Standard Catalog Update #13 : Brooks Robby Find

Another former contributor to the "Big Book" (and a major contributor to the hobby by virtue of some work he did in the anti-counterfeiting fight) who has checked in since my return, Scott Roemer, has made a great find that we'll add to the 2011 edition.

Scott, who is a big Brooks Robinson collector, has verified the existence of a Brooks Robby lid in the 1976 English's Chicken Baltimore Orioles Lids set.

Prior to this report, the checklist for the set had stood at just four O's: Mike Cuellar, Ken Holtzman, Lee May and Jim Palmer.

These "cards" are actually the lids for buckets of fried chicken and they measure an impressive 8-3/8" diameter.

The mid-Atlantic chicken chain reprised the concept of lid cards in 1983, and Jim Palmer once again made the set, along with a dozen other Orioles, including Cal Ripken, Jr.

We don't know how deep the English's set issued in 1976 went into the roster, but that was the only year that Reggie Jackson played for the Orioles. I'm just sayin' . . .

Standard Catalog Update #12 : 1948 Indians 4-in-1

A new version of the 1948 Cleveland Indians team-issued picture pack has been reported by East Coast collector and long-time Standard Catalog contributor Bill Atkinson.

At the 2008 Greater Boston Sports Collectors Club show he bought a post-season 4-in-1 set.

The set of 5" x 7" cards was issued in a manila envelope that identifies the team as "World Champs."

Each card in the set has four downsized versions of the photo pack pictures that had been issued earlier that season. There were 33 pictures in the full-size set; the 4-in-1 set contains eight cards. Missing from the 4-in-1 version is the picture of Hank Greenberg in civvies, and Al Lopez. The difference is made up by having Bob Feller's picture on two of the 4-in-1s.

Lopez is missing from the World Champs set because he played his last game for the Indians, his only season with the Tribe, in mid-September. He was released in early October and signed on with the Pittsburgh Pirates organization, for whom he had played 1940-46, as a playing manager with the Indianapolis Indians, one of the Bucs' top farm clubs. After three seasons with Indianapolis, Lopez returned to the Cleveland Indians as manager and took them to the World Series in 1951.

I won't print the checklist of the 4-in-1s here. The set will be added to the Standard Catalog data base and will be published in the 2011 edition . . . if we continue to include team-issued photo packs in the vintage section of the printed catalog.

Bill also sent along a report of a baseball collectible that probably won't seen print in the catalog, but is nonetheless worth preserving in the historical record.

What it is, is a paper insert that was included, reportedly only in the Boston area, in boxes of Between the Acts Little Cigars around the time of the World Series between the Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs.

The approximately 2-1/2" x 3-1/2" card is a reproduction of the cover of the "Official Score Card" for the series. It pictures Red Sox owner Harry Frazee.

Bill says the identification of this item as a true tobacco insert was made by renowned vintage dealer and tobacco-era specialist Terry Knouse.

Bill estimates the value of the insert at $800.

Please excuse the quality of the image in this post, they were made from photocopies.

Tales of T212 #6 : Rollie Zeider

Back in the early 1980s I thought I'd combine my interests in minor league baseball and vintage baseball cards by assembling a collection of the Obak cigarette cards that were distributed on the West Coast in 1909, 1910 and 1911.I didn't realize it then, but those cards are so much rarer than most of the contemporary T206 cards from "Back East" that putting together complete sets of the Obak could take decades to accomplish -- and that's if a guy had more money than God to buy the cards when they became available.At about the time I started my Obak collection I also started researching the players who appeared in the sets. Over the course of several long Wisconsin winters I pored over microfilms of The Sporting News and The Sporting Life from the period several years before to several years after the Obak cards circulated, making prodigious notes on 3x5 file cards for each player in the set.I gave up trying to collect the T212s (that's the catalog number Jefferson Burdick assigned the three sets in the pioneering American Card Catalog in 1939), long ago, and have since sold off all my Obaks, one-by-one, first on eBay, then on the Net 54 baseball card forum. As I was selling each card, I included interesting tidbits about each player from my notes. The bidders seemed to like learning a little bit about these guys on the cards, so I thought I'd now begin sharing their stories here.

Zeider Played for Three Chicago Teams

One of the players appearing in the 1909-11 Obak cigarette card sets who had a long major league career was infielder Rollie Zeider. Among the Obaks, Zeider appeared only in the 1909 issue, by the next season he had begun his big league career and was soon showing up in many of the well-known card sets of the day (T207, Collins-McCarthy, Cracker Jack, etc.).

Zeider was born in Auburn,Ind., in 1883. At the age of 21 he began his pro career in Canada with Winnipeg and Crookston in 1905. He spent parts of the next two seasons with Winnipeg, also playing with Springfield IIII League) in 1906 and San Francisco in 1907, doing a little pitching as well as playing a stellar shortstop.

The Chicago White Sox bought Zeider from the Seals for 1910, paying $5,500 and two players to be named later. Zeider played the 1910-12 seasons with the White Sox, and was with them until June 1, 1913, when he was traded to the N.Y. Yankees with the later-banned Babe Borton for bad boy Hal Chase. Zeider, one of whose nicknames was "Bunions," or the "Bunion King," suffered a serious injury early in 1913 when Ty Cobb spiked him at second base, nearly cutting off his bunions and putting Zeider in the hospital for six weeks with blood poisoning.

In 1914, Zeider jumped to the new major league, the Federal League, with the Chicago Whales, playing there until the league disbanded. In the dispersal sale of Fed players, Zeider went to the Cubs, completing his Chicago trifecta.

Zeider's big league days came to a close in August, 1918, when the majors cut their season short because of World War I. In the off-season he had the garbage disposal contract for his home town of Auburn. In 1919 he joined Toledo as player-manager, but left the team in mid-season to manage a semi-pro team in LaPorte, Ind.

