Identification Help Please - Negro or Minor Leagues?
 

Hi...

I have the following photo in my collection and would appreciate any information you could give regarding the identity of this player or the team. It could be just an amateur unknown player, but the uniform seems to be high quality, the photo is a large 8 x 10 and has a professional studio stamp on verso.

I have also included a scan of the stamping on the back which is from Oakland, California and dated September 15, 1943.

Thank you in advance for any help you can provide.

Robert

Heres the reverse stamp
 

Sorry, it did not show up above.

It looks to me from the uniform that this photo would have been from the post-Negro Leagues era, probably 1960's so I would guess minors or amateurs.

Hi Phil...

I am new at this and could not get the back stamp scan to show up, but it is clearly dated SEPTEMBER 15, 1943.

The collar on the jersey and the white stripe on the bottom of the stirrups says a 1943 date is just right for this photo. I'd check to see if there was a Northern California winter league at that time with a negro team in it like they had down here in SoCal.

I think that its more likely that this is some sort of little league type photo. Notice how he is showing his best split finger pitch but he is wearing a catchers mitt. I don;t see a higher level players posing like that. Also I think that he looks very young somewhere in the range of 12-15

based on the vehicles in the photo also, it appears to be in the late 30's early 40's. If it was 1943, i would assume this person to be under 18 or he probably would have been drafted (although i could be wrong)

I used to have a press photo of a Negro League player, James West, from the early 40s that was taken at Wrigley Field in L.A. I traded it to Mark MacRae. He told me he believed it may have come from a winter league in California that existing during that time, and that he had other photos of Negro League players in California from that era as well ...