A Case of Mistaken Identity

Over the long course of Major League Baseball's existence, many players who have taken to the diamond have shared the surnames on the backs of their jerseys.  To make things even more confusing, many of those same players were also bestowed with the same given name on the front of their birth certificate.  Think of all the common names (i.e., Greg A. Harris and Greg W. Harris), the family legacies (like Ken Griffey, both Sr. and Jr.), and even these two prospects who have gained notoriety by having the same name tag AND face.   As you can see, there's plenty of opportunity for overlap in history's roll call.

Although, this name-sharing should certainly not come as a surprise; after all, the pages of the all-time MLB roster book are filled with the names of thousands upon thousands of young men from all across the globe and all throughout the past two centuries.  In short, there's bound to be a few people who share the same monikers - it would be impossible for this not to occur.

In the terms of my Cubs All-Time Roster Collecting, this commonality has sometimes caused a fair bit of confusion, as one might expect when a collection revolves entirely around the individual players from throughout nearly a century and a half of Windy City baseball.  This bewilderment is further exacerbated by same-named players who plied their trade during the same eras, as I was rudely reminded this Christmas season.

Roy Johnson had a cuppacoffee in the Majors way back in 1918 and spent a few more years twirling minor league innings across various small town locales.  More importantly (to me, anyway), he also had a cup of joe as a Major League manager for the Chicago Cubs in 1944.  In between those stints, "Hardrock" transformed from an intimidating moundsman to a tough as nails minor league skipper and eventually parlayed that reputation into a spot on the Cubbies' coaching staff in 1935.  This was the beginning of a lengthy relationship.

From 1935 through 1954 (excepting a few seasons in the middle due to WWII service), the rest of "Hardrock's" time in organized baseball was spent with the North Side club, either as a coach, farm system manager, and scout.  Oh - and, as previously mentioned, this Swiss Army Knife employee also spent one glorious day in the sun as a Big League manager.

Spring Training with the @Cubs (Part 1 of 2), Catalina Island, 1951-this was the Cubs last yr on the Island, 22 miles off the coast of California. Johnny Vander Meer was cut by the Cubs before the season started.(from the Flagstaff Films baseball home movie archive) pic.twitter.com/IpB0QG8n28

— Flagstaff Films (@Flagstafffilms) December 2, 2018

Here's a cool vintage video featuring the Cubs during their last spring at Catalina Island, including Roy Johnson (#42)

In May of 1944, the Cubs were hitting the skids.  After having lost nine of their first ten games, bench jockey Jimmie Wilson was given the boot and Coach Johnson was first in line to inherit the reigns.  Things did not get better under Roy's interim command, as Chicago promptly lost their tenth in a row in an embarrassing 10-4  blowout at the hands of the Reds.  By the time they took the field again, their "on again, off again skip," Charlie Grimm, had taken over the home dugout for the rest of the season and Johnson returned to the coaches' box.

All told, Roy Johnson managed the Cubs for just a single game, but an official Cubs manager he will always be; thus, his representation in my CATRC binder is a requirement.

Sometime around the year 2006, the authentic Goudey card that you see above came into my possession as part of a larger Christmas gift from my father.  My dear ol' dad likes to surprise me with a stack of cardboard from my want-lists from time to time and, boy oh boy, was that acquisition a surprise!  At the time, it was the oldest card in my collection and, even today, it remains one of this cheapskate's few "super vintage" pieces.  I was thrilled to have Roy Johnson represented with a card from such an iconic baseball card set.  Unfortunately, there was a problem and it took more than a decade to come to light.

In a bizarre bit of symmetry, this year, my father again gifted me with a large stash of baseball cards from my want-list for my CATRC.  Seeing as how he knows that I prefer to have my Cubs represented as such in my collection, he tracked down the cyan-tinted, TCMA "The 1930's" single that you see above to serve as a "Cubgrade" for Mr. Johnson.  Though they're no Goudey, these oddballs from 1972 do not surface often and I was thrilled to have a true and literally blue Cubs card for such a short-term skipper.  After all, managers of any stature rarely get love from the baseball card manufacturers.

Released in a continuing series of 24 cards each set during the early days of TCMA, there's plenty of variation as one progresses through the checklist.  The majority of the cards are black and white and 2" x 2-3/4," but cards 337-384 measure in the standard dimensions. Furthermore, cards 409-456 were printed with blue ink and were, again, under-sized. Based on these specifications, you might have already guessed where in the checklist my Xmas gift falls.

As I usually do when tracking down new cards for my most hallowed tome, I didn't just research the trading card, I also took to the internet to learn about the player depicted.  It was then that I discovered an interesting factoid about the Cubs' Roy Johnson - he never took the field in Boston Red Sox uniform, the team he's depicted with on my Goudey goody.  His lone slice of MLB action came in the colors of the Philadelphia Athletics.  As I sat in a haze of befuddlement, it slowly hit me that not everything was as it seemed.

The Goudey Roy Johnson was an outfielder... not a pitcher.  This Roy Johnson had himself a nice a ten-season career (1929-38), batting .296 with 58 homers and 555 RBI in 1155 games for the Tigers, Yankees, Red Sox, and the Bees (nee Braves).  This Roy Johnson won a World Series with the Yanks in 1936.  This Roy Johnson never ventured into coaching, let alone management, once he hung up his spikes for good.  Simply put, this was the wrong Roy Johnson - this guy had absolutely no association with the Chicago franchise in any way, shape, or form.

Apparently, when I originally put this card on my want-list all those years ago, I'd just assumed it likely that a Roy Johnson who played professionally in 1933, when Goudey first hit store shelves, could have easily made the transition into coaching and management by the time 1944 had rolled around.  Well, you know what they say when you assume... For some reason, I never thought to verify whether or not there was more than one Roy Johnson.  Hell, now that I'm actually researching, there's actually three, as another Roy Johnson patrolled the outfield of Olympic Stadium for a few seasons in the mid-80's.

Oopsy doodles.

via GIPHY

On the bright side, I was able to immediately correct my egregious error upon first noticing it by replacing the Goudey with my TCMA "Cubgrade."  Also, I now have an intriguing piece of trade bait newly available to the market.  So, in the immortal words of Carl Spackler, I have that going for me.

Like I said at the outset of this post, common names make for a common cause of confusion when it comes to MLB history.  In fact, this Roy Johnson swap isn't even the first time the name game has tripped me up - the whitewashing story of the two Ray Webster's will forever hold that honor - and I'll bet that I will probably fall victim to this sort of snafu yet again in the future.  Have any of you readers ever fallen victim to such a trap, thinking you were getting a card of a particular player only to have the rug pulled out from underneath you by some guy with the same designation?  I sure would like for you to share your experience in the comment section below so I don't feel like such a dunderhead.

In the meantime, welcome to the CATRC, Roy Johnson.  Sorry I didn't take the proper time to vet your previous, fraudulent placeholder!