With the war over, Zeider returned to California in 1920, playing there with the L.A. Angels in 1920-21 and the Vernon Tigers in 1921-22. He was very popular in the Pacific Coast League. Baseball Magazine called him, "the Hans Wagner of the West . . . the greatest drawing card out there." He split the 1923 season between Portland in the PCL and Mobile.

In 1924, at age 40, Zeider began the season wth Shreveport, but obtained his release in late June to sign as playing manager with the Paris North Stars of the Class D East Texas League, his last professional engagement.

Zeider died back in his native Indiana in 1967.

New Custom Card : 1968-style Jerry Kramer

Here's an interesting card trivia fact . . .

Jerry Kramer had three career-contemporary (mainstream) football cards, one each from three different companies:

1959 Topps
1961 Fleer
1964 Philadelphia

I thought he could use one more, so I created this 1968 Topps-style.

Tales of T212 #5 : Ike Rockenfield

Back in the early 1980s I thought I'd combine my interests in minor league baseball and vintage baseball cards by assembling a collection of the Obak cigarette cards that were distributed on the West Coast in 1909, 1910 and 1911.I didn't realize it then, but those cards are so much rarer than most of the contemporary T206 cards from "Back East" that putting together complete sets of the Obak could take decades to accomplish -- and that's if a guy had more money than God to buy the cards when they became available.At about the time I started my Obak collection I also started researching the players who appeared in the sets. Over the course of several long Wisconsin winters I pored over microfilms of The Sporting News and The Sporting Life from the period several years before to several years after the Obak cards circulated, making prodigious notes on 3x5 file cards for each player in the set.I gave up trying to collect the T212s (that's the catalog number Jefferson Burdick assigned the three sets in the pioneering American Card Catalog in 1939), long ago, and have since sold off all my Obaks, one-by-one, first on eBay, then on the Net 54 baseball card forum. As I was selling each card, I included interesting tidbits about each player from my notes. The bidders seemed to like learning a little bit about these guys on the cards, so I thought I'd now begin sharing their stories here.

Ike Rockenfield, 13 Teams in 12 Years

We know Ike Rockenfield played for a dozen minor league teams and one major league team in 12 seasons, and, it's possible he may have played for even more pro clubs, since his official record does not commence until 1901, when he was 24 years old. He may have had some earlier engagements that are lost to 19th Century baseball history.

He was born Isaac Broc Rockenfield in Omaha, Neb., on Nov. 3, 1876. Ike wasn't particularly a big man, 5'7", 150 lbs., even by the standards of ballplayers in his day. He played most of his games at second base, hitting about .266 for his minor league career.

Here's the rundown of where Rockenfield played his pro ball . . .

1901 Seattle
1902 Tacoma
1903 Tacoma, Seattle, Olympia, Oakland
1904 Portland (where he hit .361), Spokane
He was drafted from Spokane in the Rule 5 Draft and played the entire 1905 season with the St. Louis Browns.
He returned to the minors in 1906 with St. Paul and Seattle, and closed the season again at St. Louis, ending his major league career with a .221 average.
1907 Spokane, Little Rock
1908 Jersey City, Montgomery
1909 Montgomery
1910 Tacoma
1911 Tacoma, Kansas City
1912 Kansas City, Quincy

Rockenfield was quite the traveling man in his baseball career, playing from the West Coast to the East Coast, and from the far north to the deep south.

After his playing days, Rockenfield was a cigar salesman. He died in San Diego on Feb. 21, 1927, at only 50 years old.

Rockenfield appeared in both the 1910 and 1911 Obak baseball card sets (the same picture on both cards).

Standard Catalog Update #11 : New N173 Poses?

A New Jersey coolectibles dealer has sent for verification four "oversize" 19th Century baseball cabinet cards.

He thought the hobby should be aware of what he believes are two new poses of Old Judge cabinets. Each of the cards measures about 6-7/8" x 9-1/8" (give or take a 1/16"), on rather generic gray cardboard backing consistent with many cabinets of the era.

Glued to the center of each is what I believe to be three Old Judge cabinets and a Newsboy that were cut down to about 4-1/4" x 6", and had the advertising top layers removed.

I can confirm that the odd card of the group was, indeed, once a Newsboy cabinet of John Ward -- the pose with his arms folded. That's verifiable by the appearance twice on the remaining photo of the number "586".

One of the putative Old Judge remnants is the popular "Ewing. & Mascot." card.

What appears to be a pair of previously uncataloged N173 poses are "Weyhing, P. Athletic's," and "L. Cross, C. Athletic's".

The Weyhing is Gus Weyhing, who is pictured with his right hand cap-high. The only other cataloged Gus Weyhing Old Judge cabinet has his pitching hand chest-high.

Lave Cross was previously known in N173 only with Louisville, in a "hands on thighs" pose. The new discovery shows him with his right arm extended head-high. While the card's caption shows his team as "Athletic's," he's wearing a dark Louisville uniform under that chest protector.

It's possible, of course, that the Weyhing and Cross cabinets never actually wore Old Judge advertising, but were originally on a more generic cabinet, but like they tell medical students, "When you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras." Both the Weyhing and Cross discoveries have the Goodwin & Co. 1888 copyright on the photo.

There is an interesting pencilled notation on the back of the Ward card that says:

"100 For Ruebler

200 " Store Stock Made June 11, 1894"

Horrors! Does this indicate that 300 other baseball cabinet were similarly mutilated a century back?

The cards were shared with you courtesy of Doug Keefe, who operates Beachcomber Collectibles in the Shore Mall in Egg Harbor, N.J. He indicated that given the current state of the baseball collectibles market, he's not going to offer them for sale at this time, but rather use them as decoration in a new shop he's furnishing.

