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Posted By: barrysloate

There is an interesting debate going on regarding lot #12, The Old Man CdV. Originally identified as Bernie Hannegan, with that name subsequently placed on the SGC label, Rob is now making the case that it is in fact Dave Birdsall. And my opinion is that is incorrect.

I was the one who originally identified this CdV. When Leland's first got it a couple of years ago, Josh sent to me a group of 1860's material, including this image, to research and help write up. After a little bit of legwork I recognized it as the mirror image of Hannegan as he appeared on the Nov 4, 1865 Leslie's woodcut. In fact, in 1866 Leslie's did a biography series in their weekly newspaper and asked every club to pick their most important player and write up a short summary of his career. In the December 1, 1866 issue the Morrisanias profiled their most important player, Bernie Hannegan. There is an engraving that accompanies it and it matches the image of Bernie on the CdV. I also have an unpublished photograph of him to corroborate this.

Rob, to his credit, did some further research and found that Dave Birdsall did have the nickname The Old Man. Certainly interesting, but I don't think the likeness is accurate.

Anyway, I will try to get these pictures to Rob and see if he changes back to Hannegan. We spoke on the phone at length this afternoon and he was a good sport about it. He said he would be happy to emend the text again if need be.

My guess is there will be opinions for both players, so we may never definitively solve this mystery.

Edited to make the text a little clearer.