T206 Southern League article
 

I have often wondered why ATC included Southern players in T206. My curiosity was deepened last April 22 when I discovered that Ted Breitenstein pitched a no-no for the Cincinnati Reds on April 22, 1898, the same day that James Hughes also pitched a no-hitter for the Baltimore Orioles. I began to read more about Breitenstein, and that led me to writing a piece about ATC's inclusion of the SLer subset.

Scot Reader published my essay on his T206 Insider website, and if you'd like to read it, here's the link: http://www.t206insider.com/store/c1/insider#research/

I hope you enjoy the essay. If you have any additional information to share, I hope you will contact me.

Cheers, Mike

A very nice essay, Mike, I enjoyed it very much!

Good, convincing research and well written, Mike, thanks for sharing. Out of curiosity, do any of the T206 "permission slips" referred to in the Bulger letter survive?

Nice essay Mike. It was a good read. You got to love the Southern Leagues. Their is just something about the minors that is great.

Thanks Mike, very interesting and great read.

An exhilarating read, Mike. Any idea what kind of payment the T206ers received for letting their pictures be used. I know there is better documentation for Goudey and Topps era players' remunerations but I wonder if they got a few bucks and maybe a couple of Mason Jars of moonshine.

Well done Mike, I always enjoy a good scholarly piece, thank you for sharing!

That was a fantastic read! Thank you for writing it and making it available.

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Thank you all for the nice responses.

David--You raise an interesting, and essential point. There is no extant record(s) of payment by ATC to players for the right to use their photo. The only sense of payment I have is from earlier research on T209-2.

The players depicted in the Contentnea series received copies of their card, and possibly a few (1-3) copies of a postcard version of their pose used for the tobacco card. This is based on two sources: the letters of Fred Stoehr (Goldsboro) written to his wife in which he mentions the cards and postcard, and a copy of his player postcard sent to his wife. The postcard payment theory is also given credence by the fact that very few of the T209-2 player postcards survive, and they almost always originate from the player's estate when it enters the marketplace through auction or private sale.

My suspicion is that ATC paid cash and gave copies of the card to each player, but who knows? If someone on the forum has copies of ATC payment records I would enjoy seeing them.

Cheers,
Mike

I really enjoyed your article Mike. Thanks for writing and sharing. The more I read about Deadball Era baseball .... and the longer I collect "T" cards ... the more I've come to appreciate minor league baseball during that era ... particularly the southern leagues. An example is when reading the backs of the T205 cards. Whoever wrote the bio's on the back of those cards often wrote a bit about the players minor league exploits. Very cool stuff ... it's always fun learning more about all the players depicted on tobacco cards. Anyway ... thanks again for sharing!

Wonderful contribution to the hobby, Mike. Thanks!!