Share something you don't see everyday and a story about it if there is one

[iowadoc77]

In an effort to have a thread that is just positive and shows off some cards or card related items, I thought it would be fun to post something you have that is either rare or uncommon that some may have not seen and share a story of how you got it if there is one. So, I will start- Here is a M101-2 Sporting News supplement of Honus Wagner and Ty Cobb. Probably my all-time favorite baseball image. I posted a thread looking for one of these at least once if not 2 or 3 times over the years with no luck. I saw this on eBay from Greg Morris Cards and I bid on it and then it was pulled. I was super bummed. I contacted them through the board and said I was frustrated that it wasn't available. They said the description was wrong and they wanted to start the listing over so that the listing was accurate. Item relisted and I got it. It is a really cool piece. Not the best shape but when you don't see very many, you are just happy to own one! Hopefully a few more or a lot more will share stories and cards/ premiums/postcards/whatever

https://sportscardalbum.com/c/idl01q60.jpg (https://sportscardalbum.com/card/idl01q60)

[packs]

Years ago there was this seller on eBay based in Canada who somehow acquired all of these original Horner photos that at one time had been part of either a giant team display or maybe just a huge all encompassing league display. All of them were cut into small little postcard sized pieces. At one time I had three of them, but now I'm left with only these two. I especially cherish the Beville, as this photo was taken in 1903 as a member of the inaugural Yankee team:

https://live.staticflickr.com/4443/23884034908_46e61afb03_z.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48643629078_670570d8e9.jpg

The same seller also had a complete run of Rube Walberg's final out baseballs. I was able to snag one froma game in 1926 against Cleveland. I went after balls from games against the Yankees for like three weeks in a row and couldn't come out with any of them. Still feel really lucky to have a piece of history like this coming up on 100 years old from a major league game:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48643641758_10a3321ca7_c.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48644136412_9a2281a941_c.jpg

[Exhibitman]

http://photos.imageevent.com/exhibitman/miscellaneous5/websize/1930s%20Dupont%20with%20Babe%20Ruth_1.jpg

The story: I liked, I bought. End of story. I believe the Ruth image is from the 1934 tour of Japan and shows him batting at the Miji Shrine Stadium in Tokyo.

[kevlar7]

I think I’ve shared this before, but it is a 1920 St. Mary’s Industrial school fund raising brochure with an image of Ruth in his Red Sox uniform. The fundraising was to rebuild parts of the school that burned down.
In 1919, a fire on the St. Mary’s campus destroyed many of the original buildings that dated to Babe Ruth’s time there. Based on my understanding, Ruth invited the St Mary’s band to travel to games where he was playing and they passed out these flyers to raise money.

I picked this up as I didn’t know there was anything like this that existed.
As a kid I remember hearing about Ruth’s childhood and the story of his time at St. Mary’s fascinated me.

http://www.net54baseball.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=341282&stc=1&d=1547850524

[kevlar7]

Another image.

[iowadoc77]

Kevin-
Very cool piece. Thanks for sharing!

[Rhotchkiss]

Eric, great idea for a thread. The card below is a 1916 Zeenut card of Jimmy Claxton. It is quite rare, and quite important socially and in the hobby. Rather than me telling a story about my card, I have cut-and-pasted an article that tells the amazing story of how Jimmy, an African American, made it onto a Pacific Coast team and ultimately a baseball/non-negro-league "professional league" baseball card.

https://www.milb.com/milb/news/claxton-created-an-accidental-legacy/c-8100362

Claxton created an accidental legacy
Canadian pitcher was first black man on a baseball card

By Benjamin Hill / MLB.com | February 22, 2010 5:00 AM

Zeenut Baseball cards are highly sought after by collectors -- for good reason.
The San Francisco-based candy company issued sets of Pacific Coast League trading cards between 1911-38. This was before the westward expansion of Major League Baseball, during a time when the PCL was widely recognized as a third Major League.

According to vintage baseball card expert Andy Broome of Beckett Media, Zeenut issued many memorable cards during its prolific 28-year run. Highlights included banned Hollywood star Roscoe Arbuckle, a late-career Jim Thorpe and Joe DiMaggio as a member of the PCL's San Francisco Seals.

But the most intriguing and historically significant Zeenut baseball card was produced in 1916. It featured 23-year-old Oakland Oaks pitcher Jimmy Claxton, the first black player ever to receive such an honor.

The last was the first
Claxton was not only the first black player on a baseball card, he was the last to appear in organized baseball until Jackie Robinson's epochal 1946 debut with the International League's Montreal Royals.


There was never any "official" color line in the world of baseball, and in the 19th century more than 30 players appeared in the professional ranks. But this era of uneasy and sporadic integration came to end in 1889, when Moses Fleetwood Walker was released by the IL's Syracuse franchise (Walker, incidentally, had been the first black player in Major League history when he suited up for the Toledo Blue Stockings of the American Association in 1884).

All of this is to say that integration of professional baseball was a long, messy and often unpredictable and contradictory affair. The curious story of Jimmy Claxton illustrates this fact.

Claxton was born in 1892 in the British Columbia mining town of Wellington to a white mother and black father. In the terms of the day, he was a "mulatto," an oversimplification of his diverse ethnic background. Claxton's heritage was Irish and English on his mother's side and African, French and Native American on his father's. This mixed background, and the uncertainty surrounding it, is what led to Claxton's history-making stint with the Oaks.

An inauspicious debut
Just 23 in 1916, Claxton was already well into a long and winding baseball career that would stretch into his 50s and see him compete in 46 states. He began the season in Oakland pitching for a semi-professional club but soon came to the Oaks' attention.

