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Hey Upper Deck - this is NOT Cap Anson!

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gracecollector

Well-known member
Aug 7, 2008
6,559
215
Lake in the Hills, IL
Hey Upper Deck, this photo is NOT Cap Anson.

You did it in 2001:

$_57.JPG


and now you've done it again in 2014:

$_57.JPG


Book Publisher McFarland & Co. did it on the first run of a Cap Anson biography by David Fleitz:

cap-anson-grand-old-man-baseball-david-l-fleitz-paperback-cover-art.jpg


although Fleitz made them change it on the second printing and paperback versions:

ansonbook.jpg


The photo you are using is of one of Cap's teammates, White Stockings 2nd Baseman Fred Pfeffer.

So it kinda looks like Cap, but the eyes are definitely not his. Notice the eyes and ears match to this Goodwin card (although he had changed his moustache style). The straight and angular nose is also a match to Pfeffer, not Anson.

Item_9850_1.jpg


Call the HOF, UD photo editor, they'll confirm. And stop making Anson cards that are really Pfeffer!

Fred Pfeffer:
cap-anson.jpg


Cap Anson:
65732-004-300AF09D.jpg
 
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gracecollector

Well-known member
Aug 7, 2008
6,559
215
Lake in the Hills, IL
Well, this is turning out to be a full fledged research project. Upper Deck responded to me that they believe it to be Anson, but are open to review. Two other Cap Anson authorities, biographers David Fleitz and Howard Rosenberg, agree with me that it is Fred Pfeffer. The problem seems to be that the image is in the Corbis Image collection and identified as Anson.

http://www.corbisimages.com/stock-photo/rights-managed/BE041422/cap-anson-famed-baseball-player

The credit on Corbis attributes it to the Bettmann Archive. The archive is a compilation of Dr. Otto Bettmann’s life’s work and the United Press International Photo Archive — more than 11 million photographs from the 19th and 20th centuries. One of the most significant historical collections of images in the world, this international treasure is housed in the state-of-the-art Film Preservation Facility (FPF) in Pennsylvania.

I guess I have to go to the root of the problem and talk to someone at the FPF.

Interesting that Panini has used the image recently too on a Cap Anson card, in 2013.

mZWq5Egy9u5vPS_ndL3kWWw.jpg


This will take many hours to sort out. It could be interesting though. I'm contacting the BBHOF and noted 19th century baseball photographic expert Mark Rucker to see if they have any opinions and/or support for my assertation that it's Fred Pfeffer. Probably will open up discussions on SABR and NET54 too to see if anyone can offer any proof.

What lengths to go to correct a historical inaccuracy!
 

Pine Tar

Active member
Mar 1, 2009
27,701
12
Oswego,Illinois
Research is a lost art, lost upon the youth they have hired. Most of them just use Google and then tend to believe what they find as gospel because it's on the internet, so it must be true. Time is money and money is wasted all the time. So why not make mistakes, just to get the job done.
 

gracecollector

Well-known member
Aug 7, 2008
6,559
215
Lake in the Hills, IL
Well, no one's really at fault here except Otto Bettmann. Bettmann was a photo collector that amassed a HUGE collection of images from the 19th and 20th centuries. His collection merged with the United Press International Photo Archive to create a 11 million image "visual history of the world." Bettmann may have originally mis-identified this photo in his collection. Today, the archive is owned and managed by Corbis (a Bill Gates owned company). Corbis licenses its photos for stock photography usage. Upper Deck and Panini license historic images from them. If Corbis says its Cap Anson, they'll believe it.

So my task is now to gather supporting evidence, and convince Corbis that their property is mis-identified. Tough challenge as the image has been cited as Cap Anson for more than forty years now. I saw it in a book printed in 1979 yesterday at a used book store.

It's going to take some strong proof from baseball experts to convince Corbis I'm right. Letters from the HOF and Mark Rucker would definitely help.
 

gracecollector

Well-known member
Aug 7, 2008
6,559
215
Lake in the Hills, IL
Definitely Pfeffer. 1887 Old Judge Cabinet to compare. Facial features match, and don't match other images of Anson. I've never seen a photo of Anson with a bushy moustache, only a thin handlebar.

DP827547.jpg

$_57.JPG


Anson and Pfeffer side by side

1887chicago.jpg
 
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RStadlerASU22

Active member
Jan 2, 2013
8,881
11
Awesome research and knowledge , very impressed how you have put things together. Are there not any other Cap images available for the companies to use? But then again , even if there were, they would use the same damn one over and over anyway.

Ryan
 

nappyd

Active member
Sep 24, 2012
1,207
0
Impressive work on finding a Bettman that screwed something up not named Gary

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Freedom Card Board mobile app
 

gracecollector

Well-known member
Aug 7, 2008
6,559
215
Lake in the Hills, IL
Awesome research and knowledge , very impressed how you have put things together. Are there not any other Cap images available for the companies to use? But then again , even if there were, they would use the same damn one over and over anyway.

Ryan

There aren't a lot of Anson in uniform images to choose from. Upper Deck has used this one, which is definitely Anson:

mm367oohN3gomLkO0s-wryQ.jpg


They used this portrait in Goodwin Champions, also Anson.

m9Lo6nSM3CbmEcd645q_Kmw.jpg


This Goodwin was a mystery - doesn't look like Anson to me but don't know the photo it is based off, so don't know who it is. Could just be a bad artistic representation.

migrated.jpg


Panini has used the Pfeffer photo as shown before. They've also got it right though, in these issues. The last image is a very young Cap at the start of his career, playing for Philadelphia.

mWPrlWz4vlTfa51ypEZxCnw.jpg

m6lz45WkCDUigiaL1W6RVnQ.jpg

mVf534f5JUP5bKt7MuWBIsg.jpg
 

gracecollector

Well-known member
Aug 7, 2008
6,559
215
Lake in the Hills, IL
Given Anson's personal beliefs, it may be more fitting if he's just depicted in a white sheet and point hood from now on.

Yes along with 90% of his contemporaries, both on the field and in the front office, all the way up to the commissioner. Anson was 9 years old when the Civil War began, of course racist attitudes were rampant back then. He did soften his attitudes later in life too, managing teams against black athletes and even befriending Rube Foster. Just like steroids, you'd have to banish a whole generation of players because the vast majority silently supported it.

rubefoster.jpg
 

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