I'm aware he appears on a minor league team postcard from 1908, but does Tris Speaker have anything that would qualify for most collectors as a rookie card issued before 1910?
Looking over this list:
http://www.oldcardboard.com/ref/rook...ail.asp?id=329
To the best of my knowledge:
1) Novelty Cutlery postcards were issued no earlier than 1910.
2) No one has uncovered a single example of a Speaker Rose Co. postcard.
3) Speaker only appears in the C subset of E91, issued in 1910.
4) T206 is frequently cited as his rookie card, but that is of course many different sets (e.g., Polar Bear which was only issued in 1910).
5) He's also in E254 and E90-1 (which I guess didn't fit on the list linked above).
6) T206, E254, and E90-1 are all considered 1909-1911 issues.
But do we know that Tris Speaker was on any of the sheets* printed in any of these sets in 1909, or is it possible that he didn't show up until 1910?
*and/or however E254s were printed