Posted By:
Frank WakefieldMy #2 up there should have mentioned wrong photo and wrong team. The Colgans cards have more than their share of errors.
At any rate, Alex McCarthy was a shortstop at South Bend in the Central League from 1903 through 1912. McCarthy had attended Notre Dame, also at South Bend. Alex played shortstop, so the team's previous shortstop, Max Carey, was displaced out to the outfield. Alex was up with Pittsburg for 3 games in 1910, then 50 in 1911, and 111 in 1912. It was tough for him to get into the game, Honus Wagner was ahead of him. South Bend sold Alex McCarthy and Max Carey to Pittsburg for $4,000.
Alex is on the T200 Fatima, I don't have one. Maybe someone who does could post a scan of the card, or at least an enlarged section, Alex is on there, standing, second from left. He's on a brown border tobacco card (T207), but his face is a bit obscured, and that is a drawing, not a photo.
Here's a photo of Alex and Honus in street clothes...
http://tinyurl.com/24oqls>
If it doesn't load to page 63, move to there...
The ears look like that on the Colgans, but I just don't know about that nose.
Joe McCarthy was at Toledo from 1908 to 1911, and he was traded to Indianapolis during that 1911 season, since he is with both teams in the 1912 Spalding Record. Joe hit .268 in 98 games.
Seems to me that the card was supposed to be Joe. Although I wonder why Colgan's would not have had a card for Alex at Pittsburg... I wonder that because Colgans was based in Louisville, KY. About 1900 the Louisville baseball team folded, one of the Louisville owners also had a stake in the Pittsburg team, and several Louisville players moved to the Pittsburg team. So it seems natural that Louisville's baseball fans would maintain an interest in the Pittsburg team. Forget the interstates and airlines, river boats and trains made the trip from Louisville to Pittsburg managible.
So we need a good scan of Alex's T200 image posted. And in fooling with this I note that the T200 has "Pittsburgh", while the white and brown border tobacco cards have "Pittsburg"... That must have changed about 1911 or 1912.