago Tribune.

[Chickazoola]

This is not great, and probably doesn't quite qualify for what we are looking for, but I wanted to share for its uniqueness.

A woodcut of Frank Bell being shot to death by bartender Joe Hughes is featured in April 14, 1891 Cincinnati Post. He is the one on the far right being shot.

[Chickazoola]

I've located two photos of Edgar A. Smith of the 1884 Baltimore Unions. He was a prominent citizen of St. Thomas, Ontario. He was featured in the April 15, 1913 issue of the St. Thomas Times Journal.

[Chickazoola]

I've located a photo of Charles J. Ritter of the 1885 Buffalo Bisons. Ritter was enlisted as a replacement at second base by the Buffalo Bisons after the Big Four left the club late in the year. While there is not a definite ID on the player's first name, the amateur Charles J. Ritter played second base and is the only Ritter playing ball in Buffalo at the time. So there is a very high likelihood that Charles J. Ritter is the major leaguer as well.

He was a long-time amateur ball-player in Buffalo (though because of a couple similarly aged Charles J. Ritters in Buffalo at the time, his birth and death date are not confirmed). He is pictured in the April 9, 1929 Buffalo Evening News, as a 2nd baseman of the 1887 Clippers, a top Buffalo amateur team. In the caption for the team photo, he is listed as H. Ritter, however contemporary 1887 accounts of the Clippers list him as C. J. Ritter.

[Pinetarpress]

Originally Posted by rlumpkin1@tampabay.rr.com

New ebay listings 1977 Seattle Mariners Bobby Floyd

This should be in the coach section....Floyd was done playing here and was about to become the manager of the Bellingham Mariners in the Northwest League for the 1977 season. *They won the playoff championship

[Merkle923]

In belated honor of the Astros' World Championship, here's a run of tremendous photos taken for the '62 and '63 Colt 45s by the peripatetic Dallas-based photographer Jim Laughead, which we'll 'release into the wild' here. Laughead did much of Topps' spring training work in Florida and nearly all of it in Arizona into the early '70s (in addition to eleventy billion college football photos).

Not all of these guys technically belong here as most never actually played in the majors but the collection is just too good to be split up. And no, none of them actually played in Houston.

Grob was a '56 Senator depicted in camp with Houston in '63.

[Merkle923]

Later a very brief Kansas City Athletic, Hickman was one of Houston's draft choices (from the Phils) in '62.

[Merkle923]

Briefly a Cubs pitcher in '59 and '60, and kind of "left" with Chicago's American Association farm in Houston when it went big league - he didn't make the first Colt team in '62. But Laughead got him.

[Merkle923]

Came over to Houston from the Tigers in the Sam Jones/Bob Bruce trade, and was still trying to make the big league roster as late as 1966.

[Merkle923]

Here are the pure minor leaguers in big league camp. This is infielder Ray Ferrand, who was in the Colts' '63 assemblage before making his minor league debut the same year.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/r...d=ferran001ray

[Merkle923]

The Colt .45s got a step closer to respectability far faster than their expansion brethren because they had an embryonic farm system a year before their National League debut.

One of its stars (15-8, 2.34, 117 K at Jacksonville and Salisbury in 1961) was pitcher Jack Lane, and his reward was a trip to the first Houston camp.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/r...d=lane--003joh

[Merkle923]

McDaniel was a 12-year minor league veteran with 233 minor league homers and a '59 Topps "Rookie Star" card under his belt when the Colts brought him to camp and gave him a look at first and the outfield in '62. He never made it.

He was not one of "the" McDaniel brothers, though the '62 Colts had one of those too (Von, attempting to convert from pitcher to 3B).

https://www.baseball-reference.com/r...d=mcdani002jam

[Merkle923]

Another veteran of a year in the Houston minor league system before there was a major league team. He was considered one of their best pitching prospects when Laughead photographed him. He too never made it.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/r...d=pate--001ken

[Merkle923]

Phil's younger brother and like him, a Braves' bonus baby. But he had arm problems and drifted to the Colts for the '62 camp. The woes would limit him to just six more minor league appearances before giving it up in '65.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/r...d=roof--001pau

[Merkle923]

A star outfielder of the '61 Houston Buffs whose minor league career dated back to 1952, and presumed to be a likely member of the '62 Colts, he too didn't make the cut.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/r...d=waters001joh

[Merkle923]

And we finish it up with Fred White, a catcher and outfielder who had produced a dozen homers for Houston farms in '61.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/r...d=white-002fre

[rlumpkin1@tampabay.rr.com]

New ebay listing 1977 New York Mets Terry Ervin

[Cusick]

Don't know when the photo would have been taken of Ferrand in a Houston Colts' uniform. Was not with them in the spring of 1963, as he was still in school at Nicholls State in Louisiana. Did not sign with the Colts until June of 1963. Could not find newspaper evidence that he was invited to Colts' 1964 spring camp.

His baseball career ended in September, 1964 because of a freak accident. He was hitting golf balls in his back yard. One golf ball rebounded off a post and hit him in the eye. The eye had to be surgically removed.

[Merkle923]

The “.45s” logo on the cap looks like it’s been transplanted from another image - the shading isn’t quite right. But the Texas flag logo on the sleeve and the traces of “Houston” on the shirt look legit, and the fence in the background sure looks like Colt Stadium. There’s a “Sporting News Collection” hologram sticker on the back, an ink-stamped “1963” in red (if there was supposed to be a month preceding the year, it didn’t register), and as you can see from the quick snapshot of the actual 8 x 10, the thing has been printed identifying Ferrand with the Colts.

Could be from later in calendar 1963, could be from a tryout, could be...who knows what?