Ed Delahanty - Wrong Photo?
 

Technically, the 1975 Fleer - "Pioneers of Baseball" set is a Post-War / Pre-1980 set. However, since Ed Delahanty played from 1888-1903, I decided to post this thread here.

Apparently, Ed was a hitting machine. But he had a drinking problem and was suspended for drinking in 1903. In that same year, he was ejected from a train because of his lewd and violent behavior toward other passengers while in a drunken state. He then decided to walk across the railway bridge which spans the Niagara River; connecting Buffalo, New York with Fort Erie, New York. Ed then either fell or jumped to his death. He was 35.
Ed Delahanty was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1945.

Okay, enough background history. Here's the issue.......

The photo on the 1975 Fleer card depicts Ed (or perhaps someone else) wearing a Philadelphia Athletics uniform. However, Ed never played for the Athletics. He played for the Philadelphia Quakers (1888-1889), the Cleveland Infants (1890), Philadelphia Phillies (1891-1901), and the Washington Senators (1902-1903). He also had 4 brothers (Frank, Jim, Joe & Tom) who all played professional baseball. However, none of them ever played for the Athletics.

The photo at the far right is of Ed Delahanty in 1903. Is it the same face as the one on the card? I can't tell.

So, is the photo on the card Ed Delahanty or someone else?
And if it is someone else; who?

I can't say for sure whether or not that's Big Ed, he did have four brothers in MLB as well, but it looks like him. The uniform appears to be a Philadelphia Athletics uni from the American Association, which existed from 1882 to 1891. Given Ed's ties to Philadelphia as part of the Phillies during that time period, it doesn't seem impossible that he may have worn this uniform at some point, though I don't see any mentions of him playing for the team. Maybe an exhibition? If one of his brothers played for the A's during that time, that may well be who is pictured.

It's Jim Delahanty, and it's not an Athletics uniform; I believe it was the uniform of a touring team. I've pasted below the Paul Thompson image of Jim (open-mouthed, as he is in the Fleer image), and also the T205 card that was made using the Thompson photo.

Jim Delahanty played for Allentown 1898-1900.

Yeah, but Jim was only 21 in 1900. I think he looks older in the photo with the A uniform.

I believe three of the Delahanty brothers played for Allentown, but the only two pics I've seen of those teams did not match the uniform-- the logo was an interlocked A, P and C (Allentown Peanuts Club?)

This is a Philadelphia Athletics Jersey from the early 1950s.
Note the "wings" on the left side of the A.
Could it be that Fleer used a photo of someone from the 1950s?

This site tracks the history of the Philadelphia A's uniform:

https://mlbcollectors.com/PHAjerseys.php

That is possible, but unlikely. Why insert Delahanty's head on the body of another player wearing a uniform for a team that he never played for?

The old-English or Germanic style of letter was popular on baseball uniforms in the late 19th and early 20th century. The letter usually signified the town that the team was based in, and it was not unusual for different teams in different locations that had the same first letter to have the same insignia on their uniforms. Major league players often went on tour through the southern or western states after the season was over, and in some cases those teams had their own uniforms.

(BTW, Delahanty lived into the early 1950's, but he had no connection with the Philadelphia Athletics.)

I agree with all of that except....

I don't think that Fleer inserted Delahanty's head on the body of another player.
In fact, I don't believe that it's Ed Delahanty in the photo (but I can't say that with absolute certainty).

I don't know what you are disagreeing with. I've already stated in post #3, with certainty, that it is Jim Delahanty, not Ed Delahanty, and in my statement in post #9, I wrote that it is "possible, but unlikely" that (Jim) Delahanty's head was pasted on the body of another player.