How is This for a Tease?

[springpin]

In the latest column of my blog I questioned why after the 1905 World Series there were souvenir baseball pinback buttons of the Philadelphia Athletics (who lost) but none of the winning New York Giants. It just didn't make any sense to me why there would be nothing celebrating the Giants. So I read the New York Times after the World Series was completed. This is what I found in the issue of October 17, 1905.

Pay Day For Champions

New York Baseball Players Get Winners' Share of World Series

"The headquarters of the New York National League Club in the St. James Building at Broadway and Twenty-Sixth Street was a busy place yesterday, because those members of the new world champions who were not playing against the Trenton, N.J. club reported to their chief, Manager John J. McGraw and incidentally received their portion of the receipts due to the winners in the world's championship series with the Philadelphia Athletics. Checks for $1,141.55 were given to Catchers Bowerman and Bresnahan, Pitcher Ames, and Utility Man Hall, and in addition each received a handsome button valued at $50 as a gift from the National Commission."

Each player received a "handsome button" valued at $50!? First, no pinback button would be valued at $50. Second, this "handsome button" was not made for a souvenir vendor, but came directly from the National (League) Commission. Third, it was of sufficient significance and importance as to provide an estimate of its financial value. $50 is not a trivial amount given the annual salary of some players was around $3,000.

So, the players on the winning team did not receive a ring or a watch, but a "button." And an expensive one at that, straight from the League office. Does anyone have any idea what this "handsome button" might have looked like? Is there one in Cooperstown? What button is worth $50? Might it have been a round gold medallion of sorts? I am still perplexed as to why no souvenir pins were made, but at least we now know of the existence of a gift each player received. One mystery leads to another.

As two side notes, I was surprised to see the New York Times spell "baseball" as one word. I thought it was spelled as two words back then. Second, I was a little surprised to see the Times refer to championship as the "World Series." In fact, within the same paragraph it was spelled once as "World Series" and once as "World's Series." 1905 was the second such inter-league championship. I wasn't sure when the WS was so named, but that's what they were calling it in 1905.