The Howard Easterling Mysteries

One Negro League star through the 1940s, Howard Easterling, has provided us with very few photos of himself, as well as a gap in his playing career.Photographs are neglected and maligned as to their usefulness in baseball historical research.  They are treated as decoration to a text or a brief distraction from pages of copy.  But, in actuality photographs act as primary research sources in many cases, even though standard researchers appear incapable of acknowledging this.Here we have a perfect case in point. According to Jim Riley's Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Leagues Easterling played for the New York Cubans in 1949 and then in the Mexican League in 1951 and 1952.  What happened to 1950?Well, this photo has the answer.  The 5x7 photo of Easterling is mounted to a board, found in a file in Havana, Cuba.  The board has filing date of June 18, 1950.  And the photo shows Easterling wearing a New York Stars uniform.  So, we now know that Easterling very likely played for the 'Stars' in 1950, very likely solving that mystery.  But now we see our photo is even better, as it has produced another mystery.  No information has yet surfaced about this team the New York Stars.  Obscure?  Yes.  Listed anywhere?  No.  More work to do.  Hurray for photography!