1898 Cleveland Spiders Baseball Program

[patricka]

Just acquired yesterday in a trade this 1898 Cleveland program and wanted to get Board Members opinions on the players pictured on the cover. In 20 years of collecting vintage programs I have never seen this example before. The program has some condition issues such as a missing piece on the top border that impacts the first 2 pages.

I usually don't pursue items in this condition but the program is for a game against my Cubs and I already have an 1898 Chicago program vs. Cleveland in my collection in which Cy Young pitched and Sockalexis in the lineup so I thought it made a nice companion piece.

The program is neatly scored for a game played on July 23rd. Cy Young pitched and beat Chicago 4 to 2. Appears Clark Griffith pitched in relief for the Chicago. Starting at catcher for Chicago is rookie Frank Chance. Does not appear Sockalexis played but I have not pulled the box score yet.

Another aspect that I like about is that it has a picture of the Cleveland team on the front cover and I assume the player in the top row 2nd from the right is Louis Sockalexis? In the middle of the picture are three players sitting in the center. I assume the player sitting on the left among the three is a Cy Young?

Any thoughts on identifying Young and Sockalexis? Anybody ever seen this program design before?