Pep Young, #107 in W514... He's in the Hall of Fame

[FrankWakefield]

90+ years ago, Royce Middlebrook Youngs, of Texas, played baseball. Eventually, he made it to the majors, he played for Mr. McGraw's Giants. He was a solid outfielder, and hitter. He played under the name of Ross Young, nickname "Pep".

http://www.baseball-reference.com/pl...oungro01.shtml




A few things. Ross Youngs played most of 10 seasons. He died at age 30, from Brights Disease, which cut short his promising career. He was inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame in 1972. Addie Joss, who died age 31, played only 9 seasons, and was inducted in 1978. Youngs may well have had the shortest life of all Hall of Famers.

That W514 of Youngs has a "Pep" Young caption, and a common price in the 2010 edition of The Standard Catalog. In an exchange of emails with our dutiful Bob Lemke, I think that oversight will be corrected in a future edition of The Standard Catalog.

His E120 has a "Ross Young" caption and a HOF price.
His E121 has a "Pep Young" caption and a common price.
His E122 has a "Pep Young" caption and a common price.
His W573 has a "Ross Young" caption and a HOF price.
His W575 has a "Ross Young" caption and a HOF price.
His 1922 Exhibit has a "Ross Young" caption and a HOF price.


At least for the E121, it says Pep Young, and shows "2nd B Detroit Americans", so that may well be Ralph Stuart Young on there. I don't see where he had the nickname "Pep" like Ross did. Ross hit left handed, Ralph was a switch hitter, the image shows the follow through from a left handed swing so that doesn't tell us much.

Even if the E cards aren't Ross Youngs, that W514 is.

There aren't many cards of this HOFer, due to his short career. And a few of the cards are sleepers because of the name game.

Anyone else ever notice that the price guides have missed some of the cards of this Hall of Fame player?

[fkw]

Kinda looks like a "D" on the cap of the E121 to me.

Good call on the W514

[Matt]

Originally Posted by FrankWakefield

His E121 has a "Pep Young" caption and a common price.

Frank - as you can see above, Ross Youngs' E121 says Ross. The one labeled Pepp depicts the Tigers player and is priced correctly.

[fkw]

The image on the W514 is exacly like Ross Youngs

BTW...... The W514 is NOW Ross Youngs "rookie" card too

With W514's 1919-21 date, it older IMO than the 1921-23 E220 and 1921 D383 Koester, the 2 other cards said to be his rookies before.

IMO the value on that card just jumped 10X

[bcbgcbrcb]

Great discovery, Frank. You are correct, the W514 would definitively be the true rookie card of Ross Youngs.

[DanP]

Originally Posted by bcbgcbrcb

Great discovery, Frank. You are correct, the W514 would definitively be the true rookie card of Ross Youngs.

Stop sniffing around where you don't need to Frank!! I finally got his RC a few months ago! LOL .... nice work. Dan

[sreader3]

Great find Frank!

It took 90 years to discover Ross Youngs' rookie card. Just goes to show that our hobby is still in its infancy (let's say, the "third inning") as far as knowledge goes and that a lot of exciting discoveries are still to be made.

BTW, there was an ebay sale of a W514 Pep Young #107 PSA 7 not to long ago for sub-$50. You made someone's day.

[triwak]

Great discovery!! I've always found it crazy that his last name is misspelled on almost EVERY contemporary card. You'd think for a HOF caliber player, the correct spelling would have been more widely known?

Edited to add: OK, I now see from the above baseball reference link, that apparently he chose to play as Ross Young (no "s").

[FrankWakefield]

From what I can see, he played as Ross Young. Not Youngs. And he had the nickname Pep early on... as did some other players. But I don't recall any Pep's lately.