Tales of T212 #4 : Harry Ables

Back in the early 1980s I thought I'd combine my interests in minor league baseball and vintage baseball cards by assembling a collection of the Obak cigarette cards that were distributed on the West Coast in 1909, 1910 and 1911.I didn't realize it then, but those cards are so much rarer than most of the contemporary T206 cards from "Back East" that putting together complete sets of the Obak could take decades to accomplish -- and that's if a guy had more money than God to buy the cards when they became available.
At about the time I started my Obak collection I also started researching the players who appeared in the sets. Over the course of several long Wisconsin winters I pored over microfilms of The Sporting News and The Sporting Life from the period several years before to several years after the Obak cards circulated, making prodigious notes on 3x5 file cards for each player in the set.
I gave up trying to collect the T212s (that's the catalog number Jefferson Burdick assigned the three sets in the pioneering American Card Catalog in 1939), long ago, and have since sold off all my Obaks, one-by-one, first on eBay, then on the Net 54 baseball card forum. As I was selling each card, I included interesting tidbits about each player from my notes. The bidders seemed to like learning a little bit about these guys on the cards, so I thought I'd now begin sharing their stories here.



The ol' Hidden Ball Trick

At 6'3" and 200 lbs., Harry Ables was a large man in his day. The sporting press described him in such terms as "giant southpaw," and commented more than once on his ability to completely conceal a baseball in his closed hand. He was also called the "Strikeout King of the Texas League" in his prime there in the 1900s, though actual stats are hard to come by. Born in Terrell, Tex., Ables spent much his pro career playing there.
He got his start in pro ball at the age of 20 with Memphis in 1904. He had a trial (0-3) with the St. Louis Browns the following year but spent most of the season with Dallas. For some reason he played only two games with Dallas in 1906. That may coincide with an undated note I have in my files that says he was once punched in the eye by a fan and suffered with double vision. He was back in action full time in 1907, returned to Dallas for 1908, then spent parts of that season with San Antonio and Birmingham. He returned briefly to the major leagues with Cleveland in 1909, where he had his only major league win, then spent the rest of the year and all of 1910 with San Antonio. He had another big league cup-of-coffee (0-1) with the N.Y. Highlanders in 1911, then moved onto the Left Coast where he pitched for Oakland from 1911-1915, also appearing for San Francisco that season. In the off-season between 1914-1915 he worked as a longshoreman on the docks of Oakland, and he was the keeper of the Oaks' team masot, a fox. Another undated note in my files indicates that Ables was the only man in the Pacific Coast League to wear the number "13" (they wore numbers on their sleeves out there many years before the major leagues began to use them).

It looks like I never had a 1911 Obak Ables card in my collection (the only year he appeared on a T212), but I do have a photocopy of the card's back that is worth sharing: "Ables, the giant left-hander is considered one of the best pitchers on the Coast. Has great speed and wonderful control over curve ball. He is a cunning pitcher and batters must be on the laert when facing him. Has several no-hit games to his credit. One of the few men in baseball that can cover the entire ball with his hand."

Between 1925-1928, Ables was president of the San Antonio Bears of the Texas League, and in 1925-1926, pitched a few innings for the team over the age of 40. For all his size, Ables was a light hitter, with a minor league average of around .137.

Football Player Mystery Photo

Here's another photo of a famous football player in another context. It's college football Hall of Famer Albie Booth.

Booth was a diminutive (5'6", 144 lb.) three-sport star at Yale. He was born in New Haven and was a home-town favorite with the Bulldogs' sports fans. He was a tailback in Yale's single-wing offense and the team's kicker. He was captain of the school's basketball and baseball teams as an upperclassman.

He became nationally famous in 1929, coming off the bench with Yale losing to Army 13-0. He scored all 21 of Yale's points (two rishing touchdowns, a 65-yard punt return TD and three extra points) to upset Army. Many observers felt Army took unsportsmanlike revenge on Booth when the teams met the following season, intentionally throwing an interception and the gang-tackling him, injruing him so severely he had to be carried off the field on a stretcher.

As a senior in 1931 he earned further fame in "The Game," when unbeaten Yale faced unbeaten Harvard. Booth's late-game drop kick field goal gave them the win 3-0.

After a lengthy hospitalization, Booth returned to action with Yale's baseball team in the spring of 1932, playing "brilliantly" according to the Associated Press caption on this photo, in games against Tokyo's Rikkio University team, and against Colgate, when the picture was taken on May 11. In the last game he ever played in an sport for Yale, Booth's two-out grand slam home run beat Harvard 4-3.

After college, Booth coached football at Yale and NYU, played a little semi-pro baseball and basketball and became a highly regarded football referee. He died of a heart attack in 1959, aged 51.

Standard Catalog Update #10 : They Reprinted What?

I'd never have credited it, but the proof is right before my eyes.


Pennsylvania collector James Gallo reported that he had observed the existence of a reprint set of the 1980 Laughlin 300/400/500.


That set was one of a dozen or so collectors' issues released by sometimes Fleer artist R.G. Laughlin back in the days when players, teams and leagues weren't so hard-assed about somebody profiting from their likenessess and logos without cutting them in.


The 300/400/500 set is 30 cards (29 Hall of Famers and a header card) of players who had career marks of 300 wins or 500 home runs or who had hit .400 in a season. Tjhe blank-back cards are square, 3-1/4" x 3-1/4", but formatted to be viewed like a baseball diamond. The players are pictured with black-and-white photographic faces and Laughlin's cartoon-style bodies.


The set has been listed in the Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards forever, with the price of a Near Mint set pegged at $25 for many years and no recent on-line sales to indicate demand is sufficient to consider raising that "book value."


At my request, James sent a set of original Laughlins and what he suspected to be a reprint set. Darned if he isn't right! A comparison under magnification shows that the suspect set was made by rescreening genuine cards, resulting in lighter photo faces, and "blurrier" uniform details and lettering, since those details are now comprised of strings of multi-colored dots rather than solid, sharp-edged colors as on the originals. The card stock is indistinguishable between the two versions.


There's no question the set was reprinted. But when, and by whom? The set has never been valuable enough to go to the expense of such a reprint in an effort to satisfy runaway demand from the hobby.


Whatever . . . we'll make a note to that effect in the set's listing when the 2011 catalog is published this time next year. Thanks, James, for sharing your observation with the hobby.


You can always pick my brain about suspected counterfeits, reprints, etc., but remember that I'll probably have to see examples in-hand to make a reasoned evaluation.

