1902-1911 W600 Sporting Life Cabinets

[Archive]

Posted By: Kevin Struss

Paul, the Sporting Life was very diligent in updating the teams of its subjects, at least in its advertisements. For example, they originally offered Chesbro with a Pittsburg designation in 1902, but as soon as jumped to New York AL in 1903, the Sporting Life listed him with that team in their flyers. What we do not know is whether they continued to send out the cards listing him with Pittsburg until they ran out. The Sproting Life was a thrifty company, so my gut guess is that they did.

The example of Castro is not unique. Whenever the Sporting Life would print the list of current players available, they would organize them by team. Also, at the end of each advertisement would be a list of "Other Noted Players" which would consist of players who were retired, such as Castro, but were still available. As the the years went on, this list ballooned to hundreds of players. Interestingly, no teams were listed in the advertisement for these players. As you would guess, this list was maily comprised of lesser known players who would not have been popular choices with the fans, thus leaving the Sporting Life with inventory of their cards to get rid of after the fact.

Jerry Spillman's wonderful article in Old Cardbaoard notes that some players had as many as four cards listing them with different teams over the years.

There is no doubt that the Sporting Life was meticulous in updating the teams of its subjects, but it was also very frugal and was certainly not going to waste any cards that had already been printed up.