1916 M101 Sporting News
 

Greetings all, does anyone know if Tris Speaker appeared in the 1916 M101 Sporting News set?
Thank You,
Richard

No sir.

Tris Speaker
 

Thanks! I wonder why since he was such a BIG star at that time. Must have been red tape (contracts) or royalties that were not paid to Spoke.
Rich

I think part of it was due to the uncertainty of Speaker's status in early 1916. He was a holdout for more money in Boston (the more things change...), and my recollection is that it was a pretty bitter situation with ownership. Mendelsohn may not have been clear as to whether or where Tristam would be playing. As it is he was traded to Cleveland in early April, right up against or after the last printing deadline for m101-4. His CF replacement in Boston, Tillie Walker, was acquired just three days prior to Spoke's trade and is denoted with his "new team", so it may have been possible to add Speaker, although it would have been much more difficult to change the sheet configuration to add a new card than simply changing the one caption for Walker on the existing sheet.

Of course, given Speaker's desire to get paid more in 1916 your theory about wanting royalties for his image also may have been an/the impediment to his inclusion in m101-4/5. Either way, it was a big miss for the set, especially as Speaker would win the batting crown for the Tribe that year.

1916 M101 Speaker
 

Todd, thanks for the reply and information. I couldn't have said it better when you wrote "BIG miss for the set". I really like the M101 set though and many Hall of Famers were included.
Best,
Richard

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M101-4 / -5
 

Very insightful information in this thread. Thanks for sharing.