Gambo and T_Wil1 Photopack

[cinemaodyssey]

Another Reds option for Harley, pictured with the team in 1901.

[cinemaodyssey]

Hooker appeared in 2 games for the Reds spread out over 2 different seasons. He is pictured during Spring Training in 1903 with Cincinnati.

[cinemaodyssey]

Johns appeared in 4 games for the 1905 Reds and managed to finish his career 1-0 despite giving up 31 hits in 18 innings.

[cinemaodyssey]

Sebring did most of damage as a member of the Pirates, including playing in the first World Series. He played for two seasons as a member of the Reds and is pictured here in 1905.

[cinemaodyssey]

Tiemeyer got into 6 games over 2 seasons for the Reds and is pictured here with Cincinnati in 1906.

[cinemaodyssey]

Not Rip Van Winkle but Vowinkel, the Reds prospect who was given a decent shot to crack the pitching rotation and underwhelmed everyone.

[cinemaodyssey]

Facepack upgrade, pictured during his brief tryout with the 1924 White Sox.

[cinemaodyssey]

Another obscure player upgrade, Weiss got into 29 games for the Federal League's Chicago Whales in 1915.

[Chickazoola]

Originally Posted by cinemaodyssey

Another obscure player upgrade, Weiss got into 29 games for the Federal League's Chicago Whales in 1915.

This is a really nice photo!

Weiss's entrance into the major leagues is pretty fascinating. In 1915 and 1916, the Chicago Tribune held a contest in which local amateurs were put through a series of tryouts with the eventual winners being given a roster spot on the city's three major league teams, the Cubs, White Sox, and Whales.

The 1915 winners were Heinie Rasmussen (Whales), Charlie Pechous (Cubs), Johnny McKittrick (White Sox). Rasmussen made a couple pitching appearances for the Whales, Pechous played for the Cubs in 1916-1917, while McKittrick had a brief minor league career.

Joe Weiss was one of the 1915 entrants, but ended up being disqualified because he had played minor league baseball in 1914. He joined the Whales in September 1915, no doubt having been scouted through the contest.

The best player to have entered the contest was actually future NL MVP Bob O'Farrell, who showed such promise during the tryouts that he was signed by Cubs' manager Roger Bresnahan before the conclusion of the contest.

The contest was held again in 1916, though none of the five contest winners appeared in the majors. Two future MLB stars did enter the contest, Johnny Mostil and Marty McManus.

The contest was cancelled in 1917 when the US joined WWI and was never resumed.

If anyone is interested in learning more, I wrote a SABR Journal article about it a couple years ago: https://sabr.org/journal/article/jus...ntest-of-1915/

[cinemaodyssey]

The Facepack image does not picture Johnny O'Connor but rather Dick O'Connor playing for Fall River in 1914. The Chicago newspaper labeled O'Connor a "Boston boy" but his baseball reference page tells us he attended the University of Illinois. I haven't found a record of him in the yearbooks under that name, though there is a Charles Andrew O'Connor there in 1911-1912. O'Connor did play for the Chicago Bankers League in 1916 with the First Nationals. I do not have a photo of him as of yet.

[Chickazoola]

Originally Posted by cinemaodyssey

The Facepack image does not picture Johnny O'Connor but rather Dick O'Connor playing for Fall River in 1914. The Chicago newspaper labeled O'Connor a "Boston boy" but his baseball reference page tells us he attended the University of Illinois. I haven't found a record of him in the yearbooks under that name, though there is a Charles Andrew O'Connor there in 1911-1912. O'Connor did play for the Chicago Bankers League in 1916 with the First Nationals. I do not have a photo of him as of yet.

Okay, just spent some time on this guy and I think it is a man named John Charles O'Connor aka Johnny or Okey. Best as I can tell, the bb-ref ID is correct, there is an ancestry profile that matches quite well and has him in Boston in the 1910's. He played for Boston English High School in 1910 and was a teammate of future Red Sox Hal Janvrin. He was a semi-pro catcher in Boston area and played of York Beach squad. He was pictured in a team photo in the August 19, 1915 Boston Globe.

