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T206CollectorBorn on December 22, 1862 in East Brookfield, MA, Cornelius Alexander McGillicuddy, a.k.a. Connie Mack, would have been 145 years old if he were alive today. One of the greatest managers of all time, it is hard to understand why so many of Mack's contemporary managers were featured on T206 -- e.g., John McGraw (3 cards), Hughie Jennings (3 cards) and Hugh Duffy (1 card), to name a few -- but Mack got no T206 card. Some have suggested that the reason for this is similar to the reason that Plank has such a short lifespan in T206, i.e., that there was a Philadelphia Athletics licensing issue of some sort. For whatever reason, Mack fans need to look beyond T206 (to E96 or Cracker Jack, for example) to find a baseball card rendition of the "The Tall Tactician."
On this same date in 1964, 43 years ago today, Lou Fiene passed away. Known as “Big Finn,” Fiene had a very short career as a pitcher for the Chicago White Sox, from 1906-1909. Having recorded just 26 games and 138.0 innings pitched over his brief Major League career, Fiene was out of Major League Baseball before his 25th birthday. He played his final game on August 15, 1909. Given the brevity of his career, it is surprising that the manufacturers of T206 cards decided to include two poses of Fiene.
That Lou Fiene gets two T206 cards and Connie Mack gets none may be one of the greatest injustices done by the manufacturers of T206 cards. (Obviously, if the T206 publishers were facing lawsuits from Philadelphia then the injustice is certainly justified.) Coincidentally, Fiene died on Mack's birthday -- today -- December 22, just three days prior to Christmas.
Click below for Mack and Fiene's stats pages on Baseball-Reference.com:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/managers/mackco01.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/f/fienelo01.shtml
And, of course, you can visit http://www.t206collector.com for my T206 blog, card galleries, articles and more, including both of Fiene's T206 cards signed by Fiene himself, probably autographed in the late 1950s.