I was suffering through the humidity of Kentucky the past few weeks, when I started getting emails from folks who want some of my Colgans cards. I've done one deal, with Chris (a hard haggler, he reminds me of a fellow years ago who'd sit on top of all of his 'good' cards when we'd meet and swap [usually on a rainy Saturday] so that you could only see the cards in front of him), brought me a few Colgans of Louisville players. I may well do another deal soon. But before I do, I thought it would be neat to get images of all of the Louisville Colgans (Louisville was home for the 20th century's first gum cards) up here on the board. I don't have all, just a few.
So here's who I have.
John Halla. His major league play cosisted of 12.2 innings of relief in 3 games for the 1905 Cleveland Naps. He won 195 games in the minors, and was with the Louisville Colonels 1908 - 1910.
Del Howard. Howard was in the majors 1905 - 1909, with Pittsburgh, Boston, and the Chicago Cubs, he's depicted with them in T206. Howard managed the Colonels for part of 1910 and all of 1911. He later managed the San Francisco Seals for 2 seasons, then the Oakland Oaks for 6. That has him also in the ZeeNuts.
Bill Moriarty was with Louisville for only 35 games for the 1910 season. He was in the majors for 6 games for the Reds at the beginning of the 1909 season. He was primarily a short stop.
Heinie Peitz played at Louisville for 1907 - 1910, and managed there for part of the 1910 season. Old Heinie was with the St. Louis Browns of the old National League in 1892, where he played through 1895. He was with Cincinnati 1896 through 1904, then with Pittsburgh 1905 and 1906. He later appeared in 3 games with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1913. His major league statistics have him with a solid .271 average as he played in over 1200 games in 16 seasons.
Ollie Pickering, at age 40, appeared in 162 games for the Colonels in 1910, his only season in Louisville. He hit .271 in 886 major league games over 8 seasons. He was with Louisville of the old National League for 1896 and part of 1897, going to Cleveland, then playing for the Athletics, St. Louis Browns, and the Washington Senators.
Rabbit Robinson played for the Colonels during the 1910 and 1911 seasons. He was in the majors for 103 games for the Senators in 1903, 101 games for Detroit in 1904, and 28 games for the Reds in 1910. He was a weak hitter who was good with the glove in the middle of the infield.
Orville Selby pitched for the Colonels for the 1909 season, posting a team best 20-13 record. His career consisted of a 102-106 record over 9 minor league seasons.
Jack Stansbury was an outfielder for Louisville 1911 - 1913. He hit .259 over his 20 year minor league career. He was up in the majors for one year, 1918, hitting .128 over 20 games with the Boston Red Sox.
Suter Sullivan was with Louisville in 1903, 1905, and 1906 - 1910. He managed there part of 1906. He hit .277 during 12 minor league seasons. He was in the majors for 2 years, the St. Louis Browns of the National League in 1898, and the National League's Cleveland Spiders in 1899. He played in the outfield, all of the infield positions, and even got in 6 innings of relief as a pitcher in one game, he allowed only one earned run.
Rube Kroh pitched for Louisville in 1911 and 1912. He appeared in his first game in the majors on September 30th, 1906, for the Boston Red Sox, Rube started the game, pitching a complete game 2 hit shutout. He appeared in 7 games for the Sox in 1907. He was with the Cubs for 2 games in 1908. Then he had his best year in 1909, going 9-4 with the Cubs with a 1.65 ERA. That good season is probably what got him onto a T206 card. He was with the Cubs for a few game in 1910, and a few games with the Boston Braves in 1912. The left hander finished his career with Evansville in 1922.
Al Buemiller played minor league ball 1906 - 1915. He played short stop for Louisville 1912 - 1914. He ended his career with the Los Angeles Angels in 1915, where he played third base for Pop Dillon (Dillon had young Zeb Terry at short, and he was a season away from a 7 year stint in the majors).
The Kroh card obviously has that red border. The "Beumiller" card is my only 'Tin Top' Colgans.
So these are the Louisville players that I'd like to see...
Clemons
Fisher
Grimshaw
Jordan
Kaiser
Lakoff
Lindaman
Maddox
Northrop
Reilly
Ritchery
Woodruff
and there might be a J Sullivan.