This picture of the 1905 Olinda Oil Wells baseball team with a 17 year-old Walter Johnson was recently sent to the Brea Historical Society by its owner, who was seeking any information they might have about the team, and they in turn forwarded it to me. Not long ago, I donated to the Historical Society my research papers and some memorabilia relating to Johnson's time playing semipro ball in Southern California during the years 1904-10. As the co-author of a lengthy article on the subject (
http://cwcfamily.org/wj/cc0.htm) as well as his biographer, they figured I might be able to shed some light on it. Needless to say, I was blown away by this discovery, the only photograph I'm aware of capturing Johnson with one of the several SoCal semipro teams for whom he pitched prior to ascending to the American League in 1907. My cousin and co-author of the article, Chuck Carey, who lives in Anaheim, and I had each devoted countless hours in the search for just such a photo without success, and here it was! Not only that, it pictured the young Johnson with his FIRST professional outfit. Here's where the mystery comes in: I can't figure out where this picture came from, and that's important because the source of this picture might possibly picture some of the other semipro teams Johnson pitched for during this seminal period: Olive, Rivera, Anaheim, Santa Ana, and San Diego. The picture is in the style of the major baseball guides of the time: Spalding, Reach, Lajoie's, John McGraw's, and Wright and Ditson. All of those for the year 1906, which would have included 1905 teams, can be accessed online (
http://www.seanlahman.com/2014/08/20...seball-guides/) and none picture semipro teams. The Wright and Ditson guide for this year is unavailable on the web, so I couldn't check that one, perhaps it was the source. An additional clue came from the owner of the picture, who said a team from Compton was on the other side, which makes me wonder if there was perhaps a West Coast version of one of the major guides, or a separate guide altogether for the coast teams. The owner, who also dated it 1905, was supposed to have long ago received it and gotten back to us with any further information, but has been silent so far, so I thought I would present the picture and mystery to the forum. There is another future big leaguer in the photo, by the way: Jack Burnett, who played in 59 games for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1907. It's amazing what's still out there waiting to be discovered, isn't it?
