Cards you didn’t realize were as cool as they are!!!

[brianp-beme]

A few years ago it was neat to discover (maybe I wasn't the first) that the Hal Chase cards in the 1913 National Game and 1913 Tom Barker are different poses, with the National Game set designating him as a New York Yankee and depicting him in a Yankee uniform, while the Tom Barker designates him as a member of the Chicago White Sox and shows him in a White Sox uniform.

These two Chase cards definitively point to the fact that the National Game set was issued before the Tom Barker in 1913, since Hal Chase was traded from the Yankees to the White Sox on June 1st, 1913. Both the Tom Barker and National Game cards have a patent date on the back of the card of March 25, 1913. Thus the National Game set was likely first issued in spring of 1913, while the Tom Barker set had to have been issued late summer 1913 at the earliest.

Why is this cool? For rookie collectors who are persnickety, Grover Alexander's National Game card can be identified as being his first card issued, with his Tom Barker a close second.

Brian (Note: the tiny Alexander is not my minty card)

[Exhibitman]

Is that the Capitol in the background?

[Dewey]

Angels bat boy Leonard Garcia on an Aurelio Rodriguez card. From humdrum to funny in one switcharoo.

[triwak]

Poor conditioned card of course, but apparently this is a rare color-combination for this E98 Walsh. I had no idea about any of that when I purchased it.

[sterlingfox]

At first, I thought there were just a few random stamped letters and residue on the back of this M116 Speaker... until I realized that it was actually a variation of the pointing finger back stamp that's normally only found on T206s!

The T206 isn't mine.

[SMPEP]

I always liked that the 1964 Philadelphia Cleveland Browns (except Dick Schafrath) all posed in front of Jim Brown's Pink Cadillac. I wonder if he got it for selling Mary K products?

[thatkidfromjerrymaguire]

Found this card referenced on old blog a couple weeks ago (Bob Lemke's Blog).

Potentially, the 1952 Bowman Sam Mele features the first tattoo pictured on a baseball card? Since this is the current set I'm building, I thought it was kinda cool. Does anyone have a pre-1952 card depicting a tattoo that could prove this theory wrong?

mele.jpg

[brianp-beme]

Originally Posted by thatkidfromjerrymaguire

Found this card referenced on old blog a couple weeks ago (Bob Lemke's Blog).

Potentially, the 1952 Bowman Sam Mele features the first tattoo pictured on a baseball card? Since this is the current set I'm building, I thought it was kinda cool. Does anyone have a pre-1952 card depicting a tattoo that could prove this theory wrong?

Attachment 320260

No theory disproving here, but I instantly thought of this T218 boxing card of Dave Deshler with the sailing ship on his chest.

Brian

[packs]

I bought this card on a whim while I was in Berlin last week. At the time I just thought it was cool to buy a card featuring Jesse Owens during the 1936 Olympics that was released in Berlin while I was in Berlin. But there is a lot more going on here:



The story behind the photo is that Luz Long, a German athlete, had gone well out of his way to befriend Jesse Owens during the Olympics in open defiance of Hitler. At this moment Long was giving Owens pointers on his long jump. Owens only had one more jump left to qualify for the finals and had fouled on his previous jumps. Jesse would go on to qualify on his next jump and eventually won Gold in the event, with Long finishing second.

During World War II Long served in the German air force and was shot down and killed over Italy, leaving his 2 children without a father. Owens never forgot about Luz though and the Long family never forgot about Owens. Years later Jesse Owens would serve as best man for Luz Long's son at his wedding.