ORIGINAL:
http://www.oldcardboard.com/eNews/20...51/eNews51.htm
Another source:
http://www.oldcardboard.com/m/pacifi...cardsetID=1413
I copied the article, pictures are on the website.
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1949 Ruth Tribute Card
The oversized card in this one-card "set" is believed to have been produced as a tribute to Babe Ruth only months after Ruth's death in 1948.
The only labeling on the front of the borderless black and white cards is a facsimile signature of Ruth.
The 3-7/8 by 5-5/8 inch cards were apparently distributed by two different sponsors (see card back examples below). As indicated by the last line at the bottom of the card on the left, the cards were provided "Compliments of American Association of Professional Baseball Clubs." In a variation, this sponsor's tag line is omitted (example on the right). It was these cards with the omitted sponsor's tag line that were distributed as premiums offered along with a one-year (1949) subscription to Pacific Coast Baseball News, a publication of the Pacific Coast Sports Publishing Company of Los Angeles. While both variations are scarce, neither back variation is considered substantially more difficult to find than the other.
Both back variations are the same except for the sponsor tag line. As shown in the examples, both are filled with Ruth's batting statistics from 1920 through 1934 while he was with the Yankees, and his pitching statistics for the years 1915 through 1918 while with the Red Sox. Ruth's batting performance is also provided for the each of the five years that he participated in the World Series. A narrative at the bottom of the card also provides career highlights.
The Ruth card was promoted in coupon ads that ran prior to the start of the 1949 season. The card was obtained as a premium by sending the coupon part of the ad along with $1.00 for a 1949 annual subscription to the newspaper. According to the ad, the Pacific Coast Baseball News was a semi-monthly with thirteen issues published during the baseball season. It claimed to be "the only publication exclusively serving Pacific Coast diamond fans."
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