A fantastic addition to my postcard collection... 1905 Raymond Kahn Co. Lajoie

[Jlighter]

Originally Posted by danmckee

Is that a Baker rookie or pre-rookie?

Was Pocomoke in the major leagues?

Lovely and historically significant real photo postcard featuring the sixteen members of the Pocomoke, Maryland base ball club of 1905. Seated in the front row, all the way to the right, is a young Frank "Home Run" Baker, in what is surely one of his earliest baseball-related cards. Baker played with the Pocomoke team before latching on with Baltimore of the Eastern League in 1907, moving to the Reading Pretzels of the Tri-State League (both teams with which he played with many future major leaguers), finally joining the Philadelphia A's in 1908, where he began his Hall of Fame career.

Other major leaguers depicted in this team photo are future Detroit/Philadelphia infielder Simon Nicholls, future St. Louis and Cincinnati infielder Chappy Charles, and Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Al Burris, who threw just one game with the 1894 Phils before becoming a widely-regarded baseball man at the University of Maryland well into the 1920s.

A wonderful document of the dawn of "Home Run Baker"'s early career, this postcard has been graded POOR by SGC, partially due to general wear consistent with a POOR grade but also because it was postally used: a 1905 letter to Anna Cooper of Paterson, New Jersey states, simply, "Dear Anna: These are some of Pocomoke's nice young men- -Anna"

An excellent document of early amateur baseball, made notable by the pre-rookie appearance of Hall of Famer Frank "Home Run" Baker, along with several other future major leaguers.

http://loveofthegameauctions.com/Lot...%29-Pre-rookie!