Tales of T212 #3 : Fred Abbott

Back in the early 1980s I thought I'd combine my interests in minor league baseball and vintage baseball cards by assembling a collection of the Obak cigarette cards that were distributed on the West Coast in 1909, 1910 and 1911.I didn't realize it then, but those cards are so much rarer than most of the contemporary T206 cards from "Back East" that putting together complete sets of the Obak could take decades to accomplish -- and that's if a guy had more money than God to buy the cards when they became available.
At about the time I started my Obak collection I also started researching the players who appeared in the sets. Over the course of several long Wisconsin winters I pored over microfilms of The Sporting News and The Sporting Life from the period several years before to several years after the Obak cards circulated, making prodigious notes on 3x5 file cards for each player in the set.
I gave up trying to collect the T212s (that's the catalog number Jefferson Burdick assigned the three sets in the pioneering American Card Catalog in 1939), long ago, and have since sold off all my Obaks, one-by-one, first on eBay, then on the Net 54 baseball card forum. As I was selling each card, I included interesting tidbits about each player from my notes. The bidders seemed to like learning a little bit about these guys on the cards, so I thought I'd now begin sharing their stories here.

Abbott? Vandemann? What's the Difference?

Back at the turn of the last century it was not all that uncommon for players to change their names. Some did it to avoid disgracing their families by participating in such a low occupation. Some were trying to hide from abandoned wives, hungry creditors, contracts made with other teams or arrest warrants. As with most, we'll probably never know why Frederick Harold Vandemann, as he was named at birth in Versailles, Ohio in 1873, played pro ball under the name of Harry Abbott.

Abbott got a rather late start in pro ball, debuting with New Orleans in 1901-1902, after signing a contract with the Cleveland Naps. He spent the 1903-1904 seasons with the big club, then was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies for a final major league stop in 1905. He was a light-hitting backup catcher who played an occasional game at first base.

He spent the 1906-1910 seasons with the Toledo Mud Hens, splitting time behind the plate with other catchers.

His only Obak baseball card (he's in a few other contemporary sets, including the famed T206) came in 1911, when he was with Los Angeles in the Pacific Coast League for his final season in Organized Baseball at the age of 36.

He died in Hollywood in 1935.

Tales of T212 #2 : "Indian John" Howse

Back in the early 1980s I thought I'd combine my interests in minor league baseball and vintage baseball cards by assembling a collection of the Obak cigarette cards that were distributed on the West Coast in 1909, 1910 and 1911.
I didn't realize it then, but those cards are so much rarer than most of the contemporary T206 cards from "Back East" that putting together complete sets of the Obak could take decades to accomplish -- and that's if a guy had more money than God to buy the cards when they became available.

At about the time I started my Obak collection I also started researching the players who appeared in the sets. Over the course of several long Wisconsin winters I pored over microfilms of The Sporting News and The Sporting Life from the period several years before to several years after the Obak cards circulated, making prodigious notes on 3x5 file cards for each player in the set.

I gave up trying to collect the T212s (that's the catalog number Jefferson Burdick assigned the three sets in the pioneering American Card Catalog in 1939), long ago, and have since sold off all my Obaks, one-by-one, first on eBay, then on the Net 54 baseball card forum. As I was selling each card, I included interesting tidbits about each player from my notes. The bidders seemed to like learning a little bit about these guys on the cards, so I thought I'd now begin sharing their stories here.

"Indian John" Howse, Just His Luck

The only baseball card on which "Indian John" appeared was in the 1909 Obak set, while he was at the peak of his professional career, playing in the Pacific Coast League with the Sacramento Solons at the Class A level (at that time, the highest classification for minor leagues).

The rest of his career, so far as can be traced, was played at the Class C and D levels. With only a single baseball card to show for his career, it was his bad luck that the cigarette company spelled his name "Howse," instead of the correct House.

I have no information on when or where House was born or died, and there is even a two-year gap in his professional record. He first shows up in 1904 with Marshalltown in the Iowa League of Professional Baseball Clubs. He also spent the next four seasons in Iowa, with Ottumwa (1905) and Burlington (1906-1908).

House played for four teams in 1909, likely in this order: Minneapolis -- Kansas, not Minnesota -- in the Central Kansas League; Santa Cruz and Fresno of the "outlaw" California League and, finally, Sacramento.

I have no record of whether or where he may have played pro ball in 1910-1911, but he was back with Ottumwa in 1912-1913. He went to the Canadian League for 1914, playing for the Fort William-Port Arthur Canucks in Ontario.

There are records of a pitcher named House, first name unrecorded, with Omaha in 1914 and Victoria and Tacoma of the Northwestern League in 1915, but since John was an outfielder between 1904-1914, I doubt that it is the same player.

Standard Catalog Update #9 : A Really Rare Ruth

By definition a baseball card doesn't get any rarer than unique, and since that's what we have here, this "discovery card" has to be at least tied for the title of "The Rarest Ruth."

This is a card issued circa 1921 by a competitor of Cracker Jack in the field of candy-coated popcorn and other confectionery products. Actually, "issued" may be too strong a word as the rarity of Shotwell baseball cards is such that it is unlikely the cards were ever included in boxes of a major brand of popcorn. Also mitigating against the likelihood of being an in-product premium is the fact that the two known cards show no product staining such as would be expected by a card inserted into a popcorn or candy package.

The Shotwell card appears to be a parallel to the 1921 American Caramel Series of 80 set (E121). It is black-and-white and measures about 2" x 3-1/4." It would be easy to assume that the Shotwell cards are custom-imprinted versions of the blank-back, similarly formatted, strip card set known as W575-1, but the caption details of the Ruth card with the Shotwell advertising (no quotation marks around BABE, and the position listed as R.F.) do not correspond to any of the three Ruth cards from W575-1.

Prior to the discovery of this Ruth card, only a single other Shotwell baseball card was known, picturing Baby Doll Jacobson as a right fielder with the St. Louis Browns. (That, in itself, is curious, since Jacobson was primarily a center fielder, and after 1917 never played more than 34 games in right in any season.)

