I need your help on Sporting Life card info

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Posted By: tbob

I have agreed to write an article for Old cardboard on the M116 Sporting Life set and could use some info to make the article as complete and reflective of card scarcity, etc. as possible. If you have any Sporting Life cards, could you PLEASE email me at trophybob@aol.com and let me know which ones you have, if any of them have black ink printing on the back, and which ones have the backs "300 subjects." There has not been a lot of information released about this set and some of the info which has been accepted for many years is incorrect with respect to series', picture variations, backs, etc.
I know it's a lot to ask but the more replies I get, the more accurate the information will be. Also I know someone out there has in his/her collection the envelopes which list which players are in which series. The reason I know is I bought one of them on ebay myself. They were released not only by Series Number but also by team. This information would also be very helpful.
Thanks,
Bob

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Posted By: jay behrens

I have a George Mullin with a black ink back.

Jay

Wow upside down is Mom. Mom upside down is what dad wants to see.

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Posted By: Andy Baran

I have an M116 Joe Wood. It has Blue ink on the back, and it has the "300 Subjects". I hope this helps.

By the way, I am not a set collector, but I believe this is the most difficult card in the set. I can count on 2 fingers the number of M116 Joe Woods that I have seen for sale in the past 5 years, including mine.

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Posted By: Kenny Cole

TBob, I have the following Sporting Life cards:

Adams (blue), Ames (300), Bachman, Bates, Beaumont, Beck, Beebe, Bell, Bender (pastel, 300), Bescher, Bransfield, Breshanan (pastel), M. Brown (pastel), Camnitz, Chase (blue), Chase (pastel), Collins (pastel), Conroy, Coombs (300), Crawford (blue), Crawford (pastel), Cree, Dahlen, Davis (blue), Davis (pastel), Delehanty, B. Donovan (pastel), Dooin (pastel), Doolan, Dougherty, Downey, L. Doyle (pastel, 300), Duffy, Dygert, Eagen, Elberfeld, Engle, Ewing, Falkenberg, Flick, Ford (300), Gardner (300), P. Graham, R. Hartzell, D. Hoffman, S. Hoffman, Hooper, Howell, Hulswitt, J. Hummel, D. Jones (pastel), T. Jones, Kling, Knabe, Konetchy, Krause, Kroh, Lajoie (pastel), F. Lake, Lathers (300), Leach (blue), Leach (pastel), Leever, Leifield, Lennox, H. Lord (pastel), Mack, Maddox, McGuire, McInnis, McIntire, McIntyre, McMillan, McQuillan (blue), McQuillan (pastel, Pha.), Milan, Moore, Moran, L. Moren (blue), L. Moren (black), Morgan, Moriarty, Mullin (blue), Murphy, Needham (2 copies), O'Connor, Oldring, Parent, Paskert (300), Pfeister, Phelps, Phillippe, Plank, Powell, Purtell, Raymond, Reulbach, Rucker (black), Schlei, Schulte, Schweitzer, Sheckard, F. Smith, H. Smith, Speaker, Stalings, Steinfeldt, Stephens, Stovall, Summers (black), B. Sweeney, J. Sweeney (300), Tannehill, Tenney (blue), I. Thomas (blue), Thoney,
Tinker (blue), Turner, Waddell (black), Wagner (pastel, Pitt., 300), Wagner (Boston), Wallace, Walsh, White, Wilhelm, Willis, O. Wilson, Wiltse, Zimmerman (300), Zwilling (300). Hope this helps.

Kenny

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Posted By: Scott

I just sent you a scan of the list, by series (through series 18) from the December 17, 1910 "Sporting Life" - my understanding is that photocopies exist of all these newspapers.

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Posted By: tbob

I know it's a pain in the a@@ but I know there must be more of you out there who collect the Sporting Life cards and could give me some back info and player names of cards you have.
Scott sent a great article/ad on the first 18 series, wonder if one exists with the rest of the series? Also does anyone know when SL started offering the cards, not in series, but by teams?
Thanks,
Bob

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Posted By: Patrick McMenemy

Hi TBob:

I went through my M116s that I have for my catchers, and here is what I have:

Roger Bresnahan (Pastel) "If you want baseball news" back (Series 2)
Roger Bresnahan (Blue) "When you think of baseball" back (Series 2)

George Gibson (Pastel) "If you want baseball news" back (Series 2)
George Gibson (Blue) "When you think of baseball" back (Series 2)

Johnny Kling (Pastel) "If you want baseball news" back (Series 7)

Chief Myers (Pastel) "300 Subjects" back

Gabby Street (Pastel) "When you think of baseball" back (Series 5)
Gabby Street (Pastel) "If you want baseball news" back (Series 5)

Ira Thomas (Pastel) "If you want baseball news" back (Series 2)

Ira Thomas (Blue) "When you think of baseball" back (Series 2)


Observations: All of my Blue M116s have the "When you think of baseball" back.

