Quote:
Originally Posted by z28jd
Thompson's time with the Player's League club was extremely short. He likely signed on November 19, 1889 (it was announced on November 20th), and then his return to the National League on a three-year deal was announced on December 23rd, but you can find speculation a week earlier (December 17th newspapers) that he already signed and they had to wait to announce it. There was talk in the December 10/11 newspapers that he was in Indianapolis and meeting with John Brush about returning to the National League, so he may have signed even earlier.
That doesn't mean it can't be a Player's League cabinet, but it can't be both an 1890 photo and a Player's League photo. He was basically a Player's League member for four weeks tops, and was ready to bail on the league in under three full weeks. He was already in a meeting 20 days after signing to leave. That leaves a short time to take the photo, but it doesn't mean it didn't happen.
Thompson said in an early January interview that he left the Player's League because he had no assurance that it would last, so when he received a three-year/$10,000 contract from the Philadelphia NL team, he jumped back.
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Good research John. And Keith not to belabor things but after checking through newspapers.com for Indiana entries I wanted to bring up a point. It mentions how Sam was reached at his home (in Indiana) to sign his players contract and that he was in Indianapolis with Brush possibly discussing contracts and that he eventually signed a League contract with Brush acting as rep for the League
...but nowhere does it say that Sam left his home to go to Philadelphia. And he'd have to have been in Philadelphia if MacIntyre was to have photogtaphed him. So it seems if he did go to Philadelphia, that would've been mentioned.
That said, great photo of a great early HOFer. Keith, I plan on buying Kerr's book but in the mean time do you have any nugget of info on your relative you could add here; maybe like what kind of person he was, what your elder relatives may have said his voice was like, anything of a more personal nature. If not, no worries. And thanks for your thoughts on this card.