The Babe Ruth Shotwell card comes to the hobby's attention courtesy of long-time and well-respected West Coast dealer Bill Wesslund, owner of Portland Sports Card Co. Bill reports that the card is owned by a man who is not a card collector, but has had the card for more than 30 years. Prior to that, Bill told us, the card was used as a boomark by the man's grandfather.

Tragically, the Ruth card suffers from a half-inch tear at the edge, about halfway down the right side. Without that damage, the card would, by my old-school standards, grade at least Ex-Mt., possibly Near Mint. We'll see what the experts say, however, as the card has been submitted to PSA for grading/slabbing and has been consigned to the Aug. 27 Collect.Com Auctions summer sale.

Without spending all day googling Shotwell, I have to confess I don't know a lot more about the company than what you can find on the back of the card. Their biggest seller was Checkers popcorn, sold, like Cracker Jack, in a 5-cent box with a prize inside. In the early 1900s some of the Checkers boxes carried the slogan "The Prize Confection That is Perfection."

It is also evident that in addition to in-box prizes, Shotwell was prolific in the issue of better premiums such as lithographed tin toys, pocket mirrors, key chains, pop-up cardboard animal sheets and other stuff that wouldn't have been practical to package in their product. These premiums may have been used as dealer incentives or possibly in-store consumer prizes.

I did find a reference on a baseball board games web site to a "Big League Base-ball At Home" game from Shotwell attributed to 1929. It is described as a premium from Checkers popcorn. Measuring about 4-1/2" x 4" it is a spinner-game printed on thick card stock with the rules printed on the back. While at first blush this might seem like a natural connection to the Shotwell baseball cards, I'm concerned about the dates. The Ruth card certainly fits into a 1929 scenario, but the Jacobson doesn't. He was dealt from the Browns to the Red Sox in the midst of the 1926 season. Similar problems would have plagued the Shotwell/Checkers game if they had used, or intended to use, a 1921 baseball card set as game pieces eight years later . . . many of the players would have changed teams or been completely out of baseball, and many of the game's contemporary stars who weren't in the 1921 card set wouldn't be represented. Besides, none of the few citations found about the board games mentions accompanying cards.

Just wild-ass guessing here, but what do you think of the notion that while the board game was in planning, the contractor who was trying to sell it to Shotwell printed up the E121-style cards just as samples, intending to update the checklist if the go-ahead was given? The pitch would have been that cards could be included in each box of Checkers, and the game board obtained from the neighborhood candy store. That would logically explain the lack of product stains on the two known cards as well as their rarity. It would put the Shotwells in the same league with the 1904 Allegheny Card Co. game prototype set or the 1921 Herpolsheimer's.

Well, now, there's another thought! The 1921 Herpolsheimer's -- which share a format with the Shotwells -- are also known in only a single example of each player. And, while Jacobson is not among the known Herpolsheimer's cards, the Ruth from that set shares exactly the same caption details with the Shotwell Ruth. Are both sets the product of the enterprising printing company that had done the American Caramels, W575-1, Standard Biscuit, Koester Bread, etc.? It isn't too far fetched to imagine the Shotwells and Herpolsheimer's were salesman's sample prototypes that didn't make it into full production.

Perhaps the publicity of the Ruth card's discovery and the inclusion of the Shotwell set in the 2011 Standard Catalog will bring more cards from the set out of the woodwork and allow us to get a

better idea of their true nature.

Football card collectors, of course, are familiar with the Shotwell brand as the sponsor of a pair of 1926 candy insert card set featuring Red Grange. A 24-card blank-back card-stock set pictures scenes from Grange's silent movie "One Minute to Play." An advertising-back 12-card set of paper stock candy inserts pictures Grange in various poses not related to the movie.

Shotwell also used at least one non-sport card set, apparently as in-box prizes. The cards were part of an 80-card issue in 1922 from the silent movie "Suzanna" starring Mabel Normand. The same cards were released in Canada in packages of Patterson Candy and Telfer Biscuits.

Shotwell was sold to Cracker Jack in 1926, though production of Checkers Popcorn and some of Shotwell other candy brands was continued into the 1940s.

Speaking of googling Shotwell (as I did earlier), you'll find any search cluttered with hundreds (thousands?) of references to a lengthy federal prosecution of Shotwell executives for corporate tax evasion. Though they were convicted in 1953, the case dragged through appeals all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court for another decade. I never did bother to find out how it was resolved, but the case is still cited frequently.

Tales of T212 #1 : George Ort

Back in the early 1980s I thought I'd combine my interests in minor league baseball and vintage baseball cards by assembling a collection of the Obak cigarette cards that were distributed on the West Coast in 1909, 1910 and 1911.

I didn't realize it then, but those cards are so much rarer than most of the contemporary T206 cards from "Back East" that putting together complete sets of the Obak could take decades to accomplish -- and that's if a guy had more money than God to buy the cards when they became available.

At about the time I started my Obak collection I also started researching the players who appeared in the sets. Over the course of several long Wisconsin winters I pored over microfilms of The Sporting News and The Sporting Life from the period several years before to several years after the Obak cards circulated, making prodigious notes on 3x5 file cards for each player in the set.

I gave up trying to collect the T212s (that's the catalog number Jefferson Burdick assigned the three sets in the pioneering American Card Catalog in 1939), long ago, and have since sold off all my Obaks, one-by-one, first on eBay, then on the Net 54 baseball card forum. As I was selling each card, I included interesting tidbits about each player from my notes. The bidders seemed to like learning a little bit about these guys on the cards, so I thought I'd now begin sharing their stories here.

George Ort, the Player Who Advertised for a Job

George Ort appeared in both the 1909-1910 Obak sets, but did not appear on any other baseball cards. He was born in Newark in 1885 and turned professional at age 21 with the Mt. Clemens Bathers of the Southern Michigan League in 1906. He also pitched one game for Waco in the Texas League. He spent the next two seasons with Lynn, Mass., before heading "Out West" where he had signed with Portland of the Pacific Coast League.