"A fellow named Hastings, a part-Indian from Oklahoma, I believe, followed every game we played. He was a baseball nut," Claxton recalled in a 1964 newspaper interview. "He introduced me to Herb McFarland, secretary of the Oakland Coast League club, and told him I was a fellow tribesman. I was signed to an organized baseball contract."

Claxton made his debut with the last-place Oaks on May 28, 1916, facing visiting Los Angeles in the first game of a doubleheader. The result was underwhelming. He allowed three runs -- two earned -- on four hits and four walks over 2 1/3 innings. He did not strike out a batter and left the game before his team scored. The Oaks later rallied to take the lead, but Los Angeles regained it in the ninth after a controversial call at first base. When Oakland failed to score in the ninth, pandemonium ensued.

"As the Oaks were retired with no scoring, the right field bleacherites moved on the field en masse," reported the Los Angeles Times. "A share of the grandstanders backed them up and before he knew what was happening, [umpire] Guthrie was the target for cushions, scantlings and anything that came in handy."

The tumultuous ending overshadowed Claxton's debut, which did not seem to raise the curiosity of the assembled observers. The San Francisco Chronicle simply wrote that Claxton "was obviously nervous and cannot be fairly judged by his showing," while the Call reported that "the Redskin had a nice wind-up and a frightened look on his face, but not quite enough stuff to bother L.A. ... He may do better in the future."

As it turns out, Claxton's debut also was his swan song. He was released by Oaks skipper Rowdy Elliot on June 3 without appearing in another contest. Elliot was quoted in the Chronicle as saying that Claxton "had nothing on the ball" and was not worth keeping on the roster. Claxton had his suspicions, however, noting in the 1964 newspaper interview that Elliot did "everything to keep from giving me a fair chance. ... No reason was given, but I knew."

Regardless of the circumstances that led to Claxton's hasty dismissal, his time on the pitching mound was far from over. The peripatetic hurler broke the color line in the city of Tacoma's industrial league in 1924, pitching for a squad that also included his brother-in-law, Ernie Tanner. Eight years later, he earned a spot on the Cuban House of David's pitching staff. The ace of that team's formidable rotation was Luis Tiant, father of the Major League All-Star of the same name.

Claxton's last recorded appearance came in 1956 in his hometown of Tacoma, where he participated in an old-timers' game. He was inducted to the Tacoma-Pierce County Sports Hall of Fame in 1969 but died the following year.

An accidental legacy
Then there's the Zeenut card, which was the result of a remarkable stroke of luck. A visit from the company's photographer happened to coincide with Claxton's brief stint with the Oaks, and he was summarily included in the 1916 set.

Given its historical significance and advanced age, Claxton's card is exceedingly hard to come by.

"There are no known records of how many cards were produced, nor if the Claxton card was pulled from production," Broome wrote. "It is assumed the Claxton card was produced and distributed in the same quantities as the other cards in the same series. ... The scarcity comes from every collector out hunting for a copy. The current demand far outweighs the surviving supply."

One of the cards was sold at a 2005 Sotheby's auction for $7,200, giving an indication of how sought-after it has become. More valuable than the card itself is the story behind it, one of many that illustrate how baseball's march toward full integration was a complicated, uncertain and often absurd affair. But through it all, men like Claxton kept right on playing the game they loved.

Thanks to Andy Broome, Beckett Media's senior vintage card grader, for sharing an unpublished story he had written on the 1916 Zeenuts Claxton card. Much of the additional information in this piece came from Tom Hawthorn's excellently researched article on Claxton, which is part of the Society for American Baseball Research's "Baseball Biography Project" and can be found online.

Benjamin Hill is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues or its clubs.

[iowadoc77]

Thanks for the Claxton story Ryan!
Great stuff everyone. Keep sharing!

[Lordstan]

I created this thread in 2015. To this point it is the coolest collection of items I have ever seen and especially have the pleasure to own.
The items in the thread tell the story of 9yo Robert Coleman in 1934 when he won the Quaker Oats sweepstakes and got to go to NY and meet Ruth Gehrig and go to two Yankee games. The collection is from a scrapbook from the family.
I don't want to clog up the thread posting all the photos and writes ups again. Instead I will link to the original post, so all interested can view it there.

This is the original photo that started the journey. Little Robert in the child standing on the far left.

https://live.staticflickr.com/7567/15413487653_9e8cd107ed_b.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/7564/15847374617_61b13df777_z.jpg

In this time of frustration and cynicism, I hope that seeing the experiences of a 9yo in 1934 can bring you some of the joy we all shared when we started our journey into sports memorabilia.

The Original Post with all the items and write ups:

http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=209044

[tedzan]

I was set-up at the annual HOF weekend Cooperstown Show in 1991, and a fellow "walked-in" with this gem.
He had an idea what it was worth and he wanted to trade it for pre-WWII BB cards.

I was very interested in it, especially since I had just read a book about the year there was no Major League
World Series. In 1904, Mgr. John McGraw of the NY Giants (NL Champs) refused to play Boston (AL Champs).
So, the Eastern League (AAA) Buffalo Bisons became the de facto "1904 World Champions".


http://photos.imageevent.com/tedzan77/images/large/a1904buffalo.jpg



Note..... I highly recommend the book "The Year They Called Off The World Series"....by Benton Stark.
It's a fabulous read. Especially for you T206 fans, as you read it, the ballplayers in your T206 set come
"alive". Read about how Jack Chesbro, the 41-game winner that year, commits the "cardinal sin" which
loses it for the NY Highlanders in the NY - Boston A.L. play-off series.



TED Z

T206 Reference (http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=237816)
.