The Pecan Park Eagle

Who Are These Guys?
And how many of our column guesses are right?

The above photo is simply the latest of mysteries submitted by The Brothers Blair, Bob and Daryl. It actually works this way. – Daryl Blair finds these little items of historical inquisitiveness and sends them to his brother Bob Blair, who then forwards them on to The Pecan Park Eagle with few words and no solicitation either way. Here at the Eagle, we then have to make the decision each time on the merits of sending them on to our readership.

So far, the Blair Brothers are batting 1.000 with their ability to hit our dedication to sharing news and mysteries from baseball’s past, no matter how arcane the specific subject may be – and today’s submission is no exception. Bob Blair’s only guess on the identities of the men in this picture found expression in a single e-mail sentence: “Daryl sent this photo and for the life of me I can only pick out the Babe and the commissioner.”

Bob Blair was right about Babe Ruth, but he apparently mistook the always suited Connie Mack for “the commissioner”, and whomever specific he had in mind.

Here are our Pecan Park Eagle picks on all featured individuals in two columns, left to right. Our absolutely certain picks are embellished in bold type. Our considered guesses and possibly incorrect identifications are not. – Now all we need is for you readers, or someone like SABR photo expert and colleague Bill Hickman, to swoop in here and clear up any wrong guesses – and maybe even tell us what, where, and when this stadium gathering of greats even occurred. It appears to be an old-timers’ all star game.

Here are our conclusions ~

The Pecan Park Eagle Picks (Bold Type for Certainty), Left to Right:

Back Row: Jimmy Collins, Eddie Collins, Frank “Pancho” Snyder, Connie Mack, Al Barlick, George Kelly, and George Sisler.

Front Row: Honus Wagner, Travis Jackson, Babe Ruth, Walter Johnson, and Tris Speaker.

Come on, Bill Hickman, or somebody, step up to the plate and clear the bases of all ambiguity!

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Ongoing Box Score of Incorrect Photo ID Corrections to Certainty (Or as Close as We get):

Through 1st Corrections, near 1:00 PM, CST, Friday, February 20, 2015.)

Latest Reconstruction Published Below, Followed by Order of Contributor Submission per Correct Subject Identification ~

Back Row: (Duffy Lewis), Eddie Collins, (Roger Bresnahan), Connie Mack, (Bill Klem),  (Red Murray) and George Sisler.

Front Row: Honus Wagner, (Frankie Frisch), Babe Ruth, Walter Johnson, and Tris Speaker.

All bold type names above in this latest list were correct in the first place. All corrected identities names are also shown in bold type, but enclosed in parentheses in notation of the work our readership contributed to getting all identities right.

Here too is our List of Contributors on Solving the  Identities for All Five of the originals we were not sure about and guessed wrong in naming. All seven of our original certain picks proved just that. They were correct. But all five of our doubtful picks in the first place proved to be  wrong. The list includes the in photo order appearance the corrected identity figure in parentheses, followed by the Internet or personal identity of the person or persons who conatcted us by e-mail or comment post with the correct information:

(Duffy Lewis) by Shinerbock80

(Roger Bresnahan) by Shinerbock80

(Bill Klem) by (1) Larry Dierker; (2) Fred Soland; and (3) Shinerbock80

(Red Murray) by Shinerbock80

(Frankie Frisch) by Shinerbock80

If anyone wants to confirm or challenge our 12 picks as now all accurate, which we think they now are, with objective proof of support or contradiction, please feel free to so.

Thanks too to Shinerbock80  for offering that an unnamed Internet source relates that the photo was taken in 1943. We are still some chump change short of knowing what specifically brought these aging greats together in uniform to have their picture taken together in their old MLB uniforms.

Editor, The Pecan Park Eagle.

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Imprimatur. Near 2:00 PM, Friday, February, February 20, 2015:

Bill Hickman has checked in. Let’s pull his verbatim from the comment section as the cork on this little bottle of historical baseball identity search, leaving room, of course, for where and what this convocation of greatness was all about.

Bill Hickman Says:

“shinerbock80, you completed the work for me. I had already identified Klem instead of Barlick and had determined that the fellow in the back row, far left was not Jimmy Collins (ears stuck out too much). The player with the chest protector bore a substantial resemblance to Frank Snyder, but Snyder was 6’2″ tall, so he should have appeared taller than Connie Mack. Roger Bresnahan was 5’9”, which was the same height as Eddie Collins, so I’m satisfied that he was the right identification. I checked all the other names in shinerbock80’s posting and agree with them as well.

Because Rogers Hornsby’s coaching career with the Pirates spanned from 1933 to 1951, I was assuming that he was wearing a contemporary uniform, and that would date the photo in the 1940’s, so the 1943 year reported by shinerbock80 makes sense to me.”

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– Thanks, Bill Hickman,, shinerbock80, Larry Dierker, and Fred Soland for your participation and contributions here today. – The Pecan Park Eagle.