Let's see some early or historic scorecards

[GaryPassamonte]

May 27, 1871- Boston-Washington. One of the earliest professional and National Association scorecards. Thanks to a fellow board member.

Maybe someone can help me make the scans larger?

[ramram]

Great scorecard Gary. I was hoping to see some of the other great scorecards that are out there so I’m bumping this back up. I don’t have much to share in scorecards, I mostly collect team scorebooks, but here’s one with our old Commander-In-Chief.

Rob M

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[bigfanNY]

Gary I have always had interest in early scorecards. And over 40 years experience combined with an extensive search of auction databases tells me that scorecards from the 1870's are very scarce. Even when compared to examples from the 1880's . Examples from the East coast esp from Boston seem to be the most plentiful. I have seen examples from Chicago, Cincinnati Troy ( from National Assn.). Mort Rodgers examples with photographs are clearly the nicest of the era but early National Leauge scorecards from 1876 to 1879 are very difficult to acquire. I know there are a couple of board members that have some examples and hope they share them in this thread. Here are a couple of mine.
6/15/1878 Boston vs Indianapolis George Wright playing Shortstop.
June 1879 Boston vs Buffalo Put Galvin Pitching his first year in the National leauge

[bigfanNY]

As For Historic this is Babe Ruth's home run 701 . The Yankees lost the game 12 to 11. I love the inscription by the original owner on the cover. Ruth hit number 700 the day before in Detroit. I have been trying to put together Ruth's last 15 home run programs and have not found the task easy. Esp the Boston home runs. (Any Ruth programs from his days with Boston braves are very scarce)
The scorecard to the right is a 1909 Red Sox vs Naps. I Purchased a few early Red Sox programs this year including the only one I had ever seen with Cy Young pictured on the cover from a board member.

[David Atkatz]

Here are a few.

1903 Highlanders.



1904 Highlanders, Chesbro's wild pitch game.





1923 Yankee Stadium opener.

[commishbob]

As a guy who cherishes publications (yearbooks, programs, media guides) I'm getting a real kick from this thread. You guys have some jaw-dropping material! Thanks for sharing these beauties.

[doug.goodman]

The Babe's last game in NYC. April 28, 1935

[doug.goodman]

The Babe gets his last victory as a pitcher (and hits HR #686). Oct 1, 1933

[doug.goodman]

Connie Mack rookie year, maybe.

July 15, 1886 is written on the scorecard, but his first game was Sept 11, 1886.

So...

[yankeesjetsfan]

Great programs! I am loving those old Highlanders programs.

Mike

[matty39]

Here are some Federal League programs

[doug.goodman]

Originally Posted by matty39

Here are some Federal League programs

I LOVE those!

[GaryPassamonte]

1879 Boston-Cincinnati. A young King Kelly penciled in taking over for Deacon White as catcher.

[Bill Rayburn]

Gary...love the Boston/Cincinnati card. Very well scored, you can just replay the game from the card.

[T206Jim]

1907 Highlanders - a Carl Horner scorecard/schedule/postcard

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[Baseball Rarities]

Here is one from an 1869 game between Yale and the Lowells. I do not collect scorecards anymore, but this one is special to me due to the advertisement for the Deacon and Mueller statues.

[ValKehl]

In 1884, the American Association and the Union Association both expanded to field teams in Washington, DC. Both teams were called the Nationals, and neither team was successful. The Am. Assn. Nationals disbanded after losing its August 2nd home game to the NY Metropolitans by the score of 6 - 5. Here is a scored scorecard for this last game plus an 1884 season schedule for Washington, with the team's disbandonment after this game being noted (by the same fan?) on each of these two items. The scorecard shows HOF pitcher Tim Keefe, who was one of two main pitchers for NY and who had a 37 - 17 record in 1884, playing center field in this game. The Washington team was replaced by the Richmond Virginians for the remainder of the season.

[Gary Dunaier]

Wish somebody would publish a collection of reprints of some of these early programs. I'm thinking something along the lines of Bert Randolph Sugar's Souvenir Programs of Five Great World Series (Dover, 1980).

(Fun fact: The Sugar collection includes the 1919 Reds program, sourced from the Opie reprint. It also includes the 1926 Yankees program, which was NOT included in the Opie collection, Opie used the Cardinals' program from that year.)

Here is one Jackie Robinson Homers and Roe wins

[esiason14]

There is some fantastic stuff in here. Thanks for sharing.

Not nearly as early as the others posted in here, but here's one I donated to the HOF last year. A 1945 California Winter League featuring Jackie Robinson of the Kansas city Royals. The HOF did a nice little writeup about the history behind it.

[Bicem]

That's a truly historic piece Kyle. Amazingly, we have one in our current auction (lot #158), great to see the Hall recognize the significance.

[esiason14]

Wow, Jeff. What are the odds of that?! Maybe this is my chance to (re)add one to my collection. Thanks!

[ramram]

Harry Wright’s scorecard containing Hoss Radbourne’ July 25, 1883 no-hitter. Hoss also contributed on offense going 3-4 while hitting in the five hole.

Rob M

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[doug.goodman]

Originally Posted by ramram

Harry Wright’s scorecard containing Hoss Radbourne’ July 25, 1883 no-hitter.

Wow. Just wow.

[doug.goodman]

PS - wow

[Scott Garner]

Originally Posted by ramram

Harry Wright’s scorecard containing Hoss Radbourne’ July 25, 1883 no-hitter. Hoss also contributed on offense going 3-4 while hitting in the five hole.

