1916-1920 Date for "Big Head" Strip Cards

[brianp-beme]

In accordance to the information provided by Matt, Mark, Rhett and others, and checking the player's careers, I think this set can be narrowed down to the 1918-1921 time frame. It is a small set, and all of the players depicted had a career of some note, which is pretty consistent with other small sets throughout the vintage era. Just think of some of the other comparable small group strip sets of this period; there are no obscure players included (please point out any exceptions to this). That is why I lean closer to the 1920 issue date--by this time all the careers of the included players had been well established.

The team designations on the uniforms, when seen, do not necessarily represent a specific team, as noted previously for Cadore and Bodie. The closest I see is the Baker card with a 'NYA' designation, which I surmise could indicate the New York Americans. The Konetchey card has a 'Y', which I could not figure out what in the fadoodle this would mean.

Also, it is interesting to note that Mark indicated an original find originating in the Washington DC area, as either 3 or 4 of the players in the set during this time frame were with the Senators (see below why this could be either 3 or 4). In the 1918-1920 time frame (sorry, didn't check 1921), the set is also heavy with New York Yankees (2-4 players, depending upon the year). It also appears there was no attempt to include a player from every team, as there are no players from Pittsburg or the Chicago Cubs.

Finally, there are two cards whose identities I believe can be questioned, due to both lack of team designations and the crude, non-realistic player drawings (the E91A and part of E91B, however maligned, have much more realistic facial portrayals of the players depicted).

First is the card of Burns. Unfortunately there were two George Burns, both with prominent careers, that played during the era, so I don't think we can narrow this down to either.

The other card is the one with the designation of 'Johnston'. The guidebooks have always listed this card as a mispelling of Walter Johnson, but there were two prominent players during this time frame with the last name of Johnston, so I think it possible that some assumptions were perhaps carelessly made. The card shows a player throwing righthanded, so we can probably eliminate Doc Johnston, but Jimmy Johnston of Brooklyn also had a notable career (along the lines of Cadore, Konetchey, Bagby and others depicted in the set) and was a righthander. Can anyone tell me for sure that this card is actually Walter Johnson? It certainly bears no resemblance to him. And other star players of the time, such as Speaker and Alexander, are not included in this set, so I don't think we can positively identify this card, especially with an inaccurate spelling, as that of Walter Johnson. Hope this doesn't throw someone's WaJo collection into a quandry.

Brian