WTB - 1910-1911 T212 Obak Bonner

[slider1950]

Al Bonner was my grandfather. I have so far only been able to locate and purchase one of his cards, 1910 T212 Obak. He also is on an Obak T4 and I believe an Obak Cabinet too.

Terry
Seattle, WA.

[Kawika]

Hello Slider-
There are various resources collectors use to research ballplayers' records and their cards. Baseball-reference.com indicates that there were 23 different Bonners that have played in the minor leagues (LINK), your grandfather being one of them (LINK). Another website we use is vintagecardprices.com which provides a record of prices paid for cards, and is also useful for check listing the various cards issued for a player [LINK]. In the case of cards enumerated for Bonner vcp.com lists a T209 and two T210s. These are for a different Bonner. They also list the Obaks for 1910 and 1911 plus the T4 cabinet for your grandfather. What surprises me is that the list doesn't show any Zeenuts (a PCL issue in those days). Al Bonner was pretty busy at San Francisco, Seattle and Tacoma in the 1910s and you'd half-expect him to have a few Zeenuts. Googling "Bonner Zeenut" indicates there was at least one in 1912 when he was with SF; I wonder if there were cards for other years. One of our Zeenut experts might know better. Good luck in your search.

ETA: Just gave my PCL cards a once over. No Bonners. Sorry. There is a terrific little card show in Seattle (actually Shoreline) twice a year. Next one is in June. There are some really big hitters in the collecting world, veritable walking PCL encyclopedias, that regularly show up. Might be worth your while to drop by.

[slider1950]

Kawika, thanks very much for the quick reply with all of the tips and resources I really appreciate it! I'm amazed at the info you came up with on my grandad! I've been kind of stumbling around not knowing exactly where to look. You are absolutely correct about the other Bonner's being out there. I think there was one in the Carolina league and another in the Southern League/association.
I'm going to follow the links you provided and see what I can find.
I will find the dates for the upcoming Seattle/Shoreline card show and try and make it.

Side note: When I was a kid in the late 50's one of the card companies, don't recall which one, published cards called "The Oldtimers" or something similar. The card was brown and the picture of the player was within an oval picture frame. Anyway, my buddy managed to get one of my grandfathers cards. He would not trade or sell it for anything. I bought all of those cards I could and never got one! If I had known better, I was probably 8 or 9, I could have written the company and probably got a box of them! Anyway you being a collector I thought you might get a kick out of the story.
Thanks again for the help I appreciate it.

Terry

[Kawika]

Terry-
Here is a link to the Washington State Sports Collectors Asociation website: http://www.wsscaseattle.com The dates for the next show are given as Saturday, June 4 and Sunday, June 5. Not saying your grandfather's cards will turn up but there will be plenty of Obaks and Zeenuts and the like to root through, and there will be people who know a lot about old-time West Coast baseball (and who would be pleased to meet the grandson of an old PCLer).

I did a little clumsy googling and turned up these photos of the 1914 and 1915 Seattle Giants. The players aren't identified but maybe you can spot GrandDad. Copies can be ordered from the Seattle Museum of History & Industry. Contact info is on the webpage.
http://digitalcollections.lib.washin...smohai/id/6292
http://digitalcollections.lib.washin...smohai/id/5153

1914 Seattle


1915 Seattle

[slider1950]

David, I'm in a state of shock! "clumbsy googleing"! I need to get to that level! In the 1914 team photo I'm quite sure that my grandfather is standing behind (right side) of owner Dugdale. In the 1915 photo it is positively him standing back row second from left. I will dig up the captions, maybe from the MOHAI.
My mother is still living (90) so I will get these two and show her, she'll be ecstatic.
I'm guessing there may be some cards from these two teams around somewhere. I will for sure go to the card show in June, will be fun.
To say thanks would be an understatement.

Best Regards,
Terry

[Kawika]

Terry-
There's no telling what else is out there. Al Bonner played for a lot of clubs across the country and there are likely team photos and post cards for other squads besides Seattle. Just have to dig. Google is your friend.
Always fun rummaging through baseball history. Have a look at the rosters at bbref.com for each of the teams he was on. He played with Casey Stengel at Montgomery in 1912. That is seriously cool. He played under Iron Man McGinnity at Butte in 1917. He rubbed shoulders with a whole mess of Zeenutters and Obakers who are almost like part of the gang here at Net54. He put up pretty decent numbers too. I take it he was your mother's father. Looks like he was out of baseball not long after she was born but I bet she heard great stories growing up.

David McD.

[Leon]

This was moved from the BST to give Terry (hi Terry) a little more help and eyes on the question.

And thanks to David *(hey David) for his fine help so far.......

[oaks1912]

Terry..I have three Obaks of your grandfather in stock. You can email me at the address below, and I would recommend stopping by the Shoreline show in June. There is a good concentration of Northwest baseball buffs in attendance, and minimally they know how to pronounce Spokane, Mark

....mark_macrae@comcast.net

[Kawika]

Good move, Leon, to bring this to the main board so the likes of Mssrs. M, E & Y can weigh in. Terry: Mark is one of the "walking encyclopedias" I alluded to. If they gave PhDs for Pacific Coast baseball we'd be calling him Dr Macrae. Always a pleasure to be on the receiving end of one of his PCL discourses.

[slider1950]

Dave, Leon & Mark thank you so much for helping me on my quest to locate cards and other information about my grandfather. I only discovered net54 a few days ago and have been amazed at how much knowledge you and the other members have. Everybody has been great. Initially my goal was to just obtain any cards of my grandfather that I might be able to locate. But now I've been bitten by the bug and think I will try and collect all of the cards of his first team the 1910 Spokane Indians. Maybe I'm being unrealistic but it should be fun trying!

Terry

[Kawika]

Sounds like a fun project. Hopefully the sticker shock of what old baseball cards cost doesn't scare you away. They're not a nickel a pack anymore. Doesn't have to bust the bank if you're not overly fussy about condition. The June show will be a good place to look. Here's a link to a website which breaks out the Obak cards by team: LINK

[deadballera]

great card.

[ZachS]

Searching around for photos/info about Al Bonner I found a pretty funny newspaper article. I'm not sure I should post it here though because I'm not sure if it's too personal or offensive to the OP.