C 46 Silton misidentified

[bwbc917]

In the 1912 Imperial Tobacco set out of Canada there is a player identified as "Silton, Montreal." Sellers and collectors have come to realize the name is actually Sitton. He is listed as Carl or Charles on most checklists.

Charles Vedder Sitton was a spitball pitcher who played with Cleveland in 1909. He had a brother Phil who had a minor league career. Phil played with Jersey City, Charles never did. The back of the Imperial Card mentions that "Silton" had been with Jersey City. Phil was traded by JC to Montreal in December, 1910.
Baseball Reference lists Charles with Montreal in 1911, but my research shows him in Columbus, Ohio, Atlanta, and Columbus, Ga. in 1911. Phil Sitton was the pitcher at Montreal in 1911.

So how do we go about correcting a 100 year old error and identify the "Silton, Montreal" as actually being Phil Sitton from Pendleton, Georgia??


I was unable to post pictures, but there is one for sale on EBay now if you want to look at the item.

[Vintagecatcher]

Chris nice catch.

You might want to forward the info to whoever replaced Bob Lemke at SCD. Can't remember who has taken up the reigns there at SCD with regards to their vintage checklists.

Here are the scans:


Patrick

[prewarsports]

http://rmyauctions.com/bids/bidplace?itemid=19964

Here is an action pose, the only one known I believe, from his Major League stint.

[rhettyeakley]

If that indeed is a picture of Carl (or Charles) and he is the one that played for Montreal then I would argue it is a card of Carl with wrong bio information as that appears to be the person they were intending to depict as playing with Montreal.

I may be in the minority but I always go with who the maker of the cards was trying to depict on the card as the actual subject. In this case Carl Sitton was the pitcher for Montreal so I would go with him. A good argument could be made for it being a card of Phil if we find out the picture is also that of Phil Sitton.

There are other somewhat famous incidents where they depict the wrong person but they still tend to sell for prices somewhat near the level of the more famous intended player (although they definitely don't sell for what they would if the right person had been pictured)...

E97 Cy Young (depicts Irv Young)
E254 Joe Kelley, Toronto (depicts Jack Kelly)
E210 Bill Terry (depicts Zeb Terry)
1931-32 Exhibits 4-on-1 Rick Ferrell (depicts Eddie Farrell)
Yum Yum/G&B Cap Anson (depicts Ed Williamson)

[rhettyeakley]

Baseball Reference lists Charles with Montreal in 1911, but my research shows him in Columbus, Ohio, Atlanta, and Columbus, Ga. in 1911. Phil Sitton was the pitcher at Montreal in 1911.

.

If your research is accurate then it should be considered a card of Phil. That info is what Baseball-Reference and SABR would like to clear up.

[bwbc917]

I've been in touch with Baseball Reference. I also have a real problem with the name of Carl for Sitton. He was Charles Vedder Sitton and the family, from my research, called him Vedder.

I went to 2 major newspaper search engines: Newspapers.com and GenealogyBank. I plugged in Carl Sitton and got exactly 2 contemporary hits in each. I plugged in Vedder and got 300. I also tried C.V. and Charles and got 50-75 for each.

SABR biographical ( Bill Carle) has him as Charles. I have no idea why the HOF and BR call him Carl. I have begun my crusade to change that fact.

[ValKehl]

Chris,
I very recently had a similar experience. I came to realize from my research that my SGC-graded E270-2 Tin Tops card of Bill Clymer was actually Otis Clymer - both the photo and team association were correct for Otis, but Bill was listed in the Standard Catalog of Vintage Baseball Cards and in other checklists. I contacted Lyman Hardeman of Old Cardboard Magazine (editor@oldcardboard.com) and provided him with my evidence; he agreed and revised OC's online checklist. You might want to try going this route. I also provided SGC with my evidence, and SGC quickly re-slabbed my card with a corrected flip.
Val