Play Ball Jackson

[tmw2ward]

I always loved this card. Does anyone know why certain older players were included in the '40 set, while others were not? I'm wounding why Mathewson and Shoeless Joe made the cut, and Cobb and Young were not???

[Leon]

Never seen an answer to the question. Possibly a contractual thing with the players or their heirs?

[phikappapsi]

I've consistently wondered the same thing about their lack of inclusion in the '39 set. No Wagner, no Jackson, but then they were added in '40 but not the others.

More conspicuous is the missing Gehrig from the '39 set. One would have thought it would be there; since Gehrig was actually playing at the open of the '39 season. Had that card been made; I can only speculate to it's massive popularity today. Probably would have made the entire '39 set infinitely more valuable (even with the Williams rookie)

[talkinbaseball]

I never thought of lou not being in that set, that card would've been right up there with Ted Williams, thanks for the creativity. John

[brianp-beme]

The old-timers in the 1940 set were in two numerical runs (168-180 and 223-238) both located in the higher numbers of the set. It is possible that a larger set was intended and more old timers included, but were not produced, as is the case with the 1939 Play Ball set. The 1939 set indicates on the back that 250 subjects were to be produced, but only 161 were.

Also another possibility is that additional all-time great players would have been included in the 1941 color set in the higher numbers, but the set stopped production at 72 cards.

Brian (Tuesday conjectures)

[tmw2ward]

I wish there was a Cobb...that would have been really cool!!