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Frank WakefieldBarry, Bliss, Hall, and Wiltse weren't cherry-picked. I just picked them out from Mr. Lipset's list of the common 78 cards, I did avoid picking a HOFer.
I completely agree that Wagner throwing is found MUCH less often than Wagner batting. And from the pop reports It seems that 3/4ths of the Wagners have him batting, and 1/4th throwing.
You can't be serious that the pop reports mimic Ted's list... there are fewer cards of Barry and of Bliss than of many of Ted's difficult 30.
And I see no reason why a last series of these cards would be the short print... it isn't like 1967 Topps where production was cut because demand slackened at the end of the season. I agree there are fewer Wagner's throwing, but that doesn't mean it was among the last issued.
One thing that Scott's number might reflect is the possibility of Cobb having been double printed. These cards went straight into the grimy hands of kids. The cards went through hell. Few survived. Cobbs would have been subject to a bit extra wear. Yet for these players there are right at 100 graded examples: Plank, Jennings, Young, Baker, Lajoie... and 176 Cobbs. While I think Cobbs are more likely to be graded than a normal E90-1, I think Youngs would be likely grading target, too. And I think Cobbs went through more wear than most of the E90-1s. Yet almost twice as many have been graded. That looks like a possible double print to me.