I believe the practice of ear identification first became popular among Star Trek Collectors. There was a fraudulent Mr. Spock photo floating around, in which the ears measured 1/16" short. It was Leonard Nimoy himself, who identified the photo as a fake.
Seriously, I think Mark's "ear identification" practice is sound. The structure and placement of the ears is intricate, and is probably the best identifier on a person's face. When used in combination with all other facial characteristics, I bet Mark's method works over 99% of the time.
As for players' ears changing over the years... probably "not so much" with baseball players. The basic structure of the ear would not change significantly over the years unless they were "beaned" over and over again.
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