Baseball Boys From Alabama - The Rucker Archive

Many a carte-de-visite with baseball imagery has passed before my eyes including these baseball boys from Alabama. I have seen outdoor scenes, studio tableaus, teams in all possible configurations, players from Minnesota and Iowa, teams from New York, Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio and Kansas, baseball groups from Maine, Michigan, Missouri and Pennsylvania. But before this, I had never seen a CdV with ballplayers from the deep South. This pair of 25-year olds stopped into Stewart's photo studio to have a picture made right around 1875.  They are dressed for the heat, look fairly athletic, and have a jaunty, ready-for-action look. I have not been able to locate any Montgomery baseball records that go back farther than the 1890s when their club was in the Southern League. These guys probably played against Mobile, Birmingham, Huntsville, and if they were good and well funded, Atlanta. Without microfilm from newspapers from that period, it will be hard to determine the team name.And the hand-written name on the carte's verso - J.W. Hausel - could be one of the players in the photo, or a man who owned the carte years ago. In any case, this is more fuel for the research fire, to be put on the active list.Got some ideas?