Why the scarcity of certain T206 Southern Leaguers ?

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Posted By: Frank Wakefield

Jamie...


I don't think Perdue was short printed.


I do think there was a bit of a hunt for Perdue cards after he went up to the major leagues... He was an extremely interesting fellow. Best game he ever pitched in the major leagues was opening day against Mr. McGraw's Giants, Mathewson pitched. Hub Perdue pitched a 3 hit shutout as Boston beat the Giants. It was April 15, 1912. But did Hub get great headlines the next day in the newspaper? No. The papers were full of stuff about a possible shipwreck at sea... the Titanic.

Hub started the 1914 season in Boston. The team lost more than they won. Manager Stallings arrives, and Boston starts winning. Stallings trades Hub to St. Louis, and Hub was mad as hell for years, because he was traded away from a share of all of that 1914 World Series money.


Hub would board a train in Gallatin each year to go to spring training. He'd arrive back by train in October, usually broke. His dad, a frugal fellow, could not believe that Hub spent all of those big baseball dollars and had nothing saved for winter. So one season, just before Hub departs, his dad tells him that when he comes home at season's end his dad will match, dollar for dollar, each dollar Hub has saved. The season goes by, Hub rides the train home, and is broke. In town, before going home, he stops by the bank and borrows $2000 from a banker friend. Hub goes home and greats his dad. Eventually dad asks Hub if he saved anything, and without a word out comes the $2000 onto the table. Dad goes to a tin and counts out the matching $2000. Hub eventually tells dad the truth and returns the money.


I think some Hub cards were gathered because he was with that Boston team in 1914. He had a long career, mainly with Nashville, so folks would have been more likely to keep his card. I think these are reasons why there should be more of them, not fewer. I think guys who left baseball and forgotten about were more likely to have their cards discarded. After baseball Hub was in local politics, and was elected County Clerk of Sumner County Tennessee (Gallatin is the county seat) several times. Maybe that put a demand on his card that got them out of collectors hands and into the hands of locals. I don't believe that, but Dr. Beckett must have had a reason for tweeking the price of his cards.