The Most Obscure Carded Baseball Player in History

[frankbmd]

Take any set of baseball cards and it is fairly easy to find an obscure fellow or two with a lackluster career that you have never heard of.

Type card collectors will search for a card from an obscure set for their collection, even if the player is not that obscure or unique to that set.

Put both of these ingredients in a bowl and stir gently and what do you have?

A recipe for the most obscure, but carded baseball player in the history of the game.

But who is it?

Ideally the player should be issued in one set of cards only. The player should have a mediocre career. The card set in which he is included should be very difficult to find and if for any reason that player is a "short print" for any reason, all the better. Any evidence you can provide about Mr. Obscurity and his obscure baseball card to support your nomination will be helpful.

As your friendly thread host and referee, I am not going to nominate anyone (and in fact I do not even have anyone in mind). Scarcity is one thing, rarity is another, but who can claim the title for obscurity in the cards and on the diamond?

[bnorth]

Definitely not rare or hard to find. Card #709 in the 1979 Topps set has Kevin Stanfield on it. He is the only person from the small town I live in that ever made it to the majors. He pitched 3 innings in a September call up for the Twins.

[Bliggity]

I suppose it may be cheating to nominate a minor-league player, but the first one that came to mind for me was "Bourquise" from T209-1. I don't think anyone knows who he actually was. His name doesn't appear in any database of minor-league players, and I don't think he's appeared on any known roster, etc. The card lists his team as Rocky Mount, but he's wearing a Fulton jersey. Further, of the two Fulton-based teams from that era, neither were active in 1909 when the set was released.

To summarize from T209-contentnea.com, "The issuers of T209 managed to include - as one of only sixteen - an unknown player from a nonexistent team!"

Doesn't get much more obscure than that. Plus, it's his only card ever, and T209-1 is a borderline rare set, with only about two dozen graded cards of each player between PSA and SGC.

[frankbmd]

Originally Posted by Bliggity

I suppose it may be cheating to nominate a minor-league player, but the first one that came to mind for me was "Bourquise" from T209-1. I don't think anyone knows who he actually was. His name doesn't appear in any database of minor-league players, and I don't think he's appeared on any known roster, etc. The card lists his team as Rocky Mount, but he's wearing a Fulton jersey. Further, of the two Fulton-based teams from that era, neither were active in 1909 when the set was released.

To summarize from T206-contentnea.com, "The issuers of T209 managed to include - as one of only sixteen - an unknown player from a nonexistent team!"

Doesn't get much more obscure than that.

The Rocky Mount Railroaders in the Eastern Carolina League fielded a team in 1909 without this fellow on the roster apparently. Fulton is a little more difficult to pin down, but there is currently a team known as the Fulton Railroaders in Fulton County, Kentucky. That team has a long history, partially documented on their current website, and apparently played in the Kitty League from 1903 t0 1955 with a few interruptions for yellow fever, WW 1, the depression and WW 2. I believe the Fulton franchise in the Kitty League was in Kentucky, but the common team name of Railroaders could be more than coincidental. I find no mention of the Kitty League anywhere except for a chronology of league highlights and lowlights, and standings from 1935-1938 on the current Fulton team website. No rosters are found for the Kitty League anywhere.

So is it possible that Bourquise from the Fulton Railroaders was incorrectly identified as a member of the Rocky Mount Railroaders of the Eastern Carolina League in the Contentnea T209 set?



You all know the old adage,

"Once a Railroader, Always a Railroader."


This dude is certainly nondescript and the type of athlete we are looking for.

[Peter_Spaeth]

http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=116422

[frankbmd]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=116422

Pure speculation.

That thread was before my time.

Once a Railroader, Always a Railroader.

[Bliggity]

Originally Posted by frankbmd

So is it possible that Bourguise from the Fulton Railroaders was incorrectly identified as a member of the Rocky Mount Railroaders of the Eastern Carolina League in the Contentnea T209 set?

I suppose that's possible, although I'm not sure how they'd make that mistake. Contentnea cigarettes were manufactured in Wilson NC, and the T209-1 and -2 sets only have players from NC, SC, and VA. The color series actually only has players from NC (15 subjects) and SC (1 subject), and none from VA. So although it's possible that Contentnea or the card designer knew of a Bourquise on the "Railroaders" and got the team wrong, I'm not sure why they would even come to know of a Kentucky player when their primary focus was on NC, and no KY players were represented in either T209 set. But I've never heard a better explanation, so maybe you're right!

[Bliggity]

Or, you know, what Peter said.

[Jacklitsch]

From the obscure and rare 1906 Ullman postcard set the even more obscure and rare is the Henry Mathewson card pictured here.

Henry played for the Giants in 1906 and 1907 in just three games and ended his ignominious career with an 0 and 1 record.

As we all know he was the younger brother of the great Christy Mathewson.

[clydepepper]

Steve-

WOW!!! I have been looking for a Harry Mathewson for years...this is the first one I've ever seen!
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[irishdenny]

Originally Posted by Jacklitsch

From the obscure and rare 1906 Ullman postcard set the even more obscure and rare is the Henry Mathewson card pictured here.

Henry played for the Giants in 1906 and 1907 in just three games and ended his ignominious career with an 0 and 1 record.

As we all know he was the younger brother of the great Christy Mathewson.

It's Funny...

As SooN aS Saw Mr. Frank's Thread...
I Thought of Steve's "Harry Matthewson's" ULLMAN PC!

Not Only was Harry's(His real name was Henry) Career Short One... They Couldn't get his 1st name RiGHT, or Spell his last name Correctly...

Awesome Card Steve!!!

[philliesphan]

If we include minor league players, my understanding is that there's still a good dozen+ folks who appear on Zeenut cards for whom proper identification to this day is lacking. I imagine Rhett, Mark and a few others would be subject matter experts in this arena.

Here's someone who made it to the majors, but really ought never to have:

Marvin Harold "Red" Smith

Red's cup of coffee came with the Philadelphia A's in 1925, as a 25-year old. He played primarily at shortstop, though he put in two games at third in his very short tenure. A defensive replacement -- he played in twenty games in total, but only managed sixteen plate appearances. He had a grand total of four singles, scoring one time and also a single RBI to his name. He walked twice and struck out five times. Thus ended Red's MLB career.

Of course, Red only played fifty games in the PCL, in this single season with the Oakland Oaks, as pictured on this Zeenut card. In those fifty games, he hit less than .200, and was in the B league in Evansville by 1924. It certainly makes it curious as to how and why he got to MLB if he couldn't cut it in PCL and was relegated to a B league before making the jump to the Bigs? He did come back to the Portland Beavers in 1926 -- although I can't easily find stats to support what he did with them there.

[Spike]

(I first posted here on E.T. Cox, but added a scan and expanded on his "Dick Cox" naming issue in a later post in this same thread. Skip ahead a few messages for that one.)

[timn1]

Irv never even played in a single major league game, yet somehow made it into the T207 set to give its collectors fits and nightmares-

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