Rob M

Attachment 309241

Incredibly cool scorebook to own. Congrats!

[doug.goodman]

I think I may have already said "wow", but just in case...

WOW

[sicollector1954]

I collect Rockford Peaches items since it is my hometown...finding one of these has been very hard the last 20 years....1943....first year of the league...the only time the word "softball" was used was in the first season....only 4 teams in the AAGPL to start...how many out there I do not know but have only found 3 in the last several years of searching...and in amazing condition with no folds to boot.....
Someone penciled in the starting line ups....then erased but the hard cardboard indentations from the pencil made it so I could see that Rockford was the visiting team playing Racine in the first year of the league....

[esiason14]

Not "historical", but neat. From a Spahn win and signed by Ott

[scooter729]

I'll share two - 1916 World Series program, scored for the game Ruth pitched the distance in a 14-inning 2-1 victory.

Also, an 1882 scorecard for a game between the Harvard baseball team from 1877 and the team from 1882. The '77 team featured Fred Thayer, who invented the catcher's mask, and Jim Tyng, who was the first to wear such a mask. Newspaper article on the game is posted here as well.

Thayer's brother was Ernest Lawrence Thayer, best known as the poet of Casey at the Bat.

[Bicem]

Wow, your 1916 WS is in great shape too! These are much tougher than 1915. Incredible piece.

[scooter729]

Originally Posted by Bicem

Wow, your 1916 WS is in great shape too! These are much tougher than 1915. Incredible piece.

Thanks Jeff - appreciate it! Here's the scored Red Sox page from the interior...

[GaryPassamonte]

Great stuff everyone! 1881 Boston-Chicago.

[doug.goodman]

I'm still walking around in a daze and mumbling wow to myself...

[68Hawk]

1871 Mutuals v Athletics Peck & Snyder scorecard.

[ramram]

1871 Mutuals v Athletics = WOW!

Somebody might have to pull out a 69 Red Stockings to beat that.

Rob M

[GaryPassamonte]

Hawk- Could you tell me the date of the game. I can't quite make it out. Thanks.

[68Hawk]

Yep, for me too Gary.
The pencil makes it hard work on the eyes.

The month is unreadable, but the date looks like the 20th, possibly 29th.
I believe I can just make out the notation top left before the date that the game was played at the Union Grounds - home of the Mutuals, and the Athletics played there on June 29th so I think that the most likely date.

Either that or I am reading those first couple words incorrectly.
If I was better reading a box score I could probably find the schedule and be sure....

[GaryPassamonte]

I searched Retrosheet for all Mutual and Athletic games for 1871. What's interesting is that I didn't find a game with the 17-3 score that's on the scorecard. I also checked Mutual/Athletics scores for the 1872-1876 seasons and found no 17-3 scores. The scorecard must be for an exhibition game that is not listed in current records.

[68Hawk]

Thanks Gary, super interesting and just went to look at same statistics....

Here's a blow up of the top of the card, not a whole lot better I'm afraid.
Would be happy to make enlargements of the rest of the card if you have ongoing interest to sleuth.

[David Atkatz]

The date is Oct. 20th, 1871.

[GaryPassamonte]

If the game was played on 10/20, it must have been an exhibition.
David- Did you find a record of this game?

[68Hawk]

Agree it looks like a three letter abbreviation, and can't think of another that would have similar pen strokes...

Being so very soon after the game played on the 18th Oct between the two sides, could there have been a disagreement of some sort over the result of that meeting and so a follow up was scheduled to settle matters?
But as the result also so heavily favored the Athletics the original score was simply unchanged...

Seems odd to have an exhibition directly after the end of the season, with the amount of baseball already watched by the supporters of both teams....?

[GaryPassamonte]

I sure having a game on 10/20 had to do with money. Both teams were there and maybe the weather was good. Why not pad the pocket going into the cold weather.

[68Hawk]

They played the 18th Oct game in Philly....
It looks to me like the writing suggests the 'Union Grounds' along the top before the date, which is back in NY.
Would they have traveled up for an exhibition game directly after the last game of the year, especially considering the Athletics would have been celebrating their efforts to win the first year of the National Association of Professional Baseball players league....?

[insidethewrapper]

Being a Detroit Wolverine Collector, this is my favorite Scorecard from the 1887 "World Series". This is from Game 5 @ Brooklyn on October 14, 1887.

[GaryPassamonte]

Good questions, Hawk.

Great scorecard, Mike.

[ramram]

Originally Posted by 68Hawk

They played the 18th Oct game in Philly....
It looks to me like the writing suggests the 'Union Grounds' along the top before the date, which is back in NY.
Would they have traveled up for an exhibition game directly after the last game of the year, especially considering the Athletics would have been celebrating their efforts to win the first year of the National Association of Professional Baseball players league....?

Even though there was an established league at this point, these NA teams still played a large number of non-league games against all-comers. It wouldn’t surprise me at all that they made a home and away game at the end of the year even though the second game wasn’t a league game.

Great scorecards everyone!

Rob M

[ramram]

Just found this on Retrosheets exibition list. (Sorry, crappy quality. However, it confirms the game on Friday 10/20/1871).

Rob M

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Edited -
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Edited again. (Dang, I can't get any photo of larger size when uploading with an ipad. Had to go to my computer).

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[68Hawk]

Thanks ramram for the confirmation, even though my crappy eyes can't read it!