As I was nearing the close of 1950 in my reading of
microfilms of The Sporting News, I was surprised to find a familiar
image on Page 18 of the Dec. 6 issue.
Imbedded in the third installment of the paper’s serialized
baseball biography of Honus Wagner was a picture of the Henry Reccius cigar
card that stirred up so much interest and a bit of controversy in the hobby
more than a decade ago.
Produced by a Louisville
cigar manufacturer, the black-on-orange 3-3/8” x 4-11/16” card has a portrait
photo of Wagner in what is presumed to be a Louisville uniform dating from the years
(1897-99) he played there. On back is a poem extolling trade unions.
What made the card such a big hobby deal is that it was
touted as Honus Wagner’s “rookie card.” With no indication of when the Reccius
card was distributed – some suggested it may have even been years after
Wagner’s played for Louisville
– owners of the two known examples claimed the card predated what had generally
been accepted as Wagner’s first baseball “card” appearance, in the 1898-1899
National Copper Plate series of 10” x 13” baseball player portraits. Those
portraits, and additions to the series, were reissued in a slightly different
format by The Sporting News in 1899-1900. These are classified within
the hobby as M101-1 supplements.
The M101-1 Wagner is a $10,000+ item in top condition. The
first-known Reccius card has been graded Poor-Fair by PSA and was auctioned in
November, 2001, for $21,850. It appeared at auction again in April, 2006, and
was hammered down for $52,040. If it has resold since 2006, I don’t have a
recollection of the details or of its current whereabouts.
A second example of card, graded “Authentic” by PSA was
found in 2012 and sold in mid-year for $21,400.
Among the loose talk by nay-sayers after the discovery of
the Reccius card, some even suggested that it was not vintage at all, but a
recent fabrication. I guess the appearance of the card in TSN in 1950 lays that
theory to rest.
Wagner vs. ATG Pitchers
Also in that issue of TSN was a chart of how Wagner
performed against the All-Time Great pitchers of his era. I think that chart is
worth reproducing in modified form here.
Pitcher Threw G AB H Ave.
Amos Rusie R 5 21 11 .524
George Wiltse L 31 117 43 .368
Nap Rucker L 37 135 48 .356
Kid Nichols R 27 105 37 .352
Cy Young R 17 70 24 .343
Christy Mathewson R 86 327 106 .324
Mordecai Brown R 49 181 50 .276
Clark Griffith R 15 58 16 .276
Joe McGinnity R 40 149 41 .275
Grover Alexander R 27 100 20 .200
No comments:
Post a Comment
Your comments, criticism, additional information, questions, etc., are welcome . . . as long as they are germane to the original topic. All comments are moderated before they are allowed to appear and spam comments are deleted before they ever appear. No "Anonymous User" comments are allowed.