It's not Cobb

[molenick]

I don’t want to muddy up the other threads about IDing photos, so here is my cautionary tale.

Years ago, I purchased this postcard at a show from a very reputable dealer. He showed it to me and asked if I wanted it. I said, sure, it's a nice image, but I was surprised at the price he quoted. He pointed to a person in the photo and said "it's Cobby" (for some reason I remember him saying Cobby).

There were no smart phones (or cell phones of any kind), no laptops where we could search for images. I didn't know what the McGraw Tigers were (the back is blank), but he said it was Cobb and after he said that I thought, wow, that's Cobb (I won't tell you which one it is, but there is one guy that looks like Cobb, to me at least). So, I bought it (luckily not at today's Cobb prices but for much more than a generic postcard would cost).

Years later I remembered it and did some modern-day research. The McGraw Giants were a local team that was based in Detroit! This was a baseball player that looked like Cobb on a Detroit team in the same era when he played!

Unfortunately, I found an article in a 1910 Detroit paper which identifies "Cobb" as "Anderson, catcher". I guess I could come up with some reason that this was still Cobb (it was an off day for the Tigers and Cobb was walking by and thought it would be funny to "photo bomb" the team picture) but realistically I had to admit that it was not him and that the more logical explanation is that there were two people in Detroit that looked similar at the time.

[brianp-beme]

Hold on one darn minute! You actually have 2 Ty Cobbs in that photo, the guy standing to the left of the man in the suit, and the one lying down on the left side.

Team photos with two Ty Cobbs pictured are exceedingly rare...you definitely have a keeper!

Brian (nice photo anyways)

[ajjohnsonsoxfan]

hmm I don't see anyone in that array that looks like Cobb?

[molenick]

Well, I guess I was even more of a sucker than I thought. To my eye the fifth man from the left (the fourth in uniform) looked like Cobb. At least 30 years ago (or whenever it was I bought this).

And to be clear I KNOW no one is Cobb, I was not looking to be rescued from my bad purchase. It was just an example of how people (me and the dealer...although he did have financial motive for his assessment) can come to an incorrect conclusion based on facial similarity.

[edjs]

Originally Posted by molenick

Well, I guess I was even more of a sucker than I thought. To my eye the fifth man from the left (the fourth in uniform) looked like Cobb. At least 30 years ago (or whenever it was I bought this).

And to be clear I KNOW no one is Cobb, I was not looking to be rescued from my bad purchase. It was just an example of how people (me and the dealer...although he did have financial motive for his assessment) can come to an incorrect conclusion based on facial similarity.

I can see it. Especially when you really want it to be. I’ve done it myself.

[SteveS]

Here's something that's neither here nor there, but it looks like Not-Cobb's jersey says "Tigerz," while everyone else's says "Tigers."