Anyone Recognize This Player?

[oldjudge]

Friend has this card and I said I would try to help.

[terjung]

Scott Brockelman in his pre-weight lifting days?

[DaveW]

I'm guessing it's Hammersley (since his name is on the card). Baseball-reference shows a Walter Hammersley who played for Albany and Troy in the New York State League in 1912.

[barrysloate]

That image is circa 1890.

[prewarsports]

New York University (NYU) wore the exact same jerseys as the New York Giants during the late 19th and early 20th centuries so that can be a problem sometimes when people see "New York" and assume it is a Pro player when often times it is from NYU. I have owned 3 team cabinet photos of NYU (still have one) and a few individual cabinets and they seem to have copied the Giants uniforms for quite a while.

Rhys

[oldjudge]

If this is Walter Hammersley then, according to this article, he is in the T210 set

http://www.greensborohistory.org/archives/mss/html/MssColl-151--Hammersley.htm

[Anthony S.]

.

[oldjudge]

Is that the guy in the NY uniform?

[Leon]

Is that the guy in the NY uniform?

to this novice, who has poor eyes, it looks similar to him. The ears kind of stick out the same way on both cards. The eyes look a bit similar too. Just a guess though...

[barrysloate]

But the cabinet photo and the T210 photo were likely taken 15-20 years apart.

[E93]

Barry,
I am not doubting you, but for educational purposes can you explain why you say it is circa 1890.
Much appreciated.
JimB

[Leon]

But the cabinet photo and the T210 photo were likely taken 15-20 years apart.

he aged very well!!

[Runscott]

Hammersley is an avenue in New York. The Rembrandt Studio put 'Hammersley' on other cabinet cards as well, presumably so that potential customers could find it. Here's an example:

another Rembrandt Studio example (http://www.genealogi.se/portratt/comment.php?id=93309)

[barrysloate]

Jim B- it's clearly a cabinet photograph and the image looks albumen, so that places it in the late 1800's, the era when they were issued. The ones from the late 1880's have uniform looking and somewhat plain mounts. By the early 1890's, more elaborate designs were being seen. So by the mount I would date it early nineties; and there is nothing in the photograph, including the uniform style, that disputes it. And I think by 1900, the cabinet mounts changed yet again. So that's how I came upon my estimate.

[pclpads]

Just a guess, but with those ears, maybe Don Mossi's grandfather?

[oldjudge]

Scott-Maybe your cabinet is his father :-)

[oldjudge]

I agree with Barry that this is a late-1880s, early-1890s cabinet. The uniform looks like an early-1890s Giant uniform. How about Harry Lyons?

[E93]

Thanks Barry.
JimB

[DaveW]

Hammersley is an avenue in New York. The Rembrandt Studio put 'Hammersley' on other cabinet cards as well, presumably so that potential customers could find it. Here's an example:

another Rembrandt Studio example (http://www.genealogi.se/portratt/comment.php?id=93309)

OK, I was wrong (as usual). A little more web research shows that Hammersley refers to a photographer named C.H.Hammersley of the Rembrandt Studio in New York. He worked in the late 1800s to early 1900s, so the photo is probably from the 1890s as the more learned experts have said. No clues as to who the player is.

[oldjudge]

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/l/lyonsha01.shtml

[Runscott]

OK, I was wrong (as usual). A little more web research shows that Hammersley refers to a photographer named C.H.Hammersley of the Rembrandt Studio in New York. He worked in the late 1800s to early 1900s, so the photo is probably from the 1890s as the more learned experts have said. No clues as to who the player is.

Good job. I wish more of the studios had put the photographer's name on the photos. I have several that I am almost sure were taken by a famous photographer, but there were others working in the same studio.

[barrysloate]

The uniform style looks similar to the Newsboy cabinets, although as Rhys said we can't assume this is a New York Giants player.

[bmarlowe1]

This guy has a very distinctive face with some distinctive features - he should be easy to spot in team photos if he is there. I don't see him in any of the various 1890's NY NL team photos I have (though I don't have them all), and he isn't Harry Lyons.