why were minor leaguers included in T206?

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Posted By: <b>pete</b><p>just going through my short "have" list and wondering why were minor leaguers included in the t206 set? were they just as popular? did major league teams ever play them? <br /><br />and...was the southern league consider minor league ball? <br /><br />pete-<br /><br />***if this topic was brought up before can someone direct me to the post***<br /><br /><br />I may of found my answer but I'd like your thoughts as well...<br /><br /><br />my best pitch was the one that made it to the plate!

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Posted By: <b>barrysloate</b><p>Just a guess, but tobacco companies wanted to distribute their products to as many cities as possible, so why not include players from Buffalo, Kansas City, etc. so smokers in those cities would be motivated to buy the packs. It's all about marketing.

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Posted By: <b>john/z28jd</b><p>That would be my guess too since there was only 16 major league teams at the time and some of the cities(ny,philly,boston,chicago and st. louis) had 2 teams so that means they only had 11 different markets covered(and thats if you count brooklyn as different from ny).By expanding to include the minors they went further north,south and west with their product.<br /><br /><br />Plus if they only included current major leaguers the set wouldve been smaller and had some real unknown players.They didnt have 25 man rosters back then or platoon much so 15 guys per team is about the best you could do but even if you look at stats youll see some major leaguers that they couldve done without.I cant see too many Browns fans excited about getting a card of that Demmitt kid who hit .174 in 10 games before disappearing to the minors for 4 years

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Posted By: <b>barrysloate</b><p>If the Browns fans really don't want that Demmitt fellow, I'll take him.

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Posted By: <b>Robert</b><p>Yes the major leaguers played the minors a lot in those days. Owners would schedule a game practically every day so that when the majors where traveling to another major park they would stop on the way to play minor league teams. And the city support for minor leagues was just as strong as for majors only on a smaller scale. Also during the off season star players did barn storming tours going to the smaller markets withb a team of all stars playing the local teams. And of course during the pre season the teams would make road trips palky minor leaguers tuning up for the bigs. Back in those days there was a much closer connection between minors and majors then there is today. Read some of the biography's of players from those days, Honus, Cobb, Ruth I wish there was a book about Matty but I am sure it would be practically impossible to compile.

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Posted By: <b>Max Weder</b><p><a href="http://www.baseballindex.org" target="_new" rel="nofollow">http://www.baseballindex.org</a> (a great source for baseball bibiliographic research) lists 13 books about Matty, of which Robinson's Matty and Seib's The Player can be considered better biographies. I haven't yet seen the Hartley book.<br /><br />Max<br /><br />Index to Christy Mathewson's "Pitching in a Pinch." Shieber, Tom; <br />Christy Mathewson's Career Shutouts Tiemann, Robert L; <br />The Battle of Base-Ball - Including "How I Became a Big League Pitcher" By Christy Mathewson Claudy, C.H.; 1912 <br />Christy Mathewson Testimonial Lieb, Frederick, Ed.; 1921 <br /> Christy Mathewson: Baseball's Greatest Pitcher Schoor, Gene; with Henry Gilfond; 1953 <br /> Baseball's Immortals: the Story of Christy Mathewson 1961 <br /> Christy Mathewson Macht, Norman; 1991 <br />Christy Mathewson: A Game-by-Game Profile of a Legendary Pitcher Mayer, Ronald A.; 1993 <br /> Matty: An American Hero - Christy Mathewson of the New York Giants Robinson, Ray; 1993 <br /> The Player: Christy Mathewson, Baseball, and the American Century Seib, Philip; 2003 <br />Christy Mathewson: A Biography Hartley, Michael; 2004 <br /> The Old Ball Game: How John McGraw, Christy Mathewson, and the New York Giants Created Modern Baseball Deford, Frank; 2005 <br /> The Battle of Base-Ball - Including "How I Became a Big League Pitcher" By Christy Mathewson Claudy, C.H.; 2005 <br />