Looks like he's referring to a mixture of the Des Moines teams of 1887 (Hawkeyes) and 1888 (Prohibitionists) in his letter, with the players he lists being: (Bill) Hutchinson, (Harry) Sage, Bug Holliday, (Joe) Quinn, (Billy) Alvord, (Sy) Sutcliff, (Sam) LaRocque.
All but Joe Quinn played on the 1887 team, but Sutcliff and LaRocque did not play on the team in 1888 (at least according to the rosters on baseball-reference.com, that is)
No idea on who the writer/signer is, as it doesn't appear to match with any players from either team (I'm seeing Blanchard or Planchard for the last name, and can't get that out of my head now). From the tone of the writing, he may well have just been an avid baseball fan from Des Moines, but it's definitely worth looking into. If you can manage a large, straight-on view of the team photo, I'd like to see that, as well as a closer/squared view of the signature.
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