He was with Portland in the Coast League (a Class A league, then the highest designation) for 1909-1910, but then joined the city's Class B team in the Northwestern League for 1911. He also played for Seattle in the NWL in 1911 and was suspended for eight games for what the sporting press called "a cowardly attack" on an umpire.

Ort drifted back to Michigan to play for Kalamazoo in 1912, then up to Canada, where he spent 1913 and 1914 as playing-manager with St. Thomas. He also played for Toronto in 1914.

In the Feb. 11, 1915 issue of either TSN or TSL (my notes don't specify which), Ort placed a classified ad looking for a job. The ad read "FREE AGENT. Can play in or outfield. Formerly with Portland, St. Thomas and Toronto Clubs. George P. Ort, 23 Lafayette Ave., Detroit, Mich."

The ad may or may not have worked, because he wasn't able to catch one with a higher-classification team, but he returned to the Canadian League with the St. Thomas and Guelph teams for 1915, which appears to have been his final season in professional baseball.

Standard Catalog Update #8 : 1948 Montreal Pix

Dang! I'm in a quandry. Veteran pre-1960s minor league and regional collector Mark Bowers of California has sent me data (including the two gorgeous photos you see here) on a really great minor league collectible.

Exactly what kind of minor league collectible is not perfectly clear but I'm willing to go with his assessment that they are a team-issued set of media and/or promotiona photos of the 1948 Montreal Royals. champions of the International League that season and proving ground for most of the stars and journeymen who would populate the Brooklyn Dodgers' dugout from the late 1940s through the team's move to Los Angeles.

These black-and-white glossy 5" x 7" blank-backed photos certainly don't fit the definition of baseball cards, and without player identification or facsimile autographs, they likely were not a concession stand souvenir picture pack. That makes Mark's theory that they were intended for media use even more plausible.

The pictures showed up on eBay early this year and Mark was the winning bidder on the majority of the 17 that were offered at what I consider to be a bargain price of between $11-20 for cup-of-coffee big leaguers and a few guys who never made the majors, up to $30-48 apiece for the biggest names.

Here is the checklist provided by Bowers, arranged alphabetically:

Jack Banta

Chuck Connors

Cliff Dapper

Al Gianfriddo

Oscar Grimes

Clay Hopper (mgr.)

Sam Jethroe

Clyde King

Frank Laga

Gene Mauch

Bobby Morgan

Don Newcombe

Bud Podbielan

Mike Sandlock

John Simmons

Duke Snider

Louis Welaj

There do not appear to be any big names from the Royals' roster missing, but it is possible, even likely, that this checklist is incomplete.

A few other notes on the checklist. The only players who did not appear in the majors were Lou Welaj, Frank Laga and Clay Hopper. Gene Mauch's appearance is an anomaly, since he did not play with Montreal in 1948, and had not been with the team for several years. It's possible that he was in spring training with the Royals, as he played 12 games with Brooklyn in 1948 before being waived to the Cubs. Mauch, of course, returned to Montreal as manager of the Expos from 1969-75.

Mark said he has seen a similar photo of Jackie Robinson being sold as an 8x10 reprint, but of course Robinson was not with the Royals in 1948. Mark also believes that some of the 1948 pictures have been reprinted as 8x10s. The 5x7s listed here are completely blank-backed. Some reprints will show on their backs the name of the photopaper manufacturer, such as Kodak.

So, here's the dilemma, since these really aren't cards, and they weren't issued as collectibles, I'm unsure whether they should be included in the 2011 edition of the Standard Catalog. Space is at such a premium in a book that size, and the vintage minor league section is not a high priority with the book's core buyers. I guess I have no problem with adding the set to the data base from which the catalog is drawn, that way the data is preserved for hobby posterity, and if the use of DVDs as a vehicle to publish the catalog data continues to expand, the can easily be accommodated there.

The last thing I want to do is to discourage collectors from sharing such discoveries because, while the Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards can no longer put in ink-on-paper every listing in our data base, the ever expanding technology and "reach" of electronic media means that someday this data will be readily available.

OK, One More Dog Picture

While this isn't a baseball card picturing a dog, it sort of fits into the theme of my recent three-parter.

It's a picture I picked up a couple of years back. I'm going to have to go from memory, here, because I can't lay hands on the actual photo right now, with its attached caption, but I believe it was taking in spring training 1951.

The picture shows Brooklyn Dodgers shortstop Pee Wee Reese with his toy Manchester terrier (I don't believe the dog was named in the photo). Looking on are infielder Bobby Morgan (left) and outfielder George Shuba.

It takes a big man to own a tiny dog.

Standard Catalog Update #7 : Minor Leagues

I don’t know when or whether these items will see print in the Standard Catalog, but it’s certainly worth trying to generate further information about the issues and checklists of the sets in which they were issued. While neither is a “card,” both are of the type of memorabilia that we have traditionally listed alongside the cards and which are of interest to a lot of vintage minor league collectors.

The first comes to us from long-time catalog contributor Paul Stewart. The item is a premium issued by the Minneapolis Tribune. Since Nick Altrock pitched for the Millers from 1909-11, Stewart logically assumes that the picture was issued in that time frame. Unlike many similar periodical premiums of that era, there is no date of issue indicated on the picture.

The picture measures 5-1/2” x 9-13/16” and is printed blank-back on what Paul describes as typical newspaper premium insert stock, similar to that used for the more commonly encountered Sporting News supplements that were a contemporary issue.

The second minor league issue we present appears to be a team-issued photo from the Spokane Indians of the Pacific Coast League. Picturing Johnny Werhas, the blank-back 8” x 10” picture is likely part of a photo pack or other promotional issue.

Werhas played for the Indians virtually full-time from 1962-66, with cups of coffee with the parent L.A. Dodgers (in whose uniform he is pictured in the photo) in 1964 and 1965.

