Posted By:
Frank WakefieldGood analysis, Shawn. And you're welcome for the Womble, he has a good home with you.
Mr. Lipset's dating of T210 was good enough for me, and I've not encountered anything to change that.
In his great resource, vol. 3 of the Encyclopedia of Baseball Cards (that all of us should own!!) he mentions Tony Thebo being with Waco in 1909 and 1910, and that he's in T206 and T210 with Waco. That would probably preclude 1908. Mr. Lipset observes that Joe Martina's card shows him with Savanah, his only year there was 1910... Casey Stengel played one year at Maysville, Kentucky, 1910.
I think production on these T210s was a process, not an instantaneous thing. I think the first of them were being worked on at the end of the 1909 season, and they might have appeared at the very end of 1909, more likely very early 1910. I think card production continued into early 1910. And that is why some cards are found less often than others, and why there is a bit of pose or team variation. I think the first 3 series came early on, and continued throught production, which is why they're less difficult to locate today. Then 4 and 5; then 6, 7, and 8. I think the series 6 cards were about as plentiful as the series 8 cards initially, but that today there aren't as many because folks would throw the cards away after the player wasn't in baseball any more. The series 8 players had a good shot at going on up to the majors, gaining a bit of fame for that, so that folks would be less inclined to discard the cards. 1910 seems about right to me.