[Zach Wheat]

Originally Posted by tedzan

I like to collect color errors, and of all the T201's that I have seen over the years, I have found only this Cobb
that is missing its Blue ink.




What I find quite interesting is the accuracy of the STATS printed on the backs of most of these cards, that
still hold 100 years later. Of course, there are a few errors, I have found only six (of the 100) stats faulty.
The following details these errors......

1....Ford / Johnson......1910 season stats are of Otis Johnson's Jersey City stats (not the NY Highlanders).

2....Killian / Fitzpatrick......Ed Killian's stats. are incorrect.

3....Lush / Hauser......Lush is named "Ernest", but his batting and pitching stats are that of Johnny Lush.

4....Seymour / Dygert......Cy's 1910 stats are when he played for the NY Giants and Jimmy's 1910 stats are
when he played for the A's.

5....Speaker / Gardner......Gardner is named "Earl", but the stats are those of Larry Gardner.

6....Hartzell / Blair......Roy Hartzell's batting stats. are those of Topsy Hartsel. And, Walter Blair's stats are
totally incorrect. I couldn't find whose stats. they are of.
So, I leave it up to any one of you guys to figure out this one ?


TED Z

OK, Ted I give up on conclusively answering your question on whose stats were substituted for Walter Blair's. However, I think I know the answer - I just can't prove it. Just to review a few quirks about the set while I lay out my suppositions.

A number of small questions arose while I was trying to answer Ted's question - namely why they included a high concentration of minor leaguers like the Eastern Association (EA) & American Association (AA); and why the set includes only 5 cards of the EA - instead of 6 cards like the AA. I believe there is a missing EA card. Further I believe both of these quirks directly relate to Ted's "change in factory location" theory (stated in his post #33) as well as his original question about Blair's stats.

I've gone back 4 years either side of 1910 for any player that reasonably could have been substituted for Blair's stats. First, I concentrated on other NY Highlanders - and then looked up stats on other ML'ers. There were a lot of good candidates - but none that really fit the bill.

The Highlanders were in the middle of a pennant race and had a problem with catching in 1910 - using 6 catchers for different portions of the 1910 season. Mitchell wasn't the answer - playing a combination of 1B/Catcher/P and neither was Sweeney (playing catcher part time platooning, but not hitting very well). The Highlanders used 3 other catchers prior to ending with Blair. Blair really didn't play catcher much until the next year and only played in 6 games in 1910 for the Highlanders. If you combine Sweeney & Mitchell's stats you come up with a stat line that is pretty close to the stat line on Blair's T201 card....but with an average well under Blair's stated 1910 stats:

Player G AB R H SB Avg.
Blair 146 481 44 124 16 .258
Mitch. & Sweeney 146 411 41 88 18 .210

Incorrect record keeping could have accounted for differences in some of the stats but frankly they still appear too far off to lead me to believe this was the answer.

I am going to shift gears a little and then I will tie everything together at the end. TRex Ted previously mentioned that printing was shifted from Factory 30 to the more efficient Factory 649 located in Rochester, NY. I think this theory is probably correct and explains one of the quirks about the set - why so many minor leaguers were included in the set. I think the location of the printing plant (Rochester) influenced card selection, resulting in more cards from the Eastern Association of which Rochester had a team. However, it doesn't explain why the EA had 5 cards and the AA had 6 cards. Although this could have been unintentional on the part of ATC, I believe it was deliberate. I believe the "missing" 6th EA card was Blair's and Blair's stats are his Rochester minor league stats. The set was probably printed after August 1910 and Blair would have been with the NY Highlanders.

Blair's contract was purchased by Rochester of the Eastern Association prior to the 1910 season for $1,500. In August of 1910, in an attempt to solve their catching problem - on the heels of a pennant race - the Highlanders purchased Blair's contract back for $7,000 and the Highlanders eventually finished in second place. Blair played for the Highlanders in 6 games in 1910 and only became a starter in 1911.

Further, I suspect there is a correlation between the location of the switch to the Rochester printing plant - if Ted is correct - and the reason so many Rochester and other minor league teams were in the set. The set was probably meant to have had wide local appeal since Rochester was part of the Eastern Association and a number of the EA teams were nearby. I suspect the set was intended to appeal to fans in these two markets (NY and the Midwest). Just a guess.

Can anyone confirm Blair's Rochester stats for 1910? Ted, thoughts?

M Wheat