Zeenut Stories...

[tlwise12]

Recently, I have become interested in the Zeenut issues. In my opinion, these cards are some of the most interesting in regards to images on the cards. However, after a little reading, some of these cards have a very interesting story within them. Some cards are from PCL HOFers, some cards are from Major Leaguers, and some are from players who only have these cards...

Post any interesting or important fact with ANY zeenut issue! Pictures are also gladly welcome!

Travis

[Fred]

Travis,

Google "Zeenut" or "Zeenut + Claxton" or "Zeenut + HOF" - Those searches should lead to a few good threads including some of the past N54 threads.

[rhettyeakley]

I'll start something out.

I just recently upgraded my 1913 Zeenut "Cadreau" card, which initially doesn't seem like that important of a card (although it is very difficult to find). Cadreau is, in fact, one of the early forgotten Native American players in the Major Leagues. It seems some Native American players have healthy premiums attached to them (Yellowhorse, Sockalexis, Thorpe), while others tend to sell for about what they should based on the players statistics (Bender, Meyers).

William Cadreau was Chippawa and played in exactly one Major League game, getting the loss in a close contest. He played in the Major Leagues under the name William "Chief" Chouneau. His bio is pretty entertaining in its brevity as there is very little known about him during the bulk of his life. Here is his SABR bio...

http://bioproj.sabr.org/bioproj.cfm?a=v&v=a&bid=129&pid=2409

The 1913 is the only card ever produced featuring Cadreau/Chouneau. It wasn't unknown in the hobby or anything but the significance of it I think has been largely ignored, much like his baseball career. Even on Baseball-Reference.com they don't have his minor league stats (under the name William Cadreau) linked with his major league stats (under the name William Chouneau)--although (obviously) they are the same guy. I have been wanting to bring this card to the forefront for a while as I believe it is significant BUT I really wanted to upgrade my previous example (good image but a punch-hole in the card) before I "outed" the card to the hobby as a whole. Again, I'm not making a new discovery or anything but much like the 1919 Zee of Paddy Driscoll (NFL HOFer) it had been kinda forgotten by the hobby that that card depicted who it does, and the significance had been lost (in general).

Anyways, here is the original and the upgraded 1913 Chouneau/Cadreau card (the cards are the same size, just slightly different sized scans by different scanners)...
http://www.starsofthediamond.com/13zeecadreau.JPG http://www.starsofthediamond.com/13zeecadreau.jpg

[ullmandds]

rhett...cool story...and really nice cards!

[ethicsprof]

absolutely fascinating story, rhett!!!
many thanks.
it continues to amaze me that most any day of the week there will be some data on this board that i know nothing or very little about---after all these years.

keep 'em coming.

all the best,
barry