1874 Amory Hodges Cabinet (RARE)

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Hodges and Columbus Tyler, whose cabinet photo was auctioned by the same seller who had Hodges, were players for Harvard University in the early 1870s. I did biographical research on both years ago as part of a SABR project identifying 19th century umpires and I am quite certain neither played professionally nor had any connection with pro baseball other than umpiring occasionally (it was common practice in the National Association to use amateur players as umpires and apparently their teams did not object). I notified the eBay seller of these cards that these men were not professional players, but he did not modify his descriptions, and I was reluctant to post this information on Net54 for fear of "outing" the auction. These also are not the first known images of Hodges and Tyler since both were pictured in Harvard University publications at the time they played as well as years later in retrospectives. Incidentally, these two cabinets, plus one of a Harvard football player, were part of a small lot auctioned by one of the major auction houses only weeks before they appeared on eBay.
Bob Richardson