[prewinter]

For Player 9 in the front row, the proposed identification is George Ganzel. I'm proposing to consider instead James Allen. The St. Paul Globe indicates he was signed "as the fifteenth man" on March 7, 1887, so he was present at the same time as Ganzel. The sketch of Allen comes from the Cedar Rapids Gazzette (May 15, 1891); the accompanying biography puts Allen at 5' 4" and 130 lbs and gives his birth date as November 1868. (I have other information on him that suggests he may have been born a few years earlier than that.) Allen played in a game on April 29 against St. Paul, right when Ganzel was released. He was reported as released on May 5 with Visner.

The nose looks more Allen than Ganzel, IMO. The size matched that reported for Allen as well. I do not know if there is a size reported for Ganzel.

After Ganzel, Allen and Visner were released, the club stayed at twelve (if my math is right) until Gus Klopf was signed on May 21, as best I can tell. I'm not sure when some of the other players on the roster on BR were signed after that, so I can't say when the number of players would have gotten back to thirteen, plus the manager for fourteen total in the photo.

Visner, BTW, gets mentioned in the papers in early April, and then not again until May 5, when his release was reported (as best I can tell). It is possible he never showed for spring games, or he was hurt very early in the spring. But he strikes me as unlikely to be in the photo, given his absence from any spring games.