Pinback - Mullen BASEBALL Booster Club 1915

[cincicards]

Can anybody confirm if this pin is George Mulli(e)n, Federal League related.

mullen-front.JPG mullen-back.JPG

[Leon]

A few quick google searches turn up quite a bit on George Mullen. I would guess it is from his club....Maybe some pinback experts will chime in?

ps...the more I read about him, however his name was spelled, the more I am inclined to think you are on the right track.....

[batsballsbases]

In my opinion I would say no. But I think we should ask the Good Dr. as he was the underbidder of the pin.

[cincicards]

The reason I was thinking Federal League was that Mullen played for the Federal League Indianapolis Hoosiers in 1914 and a few games in 1915 for the Newark Pepper In Newark, New Jersey.

[slidekellyslide]

Booster club pins are generally for a team....I know there is a Mullen, Nebraska and also a Mullen, Kansas...I would bet there are probably more towns in the US with that name. I'm thinking if someone went to the trouble of making pins for George Mullin they'd get his name spelled correctly.

[cincicards]

I believe George Mullins name was not spelled correctly on numerous occasions:

0042.jpg

[slidekellyslide]

I realize that, but I would think if someone was starting a booster club for him they'd get the name right. Of course that doesn't mean the badge company didn't mess up, but I still think the odds are it's for a town team.

[cincicards]

I was originally thinking it was perhaps a town team but I could find only a few towns named Mullen. Mullen, NE has population of 491 as of 2001 so I could only imagine what the population would have been in 1915. In fact I can only find two cities named Mullen in the U.S., Mullen, NE and Mullen, CA.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of..._United_States


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mullen,_California


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mullen,_Nebraska

[slidekellyslide]

Hopefully the good Dr M. will chime in and give us his thoughts.

[batsballsbases]

Actually my mistake the Good Dr was the underbidder on that pin. I had said winner! But he still maybe able to offer his thoughts!

[scgaynor]

I would go with team instead of individual player.

Scott

[cincicards]

I just noticed that the pin maker Whitehead and Hoag is located in Newark, New Jersey and George Mullin played his last season in 1915 for the Newark Pepper which were located in Newark, New Jersey.

[slidekellyslide]

Whitehead & Hoag were the biggest celluloid pin manufacturers in the US at the time. They invented the celluloid pinback.

[springpin]

I'm back from the land of grandchildren.

I don't know the identity of the Mullen pin, but I think it is more likely for a team than an individual. Pins for individuals are rarely dated, unless it was for a special "Day" for the player. Local baseball was very popular in that era. Mullen may be the name of a team sponsored by a company in a city league.

In the town where I grew up (Stamford, CT) there were many local teams that played in that era. One day in the late 1950s I was hitch-hiking and an old guy in an old car picked me up. I was carrying my glove. The conversation turned to baseball, and he told me he once played for a team called the "West Side Separates". I just nodded, never having heard of the team. When I told my father and uncle about the team name, they were very familiar with it. They said the team was one of the better teams in town, and you really had to be good to play on that team.

I have never seen a pin that says "West Side Separates" or "Separates". But without this childhood experience, if I ever did, I would never have guessed it referred to a team from my home town. I think the Mullen pin is probably from that glorious era in baseball history when even local teams had a strong following.

[cincicards]

Thanks for the input, I should also add that the seller of the pin states that he picked up the pin in an antique shop some years ago in Illinois.