Your Oldest Baseball Related Card or Item

[ValKehl]

Per Wikipedia, "The Washington Nationals of 1884 were a short-lived baseball team in the American Association. They won 12 games and lost 51. Their home games were played at Athletic Park in Washington, D.C. They were also known as the Washington Statesmen. The Nationals were managed for all but one game by former player Holly Hollingshead. John Bickerton managed their final game on August 2, 1884, a loss to the New York Metropolitans" by the score of 6 - 5. "This team should not be confused with the other 1884 Washington Nationals franchise, a different team which played in the Union Association during its only year of operation."

The oldest items in my collection are this 1884 season schedule for the Washington Nationals/Statesmen of the American Association and this scored scorecard for Washington's final game on August 2, 1884, before the team disbanded. What I think is especially neat is that both of these items have penciled, period notations regarding the team disbanding after this game (see the right edge of the scorecard), which leads me to suspect that both items originally belonged to the same person/family.

[darwinbulldog]

I have some newspapers with box scores from the early 1860s, but my first collectible with any baseball images is the Jim Creighton memorial woodcut from 1865.

[Bill77]

My oldest baseball card

[Robextend]

[nat]

I've got some A&Gs that are a couple years older, but this one is much more interesting. Baseball was introduced to Japan in the 1870s, and this postcard is from 1891. It pre-dates any known Japanese baseball card and (as far as I know) any other baseball-themed postcard. There are earlier books that have woodblock prints of baseball games, but this is among the earliest Japanese baseball images.

[ksfarmboy]

1875 stereoview from Kansas.

[christopher.herman]

My contribution

[mrreality68]

Originally Posted by darwinbulldog

I have some newspapers with box scores from the early 1860s, but my first collectible with any baseball images is the Jim Creighton memorial woodcut from 1865.

Very nice pieces everyone but Glen’s is a Wow for me

[Casey2296]

Nice piece Nat.

[DeanH3]

N172 for me.

[Jason Carota]

[oldjudge]

You can find general baseball images from the late 1850s-early 1860s, although they are scarce, but it is almost impossible to find images of players from the country’s premier teams much prior to the late 1860s. Even then, “major league” items prior to 1886 are still difficult to find. This was really the dawn of baseball as we know it. BTW, beautiful piece Leon.

[doug.goodman]

I have the Sept 6, 1956 first issue of Porter's Spirit of the Times, but I don't have it scanned.

I think my oldest scanned item is this Oct 15 1859 Harper's two page woodcut with a cricket match on the top and "A Base-Ball Match at the Elysian Fields, Hoboken" on the bottom

Edited to add the scans I found of the baseball content in that first issue of Porters.

[RCMcKenzie]

The board id'ed this one as Tommy Bond from the late 70's. It has CW Jeffrey written on the back, which may have been the photographer.

Arslonga made an art card from this cabinet. I don't know if they made it from the one I have, or if there are other cabs out there like this one. Arslonga says they have released/sold 7 of their Bond cards. I don't have one, but would like to own one.

[spec]

Originally Posted by RCMcKenzie

The board id'ed this one as Tommy Bond from the late 70's. It has CW Jeffrey written on the back, which may have been the photographer.

Arslonga made an art card from this cabinet. I don't know if they made it from the one I have, or if there are other cabs out there like this one. Arslonga says they have released/sold 7 of their Bond cards. I don't have one, but would like to own one.

Charles Webster Jeffery was a Boston photographer who produced cabinets of the Boston team in 1878. A group of these turned up in the 1980s, many of them misidentified on back, causing some confusion about the date they were issued. Bond, Burdock, Manning, Morrill, O'Rourke, Schaefer and Sutton were included as well as, I believe, George Wright. Another Bond, perhaps yours, came from the Bond estate.

[GaryPassamonte]

Ever so close to 1859.