A McCreachery Card Theory

[Troy Kirk]

Like Joe and Insidethewrapper, I have also done a lot of research on the Detroit ballclubs of the 1880s. The Detroit pictures for the Old Judge set were taken sometime between April 25-28, 1888 in Indianapolis. This is the only window when Lady Baldwin and Frank Scheibeck could have both been photographed and the Fearnaught photos prove they were taken in Indianapolis.

Joe and Insidethewrapper pointed out several wrong notions about White already. Another wrong notion is that Boston didn't want him in 1889. In fact, Boston did want him but White refused to play for Boston because White still harbored some bad blood towards Boston due to his treatment in Boston when he played there earlier. Boston tried to get him for a while, then gave up and let him go to Pittsburgh instead.

While all this speculation about the McGreachery name is interesting, I'm certainly not buying it. Old Judge cared about selling cigarettes, and they wouldn't want to insult any Irish customers. The company was a little playful with the dog card, but I don't think there was any riddle or statement being made with that card, it was just a fun card.

McGreachery is certainly a strange card and worthy of discussion, but I don't think it follows a pattern by Old Judge of making cards with riddles because I don't think there are any Old Judge cards with riddles. They were just baseball cards to help sell cigarettes. By all means, keep the discussion going though.