Mystery regarding John McLean T205 front solved
 

The facsimile signature on John "Larry" McLean's T205 has always been puzzling for me.

It clearly shows M.A. McLean not J.B. McLean. Although often called "Larry" McLean, his birth name was John Bannerman McLean.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/pl...cleala01.shtml

While searching eBay this week, I believe I have stumbled onto a item which sheds light on where the confusion may have occurred regarding the front of the McLean T205.

During the same time period, there was a baseball sports writer based out of Chicago, and writing for the Chicago Record Herald...Malcolm MacLean.

Here is a scan of his Baseball Writers' Association of America Pass addressed to... M. A. MacLean.

Now we know perhaps the rest of the story!


Patrick

Nice work -

So the T205 writers were confused about the guy's name?

I was always under the impression many of the T205 signatures were not truly the players'. If they were unable to get a players signature they signed it. Likely just messed it up?

I would lean towards the artist just messing it up...since the M.A. MACLean is still not McLean...good detective work but not sure it really holds up.

Joshua

I think it could be a combination of both. Someone made up the signature with this M.A. MacLean in mind but not only got the person wrong but the spelling of the wrong MacLean....which happened to be correct for the right McLean.

Which was wrong.

Right?

Tom C

agreed...

I think if you look at it a particular way you can say that "signature" is busy enough to have an "a" in it- MacLean.

Just a theory
 

My thoughts regarding how the wrong facsimile signature most likely happened on the McLean T205 would be as follows.

When we think about how one might have gathered autographs of luminaries or celebrities back in 1910 a couple of methods seem plausible.

Autograph books were the rage back then so I don't think it would be too much of a stretch if a baseball sportswriters signature might have ended up on a page with a group of baseball signatures. When the page was viewed at a later time the person simply may have assumed it was the ball player McLean amongst the other baseball player signatures when it actually was the baseball sports writer's signature.

It's also quite possible that someone would have stored a large collection of autographs in the old oak filing cabinet(s) that were used during this time period. The autographs may have been put on index cards or small pieces of paper and gathered in person or via mail request. These autograph cards would most likely have been sorted either alphabetically or in categories such as baseball or sports. Again it would be pretty easy to grab a card that the signature could be either McLean or MacLean.

One last thought is that the biography on the back of the McLean card notes that," He played with various teams "way down East" till 1903, when he was tranferred to Chicago..." Hey...wasn't there a sports writer in Chicago with a similar name?

Just a thought.

Patrick

The autographs on the fronts of t205s were most likely all done by the artist, they are not reproductions of actual autographs. Therefore, they would not need exemplars. The ATC was in business to make money and would do this as cheaply as possible meaning they would just get the artist to draw an auto. on a pic. I still think the McLean was just a mistake.

Joshua