I read the question posed by the OP as to which is the first of Ruth’s cards as a Yankee, not just which one first shows him in a Yankee uniform. If the test includes a card with a caption or nameplate saying Ruth is with New York, then I would say that the Headin’ Home and Pathe Freres cards are clearly not the first, as those came out late in the 1920 season. Beautiful examples shown, however.
Of the three sets the OP cited, I would lean toward the W514 as being earliest. There is some evidence that Mendelsohn’s large m101-6 cards were available in 1921. Of course they may have been around in 1920 also--I will look in my notes but don’t presently recall seeing an ad for them in the 1920 TSN. W519 is about as unhelpful as you can get with date identifiers. Use it as you wish I suppose. Maybe some clue could be gleaned from the card of Joe Murphy, shown crouched in a catcher’s pose. I have no idea what player was intended, as I do not see a Joe Murphy or any MLB catcher named Murphy (or Murray) in 1920-21.
As for W514, there are at least a couple of indicators that it came out early in 1920. First, Chick Gandil is in the set, and he did not play a game for the White Sox in 1920. Instead, when his salary demands were not met by Spring Training 1920, he stayed in California. There would seem no reason to include him if the set was produced after the season was very far along. Also, Dave Bancroft is shown with Philadelphia, and he was traded to New York June 7, 1920 for Art Fletcher, who is also shown with his "old" team. This points to a production if not release date before mid-season, 1920. In fact, it was once thought that the W514 set had an issue date of 1919-21; however, I assume that was changed to 1920 when it was seen that Ruth was card #2, was therefore among the first cards issued in the set, and that he was on the Yankees, who of course he did not join until 1920.
I have not studied all of the sets identified in one of the above links, but I note that W522 is not a 1920 set at all, at least if Baseball Reference is correct; or, if it is, it was issued in separate parts over more than one year (doubtful given that it's only a 20 card set). The set includes Goldie Rapp, who did not even make his MLB debut until 1921.
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Last edited by nolemmings; 03-03-2023 at 09:32 PM.
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