RPPC Deadball Era Visual Showcase Thread

[T206Jim]

I would like this thread to serve as an informal visual showcase for Real Photo Post Cards "RPPCs" of Major League players from the Deadball Era. Something of a cross between Jeff B's terrific "Let's see some Postcards" thread and Vintageball.com's postcard gallery. This is a very narrow field, but I hope there is enough interest to sustain it long term as a hobby resource.

A few parameters:

1. Must be from 1900 to 1919.
2. Must depict a player(s) in uniform who appeared in the Majors at some point in their career even if the RPPC shows them in the Minors.
3. Must be a RPPC (easiest test is if dots appear under 5x magnification is most likely not a RPPC) also if unposted or the stampbox is visible it will likely have one of the backs shown at this website: http://www.playle.com/realphoto/photod.php
4. Must not be from a cataloged set such as Rotograph or Bregstone.
5. Preferably are "One Offs" which most RPPCs are.

So without further adieu, here are a few of mine to start the showcase.

July 16, 1914 Babe Ruth on the mound for his 2nd ML game.
1914-Fenway-RPPC-watermarked.jpg



1912 World Series Game 3 at Fenway Park.
1912-world-series-game-3-postcard-crop-Net-54.jpg



1912 Lee L. Stopple shot of Frank Baker in Galveston, Texas.
Baker_PC.jpg



1914 Chicago Cubs barnstorming in Henry, Illionois. Note the bear cub mascot to the left of the batter and the ball in flight.
1914-Cubs-postcard.jpg




Circa 1910 Hughie Jennings.
Jennings RPPC 1910.jpg



1905 Pat Ragan while at Cornell College.
Ragan-PC-front-web.jpg

[jb217676]

Here's two:

• 1916 Cleveland Indians Real Photo Postcard with Chick Gandil (My Avatar!) & Tris Speaker
• 1918 Real Photo Postcard of Grover Alexander in France as a sergeant with the 342nd Field Artillery during World War I

[slidekellyslide]

1910 Zack Wheat at Spring Training in Hot Springs, Arkansas. The postcard is signed on the reverse.

[ruth-gehrig]

Each one of these....WOW!
Great stuff

[kmac32]

Fairbanks Morse

[slidekellyslide]

Art Thomason signed RPPC with the Lincoln Tigers in 1916. He had a cup of coffee in the major leagues with Cleveland in 1910.

[T206Jim]

Fantastic Wheat!

Here are the 1911 Chicago White Sox in Stephenville, Texas during Spring Training, one year uniform and notice the tricycle.

[T206Jim]

I'll have another try at reinvigorating this thread. Here are several of my favorite RPPCs framed together. Please post your RPPCs.

RPPCs-framed-web.jpg

[jb217676]

Here's a few more Jim!

• 1906 Des Moines Baseball Team RPPC. Includes Eddie Cicotte (front row, second from right)
• C. 1907 Worcester Busters RPPC. Includes Jesse Burkett (front row, third player from left)
• 1912 Superior Team RPPC. Includes Dazzy Vance (top row, second from left)
• 1913 Frederic Schutz RPPC of Walter Johnson

[obcbeatle]

Thank you all for sharing these postcards. They are all beautiful! I wish I had one to share. Maybe one day.

[packs]

Here's one from my collection. This is former Major Leaguer Frank Owen throwing out the first pitch for the Toledo Mudhens in 1909 at the newly opened Swayne Field. Owen won 20 games three seasons in a row for the White Sox and was a World Series champion in 1906:

[Kawika]

The opening of Swayne Field begat several postcards commemorating the momentous day, an eighteen inning battle won by visiting Columbus 12-11. Here is catcher Fred Abbott (three seasons in the Bigs) nailing the first "attempded" base stealer who by the looks of it is going to be out by a country mile.

[Kawika]

This postcard depicts a game between the visiting Baltimore Orioles against the Montreal Royals circa 1905. It's somewhat speculative on my part but I believe the player charging toward the camera is lefty Fred Burchell who pitched parts of four seasons for the Phillies and the Red Sox and who has a T206. There are likely other former/future MLers in the scene; the rosters for both teams at BBRef.com indicate that the majority of players had played in the big leagues. The signage on the fences and beyond is what takes this postcard to the next level. The detail on the scoreboard is just beyond resolution but it might be possible to nail down the specific game if one were so inclined.