With the exception of my Series 5 Kling, which I happen to have a duplicate of with both of the non-300 Series backs, the rest of my Pastel M116s have the "If you want baseball news" back.


I look forward to your article even if you are not a Red Sox fan.

Patrick

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Posted By: Patrick McMenemy

TBob:

I believe the Chief (Myers) Meyers "300 Subject" back was from the Series 23.
I pulled the M116 Series info from the Lew Lipset article in the VBCC magazine.

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Posted By: Scott

Here's the cover photo from the December 17, 1910 issue - this is the most recent issue I had, and the only one I kept.

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Posted By: warshawlaw

all pastel nackgrounds

Clarke blue back
Duffy blue back
Matty blue 300 back
Tinker black back

and one blue background: davey jones blue back

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Posted By: tbob

if a card in the M116 set is available with both blue and black backs, it is the BLUE not the black back which is scarcer. This is just one thing I have run across...

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Posted By: Glen V

My list - all pastel except Davis - all blue backs:

Over 300 Subjects: Coombs
If You Want...: Murphy, Heitnuller, Krause
When You Think Of...: Oldring, Morgan, Barry, Dygert, Pfiester, H. Davis (Blue background)

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Posted By: Matt Goebel

I am the proud owner of the other Joe Wood card to which Andy was referring, and I agree on his assessment of it's scarcity. I also have Speaker, Chief Myers, Eddie Collins (blue) and Honus Wagner(pastel).

Matt

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Posted By: warshawlaw

Is it a scarcer printing?

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Posted By: tbob

Much like the Topps high numbers in their sets, the 300 backs appear (not always though) on the last issued series' in the SL set. Because everyone wanted Cobb, Matty, Chance, etc., they were issued early in the set and those cards appear most prevalent, along with the commons issued at the same time or slightly after. The 300 Series backs appear on a lot of "whodat?" cards and of course the scattered minor leaguers. The "big names" were so popular, they were reissued, this time with blue backs.
Now, this is all from what we have traditionally been told. I am finding some gaps and omissions in my compilations so I can give a better account of things when I finish.
One thing that is rather strange is that there were always 6-7 guys from this board, either posters or lurkers, who were working on the T207 complete set at one time, (not counting the number who undoubtedly were working on it and have never heard of this board), and the 207 set isn't considered the most popular by any stretch, and yet the complete M116 SL set is only being seriously worked on by myself and one other guy (to my knowledge) although plenty of collectors here grab a few for type cards and several are collecting for the HOFers. I know Scott Brockelman has a set but is anyone else here working on the complete set or has completed it or purchased the complete set? Just wondering...

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Posted By: tbob

You guys missed one. There was a gorgeous NMT looking M116 Wood on ebay about 6-7 months ago. It was graded by PSA because it had a signature of Wood on the front and PSA autenticated the signature but said the card was "authentic" because of trimming. It was the most beautiful Wood I have ever seen and was in the autograph section, that's why everyone missed it. As I recall I stayed off it because I didn't want any "lurkers" of my ebay "items bidding on" data to spot it. It was about $35 with minutes to go and I put in a bid of about $425.00 and I'll be damned if someone didn't have a snipe of $425.50 (or so) and won it and broke my heart. The high bidder had been about $50-60 before the snipe so I could have won it for $51-61 if the other guy had missed it. Ah, such is ebay, I know we all have these kind of stories...

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Posted By: jay behrens

I'm not technically working on the set, but for my player set, I'd prefer to m116s of a given player. My next choice for a set after that is any of the Colgans.

Jay

Wow upside down is Mom. Mom upside down is what dad wants to see.

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Posted By: Andy Baran

Did you save a scan of the Autographed Wood card? I'd love to see it.

