Champion Baseball Player Cabinet

wastewater · #1 05-22-2009, 12:39 PM

I don't know either way on this one but was curious if anyone else saw this and had any thoughts. I uploaded the image referenced in the description as there are a lot of photos in this listing.

http://cgi.ebay.com/1880-Photo-Album...3%3A4|294%3A50

barrysloate · #2 05-22-2009, 12:53 PM

I did see that on ebay...it was a massive album with loads of photos. Don't know who that ballplayer is though.

slidekellyslide · #3 05-22-2009, 01:28 PM

Could be a scam....

edited to add...I wrote that before looking at the auction....I have no idea who is pictured in that photo.

prewarsports · #4 05-22-2009, 01:38 PM

I actually saw that album on ebay because of the baseball reference (showed up in some of my searches) and bid on it, but not for the Baseball photo. I came up about $1000 short in the end. It had some tremendous early photos of other subjects and I doubt the winner placed much if any value on the "Baseball" photo. However, it does look a lot like Lee Richmond from my memory, who was the worlds first successful Left Handed Pitcher around 1880-1884 which would be about when this book was put together. I am not making any claims and I have not even compared any photos of him, but the second I saw this I thought to myself, "Wow, I think that is Lee Richmond". Even if substantiated it would not be the most valuable photo in the book, but I dont think it is a scam. Anyone else think it looks like Lee Richmond? I need to find a photo of him and compare to see why I thought this and hopefully I am not so far off that I look like an idiot.

Rhys

barrysloate · #5 05-22-2009, 01:42 PM

There's a photo of Lee Richmond in SABR's Nineteenth Century Stars...doesn't look like the same person.

slidekellyslide · #6 05-22-2009, 01:42 PM

I only thought scam from looking at the photo posted in this thread...it's obvious when one looks at the auction and can see that the writing is consistent through the album that it is not a scam.

I wonder if Mark F. has any photos of Lee Richmond?

bmarlowe1 · #7 05-22-2009, 02:44 PM

The photo can't be Richmond.

prewarsports · #8 05-22-2009, 04:46 PM

I never compared them and it was just a hunch. They look similar enough that I thought that, but it obviously is not him. Must have been the premature balding that stuck in my mind.

The problem one runs into with 19th century Baseball is the regionalization. The "Champion Pitcher" or "Greatest Pitcher in World" to an Iowa kid would not be someone from the New York Giants etc. I dont doubt at all that this was a Baseball Pitcher of prominance. Whether he was prominant on the National Stage in 1880 or just a local hero will probably never be known.

Rhys