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As we here at Hake's continue to go through the remainder of the Richard Merkin baseball collection, we have spent a great deal of time researching the below three items, two are team images on real photo postcards and the other is an original snapshot photo.

The first postcard with the "V" team pictured, we are quite certain, includes Alejandro Oms sitting in the front row at far right. The very tall player standing behind him at far right appears like it could be Smokey Joe Williams. The stamp box on back dates the postcard to 1908-24 so both players would make sense for this time period. However, we have not been able to verify through SABR, etc. that either one of these players played on an organized team whose city/name started with a "V" during the 1910's or early 1920's. If anyone out there has any thoughts that you would like to share, your contributions would be most welcomed and appreciated.

The second postcard with the "T.S.C." on their uniforms looks to date from the 1920's, although the stamp box is completely covered up/missing due to scrapbook remnants. The player sitting at far right appears very likely to be Cool Papa Bell with the "x" marked on his cap. Again, we have not been able to identify a team with these initials that Bell played for during the 1920's or even early 1930's. Since he is sitting, it's also difficult to estimate height, Bell is 5'9" so not real tall and he appears in this same sitting position in other known team photos. Anyone have any ideas as far as team or recognize any other players? The image is much more clear on this one so it might be much easier than the first postcard.

Lastly the two player snapshot photo with "El Trujillo" on the jerseys, the player on left absolutely appears to be Raymond Brown while the player on the right looks familiar, not a HOF'er but possibly somebody else significant. Again, just like the other two, we have not been able to find any documentation on Brown playing for an El Trujillo team. Any thoughts on this one would also be most appreciated.