Time to Take Old Judge Pictures

[z28jd]

For the Indianapolis Hoosiers in 1887, you can almost pinpoint the date their Old Judge pictures were taken based on players transactions and one pitcher's lack of pitching skills. On May 7,1887 John Kirby started for the Hoosiers and lost 18-2. It was his third start of the young season. Two days later, while the team was in Chicago, Larry Corcoran was signed and he took Kirby's place in the rotation, while Kirby returned to Indianapolis. Corcoran followed the team to Pittsburgh, then to New York, home of Goodwin & Company for an off-day on May 15th, followed by a four game series. When Indianapolis went to Boston, Corcoran was released. Hank Morrison then began to play for the Hoosiers and was with the team through the beginning of August. Kirby pitched the first game for the Hoosiers when they returned home on June 2.

Given the facts, Corcoran was with the team only from May 10-20. Kirby was with the team but didn't make the road trip and Morrison joined the team just after Corcoran left and neither Morrison nor Kirby made the OJ set. You could say there was an 11 day period the team photos were shot during.

The Old Judge cards with that same black background and ugly rug as the Hoosiers from 1887 were the Beaneaters, the Alleghenys, the Quakers and the Nationals. Looking at the Giants home schedule only from May 7-20 they played in order, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, Indianapolis and Pittsburgh. The same 5 teams with those bland background/rug combos in the OJ set all were in NY within a 2 week period.

The other four teams from 1887 were the two local teams, Brooklyn and Giants, so they could've taken those pics anytime. Then Detroit and Chicago have that same city background, and includes Stump Weidman, who was signed by Detroit on April 5 but didn't include Shadow Pyle or Jocko Flynn, who were with Chicago in May. Plus the set also included Jim McCormick as a Chicago player even though he was holding out and would be traded to Pittsburgh on April 21

Judging by the low turnout of Detroit players in the 1887 set, it is possible that was their road team for an exhibition game against Chicago on the day the pictures were taken sometime in early April. Eight players for Detroit made the 1887 set and you could almost make a lineup out of those guys P-Weidman C-Ganzel 1B-Brouthers OF Hanlon/Thompson/Twitchell(says P on his card but he played 50 games in the outfield and pitched 15 times). Richardson-2B Rowe-SS plus Watkins,mgr. No Dunlap,Bennett, Deacon White, Lady Baldwin or Pretzels Getzien, who were star players. Possibly the Deacon White portrait was taken at this time, since he was the 3B for Detroit at that time. Might be why they mixed up his name later on, just a thought

[oldjudge]

John-Interesting analysis. I can help you further. The 1887 Indianapolis photos were taken by Gray, a photographic studio located in Boston. The Deacon White photos, including the rare mislabeled portrait, were taken by Fearnaught, a studio in Indianapolis. This same studio, as we detail in Appendix 4 of the Old Judge book, also took pictures of the 1888 Indianapolis team.

[z28jd]

I think you did even narrow it down further, because I assumed the photos were taken in NY. The same four teams(not including Boston) I listed all went through Boston at that same time period, even shorter actually, May 11-20. Since Corcoran was released early enough to be announced in a May 21st newspaper, that basically means the Indy pictures were taken May 20th. Don't think any other day would've been feasible.

The White photo was just a guess based on the fact he was the 3B for the team and they only had eight players in the 1887 print run for the OJ set. Maybe the manager Bill Watkins played 3b for Detroit during this game I'm assuming. Wouldn't be far-fetched, he was a major league 3b in 1884 and played in the minors a few times after 1887