A McCreachery Card Theory

[insidethewrapper]

As Joe previously has stated, Deacon did not "fall from Grace" and was not a "downfall as a baseball player " He had a great 1887 season, won the 1887 "World Championship" and was reserved by Detroit for the 1888 season. The team was very shaken when to talked about retiring before the 1888 season. He was a key player even at his age. This photo was taken before the 1888 season, but not sure when it was printed as a card.

[cyseymour]

Originally Posted by insidethewrapper

As Joe previously has stated, Deacon did not "fall from Grace" and was not a "downfall as a baseball player " He had a great 1887 season, won the 1887 "World Championship" and was reserved by Detroit for the 1888 season. The team was very shaken when to talked about retiring before the 1888 season. He was a key player even at his age. This photo was taken before the 1888 season, but not sure when it was printed as a card.

It was printed in 1888, per design of the card. White had a poor year in 1888 and the team disbanded.

[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.

[cyseymour]

Troy,

While the photos were may have been taken in April, 1888, the McCreachery card was most likely published after the season for the reasons outlined by Joe G. The card is a joke, and there are several other joke cards in the set.

There are no other cards with riddles, but clearly the name is fictional. No other person in the world has that name, so it was most likely a very deliberate choice. Most people using a pseudonym haphazardly would choose from the multitude of already known names. The fact that they created their own name suggests there is a hidden meaning.

In addition to the double-entendre, it is still possible that they were also still trying to poke fun at White by making the name sound Irish. There was very little PC-ness and I doubt they were too concerned about offending Irish customers simply by putting the name on there. Or if it did offend, perhaps that is the reason for such a small print run (only one card known to exist).

Including both the double-entendre and simultaneously making the name sound Irish required some brilliant linguistic engineering, but it is not outside their capacity since, of course, they had the license to use whatever fake name they wished and did not have to stay within the bounds of conventional names.

But the double-entendre of "Sweet Son of God/Fall from Grace" is very, very on target, not only with the life and times of Deacon White, his poor play, and his religiosity, and the demise of his team, but also consistent with the joke of calling him a manager of Indianapolis. The narrative makes perfect sense.

As far as whether Boston wanted him, I wouldn't know, but whether did they did or not, it doesn't change the story that he had fallen very hard from his championship days just a year earlier. He had gone from "preacher" to "creacher" very quickly. That is the reflection that the card is commenting on.

[Joe_G.]

Holy smokes, glad to see the many replies since my last visit but I still cannot follow cyseymour's reasoning. I believe much of the confusion for you cyseymour resides in a failure to soak in all that is known about the situation. In no particular order, I'd like to offer some information that might help you.

- All Deacon White N172 cards are rare, the McCreachery only has a single known copy today, some of his other poses are not that far behind. I'd gladly trade a high grade Delahanty for a White
- By studying the N172 team change cards of 1888 (Fa & Fb), as well as the other years of N172 production, you quickly realize that the N172 cards were produced during the earliest part of the baseball season. The cabinets would often catch later in the year trades (produced perhaps during and after the N172 run)
- Only new players for Indy & Detroit were photographed in 1888 at Fearsnaught studio together with those that were somehow missed in 1887. McGeachy was photographed in 1887, so he was not part of the photo shoot. Strangely, all players were photographed in 5 poses except Deacon who posed for 9 different shots. The other Detroit players to be photographed that day were Baldwin, Conway, Getzien, and Scheibeck.
- Detroit began 1888 very strong, holding first place as late as July 28th (tied with NY Giants at 47-20 => well past 1/2 way point of season) when they lost the first of 16 straight! Yes, Detroit lost 16 straight but not because of Deacon White. Hardy Richardson broke his ankle (season ending injury), Sam Thompson had a lame throwing arm (wouldn't play remainder of the season), and most importantly, the team did not like their manager (Watkins). Watkins was strict and quick to fine players whether they deserved it or not and this quickly grew old. The Wolverines wouldn't return to winning ways until team Secretary, Robert Leadley, would take over as manager. By mid-1888, every team member despised Watkins (Deacon wasn't alone on this).
- Furthermore, the poor finish to 1888 wasn't responsible for Detroit disbanding; the death blow was instead due to a tough NL ruling that left visiting clubs with a smaller share of gate receipts. Detroit drew huge crowds on the road and did well in 1887 however they couldn't cover the player's salaries in 1888 with the smaller cut. (Jealous Boston, New York, etc. knew how to put an end to a small town team)
- Lastly, and I repeat, Deacon White had a solid 1888, he wasn't the demise of the Wolverines.

I do however like the discussion that has resulted from the probing.

Great to hear from some of my long time Detroit friends! Hope all is well.

[RCMcKenzie]

tebeaumgr.jpg

Here is a card I happened to get in the mail today of Oliver Wendell Tebeau who became manager of the Cleveland Infants in 1890 at the age of 25. He continued as a player/manager through 1898 with the then Cleveland Spiders.

Jack McGeachy was 24 with Indy in 1887 when Burnham left his post as manager. I have not been able to find any indication that McGeachy managed Indy, but he appears to have been an established starting player at 24 and may have been player manager for a brief interim period.

After learning about the Detroit and Indy combined photoshoots it seems more likely to me that the resulting McCreachy card was some sort of mix up, rather than an elaborate riddle.

[cyseymour]

Joe,

Do you even have a high grade Delahanty to trade? They're pretty hard to find, you know.

You make some interesting points, but it doesn't disprove the source of the riddle. Your criticism doesn't touch the side of the double-entendre originally observed by "Pariah" that says "Sweet Son of God", i.e. McCrea/Chery. That's just a reference to his religiosity.

It does paint some question on the theory that Dan N. raises with "creach" being a downfall/"fall from grace". Perhaps it was not the downfall of the Wolverines, exactly, but the joke on the card via Mgr. Indianapolis being that he was too old to play, it still suggests a downfall.

So the double-entendre still fits... unless you no longer believe the card was intended as a joke?

One more thing:

Deacon White career OPS .740
Ed Delahanty career OPS .916

To each his own, my friend.

[cyseymour]

So people think it's an error card with both the wrong name AND the wrong photo? Even though the riddle McCrea/Chery perfectly explains the personality of the gentleman in the photo?

Here's another question: did anyone think this before the McCreachery card was exposed as a riddle? Because I didn't hear anyone suggest it then. Does that mean that the riddle theory makes it more likely to be an error card?