Shoeless Joe? A's? Please tell me I didn't miss this.

[blackbetsy]

I've been digging in old newspapers and digging through the uniform database.....something doesn't add up with the uniforms for the A's for this being in the 1909 timeframe. The A's wore the old pillbox caps from 1909 to 1914. The uniform pants don't appear to have pinstripes on them (solids) and that DOES fit the 1909 time period, however there were other years they wore uniforms that were solid. They appear to have collars...which would limit it from the 1908 to 1912, possibly 1913 spring training time period. The caps could have been holdovers from the 1908 season as they wore caps like this during the 1908 campaign. The jackets with the elephant were used many seasons.....so they could be attributed to the 1909 season. Based on the collar on the uniform and the socks, we can attribute this photo from the 1909 to 1912 (possibly 1913 Spring Training), but that's it. Strunk only plaid 11 games in 1909, but he COULD have been there for Spring Training for sure. Another thing that bugs me is Jackson wore a size 10 and a half cleat, Strunk wore about the same size....but from this photo, it appears our "Jackson" character has smaller cleats on than Strunk, that concerns me a tad. The all black uniform concerns me and I am not aware that the second team Connie Mack had wore a different uniform. I'm still not ruling out this being Joe Jackson, but I wanted to get my concerns out there and see what other thought. Over the last 37 years I've seen a LOT of guys that looked like Jackson, but weren't in various photos people have sent me to get me to verify whether or not they had a genuine Jackson photo, 99 percent didn't. I'll keep digging and see if I can come up with more to either rule him in......or rule him out.