Fischer Old Judge Identification

[z28jd]

I recently saw a post here about a discussion over the identification of Fischer in the Old Judge set. I believe the player to be Charlie F Fischer. Below I have included an ID card that his family posted online, noting that the spelling is wrong on the ID (not the OJ card). Besides looking like an older version of him, Fischer got married in Chicago on February 27, 1888, so he can be placed in the same town as the Maroons just as the preseason was about to begin. Now obviously you need the baseball connection, so I also included two of the mentions from his playing days, pitching in Illinois in 1887-88 for two different teams (Champaign and Decatur). He can also be traced back to St Joseph in 1886, as shown below as well.

[kkkkandp]

Nicely done, John!

[tiger8mush]

nice detective work!

[prewinter]

The St. Joseph Gazette introduced the 1886 team in an article on March 3, 1886. It reported that Charles G. Fischer, in 1885, was a pitcher for Portland, Maine. According to Baseball-Reference, that player was Charlie Fischer
(https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=fisher006cha), who played with Kansas City and Chicago/Pittsburgh in the Union Association in 1884. The photo from Baseball-Reference isn't great, but there is also some similarity, I suppose.

I was thinking Fischer was actually Dad Clarkson, who was with Chicago that spring but does not show up on an Old Judge card. This ID makes more sense.

[z28jd]

The St Joseph's player could be the guy in the link you included, but he's not the same player as Charles F Fischer. That could just be a mistake in the article I found causing the confusion. I didn't have a link from the St Joseph player to the one playing in Illinois other than the name and if they typed it wrong, then it's not the same guy.

Charles F Fischer was born in 1864 in Chicago (I should have mentioned that in the first post), quite different than Charlie Fisher

[z28jd]

I'll say right now that what now looks to be a printing error in the St Joseph report I linked has cast some doubt for me. I didn't look more into it because I had all of the connections, but the Charles Fisher who played in Champaign in 1887 was a shortstop. It's possible that he is the Charlie Fisher linked above (who was said to pitch), which would place him with a local team for 1888 as well. I wish that photo of him was better.

I still have the photos that look alike and proof that Charles Fischer was 24 and in Chicago at that time, plus his name would be correct on the card. Those are all great clues, but I don't know about the baseball connection anymore