W555 Date of Issue (a hypothesis)

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Posted By: Jeff S

Right on the heels of E102 being re-dated from 1908 to 1910, I believe that the same ought to be done with W555.

First of all, I'd like to note that I have very little information about team identification, which was a major issue in the E102 re-dating. If anyone has any of these cards with teams that might contradict or confirm what I suggest, please let me know. (And thanks to FKW, whose page has some of the cards listed with team names.)

W555 should be considered a 1909-1910 issue. I am assuming that most of the players, if not all, are included as major leaguers (again--if I'm wrong, I've love to hear about it). There are several players listed in SCD 2003 who make 1907 an impossible date:

• Jimmy Austin -- began ML career in 1909
  
• Bob Bescher -- began ML career in Sept. 1908
  
• Ed Cicotte -- except for 3 appearances in 1905, began career in 1908
  
• Harry Coveleski -- pitched 4 games and 6 games in 1907 and 1908, respectively; was a regular in 1909
  
• Jim Delehanty -- the card says Detroit, but he wasn't traded there until half-way through the 1909 season.
  
• Josh Devore -- had 6 ABs in 1908, 28 in '09, was not a regular until 1910.
  
• Bull Durham -- odd case: pitched a total of 29 innings in his career; my guess is that whatever got him into the T206 set as a Giant probably got him into this set, too. Team confirmation as NY-N would indicate 1908-1909.
  
• Russ Ford -- pitched three innings in 1909, otherwise was not a regular until 1910.
  
• Joe Lake -- began ML career in 1908 (he was 9-22!)
  
• Amby McConnell -- began ML career in 1908
  
• Chief Meyers -- began ML career in 1909
  
• Fred Snodgrass -- played only 6 games in '08, 28 games in '09, regular in 1910.
  
• Hippo Vaughn -- aside from 2.1 innings in 1908, didn't begin career until 1910.
  

On or two of these guys might be explained by some odd circumstance (got injured or sent down unexpectedly before the season started), but that list makes up 20% of the known players.

Thanks to FKW's site, I can confirm Devore & McConnell are listed with teams they did not play with until 1908.

Several players (Bransfield, Dygert, Hartsel, Kleinow, Nicholls, Pastorius, Phillippe) did not play (or barely played) beyond the end of the 1910 season. (As is the case, of course, with Addie Joss, though he could've appeared in a post-1910 set.) Nicholls is listed in SCD as "Nichols," with no first name--I'm assuming it's Simon Nicholls, who was also in the T206 set, and was a regular in '07 and '08, and played sparingly in '09.

Both Pastorius and Nicholls suggest it is a 1909 set: Nicholls did not have an at-bat in 1910; Pastorius didn't play in 1910 after a disappointing 1909 season.

Furthermore, Hinchman is listed with Cleveland, with whom he played from 1907-1909. He did not play in the majors from 1910-1914.

An added piece of evidence--much less solid--the Cobb is pictured in the SCD guide, and is the same image as in the E98 set. To me, he looks older in the E98 image than he does on the A.C. Dietsche Postcards, which are copyrighted 1907.

So, you HOF rookie collectors: chaos has struck again! Now if you want a Ty Cobb rookie (and postcards won't do), you can choose from any number of cards. Same goes for Eddie Collins.

Interestingly, I just noticed that Brett Domue's HOF checklist page lists some (but not all) of the W555's as "1907-1910" W555s.