We’ll need a bigger sampling of the checklist to narrow down the year of issue, but with the number of Pacific Coast League specialist collectors out there, I’m fairly confident further information will be forthcoming.

Dogs on Baseball Cards, Part III

As promised yesterday, here is my third (and probably final) look at dogs on baseball cards.

The card featured here is one of my all-time favorite baseball cards of any era. It is a circa 1888-1890 Old Judge cigarette card of Art Whitney, who was a good-field, no-bat third baseman and shortstop from 1880-1891 all over the National League, American Association and Players League (all major leagues in their day).

Whitney is shown on this card with the New York Giants (he appears in the same photo on a slightly earlier Old Judge card, on which he is identified as a member of the team then called the Pittsburg Alleghenys.

Whitney is also pictured, you will notice, looking like he is having a game of fetch with a curly coated little mutt. I call him a mutt because the several really knowledgeable  dog persons to whom I have shown the card don’t believe the dog on the card is a purebred.

One winter I spent a lot of hours poring over microfilm of The Sporting News and The Sporting Life weekly newspapers trying to determine whether the Pittsburgh team of the late 1880s had a canine mascot, but could not find any mention of such.

This card is one of the most popular of the 3,500+ Old Judge baseball cards issued between 1887-1890. While Whitney’s other poses sell at “common” card prices, the card with the dog brings prices that exceed all but the biggest stars among the Hall of Famers in the set. The 2009 Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards lists this card in Near Mint at $4,800, at $2,150 in Excellent and $1,200 in Very Good. Those prices are about 7-10X common-card values.

This pose even exists among the premium size (4-1/4” x 6-1/2”) Old Judge cabinet cards, but with only a couple of known examples, that would likely sell for $10,000-20,000 today, depending on condition.

Dogs on Baseball Cards, Part II

Yesterday I promised to follow up on my rather melancholy post about dogs on baseball cards with something less somber. This is it, but try not to think too hard about how old the dogs on these cards are getting to be.

While it may not seem like it, the number of baseball card sets issued each year is down significantly from what it was in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when there were five or six major manufacturers vying for market share with dozens of brands at all price points and uncountable numbers of parallel sets. 

Those card companies were also vying for the best work of the professional baseball card photographers. With many cards using two, three or even four photos of the player, it was obviously a challenge for the art directors at the card companies to find enough good quality photos.

A side effect of that photo flood was that many of the cards from that era feature something other than standard game-action or posed-portrait shots. These novelty shots range from the ridiculous to the sublime, with real art photos sharing the same card set with real schlock.

Some of my favorite novelty photos from the big card companies’ sets in those days show players with a dog. In most cases we don’t know if it’s their dog, the photog’s dog or maybe a fan’s dog.

There may be other modern player/dog cards out there of which I am unaware (I have one more dog card to present to you, tomorrow). If you have one, share it with us here.

Clockwise from upper-left we have Larry Walker relaxing with what looks to be a loveable mongrel on his 1998 Upper Deck card. On the Gold Medallion parallel in 2000 Ultra, David Justice is posed with a big, lean doberman. On a 1996 Score card, Benito Santiago is making nice to Reds’ team mascot, Marge Schott’s St. Bernard “Schottzie” and Jason Giambi poses with what looks like an Australian shepherd on a 2002 Ultra.

Dog Lovers, Hate to Bring You Down, but . . .

I was flipping through an album of some of my favorite baseball cards and sets from the early 1990s when I ran across the 1993 Milk Bone Super Stars set.

This set of 20 players was issued in two-card cello packs in boxes of Milk Bone Flavor Snaks and Dog Treats. There was also an offer to mail-in for the complete set, which I did.

Each card pictures a player at home with his dog or dogs. I’m a big-time dog lover, so it is little wonder that this has always been one of my favorite sets.

This time, however, while I was looking over the cards a very sad thought struck me: all of the dogs pictured in this set are now gone to doggie heaven. The stats on the backs of the cards, besides giving the dogs’ name, breed, height and weight, also gives a birthdate, and none of them was born less than 17 years ago.

The players in the set are kind of a well-mixed representation of major leaguers in the early 1990s, with superstars sharing the checklist with journeyman ballplayers.

Likewise, the dogs are a good mix of purebreds and mutts. Like all dogs, they probably worshipped their human companions and didn’t know or care whether he was an all-star or a bench warmer. They didn’t care whether he was getting by on natural talent or supplementing that talent with steroids or other chemical concoctions. The dogs waited at home each night for the big guy to come home, sensing whether he’d gone 4-for-4 and would be up for a game of fetch, or whether he’d been knocked out of the box in the third inning and would need a furry head to stroke until his arm quit hurting. They didn’t even care whether he was rocking a porn’stache.

I just hope that Ken Caminiti’s dog Bailey passed before Caminiti’s death from a steroid-fueled heart attack in 2004. It is too sad to think of her waiting at the back door every night for the man who would never again come home to her.

Crap. Dogs and baseball cards are supposed to bring smiles, not tears. Sorry if this bummed you out. I’ve got a couple of more upbeat blogs about dogs on baseball cards that I’ll share with you tomorrow and Wednesday.

A set of 1993 Milk Bone Super Stars lists for $12.50 in the 2009 Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards, but you should be able to pick one up on the internet for less than $10.

Here’s the checklist:

1. Paul Molitor
2. Tom Glavine
3. Barry Larkin
4. Mark McGwire
5. Bill Swift
6. Ken Caminiti
7. Will Clark
8. Rafael Palmeiro
9. Matt Young
10. Todd Zeile
11. Wally Joyner
12. Cal Ripken, Jr
13. Tom Foley
14. Ben McDonald
15. Larry Walker
16. Rob Dibble
17. Brett Butler
18. Joe Girardi
19. Brady Anderson
20. Craig Biggio

Standard Catalog Update #6 : 1920s "Shoulderless"

One heretofore uncataloged issue that has been on my radar lately is what one of the few collectors to own one calls "Shoulderless" strip cards.

