Posted By:
Tom HuffordThe reason that the W516 card doesn't look like Walter Johnson is because it isn't him. It is Yancey Wyatt "Doc" Ayers, who was with the Senators 1913-1919, and the Tigers 1919-21. Doc lived in the same town where I grew up, and he always seemed to be in the barber shop when I went on Saturday afternoons. I have a copy of this same photo, identified as Ayers, that was used in a contemporary newspaper, but can't put my hands on it at the moment.
As far as I know, this is the only card that Ayers is pictured on (he is on a pin - Mrs. Kolb's bread? - 1922 Toledo). I've always wondered why he didn't make it into the Cracker Jack or Sporting News sets of the 1914-15 era.