Opening Day Batting Order: 1949
 

Joe Engel and the Senators spent lavishly at time to bring in minor league superstars of the era, usually a year or three too late. Here is the Chattanooga Opening Day batting order from 1949:

Junior Wooten, Wily Miranda, Charley Letchas, Tom McBride, Babe Ellis, Robert Reid, player-manager George Myatt, Andres Fleitas, Bill Toenes.

Lookouts finished 60-92 and Myatt was fired mid-season.

Moving my request from the main thread, anyone offer any help on the following No. 1 Braves draft picks! (they did sign)

Al Santorini 67-68 (COLOR)
Ron Broaddus 70-72
Taylor Duncan 71-72 with Braves before trade
Donald Young 75-77
Jay Roberts 81-84

1894 Western Association Rock Island-Moline
 

This photo does not have the legend although the players are numbered as if it did have one.

The players of note are Joe Cantillon and Joe Katz. I just can't tell who is who.

Here are the Rock Island - Moline IDs. Cantillon is #9, Katz is not pictured.

There is an Anderson Braves minor league baseball card of Jay Roberts for sale for $1.75 at the following URL. It is not pictured:

1983 Anderson Braves TCMA #31 Jay Roberts - Card Gallery | Beckett.com

I don't have any leads for Braves images for any of the other four you mention.

Here is a small version of the 1983 Roberts card.

I have a very large collection of minor league baseball cards going back to the mid 70's....I don't know what the best way to do this is but I would be more than happy to share any pics of those cards if needed

(Suggestions on how to do this *list the cards by request? would be encouraged)

I find it interesting that Roberts, who also played football at Washington, died in traffic accident back in 1998, yet his death is not recorded anywhere in baseball reference or listed by BBA. Thanks for the lead(s).

Minor League Baseball Players
 

Found these 2 great team photos on eBay http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14...4e397af73d.jpg

http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14...f962980f2d.jpg

Unable to find minor league sets that might include the other guys; but as No. 1 picks, surely they had some time in the MLB camp (the others did). Taylor Duncan, especially, I thought was someone who got some pub when he first showed up. I guess the AJC archives are out of reach!
Found a great photo of Holbert that seemed to be Topps. Good B&W of Finlay and Santorini and stumbled across Grant in a hometown article. Likewise, found a current photo of Broaddus, but doesn't exactly fill the bill.
No luck searching obit info surrounding Duncan, and no one in baseball seemed to realize Roberts was dead! Likewise, zero on Young even though he made some headlines in the Kingsport paper.

Mystery Topps Vault Dodger Lefty - Part One
 

Remember...this guy?

I've spent more time than I should trying to figure out who he is. I've looked at all the Topps Vault images I can find, 1966-1971, with "Los Angeles" script on the gray road uniforms. Based on lighting, particularly the cloud pattern in the sky, my previous conclusion on the year is wrong. I don't think this is a 1966, I think it's a 1969.

Compare mystery Dodger on the left, to a Topps photo we know dates to '69 of a player named Pat Harrison, whose entire pro career consisted of being at Spring Training 1969.

Mystery Topps Vault Dodger Lefty - Part Two
 

All Dodger Topps images pre-1966 have "spoiled" (turned brown). The 1966's show them in road unis with "Los Angeles" - but on a bright sunny day. 1967's are all in home whites. No shooting in 1968. 1970's are home uniforms. 1971's are road, but all in front of or around a chain-link fence. 1972's have the blue stripes on the shoulders.

That should leave 1969.

So which lefties were in camp with the Dodgers in 1969? On the roster, veterans Jim Brewer and Claude Osteen (we can be certain he's not them), and youngster Dennis James. There were five non-roster southpaws: Walter Adey, Bruce Ellingsen (later swapped straight up for Pedro Guerrero), Mike Price, Larry Staab, and Jim Strickland.

The first image is our mystery LHP. Then James (B&W, "3" visible), then Price (wearing number 59), then Staab (a clean-cut portrait from 1966), then Strickland (from 1971, when he finally made the majors with the Twins).

I don't think he looks anything like these four guys - so we've eliminated six of the eight possibilities.

Mystery Topps Vault Dodger Lefty - Part Three
 

So that leaves two possibilities - Bruce Ellingsen (shown here in the '69 Dodger yearbook), and Walter Adey, for whom I have no identified photo.

Ellingsen looks only vaguely like our lefty - and the more you look the more the resemblance seems dependent entirely on both of them having double chins.

What we do have is the team photo of the 1968 Ogden Dodgers, managed by Tom Lasorda and featuring a rotation that included, Bruce Ellingsen and Walter Adey. Unfortunately, the players are not identified!

Mystery Topps Vault Dodger Lefty - Part Four
 

I think I see Ellingsen -- number 22, far left, second row.

And I think I see our Dodger LHP -- back row, second from right.

Mystery Dodger
 

I love a mystery. Here is image of Bruce Ellingsen. See little resemblance there.

Mystery Topps Vault Dodger Lefty - Part Last
 

So we get to the point past which I can't go (barring finding a 1969 Dodger spring training scorecard or media guide complete with uniform numbers, or a 1968 Ogden Dodgers team picture with ID's).

I suspect, our unidentified Topps Vault Dodger LHP and the fella in the Ogden picture (possibly-to-probably Walter Adey) are one in the same.

1978 AAA Box Scores?
 

Anyone know of an online source for 1978 AAA box scores?

I agree with you. Same nose, same guy. WOW!! Brilliant demonstration!! And with the name elimination you did, with images to prove it, our lefty must be Walter Adey. Thanks for all your searches. Really appreciated!!

Walt Adey: The Final Chapter
 

It's him.

Bill Francis of The Hall of Fame found and sent a clipping from a Troy, New York newspaper from March, 1965. The high school junior second from the left in the front row in the plaid shirt is identified as Walter Adey of Cohoes, New York - which matches the background of the 1967-71 Dodger farmhand who was evidently photographed by Topps in the '69 camp with those images posted on the Vault storage website a mere 45 years later without any form of ID.

One of those images is attached just to wrap it up:

Walt Adey: A Final Note
 

I found this 1970 Daytona Beach Dodgers (FSL) team picture with names of the players. Walt Adey is in the Back Row, 3rd from the left. No doubt, it is the Mystery Lefty we were looking to ID. Nice work Merkle!!:thumbup1: