Pricing help: "The Lady Pitcher" postcard

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Posted By: Adam

Could anyone help with a rough idea of pricing on the attached postcard? There is writing and a postmark of 1906 on the back (since the post card was actually used).

Sorry for the poor quality photo.

Regards,
Adam

[Archive]

Posted By: Dan Bretta

Never heard of this woman before...she's certainly not as famous as Alta Weiss was. I did find a sale of one of her postcards in an American Memorabilia auction.

http://www.americanmemorabilia.com/Auction_Item.asp?Auction_ID=8139

[Archive]

Posted By: Joann

Hi Adam,

Pretty cool piece. I'm not familiar with this person as an early female player. Maybe she played some semi-pro barnstorming stuff or as a Bloomer Girl. It looks from your PC plus Dan's link that maybe these were some kind of self-promotional item on her part trying to hook on with one of these clubs? Yours looks homemade, and might be that. The one in Dan's link looks more professionally done, like maybe she was known and on a team by then? This is consistent with yours being mailed in 1906, while Dan's is 1907 or later based on the split back. Just guessing at all this, though.

Most female PC's go for under $100 - they don't exceed that often. Anywhere from $20 to $70 is typical depending on condition and content.

But in my experience, named players and known named players go for higher. Alta Weiss easily breaks $100 as do Myrtle Rowe and maybe Maud Nelson (this for individual shots, maybe a bit less for these people in a team shot).

If this Carrie Moyer is someone that is known to have played at that time, either with a Bloomer Girls team (like Maud Nelson) or on a men's team (Alta and Myrtle), then it would break $100. Not sure how you could find that out. If not, it might anyways just because it is named and a cool card (although the writing may detract).

I think it's really neat though. Just out of curiosity, what does the writing say? That may help figure out who she is and if she played for a known team. Was yours mailed from Pennsylvania, as the caption in Dan's link indicates she was from?

J

[Shat5]

Did you ever get an answer to your question? I have some newspaper articles about Carrie Moyer. I can't tell you about the value of the card, but I can tell you about Carrie Moyer if you are interested. Can you tell me more about the image itself and what the text on the bottom of the photo says?

[edhans]

Gotta be Jamie Moyer's younger sister.

[Rob D.]

Originally Posted by edhans

Gotta be Jamie Moyer's younger sister.

And she had a better fastball.

[Ease]

Originally Posted by Shat5

Did you ever get an answer to your question? I have some newspaper articles about Carrie Moyer. I can't tell you about the value of the card, but I can tell you about Carrie Moyer if you are interested. Can you tell me more about the image itself and what the text on the bottom of the photo says?

Deb, tell us about Carrie, I'm interested...

[Abravefan11]

I have a PDF file of an article done on her in 1906, I just don't know how to post it on the forum. It's to large. Email or PM me and I'll send it to you if you're interested or if you know how to post it.

[Shat5]

There is an excellent (and lengthy) article about Carrie Moyer in the Washington Post on August 6, 1906, p. 6. Title is: “School Girl Pitcher Wins Fame on Diamond,”

Moyer, who was German, pitched in the area around Allentown, PA. She was 17 years old in 1906. Her father was a baker, according to the article. She grew up playing baseball with the neighborhood boys and became a superb pitcher. She was a student at the Kutztown Normal School at some point. (Normal Schools prepared students to become teachers.)

News about Moyer was picked up in papers as far away as Texas and Iowa shortly after the article in the Washington Post. These articles noted that Moyer's brothers played on the teams with her and that she was planning to use the money she was earning playing baseball to study music in New York in the Fall of 2006.

I haven't had a chance to do extensive research on Moyer yet, but I plan to include her story in my upcoming book: [I]Bloomer Girls: Women Baseball Pioneers[I] which will be published by the University of Illinois Press.

[Abravefan11]

I think I figured out how to post this article. It's from August 1906.

[Shat5]

Thanks for posting the article. I hadn't seen it. We can add Michigan to the list of states where articles about the Pennsylvania pitcher appeared. Moyer's experience is similar to that of Alta Weiss, Myrtle Rowe, and the Basford sisters, Ruth and Irene of Bellevue, Ohio. All gained notoriety as female players on male teams in the early 1900s. Moyer and the Basfords (who were also pitchers) played on teams with siblings. Weiss was accompanied to games by her father and sometimes by her mother and sisters too. Neither Weiss nor Moyer ran the bases after they hit and both played in long skirts rather than bloomers. Weiss used her earnings to help fund medical school and it appears that Moyer had plans to use her earnings to pursue an education in music. I haven't been able to confirm whether she did or not. If anyone else has information (photos or articles) about Moyer, please send them my way. Thanks.