Old Judge Charles Kelly

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Posted By: Leslie Westbrook

I know this is a long shot, but earlier I posted a message about writing on the back of a recently acquired t206 card and I've quickly managed to come up with some interesting information.

I've come to the conclusion that the writing on the card was written by Charles (Chas.) Kelly and he wrote his Philadelphia address below his name.

After some quick searching, I've learned that a Charles Kelly played for Philadelphia and is pictured on an Old Judge card -- N172 #257.

The long shot here is that the Charles Kelly who lived in Philadelphia and probably once owned my card is the same one who played baseball, but I'm really curious now.

Anyone have a Charles Kelly signature, or a picture of one?

Any thoughts?

Here are the images of my card that I posted earlier (I can't get them to post larger), sorry.

[Archive]

Posted By: davidcycleback

I'm sure his signature is very rare if an example exists. You'll probably have to do some research
to confirm whether or not it is him. That the player played for Philadelphia is intriguing, though
there no doubt have been many Charles Kellys over the years.

Due to the multiple levels of obscurity, including that it took you some time to even decipher the
writing!, I think you can rule out forgery.

[Archive]

Posted By: Leslie Westbrook

Charles H. Kelly played for the Philadelphia Phillies from 1883-1886 according to baseball-almanac.com. The address on the back of the card is only 5 blocks from Recreation Park, the first ballpark of Philadelphia Phillies. Recreation Park was located between 23rd, 25th, and Moore streets. according to Wikipedia.

I'm just updating this thread with the information i gather as i get it in case it can help anyone out there figure this out....

Also, Charles H. Kelly played for the Philadelphia Phillies from 1883-1886---the exact same dates that Recreation Park was used by the team.

[Archive]

Posted By: john/z28jd

It should be noted that Charles Kelly played 3 games total in his career,2 in 1883 and 1 game in 1886 and that wasnt for the Phillies,that was for the Athletics of the American Association and they didnt play at Recreation Park,they played at Jeffereson Street Grounds. There is also no known biographical info about him so matching him up to an autograph is basically impossible. They dont know a birth or death date for the guy,a town he lived in,his height or weight what hand he threw with etc etc.

You would basically have to go thru census record for Philadelphia or nearby towns and find a man named Charles Kelly that listed "base ball player" as his profession in that time frame he played and then follow him year by year hoping he didnt move,up until at minimum 1909(20+ years after his Old Judge appearance and when the t206 set was made) and then you should be able to get his address from that and match it up to the one on the card. The fact that no known biographical info has been found by SABR suggests that task mentioned above isnt as "easy" as it sounds but basically thats the only chance you have of finding out anything.