Donahue K-Bats

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Posted By: Jay

I have heard claims that the Donahue Kalamazoo Bats card recently purchased from a Connecticut antique dealer is the discovery copy for this card. It should be pointed out that this card has been listed in the SCD catalog for several years and was known as far back as the publishing of Alan Hager's baseball card book. I'm not sure exactly when it was first discovered but hopefully Keith Olbermann's Kalamazoo Bats article in the next SCD may shed some light on that as well as when other cards in the set were first found.

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Posted By: leon

Many cards listed have never been seen. Maybe Keith will shed some light. If not then I wouldn't count on one listed as one known....I have no idea about this Donahue in particular I am only making a general statement...

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Posted By: Jay

Leon--When some of the Mets have been listed while others have not my sense is that if they were listed they were seen. If you know otherwise for K-Bats I would appreciate knowing your facts.

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Posted By: martindl

I read the SCD article a couple of days ago and just now read read it for any Donahue reference and there isn't one, save for the checklist. The checklist is at 68 players and the notation at side of Donahue is "Possibly Unique".

Keith does give some history around when cards were found - "as late as 1956, only 39 KB's were known". It does not say who the 39 were, but then lists the players found to increase the checklist to 50. The 1987 find of 41 cards is referenced with a nod to the previously unknown cards of Keefe, Ewing, Ward, Deasley and Poorman.

The article notes the six most recently discovered cards as being McGarr (mislabelled as McGan and a note that a second one was on Ebay in 2005), Seward, Weyhing, McLaughlin (1999), Lyons on ebay in 2005 and "earlier this year, Bill Holbert of the Mets". No comment re Donahue.

I checked the SCD site to see if theres a link to the article, but the links are from the September 8th issue. I guess they're behind.

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Posted By: Jay

Like I said, Donahue has been known for as long as I have been collecting K-Bats. My guess is that Keith did not know about this copy when he wrote the article. Not to demean the card; this would be the second copy known. That ain't bad.

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Posted By: barrysloate

Would you assume that all 16 players known in the N172 spotted tie series would ostensibly have been issued as a Kalamazoo Bats?

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Posted By: leon

Not to be antogonistic but why would there be 2 now. Keith said, in the article I haven't read, that none were known. None plus 1 equals 1 to me. My math ain't too good though. BTW, have you seen the other? If not then there is 1 known.

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Posted By: Jay

Your math is good but your reading is poor. It has been listed in the catalog since at least the early 1990s. Since this copy has only recently surfaced I would say that makes two.

Barry--I don't think all of the spotted ties have K-Bats. My belief is that the Mets K-Bats were issued after the spotted ties. By the time they were issued some of the Mets pictured on the spotted ties had already departed the team. These would include Behel, Brady, Crotty and F. W. Foster. I have not seen Keith's article yet but I would be interested if any of the information I shared with him is included.

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Posted By: martindl

Leon, Keith didn't say that none were known, there just isn't a specific reference to it in the text. There isn't reference to the majority of the players cards but they still exist.

The checklist notes 'possibly unique', so with the card Jay references, that would be two. A quick scan of the checklist shows 14 cards as 'possibly unique' or 'thought to be unique'. Here's the checklist thats with the article.

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Posted By: leon

At least we are talking vintage baseball cards. I think even if I am wrong it's a good thing . Like you said Jay, even if there are two, that isn't so bad..........

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Posted By: barrysloate

Jay- I'm sure you are right, but I was thinking about the possibility of an N690 Stephen Behel. Now that would be a card to crow about.

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Posted By: Chris Bland

Wasnt it determined that Behel wasnt Jewish after all?

Still would be a great card though!

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Posted By: barrysloate

Somebody did determine he wasn't Jewish, but I'm not certain that we know that for sure. Even if he isn't, he has developed a certain mystique above and beyond all the other spotted ties players.