19th century santa fe cabinet card

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Posted By: scott brockelman

i have had this cabinet for a while, it is N173 size with gilt edges of an unidentified 19th century player circa 1880? from santa fe, which is i assume new mexico. what league would this have been?

scott

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Posted By: Kevin Cummings

New Mexico is the obvious choice, but there is no listing in The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball for a Santa Fe team in New Mexico or any other state.

Great looking item, though.

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Posted By: scott brockelman

could it be a semi-pro town team or something of that nature?

i have not done a through check, but what other Santa Fe's are there in the US?

scott

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Posted By: Nick M.

Scott,
When I hear "Santa Fe" I think of the Railroad. Santa Fe Railway started around 1870 and continues today, though not the dominant force they once were. I would think the proprietors of the Santa Fe Railway had the money to fund a team, and the travel would have been cheap!

Regards,
Nick

PS:Does everyone like my 'toonces the cat who could drive a car' ID photo?

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Posted By: Robert Adesso

It looks like there might be additional letters on the jersey because of the placement of the beginning of "santa."
maybe, like Nick states, it reads santa fe r.r.?

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Posted By: hankron

I bet Nick and Robert are correct.

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Posted By: jay behrens

Given the way the Sante Fe arcs and the "Fe" is higher than the "S" it's a safe bet that there is more we can't see. RR would be a very good guess

Jay

I saw weird stuff in that place last night. Weird, strange, sick, twisted, eerie, godless, evil stuff. And I want in.

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Posted By: Kevin Cummings

Check out in this article about three-quarters of the way down the page. Sounds like the railroad had a team!

http://www.ci.hutchinson.ks.us/hutchinson_history/founding.htm

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Posted By: Ryan Christoff

Scott,

I'm going to go against popular opinion on this one and guess that it is indeed a player for a team in the city of Santa Fe. New Mexico didn't become a state until 1912, which might explain why it wouldn't show up in the minor league encyclopedia.

This guy looks Mexican to me, which would make sense if he's in Santa Fe.

The fact that Santa Fe Railway had a baseball team in Hutchinson, Kansas isn't enough to convince me that this player was on their team. Nearly all businesses and towns prior to World War II had baseball teams. Breweries, steel mills, watch makers, railroads, etc.

If there are other letters on the jersey, they could just as easily read "B.B.C" as they could "R.R."

Just my opinion, though.

Interesting photo.

-Ryan

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Posted By: scott brockelman

that is a possiblilty, i have a team cabinet of a missouri pacific railroad team and another one i can't recall. as a side note in the area of kansas where i grew up which was on a MOPAC line which was constructed in the 1880's many of the small towns that popped up were named after baseball players from back east. bushong, comiskey and miller just to name a few, most are defunct towns now.

NOW, let's assume this is a Santa Fe RR baseball player, this places him in the frontier west circa 1880, further west than any of the other western league teams, such as omaha, kansas city, etc.

any ideas as to rarity of such?

scott

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Posted By: hankron

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