Old Judge - 2500+ poses & growing, but stable at 521 subjects

[Joe_G.]

Seems like a good day for Old Judge discussion so I thought I'd throw another one out there. New poses are still being discovered with some regularity, recently aided by having a good resource ("The Photographic Baseball Cards of Goodwin & Co." book) to compare collections against. However, the number of subjects in the set, 521, has been constant for awhile.

Since the initial Cartophilic Society Old Judge checklist, thirteen new members have been added as "half numbers" as follows:

#118.5 D.J. Davin (3 poses)
#164.5 Jocko Flynn (2 poses)
#172.5 Fred Fudger
#186.5 Leighton Gibson
#213.5 Al Hapeman
#276.5 Rube Levy
#308.5 James McDonald (2 poses)
#321.5 Pete Meegan
#354.5 Harry O’Day
#373.5 Thomas Powers
#439.5 Len Stockwell
#451.5 Louis Sylvester
#472.5 William Veach (5 poses)

As expected, all of these latest additions are exceedinly rare, even Veach with five poses in total. My question is when where these players added? How long has the set been complete at 521? Should note that older checklists sometimes included entries for cards that have since been found to belong to already catalogued subjects (Burns - Omaha = Burns - Kansas City, Foster = Forster, Kelly Umpire = Kelly manager, McCreachery = Deacon White). With that understood, of the 521 subjects currently checklisted, who were the most recent additions (and when)? I was originally going to discuss this with just Jay & Richard but figured others might be able to contribute and have interest.

[oldjudge]

Joe--The last player discovered was O'Day-Sacramento. That card came out of a Christies Auction in September, 1996. Barry, Rob Lifson, Bill Mastro, Don Steinback and even comediane Elayne Boosler were at this live auction. That card (along with several other of those that you have listed) were not added to the Cartophilic Society Listing until a few years later when several of us did an update.

[Joe_G.]

Thanks Jay,

So 13 years and a couple months since the last new subject member. I'm surprised that the major finds of the last decade haven't turned up any new players. Who were the other subjects that were added with O'Day during the checklist update during the late 90s?

[Fred]

Did the Gibson come up on ebay a few years back? Was the sellers name "JeffsJunque" or something like that?

Besides Cal League cards can someone list the last 5 players that were discovered?

[oldjudge]

Joe--I don't remember--I'll try to find my old notes.

Fred--Gibson was found by a Long Island dealer in the 80's. The copy you are referring to was a second copy.

[Joe_G.]

Thanks Jay.

Note, a third copy of Gibson was also "found" last year at the Baseball Hall of Fame during one of our visits in support of writing the book. Flynn also only has three known copies split amongst two poses. However, two of them are housed in museum collections.

[barrysloate]

I remember that Christie's collection. The cards came out of an old desk, and while the group wasn't huge, it did have a California League player...and you don't hear much about Elayne Boosler these days.

[Abravefan11]

and you don't hear much about Elayne Boosler these days.

Her home page has a bit called: It's a Beautiful Day for Baseball

http://http://www.elayneboosler.com/

[insidethewrapper]

Joe- Were all 521 subjects available to the public in cigarette packs ? It seems odd that some of the cards are only available in quantities of 1 or 2 if they were all inserted into packs. Are some from uncut sheets or proofs ? If so, should they be included in the set ?

[Joe_G.]

Hello Mike,

It is my belief that all the subjects were available from packs of cigarettes but far from equal quantities. In the case of California League cards, they may have been a late 1889 addition (longer/later season) and/or Goodwin & Co. may have been unsure about popularity of cards featuring players unfamiliar to most in the East and Mid-West. FWIW, I also believe there were more than 19 California League subjects. Another 5 would round out a 24 card sheet.

It is also believed that many of the Old Judge cards originate from "team sheets" with some teams from given years more difficult than others. For example, the Chicago Maroons are tough while the St. Louis Whites not so much (both 1888 only issues).

Furthermore, there are a number of possibilities that may account for the random tough subject / pose / variation. Consider the 1889 production of McVey who can be found with Milwaukee, Denver, and St. Joseph. With each team change a new 24 card sheet was produced quite possibly with a new assortment of players. Similarly, when an error was realized such as a Strauss/Struck or a "no name", production from that 24 card sheet halted and some of the players may not have made it to the replacement sheet. Of course I have no proof of any of this but believe it to be a reasonable explanation.

[Joe_G.]

A bump back to the top after reviewing Lew Lipsets 19th Century Encyclopedia from 1983. At the time of printing some 27 years ago, the N172 checklist was missing the following four subjects:

Jocko Flynn - Omaha (Fb)
Leighton Gibson - Philadelphia Athletics (Fb)
James McDonald - Oakland (Fc)
Harry O'Day - Sacramento (Fc)

A pair of 1888 Fb cards together with a pair of 1889 California League cards. As Jay shared previously, the last entry was Harry O'Day, September of 1996.