Made a "HUGE" PCL Find Today...Need Help identifying year and players
 

Picked up this HUGE framed photo today at the local antique show...It says "Portland Baseball Team....Central Studios Photo" along the bottom edge..I know by the stands in the background that this is for sure taken in Los Angeles at the very same spot that most of the Dingman PCL photos were snapped...I've searched the Spalding Guides online (very tedious) and can't find this particular team photo...I'm wondering if anyone here can help me date this and identify the players. Thanks....oh yeah, that's my size 10 tennis shoe propped up against the frame.

photo
 

Awesome find Dan, beautiful photo.

Check the 1910-11 Obaks. I know I have see some of those faces in the cards.

Congrats Dan!
 

Dan,

Nice pickup.

I'll check my catcher cards and I'll let you know which catchers are in the photo.


Patrick

Dan: Atached is a scan of the Portland postcard which I acquired from a fellow board member. There was a thread on here a while back where most if not all of the players were ID'ed. I think Mark Fimhoff got in on the act so it should all be good. I'll look through the archives and find the link unless someone beats me to it. Great pickup. Try using a quarter instead of a tennis shoe next time.

http://photos.imageevent.com/kawika_...tland%20pc.jpg

1909, 1910?
 

--Edited to add that I forgot to check the archives! Rookie mistake... Kawika came to the same conclusion as me back in February of 2010 in the thread he mentions below.

Great Find!

I attach your photo with a little headshot of Charles Armbruster. Looks to me like the guy in the bottom left of the photo.

If you think it is him, he only played for Portland in 1909 and 1910. Played for Red Sox and White Sox in pro career and I think he has a T206 as well as an Obak card.

What do you think?

http://www.baseball-reference.com/mi...d_roster::none

After quickly looking at the photo I would place it between 1909-11 as that appears to be John "Buddy" Ryan (wh left for the majors afterthe 1911 season) in the front middle and Walter McCredie is top far right. I will look at it a little closer later if nobody has narrowed it down further. Tom Seaton (I believe) is pictured 2nd from the left in middle),
-Rhett

Thanks for the help guys...Tom Seaton is a Nebraska boy..I wonder if this originated in his estate?? The guy I bought it from today bought it at the show yesterday and put it in his booth.

Here is a link to the thread I referred to: http://www.net54baseball.com/showthr...light=portland
My postcard was ascertained to be a 1909 issue. Your photo has some of the same guys so you should be able to match up a few and narrow down the year.

Thanks for everyone's help here...A Portland collector emailed me the identities of the players.

It is the 1909 team


Top row - Ed Kennedy; Fred Harkness; Otis Johnson; Fred Graney; Walter McCredie
Middle row - Tom Murray; Tom Seaton; Ivy Olson; Jess Garrett; George Ort
Front row - Ditch Armbruster; Ed Willett; Buddy Ryan; Dick Breen; Al Carson

A few more questions remain
 

What I find interesting is that the player wearing the Oakland Oaks sweater,and identified as Otis Johnson by the "Portland Collector," looks to be also on David's PC. On David's postcard he is wearing a Portland uniform. Logically, that would suggest that Dan's photo pre-dates David's PC. To further complicate the matter, I couldn't find any record of Otis Johnson ever playing for the Oakland Oaks.

Any thoughts on this?

Here are the cropped images of the player identified as Otis Johnson from both sources. It looks to be the same player to me. It also looks to be an Oaks sweater?


Patrick

Photo posted by Kawika:
Portland PCL 1909

Spec Harkness, Roy Willett, Jess Garrett, Otis Johnson, Buddy Ryan, Walt McCredie

Ivy Olsen, Bill Speas, George Ort

Charlie Ambruster, Jack Fornier, Jack Graney, Dick Breen, Al Carson

Dan's source ID's for his photo look good to me. Great find.

Perhaps a simple answer
 

Although I wasn't able to find any evidence that Otis "Ote" Johnson was traded from Oakland to Portland, I did notice that several of his team members on the 1907 Portland team had been traded from Oakland to Portland, namely catcher Jimmy Byrnes and outfielder John Bassey.

Since he did spend part of the time pitching, perhaps the sweater was nothing more than Otis keeping his pitching arm warm. A sweater he picked up from one of his team mates...perhaps a sweater that he won in a poker game between PCL cities.

It's a stretch, but it's all I've got.

Any thoughts?


Patrick

It may be the 1909 team but the picture was taken in or around March, 1910.

Anyone notice that it is not the same picture as the PC though they were taken minutes apart.

Very nice pickup.

It's not just that it's a different picture, the cast of characters is not the same.