I wouldn't say it's definitive, but I think it is the guy.

[Dto7]

Originally Posted by cinemaodyssey

The Facepack image does not picture Johnny O'Connor but rather Dick O'Connor playing for Fall River in 1914. The Chicago newspaper labeled O'Connor a "Boston boy" but his baseball reference page tells us he attended the University of Illinois. I haven't found a record of him in the yearbooks under that name, though there is a Charles Andrew O'Connor there in 1911-1912. O'Connor did play for the Chicago Bankers League in 1916 with the First Nationals. I do not have a photo of him as of yet.

Here's Johnny O'Connor and Hal Janvrin on the 1910 Boston English high school baseball team. From the June 10, 1910, Boston Globe. From the info provided by Chickazoola.

[cinemaodyssey]

Awesome, thanks for the information on O'Connor. I'm wondering if the University of Illinois information that baseball reference posted is not correct then because those certainly look like the player in the Facepack.

[Chickazoola]

Okay, so the Fall River player is Dick O'Connor - he signed with the Phillies prior to the 1915 season. He was from Worcester and was aged 18 in 1914 and was 6 feet, 180 pounds as per the May 7, 1914 Fall River Evening Herald. He was pictured in the April 12, 1915 Fall River Evening News.

[Chickazoola]

The Dick O'Connor image looks like the image in the facepack. Johnny O'Connor images look different to my eyes. Also, they are two different players, and I would be very surprised if Dick O'Connor was the major leaguer, since our only notes described the Chicago catcher as a Boston boy / local semi-pro. Since Dick had minor league experience and gone to spring training it seems with the Phillies in 1915, that likely would have garnered a mention in any 1916 accounts of the Cubs' one-gamer.

[cinemaodyssey]

I would agree, and that confirms my initial skepticism over the Facepack image. I will use the image you found of him from 1915.

[Chickazoola]

Originally Posted by cinemaodyssey

I would agree, and that confirms my initial skepticism over the Facepack image. I will use the image you found of him from 1915.

The problem remains that I don't have confirmation that the major leaguer and the John O'Connor I found an image of are the same guy. Circumstantially, I think it is a strong case, but I lack the smoking gun. I will check with the Bio committee.

[Rory1262]

Originally Posted by Amazin69

Tragically, Brown died at age 33 in Houston of leukemia. Which leads me to wonder…was he gay? Young single men dying of "leukemia" in 1981…it wouldn't be impossible. (Yes, most of the early AIDS deaths were in NY, LA, and SF ["coincidentally" the same three cities where the US government was "immunizing" gay men against Hepatitis-B in the late 1970s…], but having played in San Francisco, Brown might have travelled back there later on.) Was this the reason why Brown didn't seem to get a full chance, why Westrum was so set on keeping Thomasson in the lineup and even playing utility infielders like Chris Arnold and Steve Ontiveros in the outfield, while leaving Brown on the bench?

Maybe…but perhaps not. Brown could simply have had a lot of bad luck, from the broken arm at the wrong time, to the cheek contusion at the wrong time, to Westrum deciding that Gary Thomasson (final stats for 1975, .227/304/347) just had to be in the lineup every day, even after Matthews returned. And you can fatally compromise your immune system in other ways, such as intravenous drug use (it was the 1970s, after all) or simply extreme poverty (Brown played before the "one day's service gets you on the pension plan" revision of 1979; he could have fallen to homelessness and contracted leukemia that way). Or perhaps he was simply born with inadequate white blood cells and was lucky to make it to 33.

We'll probably never know. RIP, Jake.

Your theories are wildly speculative, to the point of reckless. They can't be entirely ruled out. However, Brown wasn't single. He was a married man with two children holding down a job. His death certificate also notes the form of leukemia.

I think he was just a hard-luck guy.

[Chickazoola]

I found a nice clue on Johnny O'Connor. He was a basketball star and in 1916, he was teammates with Rabbit Maranville on a local Boston basketball team.

[Dto7]

I found these, 1st one 1913 and 2nd 1915