Wed, May 7, 7-8PM session with author Brian Kappel on Leaf baseball and Babe Ruth
 

Author Brian Kappel presents his work on the design and creation of Leaf Gum's 1949 baseball set on Wed, May 7, from 7-8PM Eastern. It's the first major set to feature Babe Ruth after his passing in August 1948, something Leaf clearly used as a promotional angle!

Preregister at http://tiny.cc/1949Leaf to get the Zoom link.

this was a great event

1948 vs 1949 LEAF Baseball
 

The Leaf Baseball Card set, most often referred to as the 1948 Leaf Baseball Cards, has always befuddled me for the most part as why it is considered a 1948 issue in the first place and not a 1949 issue. Is this designation a Misnomer?
I just read the book “re:LEAF written by Brian Kappel. Who support this Premise.
Many wonder why the series is “skip numbered” listing the 1st series (49 cards) as well as the 2nd series (49 cards) (SP) referred to as “Single Print”, as its distribution was much less than the 1st series, in a quantity of 98 total with numbers skipping from 1 thru 168.
I believe the cards are a 1949 issue. I have looked and read all the backs of these 98 cards and 96 of them all reference player records inclusive of the 1948 season. 1948 is either called out or implied as statistics mentioned are for the 1948 season. There are 66 cards showing a copyright date of 1948 and 32 showing the date of 1949. Both the 1948 and 1949 dates appear on the 1st and 2nd series cards. My thinking is they started writing the narratives for the card backs after the 1948 season and about 2/3rds were written in 1948 while the remaining got written in early 1949 before going to printing and distribution in spring of 1949. The two cards that don’t reference the 1948 season are the #3 Babe Ruth and #70 Honus Wagner, both of whom were retired and in the Hall of Fame well before 1948.
So why on earth this is considered a 1948 issue is beyond my reasoning. I have a copy of the first “Card Collector’s Company of Franklin Square N.Y. Checklist book issued inclusive if the 1962 Topps set and in it, they refer to these cards as 1948 but their checklist only includes the 1st (49) cards and mentioned more cards had just been found. The second series single print cards. As Leaf was a Chicago company, I guess it took awhile for them to end up in New York state. Perhaps The Card Collectors Company set the direction for all others to follow calling the cards as a 1948 issue.
I think the fact that there are only (98) cards not counting the 3 variations within the 1-168 numbering from Joe DiMaggio to Phil Cavaretta means there were initially planned 4 series of (49) cards each for what would have been a total of 196 cards. The 7x7=49 sheets would have produced this if it was not for what appears to have been many quality problems and what is mentioned by the Card Collector’s company as legal difficulties. The set is the only issue that Joe DiMaggio ever appeared as an active player post WWII except for the Callahan Hall of Fame series issued from 1950-56. There were no Bowman or early Topps issues so I bet Leaf had some exclusive rights to his gum card that may have carried as far as the 1960/61 Fleer Baseball Greats that never had Mr. DiMaggio. Leaf was still around at the time and did their 1960 set with two marbles in each pack instead of gum.
Some 20% of these cards are for the Chicago based White sox and Cubs and their card back narratives seem to have been written by a salty Chicago newspaper sportswriter most all in the same direct style. In would be interesting to somehow uncover who that was.
I believe the Leaf football issue of 98 cards was indeed a complete 1-98, 1948 issue as a summary review of their backs show reference to either NFL or college seasons of 1947 or before with card #91 of Leon Hart referencing a spring 1948 practice. I have not reviewed the backs of all 98 cards, however, like I have done with baseball issue. It is obvious to me that this football series of complete 98 cards proceeded with the baseball offering. The 1949 version of football cards look to end with skip numbers like baseball offering possibly with original plan for 196 cards that was cut short.
Lastly, I remember reading a long time ago that Leaf found that the album they offered on the back of some cards for 25 cents did not have the slots quite fit the cards and that they cut the width of later produced cards to allow them to better fit. Fact or myth it would be interesting to know how many of the cards were given the “A” for authentic but altered classification. I have two of these cards that are a little lean on published width too. There is such album that has been on eBay for some time now for about $4,000. The seller has told me there are 98 slots and they look to be the right size for the established card dimensions In any case the location of the Leaf Gum Company located at 1155 North Cicero Avenue in Chicago is long gone.
Don Carpenter