T206 Southern Leaguers and Joe Jackson Redux

[DixieBaseball]

Tim - Thank you so much for the research and making it easy to understand. I really appreciate your efforts and thank you for sharing !

A few questions re :

If I were to try and fit the eight proofs into the existing set it would throw off the balance of the team distributions except in the case of the two Chattanooga players. Chattanooga is the only team from the South Atlantic League without a representative.

What did you mean by this statement above ? Are you saying that in the T206 set, Chattanooga is the only team not depicted with a card from the SAL ? Help me compute...

Since none of these Proofs are actually in T206, I suppose the only other identical images (to the T206 proof) would be T210 & T211 ? Pepe-Montg & Lee-J'Ville are the same image as T210, but a more close up image. I believe the Osteen Image is the same as his Montgomery card as well. Do the other players match up with their T210 images (Not including the 2 Chatt players) ?

I have a Chattanooga PC here that shows Alcock (2nd top left) & Meek (Top Right) and their likeness to the SL Proof cards are spot on. The stamp date on reverse says May 17, 1909.

[Abravefan11]

Originally Posted by NashvilleBaseball

A few questions re :

If I were to try and fit the eight proofs into the existing set it would throw off the balance of the team distributions except in the case of the two Chattanooga players. Chattanooga is the only team from the South Atlantic League without a representative.

What did you mean by this statement above ? Are you saying that in the T206 set, Chattanooga is the only team not depicted with a card from the SAL ? Help me compute...

Thanks JJ.

Yes, that is what I am saying. In 1909 the South Atlantic League added two teams, Chattanooga and Columbus giving the league a total of eight teams. Seven of the eight have a representative in the T206 set with Chattanooga being the one left out. So adding two Chattanooga players to the list below stills maintains a pretty even balance. Adding three additional Jacksonville players throws off that balance in my opinion. The Leagues aren't perfectly balanced other than the VSL but looking at them it does appear ATC tried to include everyone fairly evenly within each league.

Originally Posted by NashvilleBaseball

Since none of these Proofs are actually in T206, I suppose the only other identical images (to the T206 proof) would be T210 & T211 ? Pepe-Montg & Lee-J'Ville are the same image as T210, but a more close up image. I believe the Osteen Image is the same as his Montgomery card as well. Do the other players match up with their T210 images (Not including the 2 Chatt players) ?

Yes other players share the same image in the T206 and T210 sets however team changes are reflected for the T210's for their 1910 season where they were not in the 350 printing of the T206 set.



I hope this answered your questions, if not let me know and I will try again.

[DixieBaseball]

One subtle difference on the Lee - J'Ville SL Proof from the T210 is the Uniform. Same pose, but different uni...

[rebelsart]

Tim,
Great thread and tremendous job on researching the T206 Southern League players.
I have notes on these going back many years and have always believed there are more T206 Southern league players to be discovered.

Briefly, here is a breakdown:

Virginia League
Class C, 6 teams
Danville - 2 cards (King, Westlake)
Lynchburg - 2 cards (Hooker, Orth)
Norfolk - 2 cards (Otey, Seitz)
Portsmouth - 2 cards (Guiheen, McCauley)
Richmond - 2 cards (Lipe, Revelle)
Roanoke - 2 cards (Ryan, Shaughnessy)

So we have 6 teams and each team has 2 cards. Every team is represented evenly. Seems to make sense.

South Atlantic League
Class C, 8 teams
Augusta - 1 card (Coles)
Charleston - 2 cards (Foster, Paige)
Chattanooga - 0 cards
Columbia - 2 cards (Kiernan, Manion)
Columbus - 1 card (Helm)
Jacksonville - 2 cards (Mullaney, Violat)
Macon - 1 card (Lafitte)
Savannah - 1 card (Howard)

This distribution/selection does not make sense. Why not 2 cards per team
as established by the Virginia league (also a Class C league)?
There are 6 "missing" cards from this league. (1 from Augusta, 2 from Chattanooga, 1 from Columbus, 1 from Macon, 1 from Savannah).

Now factor in the 8 proof cards and you find the 2 "missing" players from Chattanooga! Coincidence?
I believe that the other 6 "missing" cards will be found one day.

The other breakdowns from the Texas league and Southern Association reveal similar "missing" cards based on cards distributed and the imbalance of known cards from team to team.
I show a total of 28 "missing" T206 Southern Leaguers (before the 8 proofs were discovered). And 1 of these missing cards is from New Orleans! Maybe Joe Jackson?

I believe that possibly due to poor sales the T206 Southern league cards were stopped in mid-production. Only 48 were distributed, but many others that existed in proof form were not issued. The T206 Southern League project was then moved to the T210 red border series which DOES include Joe Jackson, New Orleans.

Hope this makes some sense.
Art M.

[teetwoohsix]

Thanks Art, what a great contribution you've just added to this thread. Very interesting theory.

Sincerely, Clayton

[Abravefan11]

Hi Art and thank you for posting.

The "proofs" are proof that other southern league cards were created but not printed for distribution. How many? I don't think we will ever know but I do believe it was more than the eight that were discovered.

Following the "two players for each team" trend there should be another image for Augusta, Columbus, Macon, and Savannah. (The two for Chattanooga were found with the proofs.)

Given the majority of the proofs were of Jacksonville and Montgomery players, two teams already well represented in the set, there could have been any number of additional images for each team.

Was Joe Jackson one of those images? I don't think so, but if he was it would have been as a Savannah player and a different image than his T210.

[teetwoohsix]

I know there are some newer T206 collectors on the board and after reading through this thread I thought I'd bump it for the excellent content regarding the T206 Southern Leaguers.

Sincerely, Clayton

* Tim, again- amazing job on this !!!