WG2 mystery?

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Posted By: Butch7999 & Co.

Hi fellers, thanks for the replies! Yes, we're very aware of the vast number of errors in older sets, even though this isn't exactly our area of expertise (actually, we'd never go so far as to claim we have an area of "expertise"!). We do know there are at least nine errors among the 54 names in the 1904 WG2 Fan Craze AL set and at least ten in the 1906 WG3 NL set -- some of them just one-letter typos, others with guys flat-out misidentified. Among the WG2s, "Fred Stone," ferinstance, is George Stone, "Roy Turner" is Terry Turner, "Pat Donovan" is Wild Bill Donovan; the WG3 errors include two players mis-ID'd as their brothers. We also noticed that there had been been some very light discussion of this topic in here about a year ago, but nothing conclusive.

Anyway, that sort of scrupulous attention to detail a hundred years ago is what throws the "Owen" card into a cocked hat for us. We're working on the dubious twin assumptions that the Fan Craze folks would have wanted better, bigger-name players for their game, and that they at least got the team right (this "Owen" played for Boston's AL club). Of course, there never was any "Billy Owen"; the assumption (or perhaps scholarly conclusion) in the hobby seems to be that the portrait is of Frank Owens. Owens, however, played but a single game for Boston in 1905 (his major league debut) and didn't reappear in the majors 'til 1909. Pitcher Frank Owen was with the White Stockings at the time. Red Owens re-emerged in 1905 with Brooklyn after a six-year absence. And those are all the Owens and Owenses of the era.

It seems reasonable that a lot of the confusion stemmed from inaccurate transcriptions of handwritten notes (the same process that created "phantom" players from handwritten scorecards of the day) -- so you could see, ferinstance, how a smudge or tear could turn "Terry Turner" into "-rry Turner" into "Roy Turner." In just the same way, we're thinking "Billy O'Neill," who pitched for Boston in '04, could have, with sufficiently scribbly handwriting, been turned into "Billy Owen."

A comparison of the WG2 "Billy Owen" portrait with any contemporary photo of Frank Owens or Billy O'Neill should confirm which guy it actually is, and we'll try to post a scan of the Owen card tonight or tomorrow -- unless, of course, there's been sufficient research and scholarship done on this previously that's already irrefutably identified who "Owen" really is.

Thanks again for your interest and assistance! We'll be back.
-- Butch & Co.