W555 Date of Issue (a hypothesis)

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Posted By: Todd (nolemmings)

I have researched several of the players in M101-5, and there is no doubt that the set was not issued in 1915. Andy Baran pointed out several players who played in the federal league in 1915 yet who show up in M101-5 as playing for A.L. or N.L. teams that, research shows, they did not play for until 1916. Most of the movement from the federal league appears to have taken place in the early months of 1916, so it's not as though the Sporting News had knowledge of where the federal leaguers were going at the end of the 1915 season.
There are at least 10 cards from M101-5 that, because of their team designations, could not have been issued in 1915. Case in point--Germany Schaeffer, who is captioned as playing for "New York Amer". The Baseball Encyclopedia says he was acquired by the Yankees for cash from Newark of the Fed League on February 10, 1916. So no way was that card issued in 1915. Curiously, Schaeffer played in exactly one game for the Yanks- that in 1916 and he either did not get an AB or was hit by pitch (batting record shows 0 ABs). He is not found in the M101-4 set, which Mr. Lemke states would have been available in August, 1916. So somewhere between February and August, 1916, a change was made in the sets to replace certain players with others. The "why then?" remains a mystery to me.
regards...........Todd