Let’s face it. When it comes to photos, the Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, and Willie Mays fans have it easy. A pic of the Babe pitching? No problem, take your pick! How about the Hammer hawking breakfast cereal? Sure, we’ve got that too! Or the Say Hey Kid making an incredible catch? Where do we even begin!

Of course, when the player of interest is a bit more obscure, finding that perfect photo can feel like a miracle. Such was certainly the case for me when my research and collecting interests in Texas League pioneer Dave Hoskins led me to the sort of photo I wouldn’t have imagined existed: Hoskins signing his contract to join the Dallas Eagles in 1952 as the Texas League’s first Black player.

True, the occasion was historic, so why shouldn’t there be a picture? But to see it so sharp and vivid, that was another matter altogether. Even better, the same Marion Butts Collection at the Dallas Public Library has several other tremendous photos of Hoskins from his historic 1952 season.

Still, there was a part of me not fully ready to celebrate this miracle. Granted I didn’t have a ton of other early 1950s images of Dave Hoskins against which to compare, but I couldn’t help thinking the ballplayer in the photo didn’t really look like Hoskins.

The result was that I shied away, out of an abundance of caution, from including the photo in the various articles and presentations I was working on. Maybe it was Dave Hoskins, but maybe it wasn’t, right? Of course, we SABR members aren’t big on leaving things in limbo, and in this case the answer really was hiding in plain sight.

Though all my attention had been on the ballplayer in the photo, there was a newspaper right there on Dick Burnett’s desk, the not yet digitized Dallas Express, and while the date wasn’t readable the headline was: “EAGLES ADD SECOND NEGRO HURLER TO STAFF.”

Case closed. The player in question was not Dave Hoskins but Puerto Rican pitching legend Jose Santiago, who joined the Eagles several weeks after Hoskins.

Just to put a bow around things, I sent my findings to Brandon Murray, archivist for the Dallas Public Library. Here was his response:

“I checked the microfilm, and the photo ran in the May 31, 1952, issue of the Dallas Express.  It is indeed Jose Santiago according to the caption.  I’ve updated the information in our new content management website and our internal records.“

So the bad news is that a would-be historic photograph documenting the integration of the Texas League really doesn’t exist after all—or at least remains unknown to me personally. But the good news, and this matters here in the world of SABR, is that the pictorial record just got a tiny bit more accurate. Plus, this is a case where Hoskins’ loss is Santiago’s gain. Santiago was not only the “Larry Doby of the Texas League” but also the circuit’s first Afro-Latino player. His signing deserved a photo, and now it has one!