[Jobu]

Here is Cy Young playing with the Ravenna, Ohio team on Labor Day, 1912 just after he retired. Interesting to note that he is wearing the 1912 Boston uniform.

I did a ton of digging on this and found a few local accounts in the papers though not quite as much detail as I had hoped. I did find identical two-sentence blurbs in national papers so this game did go out on the wire "Cy Young is still playing ball in Ohio. He played first base for the Ravenna team Labor Day, and his squad broke even in a double-header. He pitched the last inning of one game."

Also noteworthy is how he is wearing his pants. I seem to recall a recent comment about pants appearing to be on backwards.

[Bicem]

Great postcard Bryan, thanks for sharing. Campf had one of those too.

[packs]

Whoa I've never seen that Abbott postcard before. I also have a colorized version of my Owen postcard. Must have really been a big day in Toledo.

[Jobu]

Thanks Jeff! Who is Campf?

Originally Posted by Bicem

Great postcard Bryan, thanks for sharing. Campf had one of those too.

[Bicem]

Brian Campf, long time postcard collector who passed away last year.

[sb1]

Sorry to hear about Brian, did deals with him for many years.

[h2oya311]

Is that really Cy Young?? Is it just me or does that look like an imposter? If it is him, he looks mighty young for a 45 year old.

[cdn_collector]

Originally Posted by Kawika

This postcard depicts a game between the visiting Baltimore Orioles against the Montreal Royals circa 1905. It's somewhat speculative on my part but I believe the player charging toward the camera is lefty Fred Burchell who pitched parts of four seasons for the Phillies and the Red Sox and who has a T206. There are likely other former/future MLers in the scene; the rosters for both teams at BBRef.com indicate that the majority of players had played in the big leagues. The signage on the fences and beyond is what takes this postcard to the next level. The detail on the scoreboard is just beyond resolution but it might be possible to nail down the specific game if one were so inclined.

Wow, that's so awesome.
George Gibson was with Montreal for the first half of 1905, and Cy Ferry was there for a bit too.

Is there any writing on the back?


Cheers,

Richard.

[bmarlowe1]

Originally Posted by Kawika

This postcard depicts a game between the visiting Baltimore Orioles against the Montreal Royals circa 1905. It's somewhat speculative on my part but I believe the player charging toward the camera is lefty Fred Burchell who pitched parts of four seasons for the Phillies and the Red Sox and who has a T206. There are likely other former/future MLers in the scene; the rosters for both teams at BBRef.com indicate that the majority of players had played in the big leagues. The signage on the fences and beyond is what takes this postcard to the next level. The detail on the scoreboard is just beyond resolution but it might be possible to nail down the specific game if one were so inclined.

David - there's a fair chance that is Burchell. In any case, I wish more posters knew how have their images appear like yours.

[T206Jim]

Fantastic RPPCs guys!

Here is a 1911 one of the Detroit Tigers vs. the Boston Red Sox on August 3rd at the Huntington Avenue Grounds in Boston. Cobb is pulling into the bag at third, Crawford running towards second and Hooper is against the wall in right. The explanation is longer than I can provide here as it would be a thread unto itself, but if you're interested in learning more drop me a PM with your email address and I'll be glad to provide you with the details.

1911 Huntington Grounds Det - Bost.jpg

[Kawika]

Originally Posted by cdn_collector

George Gibson was with Montreal for the first half of 1905, and Cy Ferry was there for a bit too.
Is there any writing on the back?

The postcard was unused. Only writing on the back was a dealer's notes in pencil naming the teams and the red herring that Babe Ruth played for the Orioles (though Bam would have been ten years old at the time). Also have a quick note from the seller stating circa 1905. The rest is semi-educated conjecture. Very tantalizing to speculate who the other players are, or even that it is not entirely outside the realm of possibility that the throw to first could be coming from Gibson himself.

[Brian Van Horn]

.

