Hake's Auction #214 Now Online Negro & Cuban League Rarities, MLB Stars & Much More

[bmarlowe1]

Originally Posted by FirstYearCards

Instead of trying to prove who it isn't, is it possible to prove who it is?

What's important is that it is claimed to be an early image of a HoFer, which it is not. Why should one have to first or instead prove who it is?

In any case, go ahead.

[Huysmans]

There's some great items.

[FirstYearCards]

In full disclosure I do own one of these cards. That being said, I couldn't care less about proving or disproving the man's identity. However, if auction houses and grading companies say it is while Mark says it isn't, I should think a little more research into who the man is should be added to claims that most people/companies have it wrong.

[Jaybird]

I've never thought it was hin either. So add one more to the list.

[bmarlowe1]

Originally Posted by FirstYearCards

In full disclosure I do own one of these cards. That being said, I couldn't care less about proving or disproving the man's identity. However, if auction houses and grading companies say it is while Mark says it isn't, I should think a little more research into who the man is should be added to claims that most people/companies have it wrong.

>> However, if auction houses and grading companies say it is

While the situation may have improved a bit, they have been shown many times to have essentially no idea as to how to identify faces in photos (most will actually now admit that), and likely no auction house or grading company that has represented this image as depicting Wilkinson would be able to tell you where the ID came from. I have shown that I at least have some notion as to how to do this. If there is a significant facial feature mismatch then it is not him.

It is probably not knowable who this really is. That does not change him into Wilkinson.

This has been discussed here before: http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=169714

[slidekellyslide]

I was doing research on some Schmeltzer Sporting Goods baseball player real photo postcards I had come across when I had found they had a link with JL Wilkinson....I started doing more research on Wilkinson and learned that he got his start in the sporting goods industry with Hopkins bros out of Des Moines the article I found mentioned Wilkinson managing a women's team for the store. I had seen numerous postcards of this team through my years of collecting barnstorming team postcards. I found mine and started doing my own "facial recognition" between the postcard and known photos of Wilkinson. I'm no expert like Mark is, and Mark wasn't even around this forum at the time of this discovery. So I guess I am to blame for the auction houses using this info and running with it. I still am not convinced that it's not him, but I also don't want to say that I 100% believe that it is him. More research needs to be done on this team, I gotta believe that some research with old Des Moines newspapers would bring up more info and possibly some photos. I'm actually somewhat surprised that more research hasn't already been done since he got elected to the Hall of Fame.

[bmarlowe1]

Yes, the original 2007 discussion can be found here:
http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=87984

Below I compare the 2 versions of the face in question that I have (RPPC left, dot matrix print center), both giving a pretty good sense of the shape of this guy's visible ear.

Comparing these to a Wilkinson exemplar taken at virtually the same angle (far right) the difference in ear shape as seen from the front, the amount that he ear sticks out and the angle of the ear with respect to the head is clear and substantial. It is essentially impossible for this guy to be Wilkinson.

There's another facial thing that is equally damning to the Wilkinson claim, but I'll save it for a future article.

[bmarlowe1]

Definitive article, I think, about this image (by me) can be found here on page 13:

http://sabr.box.com/shared/static/k4...vdy9f8uod7.pdf