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Posted By: Peter Thomas

Tbob, I was 26 cards short of completing the set in 1999. Made a big mistake and sold them in a Mastro auction. If either you or Scott or Andy bought them; that person would have the Wood that I had, if not then there is at least one more out there as I had one. I may have back information on the cards, if neither you or scott bought the cards I will try to dig it up.

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Posted By: Andy Baran

My Wood card came from the MacPhearson set that was auctioned by Lipset. I just bought the card (from the winner of the lot), not the set.

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Posted By: scott brockelman

peter,

if you will recall when chris pointed out my M116's in Cleveland, i was the lucky buyer of your near set. i still have that M116 joe wood in my set, i have a friend who has one as well. i am sure if we tallyed them all up we would get between 25-50 very easily, it's a tough & popular card which makes it hard to find as very few change hands, but not a rare card by any stretch.

scott

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Posted By: David

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Posted By: tbob

Now I know how Count Dracula felt when he saw that wooden stake plunging through his heart.
David emailed me about it earlier and since he recognizes he is a "bottom feeding low life" (his words)I forgave him.
Seriously,congratulations again on a beautiful card.

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Posted By: scott brockelman

the card is sized the same as my wood. with sporting life you have to compare each card to itself, not others. for example all 300 series cobbs will come very short top to bottom, as will all black back cy young, etc. each card had it's own sheet position of course and this affects the final size, making them very consistent in cut characteristics.

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Posted By: ockday

"over 300"...bender pastel, e.collins pastel, jennings pastel, zwilling
"if you want"....bradley, griffith, magee, pelty, sheckard
"when you think"..bresnahan blue, m. brown blue, byrne, crawford blue, dooin pastel, l doyle pastel, kane, h. lord blue, murphy, tannehill, willett

all have blue ink on back

alan

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Posted By: leon

I'm glad you kept talking after that first sentence....I was starting to get a little scared....(back away, slowly)......later

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Posted By: Scott

BTW - to finance my trip to the National, I'll be standing outside the doors trying to sell my Johnson. The ladies say it's a "Cracker Jack".

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Posted By: Scott Elkins

But, I have Zero Sporting Life cards in my collection! After having a nice pastel Cobb stolen in the mail en route to me around 7 years ago, I lost interest. Luckily the card was insured, and I did get my $$$ back after several months from the Postal Service.

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Posted By: tbob

I have the population report from PSA to add to my data, although I know some of those cards might be counted twice so I'll bear that in mind. I know there must be some more of you out there with large collections or team collections because I have been so frequently outbid!
Thanks for all the emails, I appreciate them.
Bob

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Posted By: Julie

When I had M116s, I had a number of blue backs and a black back; occasionally, someone would tell me the black back was phony, but I was sure it wasn't. Since it sold along with the rest, I guess whoever bought it didn't think it was fake, either.

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Posted By: ErikV

Here's my donation to your cause:

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Posted By: tbob

It's becoming more and more evident to me that almost all guys buying M116s on ebay or in auctions are buying a) Hall of Famers b) Type cards c) a few nice looking highly graded cards.
I don't know if there is going to be a real interest in the future for a complete set but I am sure there aren't many around. I would hazard a guess that there are now more T207 sets than M116 sets and 10 years ago I would think it was the other way around.
I know that there was an incredible find of M116s which were graded as 8s and 9s. Did the "find" constitute a complete set or a near set, does anyone know? Was SGC the grader of these cards? If so, I might be able to find it in their pop report section. I only wish their pop report was as easy to access as PSA's. Trying to access SGC's Sporting Life pop report is like trying to decipher the DaVinci Code.

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Posted By: Bruce Babcock

I have two M116s. McGraw and Joss. Both blue printing on back with identical "If you want baseball news . . ." text.

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Posted By: tbob

You had to enter "1910-11" instead of 1910. Sheesh...
Any one else out there want to fess up to owning M116s and which ones they are and which backs?
I am still looking for anyone other than Scott B. who actually owns a set. Only one entry in the SGC M116 registry and that is Jay who has some nice ones but only a handful after selling off several on ebay.

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Posted By: tbob

In case anyone missed the thread and wanted to contribute their info, pics, data, etc. to the article.
If anyone has the 2 different Cy Young M116s poses or any others please send me a scan. I have the 2 different Jimmy Walsh cards and the 2 different Home Run Baker pose cards in my collection.