Old Judge Charles Kelly

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Posted By: john/z28jd

It should be noted that Charles Kelly played 3 games total in his career,2 in 1883 and 1 game in 1886 and that wasnt for the Phillies,that was for the Athletics of the American Association and they didnt play at Recreation Park,they played at Jeffereson Street Grounds. There is also no known biographical info about him so matching him up to an autograph is basically impossible. They dont know a birth or death date for the guy,a town he lived in,his height or weight what hand he threw with etc etc.

You would basically have to go thru census record for Philadelphia or nearby towns and find a man named Charles Kelly that listed "base ball player" as his profession in that time frame he played and then follow him year by year hoping he didnt move,up until at minimum 1909(20+ years after his Old Judge appearance and when the t206 set was made) and then you should be able to get his address from that and match it up to the one on the card. The fact that no known biographical info has been found by SABR suggests that task mentioned above isnt as "easy" as it sounds but basically thats the only chance you have of finding out anything.