Opinions Wanted

[slidekellyslide]

I emailed the seller about provenance and he said he is as sure this is an Indianapolis ABC's pennant as REA was sure this was a Boston Red Sox pennant and not a Spartanburg, Brantford, Danville, Superior or one of the many other "Red Sox" teams that existed in 1912.


http://www.robertedwardauctions.com/...2010/1238.html

I'll give him credit though he did not hide the fact that he bought this off of ebay just recently and told me exactly what the first seller mentioned about the pennants.

[prewarsports]

Teams themselves did not produce pennants back in 1913,the owner would contract out with a company to make them or a company would make them and pitch them to the owner to sell at the ballpark. They were expensive compared to other novalties of the day (which is why so few exist) and the only way these teams would make money is because they had a stable place (home ballpark) to sell them in large numbers (by their standards) at and a lot of time to do it. There is simply no way that a travelling Black Baseball team in 1913 would have found this to be a good money making venture. People were not chomping at the bit to fly the flags of black baseball teams in 1913. Its just a cultural fact that can't be ignored. Unless the team themselves made a few to advertise the team while travelling (which would have been flown at the games and destroyed by use and weather) there is no way pennants like this were even made. Heck they didn't even make up actual TICKETS for most Negro League/Black Baseball games because of cost unless the team they were playing (usually a white team with more money) had them made up beforehand and used what was available, so there is no way they are just making pennants like this in back rooms somewhere and bringing them along for the ride to try and sell. The ONLY advertising you see for early black baseball games of this era are paper flyers and handbills used to advertise the game, because they were cheap, portable, and could be given away for free!

[slidekellyslide]

Excellent points, Rhys.