No question, the existence of those variations in Black & White would blow-up the hypothesis. I have never seen them, and could not locate via auction searches.
With regard to Irv, as was mentioned on a previous thread: It is his picture, his team, and he went by the nickname Cy. Pretty reasonable to assume they intended it to represent him in the initial (Black & White) issue dating from early 1909.
Also worth noting is the sale of a complete, "uncut" sheet of 30 colored cards, all reflection the corrections discussed.
http://www.robertedwardauctions.com/...-uncut-panels/