[Archive]

Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

I do not think that too many Net54ers will argue with me that Eddie Foster is probably the toughest of the 48 cards in the
Southern League (SL) series. It seems that all SL players were not equally printed.
First, here are the four different SL represented......

1st release......with Brown HINDU, OLD MILL, PIEDMONT backs

South Atlantic League (10 subjects)
Southern League (20 Subjects)
Virginia League (12 Subjects)

2nd release......with OLD MILL, PIEDMONT backs

Texas League (6 Subjects)

Now, a close 2nd in scarcity to Foster is teammate, George Paige. These 2 players were on Charleston of the So. Atl. Lge.
This League had difficulties which resulted in a "split-season". The 1st half of the 1909 season was won by Chattanooga.
On 7/5/09 the Charleston franchise became the Knoxville team. I'd venture to say that this change caused Foster and Paige
to be short-printed.
In addition, Kiernan and Manion were involved in mid-season trades, as a consequence of the changes in this League. These
two are also tougher to find than most of the other SL cards. At the end of the 1909 season Chattanooga and Augusta (the
winner of the 2nd half) played a League Series and Chattanooga won 4 of the 7 game series.



From the Virginia Lge. Revelle is tough to find. He was an outstanding pitcher for Richmond in 1909 with a 29-11 W-L record.

From the Southern League, the three New Orleans guys are quite tough....Breitenstein, Fritz, and Reagan.

To summarize, here is my list of the top 12 tougher SL cards (regardless of backs) in order of scarcity......

Foster
Paige
Fritz
Revelle
Hart (Little Rock)
Manion
Breitenstein
Greminger
Ellam
Reagan
Kiernan
LaFitte

Some of you may differ, and I welcome any debate.


Regarding the very tough Brown HINDU backs (possible on the 1st 42 players in this series). The first 42 SL cards were issued
shortly after the general 150 Series cards were available (Spring of 1909). This fact is confirmed by the date of the Charleston
players mentioned in the above story. The very 1st SL cards were printed with the HINDU backs.

There are 34 of the 42 SL cards that have been confirmed with the HINDU back. The following 8 have not......

Hart (Little Rock)....No Print
Hart (Montgomery).....No Print
King......No Print
Lentz......No Print
Orth.......Possible Print
Rockenfeld......Possible Print
Seitz......Possible Print
Westlake......No Print


TRIVIA quiz......

In this HINDU adv. three SL cards are displayed....one is incorrectly pictured....who will be the 1st one to identify this error ?

And, who is the actual BB subject shown ? ?





TED Z