1. 1906 New England League Worcester Busters RPPC with Jesse Burkett, Harry Lord, and several other Major Leaguers

2. 1907 New England League Brockton Tigers RPPC with several Major Leaguers

3. 1909 Connecticut State League Holyoke Papermakers with a couple of Major Leaguers

[cdn_collector]

Originally Posted by Kawika

The postcard was unused. Only writing on the back was a dealer's notes in pencil naming the teams and the red herring that Babe Ruth played for the Orioles (though Bam would have been ten years old at the time). Also have a quick note from the seller stating circa 1905. The rest is semi-educated conjecture. Very tantalizing to speculate who the other players are, or even that it is not entirely outside the realm of possibility that the throw to first could be coming from Gibson himself.

Very cool, David. Thanks for sharing your sweet "Gibson RPPC"

Richard.

[ksfarmboy]

Nice postcards Adam. Those have to be pretty tough.

[JoeDfan]

Also my only.

[mybuddyinc]

Originally Posted by Kawika

The postcard was unused. Only writing on the back was a dealer's notes in pencil naming the teams and the red herring that Babe Ruth played for the Orioles (though Bam would have been ten years old at the time). Also have a quick note from the seller stating circa 1905. The rest is semi-educated conjecture. Very tantalizing to speculate who the other players are, or even that it is not entirely outside the realm of possibility that the throw to first could be coming from Gibson himself.

David,

Maybe I'm going nuts, or getting old (probably both ), but I "think" this postcard has been analyzed on net54 before. I kind of remember someone figuring out the actual day (or at least series) the game was played based on score board.

If not, here goes:

Baltnet.jpg

Baltimore
Montreal
Newark
Toronto
Providence
Buffalo
Jersey City
Rochester


Some GREAT items here.

Fun stuff, Scott

[Exhibitman]

That 1913 WaJo is friggin' awesome!

Does someone who corrupted MLB players count?



Rothstein's bag man for the Black Sox fix, Abe Attell

[Kawika]

Originally Posted by mybuddyinc

David,

Maybe I'm going nuts, or getting old (probably both ), but I "think" this postcard has been analyzed on net54 before. I kind of remember someone figuring out the actual day (or at least series) the game was played based on score board.

Scott- I was able to find the thread in which I posted the Sweet Cap postcard for the first time (October 2010 Pickups http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=130350). Mark F weighed in on the possibility, albeit difficult, of zeroing in on the specific game via the scoreboard details. I think that's about as far as the "analysis" went. Thought I'd have time in my retirement to pursue such undertakings but instead I have become the original dotard. Takes me all day to tie my shoes. Aging is cramping my style. I'm afraid the details of the game will remain a mystery.

[BeanTown]

Joe Jackson against Detroit

[Leon]

Can add this one. Thanks to Jeff P and the BST from some time ago.....

Originally Posted by ksfarmboy

Nice postcards Adam. Those have to be pretty tough.

Thanks. They're pretty scarce. You would think that you'd come across more of them here in Massachusetts, but that hasn't been the case for me over the years. The Worcester PC is the only one that came from a New England seller and he was in Maine.

[Leon]

Maybe a few years later but here is one...pardon the large scan but for those of us on computers with 24" screens it will look good.

[Kris19]

Adding these to the visual showcase created here. More information about these RPPCs from the 1910 World Series, Game 5 at the West Side Grounds may be found in this thread:
http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?p=1799082

[CobbSpikedMe]

Originally Posted by Leon

Can add this one. Thanks to Jeff P and the BST from some time ago.....

Always loved the emotion in that picture Leon. Great post card.



.

[Leon]

Thanks Andy. I always like looking at it. As said, I got it from our BST from a valued member and friend...Hey Jeff!! BST is your friend sometimes.

This thread had reached the second page. So I am going to go O/T just a little bit. This is deadball era but isn't a pro team. The photo isn't perfectly clear on this RPPC but it's one of the best visuals of an American Indian Baseball postcard I have seen. I remember asking a veteran postcard collector and member (hey Dan), who also collects American Indian kinds of postcards what he thought about it? He said a value he thought it might be. I said thanks and promptly paid the seller 2x that amount, which was the best he would do. He wasn't selling for less. So ya' take it when ya' can, if you want it. I rarely regret paying too much for things that are cool to me and for my collection.

Originally Posted by CobbSpikedMe

Always loved the emotion in that picture Leon. Great post card.

.