The cards are about 1-1/2" x 2-1/2,' printed in sepia on thin card stock. They get their nickname from the fact that the player portraits are cropped rather tightly on the sides, leaving little or no shoulder on the photo.

The player/team combinations thus far known point to 1923-24 as the issue date. The known checklist is:

• Walter Maranville, Pirates
• A. Pennock, Yankees (first name actually Herb)
• E.A. Rommel, Athletics
• Babe Ruth, Yankees
• George Sisler, Browns
• K.R. Williams, Browns
• Ross Young, Giants(actually Youngs)

Because of the format, and some staining seen on some cards, some have speculated these might be some sort of ice cream insert, possibly originating in Canada. Others think it is a candy/caramel issue.

I'm hesitating to "sanctify" this issue by listing it in the Standard Catalog without knowing more of its background. We've seen similar issues in the past turn out to be something cut off a poster, or a game box, or the like.

If you can add anything germane, please post a comment or e-mail me.

Standard Catalog Update #5 : Two Rare Ruths

I’m finding the ability to “blog” about potential updates to the vintage sections of the Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards to be a tremendous asset in this, my second term, as vintage editor.

Though my skills at assembling the text and photos are still rudimentary (or perhaps those are limitations of the blog platform I’m using), it is very useful to be able to make these posts in small bites, rather than the way things were in my first tenure, when I pretty much had to wait until we could assemble a full page of items for SCD’s print edition.

Today I’m going to share a couple of “orphan” Babe Ruth cards that were brought to my attention by New York collector Barry Gordon.

Don’t adjust your monitor, the first of these is in black-and-white because it was sent in the form of a photocopy. It’s funny how that seems so lo-tech today, when it wasn’t so many years ago that photocopies were the most inexpensive and efficient way to share images.

Shown at left is what appears to be part of a third W-UNC Playing Strip Cards set of the 1920s. We already list two similar, but definitely different, sets in the “big book.”

This issue measures about 1-5/8” x 2-5/8” and is printed in black-and-red on thin white cardboard, blank-backed. We know of only two cards in the “deck,” Ruth as the 5 of diamonds and Lou Gehrig as the 5 of hearts.

Naturally, our intention in publishing these Updates is to seek your input in the form of new information, additions to the checklists, etc. You can comment here, or e-mail me at scbcguy@yahoo.com.

The second Ruth submitted by Barry is a little larger, at 2-3/8” x 3-3/8”. It has a familiar Ruth photo in sepia within wide white borders on thin, blank-backed cardboard.

You can see the inscriptions. As you may have come to understand by now, I tend towards what I view as a healthy skepticism when confronted with a card making its first appearance in hobby circles after 50 or 75 years of purported existence. There are just so many crooks out there looking to take advantage of collectors. I used to be especially cynical when the discovery card was a Babe Ruth or Lou Gehrig, but I’ve come to the realization that if a person was going to save a baseball card from an obscure issue of his childhood, it would be more likely that he would save a superstar than a benchwarmer.

I tried googling (I love how that has become an action verb) Taylor Chocolates, without success. The use of the phrase “SPORTS HEROES” on the card suggests this might be a multi-sport issue, but so far we know of nothing else from this set.

While I am inclined to add the strip playing card set to the catalog for 2011, I’m going to reserve judgment on the candy card until more supporting evidence is at hand.

Weigh in if you can help. Thanks much!

Update update . . . I've received an e-mail from Rob Lifson, principle of REA Auctions, and he is certain the Taylor Chocolates Ruth card is not what it purports to be. He gave me permission to quote him here.

I saw your blog post on the Taylor Chocolates Ruth and your instincts are right on the money! That is not a real card - It is not a reprint in that there is no original - It is simply a "fantasy card" produced to look old and fool people. It is definitely not real. I remember when they "surfaced" - it's been a while (guessing 25 years) so they have a little age to them for real but the fact is that the card itself is not real - not a chance in the world! I am very familiar with this card - you can tell the paper isn't even right. This was a nice try by someone long ago to create a "rarity" but it did not work.

I'll take Rob's word for it!

Standard Catalog Update #4 : ’51 Hage’s Indians

I’m going to use the excuse of having a nice image of a recent addition to the 1951 Hage’s Diary minor league set to try to sort out my thoughts on whether or not to continue having a separate listing for the Cleveland Indians cards in that set.

Hage’s collector Eric Smith earlier reported to my predecessor Don Fluckinger a handful of additions to the 1949-51 Hage’s Pacific Coast League sets, and they are scheduled to appear in the 2010 Standard Catalog. Among the newly reported cards was a 1951 Harry Simpson.

Simpson is in a subset of ’51 Hage’s that was issued during a weekend exhibition series at San Diego’s Lane Field between the PCL Padres and their parent club, the Cleveland Indians at the end of spring training.

He is the eighth Indians’ player known in that subset, all of whom had strong ties to San Diego. Four of them – Al Olsen, Simpson and George Zuverink – had played for San Diego the previous season. Four others – Allie Clark, Luke Easter, Jesse Flores and Al Rosen – had played there in 1949. The eighth, Ray Boone, had been born and raised in San Diego.

Because they were probably found in the ballpark popcorn boxes only during that exhibition series and possibly a few days thereafter, the Indians cards are scarcer than the rest of the 40+ cards in the set, and because of increased demand (since they picture major league players), the Indians in ’51 Hage’s sell for 3-4X the “common” Coast Leaguers in the set.

There really aren’t that many vintage minor league sets that also include contemporary major leaguers. In fact, the only other such issue that springs to mind is 1910 Clement’s Brothers Bread, which includes big league stars like Ty Cobb, Hal Chase and Addie Joss along with the Rochester Bronchos players who make up about half the set.

But the catalog doesn’t list the Clement’s major leaguers in a separate listing, so it really should be one way or the other. Do you have any preferences? Enter a comment or e-mail me at scbcguy@yahoo.com.

The Cleveland Indians cards in the 1951 Hage’s Dairy set use photos taken from contemporary team-issued photo packs.