E90-1 Young Cle pictures Irv Young

[Steve D]

Great detective work Troy!

I'd posted a question last week about this card. I've always thought it wasn't Denton "Cy" Young on the card. I was almost convinced, after looking at a few other pictures of him, that it could be as others have said, a "bad rendition" of him. But now, it looks pretty convincing that it is in fact simply a reversed negative of Irv Young.

And to piggy-back on the comments about Irv being nicknamed "Young" Cy Young.....I seem to recall a card, perhaps it was the E94, where the caption reads "Old" Cy Young. So there at least, is an indication that the card maker was making a differentiation between "Old" Cy (Denton) and "Young" Cy (Irv).

It all makes me wonder about the E97, E98 and others that picture Irv, but the caption reads Cy. Could the cards have been meant all along to be Irv, and the manufacturer simply neglected to put Irv's "Young" nickname on the card, and thereby muddying the issue for collectors. If so, the E97 and E98 cards should not carry the HOF premium that they currently do.

Edited to add:

I just looked at baseball-reference.com, and Irv's record shows he played for the Boston Beaneaters (NL) from 1905-1908. He then went to Pittsburg for a year, and then to the White Sox his final two seasons. So the E97 and E98 which read "Cy Young, Cleveland" were clearly meant to be Denton Young. It's a simple case of using the wrong player's picture on them.

Steve