I was looking through some postcards I've had for a while and tried to narrow down which Elba this pc came from. A name written on the reverse (Holger Holm) narrowed it down to Elba, Nebraska.
Usually I kind of laugh at attempts to ID players in old photos -- but Alexander is from Elba, and played with "the local team" (
http://www.netnebraska.org/extras/ne...egends_02.html) before his pro career. It's a real photo postcard with an AZO back that dates to 1905-1918. It'd have to be at the earliest end of that range for this to be Alexander -- and/but this also feels like the photo could be a little earlier than that (1900?), and printed later (but before 1918). It's got a bit of the flatness of a copy print.
Couldn't find any pre-Phillies photos of Alexander; anyone have images of him in his real youth? The eyebrows and ears and big chin are what make me feel like there's a teensy chance. Teensy, teensy chance.