As we know, American Lithographic initially printed 12 subjects which were the first T206's (issued circa Spring 1909). Listed here are these 12 guys......
Red Ames (hands at chest)
George Brown (Chicago Nat'l)
Mordecai Brown (bat-Cubs)
Al Burch (batting)
Mike Donlin (fielding)
Larry Doyle (throwing)
Johnny Evers (bat-blue sky)
Harry Pattee
Barney Pelty (horizontal)
Eddie Plank
Ed Reulbach (glove)
Honus Wagner
Contrary to the conventional thinking, it's my opinion that Mike Powers should not be considered a 150-only T206 subject. American Lithographic actually
printed Powers battery mate, Eddie Plank, with this 1st series of 12 cards. This we know for certain, since a partial sheet of Piedmont 150 cards were dis-
covered in Eastern Long Island (NY) in the mid 1980's. Included on this sheet were Eddie Plank & Honus Wagner (subsequently referred to as the Gretzky
Wagner). For more info on this, check-out this 2009 thread....
http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=111871
My theory regarding the Mike Powers card is....he was subsequently printed in press runs which included 33 other subjects. This appears evident, as the
backs of these 34 subjects were also overprinted with the SWEET CAPORAL 150 Factory #649 stamp. Unfortunately, on Opening Day (April 12 1909) of
Shibe Park in Philadelphia, Mike Powers suffered an injury on the field. In the hospital, the doctors discovered he had serious intestinal system problems.
He passed away 2 weeks later (re. Net54 thread posted 2008). My point here is that the Powers card was actually printed with this group of 34 subjects.
Of which, 33 of them became 150/350 series cards. The Powers card was discontinued due to his untimely death; therefore, he was not printed with any
350 series backs.
Stay tuned regarding the Eddie Plank card story in the next post here.
TED Z
T206 Reference
.