Boston Doves Team Mystery Postcard

Jaybird · #1 10-17-2011, 11:52 AM

Thanks for posting your card.

FYI- Frank Bowerman is the tall grey haired guy standing next to Cobb. Ed Killian is kneeling in front of them.

Can you send a scan to me at jasonleemiller(AT)ca(DOT)rr(DOT)com and I'll annotate the players that are the same on both teams. Maybe a slightly less blurry one, if possible? As high res as you can. I counted 5 or 6 similar faces.

Abravefan11 · #2 10-17-2011, 12:14 PM

Joe - I'm fairly certain it's the Otsego team. I have more information if you're interested.

Bicem · #3 10-17-2011, 12:23 PM

very cool Tim, thanks for posting!

Jaybird · #4 10-17-2011, 01:25 PM

That's great, Tim. I've been lazily searching for other information on the team since I got the card.

See here the two postcards and the players I think correlate between them and the ones that have been ID'd so far. I don't see Mullin on Joe's card. For ease of reference (if there is such a thing), I put Joe's in Black and mine in Blue.

BLACK B = BLUE M
BLACK E = BLUE O = Bowerman
BLACK J = BLUE B
BLACK L = BLUE A
BLACK N = BLUE I
BLACK O = BLUE J = Killian
BLACK P = BLUE L
BLACK R = BLUE N
BLUE D = Mullin

Some players I noticed in a quick glance:
BLACK K = Mike Donlin
BLACK G = Ted Goulait

Abravefan11 · #5 10-17-2011, 01:42 PM

In 1912 at the conclusion of a small Michigan league a millionaire named Tom Stevens who owned the Otsego team decided to put on a series of 3 exhibition games to be played starting the last week of September into the first two weeks of October. For this exhibition he brought in several major league players and paid them well to play with the Otsego squad including Killian, Mullin and Bowerman. Bowerman had recently returned to Michigan after he left his job as manager in the Canadian minor leagues. The other teams involved brought in major league players as well including Donnie Bush, Davy Jones and Jean Dubuc.

The 1912 series was a big success and in 1913 it was repeated with several of the teams employing major league players for one or more games. Again Killian, Mullin and Bowerman played for Otsego. Walter Johnson was reported to have been offered $1,500 to pitch the final game but he did not play.

jcmtiger · #6 10-17-2011, 02:37 PM

Tim, good job. I think I remember that info on Otsego before but had forgotten about it. I also did not know about all the Pro players, just excited to see Cobb in the pc. There also was a post awhile back where someone had the same photo as mine, not on a postcard, but a large photo. I think the guy wanted $1000.00 for the photo, but I passed.

Joe

Abravefan11 · #7 10-17-2011, 02:46 PM

Thanks Joe - I believe there were more games played in 1913 than in 1912, how many I would have to go back and check. The final game to end the exhibitions was between Otsego and Grayling with an estimated 7,000 people there to watch the game.

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