1902 Pittsburgh Pirates Team Player Identification

[RUKen]

Originally Posted by GasHouseGang

I had to look it up after reading this. According to what I found on the web: "O'Brien died in Phoenix, Arizona at the age of 27, from pneumonia resulting from lung disease. He believed his disease was caused by his drinking a large amount of salty seawater after having been told that it would cure his seasickness." So probably not the water.

According to his SABR biography, drinking the seawater caused O'Brien to vomit profusely. He was unable to play in the games in Cuba, and returned to the United States, and traveled to Arizona to recover, but developed pneumonia. "His weakened condition brought on by drinking seawater and vomiting made him susceptible to the illness."

Returning to the possible ID of the player, the Pirates had a catcher named Louis Deal with them during spring training. He did not appear in any major league games; he had played for Meriden in 1899 and then played for Rochester and Dayton in 1900, before disappearing from organized baseball. I have not seen a picture of him, but he may be the unidentified player. Catchers were not always stockily built back then; for example, Connie Mack had been a catcher.

I haven't come across any other names that are not already accounted for.

[nolemmings]

It does seem that the pic dates to 1900, at least if the player IDs and locale are stated correctly. The Pirates held Spring Training in Hot Springs, Arkansas in 1902, but Thomasville in 1900. Either way, it's too bad there's no Honus Wagner in the group shot (I'm no facial recognition expert, but I'll bet a day's pay that the unknown subject ain't him)

[rhettyeakley]

Some of those ID’s are suspect.

[RUKen]

Originally Posted by rhettyeakley

Some of those ID’s are suspect.

For comparison, I have posted below a photo of the 1900 team in spring training, with IDs by myself and one other poster at Baseball-Fever.com, and have also posted a newspaper clipping of a group photo of the team with IDs in the caption.

Standing (L-R): Tommy Leach (3B), Honus Wagner (RF), Pop Schriver (C), Ginger Beaumont (CF), Tom McCreery (LF/RF), Walt Woods (P), Patsy Flaherty (P).
Kneeling (L-R): Chief Zimmer (C), Tacks Latimer (C), Tom O'Brien (1B/LF), Deacon Phillippe (P), Jimmy Williams (2B), Fred Clarke (LF/Mgr.), Jesse Tannehill (P).
Sitting (L-R): Sam Leever (P), Bones Ely (SS), possibly Tom Messitt (Louisville C, did not play for Pit in 1900) or Louis Deal (minor league C, did not play for Pit in 1900), possibly Jack Chesbro (P), Pop Dillon (1B), Claude Ritchey (2B), Rube Waddell (P).

[rhettyeakley]

Walter Woods is not the man sitting in the middle of the original photo. He is a very distinct looking person and that man has a rounder face. That is why I am questioning some of the id’s. The person id’d as Pop Dillon in the original image looks more like Woods.

[RUKen]

Originally Posted by rhettyeakley

Walter Woods is not the man sitting in the middle of the original photo. He is a very distinct looking person and that man has a rounder face. That is why I am questioning some of the id’s. The person id’d as Pop Dillon in the original image looks more like Woods.

I agree that it appears to be Woods sitting in the middle of the bottom row, rather than third from the left in the middle row.

[jingram058]

Back to OP's original question. Sure looks A LOT like Kitty Bransfield. If it can't be, then so be it. I'm not a forensic reconstruction artist, or a historical baseball statistician. Looks more like him than anyone else.