Two photographs of the 1906 Brooklyn Royal Giants exist—one showing them in suits, which was printed in Sol White’s Official Base Ball Guide in 1907 (on p. 86 in the original), and another showing them in baseball uniforms. I’m not sure of the source of the second, uniformed photo (it might be in the Hall of Fame library), but the earliest appearance I can think of right now is in Phil Dixon’s 1992 book, The Negro Baseball Leagues: A Photographic History, on p. 49. (By the way, Phil says it’s the 1905 Royal Giants, but this can’t be, as Grant “Home Run” Johnson is in the photo, and he was with the Philadelphia Giants that year.)

Nobody to my knowledge has tried to identify the players in these photos, aside from a couple of obvious ones (like Grant Johnson and owner John W. Connor). Into the breach steps the fearless Albert Flannery, who will make the attempt in today’s post. Here’s Albert:

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The 1906 Brooklyn Royal Giants: Two Photographs
By Albert Flannery

I am going to take a shot here at something that as far as I know has not yet been attempted. There are two photos of the 1906 Brooklyn Royal Giants and I have attempted to identify everyone in both photos. Most of them I am quite certain of, but some of them are  based on a process of elimination and I am not quite so certain. They are mostly based on photo comparisons.

THE “SUITS” PICTURE

Front row (kneeling or sitting):

Billy Holland, Chappie Johnson, J. W. Connor, Bill Monroe, George Wright

Top row (standing):

Bill Merritt, Pop Andrews, Andrew “Jap” Payne, Eugene Milliner, John “Pat” Patterson, Grant Johnson, Cannonball Miller, Robert Footes

THE “UNIFORMS” PICTURE

Front row (sitting):

Andrew “Jap” Payne, Knucks James, J. W. Connor, Billy Holland, Kid Carter

Back row (standing)

Bill Merritt, James Robinson, Grant Johnson, Pop Andrews, Al Robinson, Harry Brown, Eugene Milliner

IDENTIFICATIONS

I will explain all of the identifications. These photos were taken at different points  of the season and there were many roster changes. The “suits” picture was taken some time before the “uniforms” picture, but it has more of the star players of the time. The statistical database of Seamheads was absolutely essential for this. I was also able to make many conclusions because of height comparisons.

 

I will begin with the entrepreneur, J. W. Connor, who is front and center in both pictures.

 

Grant Johnson, the playing manager the entire season, was very familiar in both photos.

Jap Payne, who played for Brooklyn the entire season, was also easy to pick out in both photos.

There were four players who left the Philadelphia Quaker Giants in mid-season and joined the Royals. I believe all of them are in the sutis picture, and none of them are in the uniforms picture.

I believe Bill Monroe is kneeling second from right in the suits photo. He was a large talent but not a large man, and I think he is in the front with other shorter players.

 

I believe George Wright is kneeling far right in the suits picture.

 

I think Chappie Johnson is kneeling second from left in the suits picture. I was surprised to learn he was not a tall man. [He is standing on the far left in the above photo of the 1904 Philadelphia Giants.–ed.]

 

I identify John “Pat” Patterson, a taller man, third from right in the suits picture [and standing, second from right, in the above photo of the 1905 Cuban X-Giants–ed.].

Here is James Robinson from the Cuban X-Giants. I noticed the similarity with the man second from the left in the uniforms picture, right down to the intense activity in the eyes, and I think they are the same man.

 

Next I’ll identify two smaller players. Billy Holland is in the 1905 Chicago Leland Giants photo (#14) above on the ground with two other players and a mascot. They must all be small to get down there. In the “Wrong Philadelphia Giants” photo [the 1909 Philly Giants—ed.], Knucks James is posing opposite the tiny Billy Francis. That is why I think James is second from left and Holland is second from right (both sitting) in the uniforms picture, right down to the mannerism of James resting his glove on his left knee in both photos. I think Holland is also in the suits photo, kneeling far left with other shorter players.

 

Here are the St. Paul Gophers of 1910. The only player who played a great deal for Brooklyn 1906 and St. Paul 1910 was Harry Brown. I was immediately convinced that the man standing second from right in the uniforms picture and the man third from right in this photo are the same. With St. Paul he is identified as “Wesley.” I checked the research of Steve Hoffbeck and Todd Peterson, and as has been previously suggested, I believe they are the same man.

Harry Brown may not be the best player here, but to me he is the most fascinating. In the Royals photo he looks like a nuclear bomb has just exploded around his head. In the Gophers photo he looks like he is being impaled by the fence along the grandstand. He may be in the Seamheads Database several different times. I think he may be one of the players in the “Dark Mystery” story about early player deaths written in the Indianapolis Freeman.

