Babe Ruth

[brunswickreeves]

Originally Posted by oldjudge

Are you saying that the card was produced in late December 1919 before the sale was announced to the public? I would not bet a lot on that being right.

I wasn't around back then to know for sure 😃 but the below article and research excerpt by John Dreker on 23 Jan 2021 related to Billy Southworth's Pirates card seems to make a pretty strong case that the W514 series was produced in the summer of 1919 (and likely released shortly after the start of 1920, given Ruth's NY Yankees team affiliation (yet Red Sox uniform sleeve color))....

''There are some questions based on player/team designations about the year/years of this set. Southworth helps a little here because he only played left field for the Pirates in 1919. Obviously it wouldn’t have been produced before he moved from right field to left at the start of the 1919 season. He moved back to right field for good on August 8th, so it likely wasn’t produced after the 1919 season ended because he went two months of the season (46 games) without a day in left field. That tells you that the set was probably produced in the summer of 1919, giving them enough time to realize he was in left field, while also allowing some time for his move back to right field mid-season to become permanent.

The blue on the collar and down the middle here was not part of the Pirates uniform during that time, though they did have blue in their colors. However, the black & white photo above has a red “P” on the left pocket, not blue. The blue lettering there came along in 1920. At that same time, the Pirates dropped the solid blue hats, so that color combo didn’t exist during his time in Pittsburgh. An artist was likely going off black & white photos with some notes, so I can’t really blame them for the errors.''

https://history.pittsburghbaseball.c...ly-southworth/