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davidcyclebackA brief note on facial recognition and authentication.
With repetition viewing a face, humans recognize people on a subconscious level. If you bump into your sister on the street, you don't do measure the length of the nose versus the width between the eyebrows-- you just know it's her.
By collecting cards and photos and looking at pictures old ball players, you gain a similar facial recognition. If I posted a picture of Lou Gehrig, everyone here would say, "That's Lou Gehrig." And if I asked why you came to the conclusion, people would say, "Because it's Lou Gehrig." There would be no nose angle or folicle analysis.
If you are unfamiliar with the subject, you are at a disadvantage-- you don't have the subconscious recognition.
Different people share similar facial qualities (width of nose, bushiness of eyebrows). Facial analyis is essential, but shared facial features is not proof in and of itself of identity-- especially when it just doesn't look like the person.
People can look different as they get older. If you are unfamiliar with the subject, it can be difficult to authenticate by comparing a photo of a 21 year old and a 55 year old.
Other factors are used to help authenticate the identity-- and can be essential proof when you aren't familiar with the subject. This can include the date of the photo, place of the photo, that a player played for that team, provenance (came from family estate). If that 15 year old kid in the team photo looks different in ways from the older Joe DiMaggio you see pictures of on card, this can be overcome with the knowledge that the photo came from his estate and it is known he played on that high school team. If it's a 1967 Green Bay Packers team photo, the guy who looks most like Bart Starr is probably Bart Starr.