I think the man sitting sitting on the far right in the uniforms picture is Kid Carter. For one thing, he is left-handed. I definitely see a resemblance despite the shadow of the cap. Robert Peterson said that John Henry Lloyd got a game-winning extra innings hit off Kid Carter during his rookie season of 1906 when Carter was with the Wilmington Giants. I believe Carter began the season with Brooklyn and moved to Wilmington later. [Actually the other way around; Carter started with the Wilmington Giants, then joined the Royal Giants in September.—ed.]

I believe the player standing far right in the suits picture is Robert Footes. [He is seated, second from right, in the above picture of the 1901 EACO flour company team of Waseca, Minnesota—ed.] I don’t think Footes is in the uniforms picture, which is surprising since he was with the team all season. I considered the idea that the uniforms photo was a “spring training” photo, but I rejected it, because there simply is no one in there who could be a full-time catcher. It is more likely to me that this is a mid-season photo, and Footes simply isn’t in it.

 

Eugene Milliner (shown above with the 1909 St. Paul Gophers) was with the Royal Giants most of the 1906 season. I think he was there when both of these photos were taken. I believe he is standing far right in the uniforms photo and standing fourth from left in the suits photo.

 

I believe the man standing on the far left in both photos is definitely the same man. Obviously, he is a very young man. As Bill Merritt was with the Royals all season and was only 20 years old, I believe this is Bill Merritt. He appears to be distancing himself, leaning away in the uniforms photo. There is a dark cloud around him. (I have no rational explanation for the background in this photo.) In 1907, Sol White listed Bill Merritt as one of the pitchers good enough to play in the majors. A year later, he is gone. Like Harry, he is a “Dark Mystery.”

 

I believe the man second from left in the suits photo and the man standing in the center of the uniforms photo are the same man. I believe he is Pop Andrews. I do not know if he was called “Pop” as early as 1906. However, this man is clearly older. In the uniforms photo he appears to tower over his teammates, but that is because the players are clearly not standing on a level surface. He is the only player on the team not wearing a cap. Even J. W. Connor is wearing a hat. This makes identification easier, as I notice the receding hairline in both photos. The photo definitely suggests that this is a player in a position of preeminence.

 

I believe the man standing third from right in the uniforms picture is Al Robinson. I arrive at this conclusion by process of elimination. I believe he is definitely not in the suits picture. As some of the biggest stars of the time were defecting form the Quaker Giants, other Brooklyn Royals either were released or jumped to other teams, and I am more certain of Harry Brown, James Robinson, and Knucks James. Al Robinson, like Bill Merritt and Pop Andrews, has no other photos at this time to make comparisons with. This is a taller player, as many players who play at first base all the time frequently are.

My last identification is the man second from right in the suits photo. I believe he is Cannonball Miller. He is definitely listed in Dave Wyatt’s Indianapolis Freeman article “A Dark Mystery”; indeed, Wyatt and Miller are teammates in the 1902 Chicago Union Giants photo above on the right. [Miller is standing third from left; Wyatt is crouching in the front row on the far left.—ed.] There are five punctures in the suits photo of the Royal Giants, and three of them are right on the edge of this man’s face. In that photo all of the other Royal Giants are comfortably occupying their spaces, but this man must lean to his right to get into the photo.

Cannonball Miller appears in the 1895 Page Fence Giants photo on the far right, holding a baseball. In those days, that almost always indicated he was a pitcher. The unidentified man second from right in the Chicago Union Giants photo, of the same height and build, holds a baseball in the same manner. If I am correct Billy Holland, Grant Johnson, and Cannonball Miller, all former Page Fence Giants, look into the camera with their faces in almost exactly the same position several years apart. I believe Miller is close to the far right in all three photos. None of the other players on the roster matches here. This man is too old to be Jim Abbott or John Emory.

These are my 25 identifications. I am sure most of these will prove correct. Perhaps some of them will be wrong.

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This is Gary again. I want to thank Albert for all his work on these photos and for letting me post his results here. While this is a pretty difficult subject, and as Albert says his might not be the final word, I do think he has got the basics right: these are both 1906 photos, and the “Uniforms Picture” was almost certainly taken before the “Suits Picture,” probably in May or June before the refugees from the Quaker Giants (Monroe, Patterson, Wright, Chappie Johnson) had joined the Royals. The key is that the “Uniforms Picture” features Grant Johnson without Bill Monroe. Johnson became the Royals’ manager at the beginning of the 1906 season, Monroe joined in mid-1906, and together they were the team’s two biggest stars through 1909. Early 1906 would be the only stretch of time during these years where you are likely to find the team with Grant Johnson, but without Monroe. Also, Andrew Payne, who is pretty recognizable, left the team after 1906.

Anybody with differing interpretations or additional information, please let us know!