I bought an old tintype of two teen baseball players from what appears to be from around the 1905-1910 era. I mostly bought it because I thought it was a cool photo, but looking at it more, I’m wondering if the player on the right is a young Rabbit Maranville. Below is my case for and against. I’m curious, what do you guys think? Be as harsh as you'd like. I'm no expert.
My Case For: Face & Time Period
• Glove and uniform are circa 1905-ish which is the era when Maranville would have been a teen.
• Tintypes weren’t used as much around 1905, but they were still used during that era as a novelty/cheap photo so it can still be believable that the picture was taken around that time.
• Glove is on his left hand (tintypes are reversed images) and Maranville was right-handed. So that makes sense since he threw with his right hand.
• The biggest reason I think this may be Maranville are all of the facial similarities. Maranville had very distinct large ears and in the attached side by side pictures, the ears look very similar. Especially if you imagine if the teen had buzzed the sides of his head shorter; his ears would be even more pronounced. Also, his nose looks about the same as do his lips. Also, both have light eye color. Not to mention they both seem to have high cheek bones. I’m no facial recognition expert, but they look close.
My Case Against: Team Name
• The biggest indicator to authenticate this photo as being Maranville is matching the team name on his jersey with a team he played on. The name on the boys’ shirts clearly says “awndale.”
• From my research these are the teams that I could find that he could have played on or did: Charles Street Grammar School, Chestnut Street Grammar School, Springfield High School, Springfield Blue Labels, Technical High School (Tigers), New Bedford Whalers, Boston Braves. Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean he didn’t play on other teams, but this is just a list of schools and teams that he played on or attended in his youth.
• Maranville is from the Massachusetts area and I believe that “awndale” could most likely be: Lawndale, Dawndale, Fawndale, Pawndale, or Yawndale. From what I could find none of these names/teams were in the Massachusetts area. Lawndale may be the most realistic, but the only thing I could find was a Chicago youth team, but no mention of Maranville.
My gut is telling me it’s not Maranville, but it sure looks like him. What do you think?
(Note: There is nothing written on the back)