Originally Posted by prewinter
This photo was printed in the March 31, 1923 Fort Wayne Sentinel with a caption identifying it as the 1887 Fort Wayne club. The caption names all but a few of the players, by which it is correctly dated to the 1883 club. Two players remain unidentified.
Back row (standing): Billy Geiss, Unknown 1, Jack Remsen, Unknown 2
Middle row (sitting): Billy Yott, Joe Brown, Jack McDonough, Ed Merrill, Milt Scott
Front row (on the ground): Tony Suck, Walt Kinzie, Marr Phillips
There are a lot of major league players on the club (in bold).
For the two unidentified players, there are three or four options as best I can tell. John McDonough joined the club at some point in June, 1883, and Tony Suck was ranted his release on July 25, so the time frame is sometime in those two months.
William (Billy) Forrest joined the club about the same time as McDonough, and is most likely one of the two unidentified players. Forrest came out of Chicago, where he played with the Chicago Blues.
John Kerins was with the club at the start of the season. He was gone by June 12, probably before McDonough came on board, but that is not confirmed.
James Hillery joined the club at some point in July, but I'm not sure exactly when.
Finally, Charles Maddock, a catcher from Guelph, Canada, joined the club in late June (Fort Wayne Daily News, June 20, 1883) and was released at some point in July.
The other players listed with the 1883 Fort Wayne club were either gone before June or arrived after Tony Suck left the club.
If I had to guess, I would say the remaining two players were Forrest and Maddock, but I have no photos of these players to compare against.
This photo is the only known photo of Ed Merrill. The remaining major leaguers have other photos. Comparisons suggest the identifications in the caption are correct, even though the year is wrong.
|