1904 Stenzel's Rooter Buttons & Sporting Boiler Premium connection

[rhettyeakley]

I wanted to point out something that I got really excited about that I noticed with an item that recently ended in the latest Huggins & Scott auction. As many may know I have collected player pinbacks for a fairly long time and among the rarest of the known sets is the 1904 Stenzel's Rooter Buttons featuring players for the Reds.

Anyways, there have only been 11 pins confirmed and most are known only by a single example.

Known checklist:
Mike Donlin
Bob Ewing
Jack Harper
Joe Kelley
Win Kellum
Peaches O'Neill
Heinie Peitz
Admiral Schlei
Cy Seymour
Jack Sutthoff
Sam Woodruff
...and I've seen a Cozy Dolan (currently uncatalogued) which brings the known pinbacks in the set to 12.

Here is my examples (the Donlin has since found a new home)...




Anyways, as I was browsing the H&S auction a few weeks back it was obvious where the photos used for the pins came from...


What is potentially exciting is that of the 18 pictured players on the premium 12 have been seen as the pinbacks, among the most notable ones missing would be Miller Huggins' first ever appearance on an individual baseball collectible, Huggins began his major league career w/ Cincinnati that same year. For the sake of completeness Huggins is also featured as a minor leaguer (for St. Paul) on a W601 Sporting Life team supplement as well in 1903.

Those still unconfirmed to have survived (although I HIGHLY suspect they will surface someday):
-Miller Huggins
-Tom Walker
-Noodles Hahn (I seem to remember having seen a Hahn but I can't be 100% certain)
-Fred Odwell
-Harry Steinfeldt
-Tommy Corcoran

Anyways, I had hoped to win the Cincinnati premium but it went for much more than I was willing to spend on it. Good luck to whomever won it and I thought I'd let people know who to be on the lookout for in the future, especially the Rookie collectors.

-Rhett