More m101-4/5 minutiae

[nolemmings]

Felix Mendelsohn changed seven photos from m101-5 to m101-4, so as to correct the captioned subjects. To my knowledge, only one of the m101-5 players has remained unidentified(although I reserve judgment on Strunk)– the player who is supposed to be Ray Fisher. Many checklists do not recognize that there are two different players shown, but on every other card where Mendelsohn changed the photo he corrected an error. Also, while the m101-5 shot partially obscures the subject’s face, so does its replacement, so I doubt Mendelsohn made the change simply looking for a better picture. Here are the two cards, with m101-5 on the left:

I believe that the first photo depicts Russ Ford, who was Fisher’s New York teammate in 1910. That was the only season when both played for New York where the team would have worn dark hats and plain uniforms. Although the below enlargement of the m101-5 card is blurry, it sure looks like me to be Ford, whose black and white photo and t205 card are shown for comparison.

I am willing to listen to alternative explanations, but for now am satisfied with the ID---I know how this has kept so many of you up nights