An odd card from Panini Golden Age

2012 Panini Golden Age Rogers Hornsby
I posted the breakdown on 2012 Panini Golden Age a couple of days back, but I wanted to point out an unusual card from this issue.  Card #29 from the base set is Rogers Hornsby, and he is someone I always check out to see whether his card might qualify as a Cubs card.  This is what the card looks like;


The photo on this card is a colorized black and white photo.  Panini did this with all of the black and white photos they used in this issue, and I usually like colorized photos if they are well done.  I would have to say that the colorization on this card doesn't qualify as being well done.  Why?  Well, upon first looking at this card, I was thinking that this was another card to add to the Cubs checklist.  This was due to the fact that the blue lines on his hat and and the blue sleeves underneath his jersey make it fairly likely that he is wearing a Cubs jersey.  But I did a little research and tried to find the original photo used.  I was unsuccessful in finding the photo, but I did find quite a bit of evidence to suggest that the uniform he is wearing is a St. Louis Cardinals uniform from the 1915-1917 period.

The first thing that I checked out was what uniforms Hornsby wore during his career that might match the one in the photo.  Initially, I only looked at his years when he wasn't a member of the St. Louis Cardinals or St. Louis Browns since he wouldn't be wearing a blue lined hat from either of those teams.  That leaves six seasons from his active career;


The first thing that jumps out at me here is that the 1927 New York Giants are the only team that didn't wear a solid colored cap.  But their caps had pinstripes which were much closer together than the ones on this card.  Plus, their jerseys had pinstripes and piping on the top, which the one Hornsby is wearing on the card does not.  So while it isn't out of the question that this is from his time with the 1927 Giants, I kept searching for other options.

I spent some time searching for variations on the jerseys from this period, but wasn't coming up with much.  Then I looked for post playing career photos, but the style of the cap was telling me it was from the 1930s at the latest.  Plus, Hornsby just looks relatively young in the photo.  So I went back and started searching for photos of 'young Rogers Hornsby'.  And I came up with this card, it is a 1917-1920 M101-6 card;


Is it just me, or does the jersey he is wearing in this photo look a lot like the one on the Panini card?  The hat style and piping are right.  The button style is right.  The collar style is right.  The slightly smushed style of the cap is right, and the plain-ness of the jersey top is right.  I feel pretty certain that this is the type of jersey being worn by Hornsby on the Panini card.  The Cardinals wore this style of jersey from 1915-1917, at the very beginning of Hornsby's career.


So it looks like Panini colorized a St. Louis Cardinals jersey blue.  Definitely not a well done colorization!  If anyone has any other thoughts about what jersey Hornsby might be wearing on this card, I would love to hear them.  But for now, I'm going to assume this is a screwup by Panini and leave it off of my Cubs master checklist.