Ty Cobb at 17?

[bcbgcbrcb]

Well, just did lots of reasearch and have determined that the gold watch presented to Cobb during his last minor league game for Augusta in 1905 was funded by a collection taken up by the team's fans and was presented to him that day by the Mayor of Augusta. Now all we need is a historical photo of the Mayor of Augusta from 1905 and match it up to this postcard. I'm not sure the 1904 date rather than 1905 can ever be proven unless the individual in the photo was not the mayor of Augusta in 1905 and passed away prior to 1905, thus eliminating that as a possibility.

[thekingofclout]

Originally Posted by bcbgcbrcb

Well, just did lots of reasearch and have determined that the gold watch presented to Cobb during his last minor league game for Augusta in 1905 was funded by a collection taken up by the team's fans and was presented to him that day by the Mayor of Augusta. Now all we need is a historical photo of the Mayor of Augusta from 1905 and match it up to this postcard. I'm not sure the 1904 date rather than 1905 can ever be proven unless the individual in the photo was not the mayor of Augusta in 1905 and passed away prior to 1905, thus eliminating that as a possibility.

Terrific research Phil! I would think that the Augusta City Hall/Records might be the best bet. But if it's citizens are half as stuffy as the Augusta National Members and following, it may be a tall order at that.

[bcbgcbrcb]

I got the Mayor's name, it's Richard E. Allen (1904-07) and I found an online article detailing him:

http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/georgiabo...fs/gb0030d.pdf

[bmarlowe1]

Given that the scan is not very sharp, I can see no feature mismatch with respect to Cobb.

[Clutch-Hitter]

Eyes, hair, lips, ears, and nose all look the same. His face is more rounded, but a man's appearance can change within a one year period. He's certainly not fat in the auction photo, but he's also not skinny like in the comparison photo.

Edited to say: Especially during the off-season. The Babe typically packed on a few too.

[Abravefan11]

Originally Posted by bcbgcbrcb

Now all we need is a historical photo of the Mayor of Augusta from 1905 and match it up to this postcard.

This is a photo of the mayor just after he was elected in July 1903.

[Abravefan11]

A little more digging and it turns out the watch was presented to Cobb by John R. Burke.

[bcbgcbrcb]

One thing seems certain, the watch was not "donated" by this individual but instead by the team's fans, maybe "presented" by this individual but that's not what the seller's description states.

Now, we have to determine who John Burke was.............

[bmarlowe1]

A couple of people made the point that the face looks more rounded than other young photos of Cobb. I agree, it does. The reason is that this is a photo taken of the postcard from an angle well below the subject - the camera was clearly not parallel to the plane of the postcard. This causes significant spatial distortion. In this case the vertical dimension of the face appears shortened while the horizontal dimension remains relatively accurate. That makes his face appear more round.

[Big Ben]

I love this thread! I went from not believing the picture was Cobb to thinking the image is Cobb. It would take some more evidence for me to believe that Cobb was 17 at the time of this picture though.

[yanksfan09]

i think it looks like him. This is a 1907-1909 Tiger Team photo, Cobb on middle row on right side.

From antiques roadshow (not a closeup though):

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/archive/201005T14.html