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J HullTed,
I suspected you already knew all that.
As to which Foster it is...
Edward Lee Foster was 29 years old in 1909. Edward Cunningham Foster was just 22 years old in 1909. To me, the player pictured on the T206 card looks more like a 22-year old than a 29-year old. But, in this case, the appearances are deceiving.
Edward Cunningham Foster never got anywhere near the South Atlantic League:
1906 = Coffeeville (Kansas State League)
1907 = Harrisburg, PA (Tri-State League)
1908 = Williamsport (Tri-State League)
1909 = Jersey City (Eastern League)
1910 = New York (AL)
1911 = Rochester (Eastern League)
But Edward Lee Foster did:
1906 = Columbus and Brunswick (Georgia State League)
1907 = Charleston (South Atlantic League)
1908 = Jacksonville (South Atlantic League) and Cleveland (AL)
1909 = Did not play
1910-1912 = New Haven (Connecticut State League)
So where was Edward Lee in 1909? He went to spring training with Cleveland's regulars and other recruits. But he had injury troubles. The April 10th Sporting Life reports that "Ed Foster of Cleveland is laid up with a very lame pitching arm." A week later comes the news that Foster was among eight players that manager Lajoie was asking waivers on: "Of these, Foster has been sent to Charleston, South Atlantic League."
So there's the answer. It's Edward Lee Foster, who went to Charleston just before the start of the South Atlantic League season, but was injured, so badly, it seems, that he was unable to pitch at any point during the season. Eventually he was recalled to Cleveland, at the beginning of July, perhaps for another tryout to see if his arm was recovered. But he never made it into a game and by the end of the month had been, again according to The Sporting Life, "turned over" to Toledo. But he couldn't get into a game with them either.
Jeremy,
I've looked at those boxscores, and they show that Ellam played from April 15th (opening day in the Southern League) until September 11th, all with Birmingham (141 games). He was then purchased or called up by Cincinnati and made his major league debut on September 18th, finishing the season with ten games played in the NL. I have no idea why he was pictured with Nashville, because you're right, he didn't (so far as I have been able to tell) put on their uniform until 1916. I've always assumed it was just a mistake by the T206 artists that later became a coincidence when Ellam actually joined Nashville.
As Ted has amply proved elsewhere, the cards of the Southern Leaguers were created and released in 1909. If you look at the Southern Leaguers (meaning Southern, South Atlantic, Virginia, and Texas Leaguers) pictured in the set, aside from the clear mistake (Ellam) every other player is pictured with the team he began the 1909 season with, strongly suggesting that the cards were designed very early in the season. No other league (AL, NL, American Association, or Eastern League) is like that. All of those leagues have at least a few players pictured with a team that they joined after the start of the 1909 season. So the Southern Leaguers were clearly some of the first cards drawn up.