Hall of Famers without a card

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Posted By: Corey R. Shanus

In Stephen Wong's book Smithsonian Baseball there is pictured a composite of the National Association Baltimore Club from 1873. The composite is made up of individual Cdv's of each player, including Candy Cummings (as well as Lipman Pike). The composite is almost certainly a proof for a yet-to-be-discovered Cdv of the team. If the overlay (which contains calligraphy identifying the team, year and each player) is removed the Cdv's are revealed.

In regard to the Cartwright Cdv, it is a portrait image. Interestingly it is probably the image refered to in the letter press letter sold in the Halper Sotheby's sale and which was an accompaniment to the so-called Knickerbocker baseball (a ball which in my view requires a leap of faith as large as the Grand Canyon to believe it was ever used by the Knickerbockers). In the letter Cartwright specifically refers to a Cdv he recently had made, and the Cdv can be dated by a reference the letter makes to the rumor that Currier and Ives would be coming out with a baseball print. That print of course is the famous "The American National Game of Baseball" image, published 1866. Hence the dating of the Cdv to around that year.