Putting the Walter Mails Game cards in the spotlight

[brianp-beme]

It is time for all of you under the radar possessors of the uncommon, unheralded, and wildly inconsistent and sometimes graphic design-challenged 1924 WG7 Walter Mails Game cards to discuss the set /show a few. Some are decent, some are quite goofy, while others make my head itchy.

They come with both blue backs and red backs, and according to the Old Cardboard site the blue backs were printed first, and the red backs issued at a later point with some cards having had changes made to their bios.

To start things off here is a decent card of Heinie Groh showing off his big ol' mushroom bat.

Brian

[Pat R]

Old Cardboard lists Mails as the creator but it was actually George Groves that invented the game.

[BioCRN]

Big fan of W/Card game cards. I'm out here looking a WG7 Hack Miller to fill out a type card and a player I need at the same time.

I haven't seen one since an auction I was outbid on a bit over a year ago.

[brianp-beme]

Originally Posted by Pat R

Old Cardboard lists Mails as the creator but it was actually George Groves that invented the game.

Interesting fact Pat. I had previously noticed that the Groves card in the set did not have a game result on the card (Single, Out, etc.). I guess if you create the set you've earned the right to put yourself into it. Apparently Groves was from Oakland or somewhere in the Bay Area, and thus was in the neck of the woods to line up Walter Mails as an endorser. Walter spent the 1923 and 1924 seasons playing for Oakland in the PCL.

As far as I can tell his card reads:

George N. Groves

Manager of Six Consecutive Junior Base Ball Championships

namely: Oakland Examiner League 1922-1923 (Three Times) The Oakland Post

and Post Esquire Class C Leagues, under the name of

BARNEY'S

Once again, another blatant Oakland connection, and I assume those leagues mentioned were associated with newspapers in the East Bay.


Brian (image once again from Old Cardboard site)

[Pat R]

I have a few newspaper clippings from 1924 I'm watching the truck race right now and I will post them later.

[brianp-beme]

Originally Posted by Pat R

I have a few newspaper clippings from 1924 I'm watching the truck race right now and I will post them later.

Great...it should be interesting to see what you have.

They race trucks? Is that something they do between innings along the warning track?


Brian

[rhettyeakley]

Here is the ancient (for this site) thread where I discussed this set some years ago and where some of the information on Old Cardboard comes from...

https://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?p=411635

I studied the set quite a bit then and at that time had both the complete Blue and Red backed sets so I could map out the variations between the two sets (there are a lot that vary from major to minor changes).

I thought I had shared that list with the Net54 community via a thread but I cannot find that thread right now...this site is pretty tough to search.

I still have that information (variations) and can share it if people are interested.

-Rhett

[ValKehl]

Brianp-beyou, here are my WG7s, as per your request in the other thread:

[Pat R]

Originally Posted by brianp-beme

Great...it should be interesting to see what you have.

They race trucks? Is that something they do between innings along the warning track?


Brian

A few newspaper clippings
Mails baseball game The_Bulletin_Tue__Mar_25__1924_.jpg
Mails baseball game The_Oakland_Post_Enquirer_Tue__Apr_28__1931_.jpg
Mails baseball game The_Oakland_Post_Enquirer_Tue__Jun_10__1924_.jpg


No warning tracks in the truck races but sometimes fences are involved and it can get pretty wild
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_q0obgffS0Y

[brianp-beme]

Thanks Pat, sounds like Groves had a connection to Southern California as well. And definitely seems like PCL ballparks were possibly involved in distributing these sets.

I still need to see if I can locate the list of differences between the blue and red back sets that Rhett mentioned. I did find this in-depth article by member Anson that goes into the history of the set and its developer.

https://prewarcards.com/2018/04/23/t...ls-game-cards/


Brian

[Tom S.]

Here's my blue back and red back Walter Mails cards of Johnny Mostil showing a different baseball play on each:

[brianp-beme]

No luck on Rhett's list of differences between red and blue backs, but I did find this ad from January 1928 issue of Baseball Magazine, which does seem to indicate that these were still being distributed four years or so after the original release, from a company (I assume headed by George Groves) in the Greater Los Angeles area:

waltermails1928ad.jpg

This ad was shown on this thread:

https://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=236679


Hopefully neither rain nor snow nor sleet nor hail shall keep you all from delivering the Mails (info/card examples).


Brian