Ok, maybe I think about this stuff too much, but I really don't understand it all yet.

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Posted By: Frank Wakefield

Hey Gilbert...

If you read about baseball, then you might develop an appreciation for those cards. I'm enchanted with T210s, although I've just about sold all I have other than series 6 cards and a type card of the other 7 series... so I can try to complete series 6, the Bluegrass League. I'm from Kentucky. The cards are little pieces of history. If you read the old guide books (I prefer the red Spalding Records to the green Guides) then you'll know a bit about these guys. Those T210 guys played all their games in the daytime. Stayed in hotels in small towns while on the road. Probably borded at someone's house during the season in the home town.

I have about 100 ZeeNut cards. They are wonderful. Years ago some players preferred the PCL over the majors, they made more money and the weather was better. They could make more money because the season was longer.

But if you don't read, then you won't know what these guys did, or what was going on...

Leon's beautiful card is more than just art, it is a piece of history. Seeing those cards, studying them, preserving them, that all keeps alive the memory of those that played the game.

A good friend, a baseball fan, told me a few years ago that I was not a baseball fan. I thought he had gone nuts. But he insisted that I was not a fan of baseball. I asked why I wasn't. He told me I was a fan of 19th and 20th century baseball. But in a time when a shortstop makes so much (25mil)in a season that a team would need $8 from the sale of every ticket, and have attentance of over 3 million to cover his salary... that in such times that I could not be a fan of that. And with that I decided he may well be right. The guys on the 40 man roster get at least $300,000 in salary, about $140,000 from player association money each year (licensing, baseball cards... this funded the last strike, read Card Sharks), and about $120 per diem for expenses while on the road. I'm not a fan of that. Get a copy of Baseball, The Writer's Game by Shannon, and read what Larry Ritter (author of The Glory of Their Times, a book that would help you like the old cards) and read what Larry has to say about today's game.

I've been reading a bit to learn about markets and economics in medieval times. Only way to develop an understanding is to read about it. Pretty much the same with learning about these old cards, Pop Dillon, Fred Toney, Walter Carlisle, Roy Hitt... I love these guys!!!!