Newt Randall

Recently got a PSA 3.5 of Newt Randall.

The card shows Randall as a member of Milwaukee. The Milwaukee Brewers of the time were a minor league team with the American Association. Randall briefly played in the Major Leagues in 1907 with both the Cubs and the Boston Doves at the age of 27. He was purchased by Milwaukee (American Association) on January 29,1908, just missing out on the Cub's world series championships in 1907 and 1908. How sad.

Randall was involved in what was called “The Fastest Trade on Record.

Before a game between the Cubs and the Boston Doves in Chicago on June 20, Randall’s name was written on the scorecard as the starting left fielder for the Cubs, and Boston’s Del Howard was slated to play right for the Doves. Before the game began, the two managers talked and Randall, along with teammate Bill Sweeney, was traded to Boston for Howard. Randall and Howard literally exchanged uniforms and took their respective places in the outfield for their new teams.

Newt played in the Minor Leagues into his 40's, winning several championships with Milwaukee.

His family was originally from Canada, but moved to Duluth, MN. This is also where Newt died at age 75 and is buried.

I found a golden snippet of Newt's baseball life:

While in Denver, Randall showed the first sign of his combative nature on the ballfield. In a game in 1906, after a dispute over a call, he grabbed and held umpire Schuster while a teammate named Perrine punched the ump in the face. That night both Randall and Perrine were arrested and fined $10 in police court and both were subsequently suspended for three days by the league president. Schuster didn't fine either man for assaulting him because Randall threatened that if he were fined, he would send Schuster to the hospital, and Perrine said “I think he would have done it too.”

I love it!  Here's another great anecdote:

The ballpark in Columbus, Ohio, had an advertising sign on the outfield fence for a local insurance company offering a $1,000 life insurance policy to any player who hit a home run over the sign. Randall was never known as a home-run hitter (his season high was six) but when the Brewers came to Columbus in June 1910, he hit two homers over the sign, collecting two policies, worth $2,000.

 Kind of cool to get a card from one of the fan favorites of the early Milwaukee Brewers.

Red Ames Hands Over Head

I have finally made another T-206 purchase on eBay.

After watching prices for over a month, let it be noted that the lowest priced PSA 3 card sold in the last month and a half was bought by me. And, now, the lowest priced PSA 2 card is also mine!

OK, probably I just bought the crappiest, most commonest T-206 cards ever and even though I think I'm awesome, I'm no doubt a huge moron, but alas, I feel special.

Red Ames was a pitcher and his claim to fame (here perhaps is proof of my moronicness) is that he is tied for the Major League record of most wild pitches in a career (156)! Awesome! Which also begs the question: Why is he called Red "Ames" then, when obviously he doesn't?

He once pitched a ten inning no-hitter before losing 3-0 in 13 innings! They don't make em like that any more. He "finished his career with a 183-167 record adding 1,702 strikeouts, 209 complete games, 27 shutouts and a lifetime 2.63 earned run average."

 "Red Ames' curveball was one of the Deadball Era's most dramatic pitches. "Ames is without question almost the hardest pitcher to catch of the professionals," wrote The Sporting Life in 1906. "Players say no man who holds a place in the pitcher's box is able to curve the ball so far as he can. It is a fact that he doesn't always know himself where his curves are going to land."

"Ames carried a reputation for being "very liberal with passes," often ranking among the league leaders in walks per nine innings, and in 1905 he set a dubious modern record by uncorking 30 wild pitches."

Red, officially named Leon, "damaged his lungs when he accidentally inhaled ammonia fumes emanating from a defective drum. After a lingering illness, Red died on October 8, 1936, at the age of 54."

He is buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Warren, OH

Baseball Notes

The Grand Canyon kept me occupied the last two weeks, but I'm back now. Here are some notes on the baseball front.

1) T206 Cards
I have been tracking the sales of T206 Polar Bear cards on eBay still. PSA 3 commons sell at an average price of $44.80. PSA 2 cards sell for an average of $29.85. PSA 1's go for around $20.68. My goal is to buy below the average, which is why I've only bought one card so far.

2) MLB Season
Major League Baseball started while I was gone. I am a Brewer fan and enjoyed the Brewers sweeping the Red Sox. Don't mind seeing Boston get beat.

Ryan Braun is the big news of the Brewers this season. He got a standing ovation opening day in Milwaukee. I don't know, the guy is creepy. Guess I can't really like the guy, but he did his time. Hope he keeps himself clean. I will always remember the day my nine-year old son found out Braun was a cheater. Many tears were shed. Not cool, Braun, not cool.

3) Little League
We are in the process of getting The Boy signed up for his third year of Little League baseball. There is still a foot of snow on the ground here, so we are still a distance from any baseball playing. Will be nice to spend time at the diamond again.

Ruddy Hulswitt Purchase

After scouting prices on eBay for a couple weeks, picking Polar Bear backs and considering my level of funds, I have made my first T-206 purchase.

Ruddy Hulswitt is my first acquisition. I got a nice PSA 3 for cheaper than I expected based on what I've seen for prices. I am happy about it!

Rudy Hulswitt was third baseman and shortstop for the Phillies, Reds, Cardinals and Louisville Colonels over a 12-year career. He is a .253 career hitter. Go here for more stats on Good Ol Rudy. His last game was August 25, 1910 at age 33. He also managed the Columbus Senators from 1915-1916.

He died at age 69 of a heart attack and is buried in Calvary Cemetery in Louisville, KY. You can see his obituary here.

T-206 Cy Young--Glove Showing

I have been watching the prices of T206 cards for a while on eBay. Last night two Cy Young cards, both with glove showing, sold.

An ungraded card sold for $860.
A PSA 4 sold for $1,194.

Not bad for a piece of cardboard!

Polar Bears--How I Will Collect T206 Cards

Since there is so much variation in these cards, any collector should first decide how they will approach their collection.

My initial thought is to choose a card back--a tobacco company--to collect. Piedmont and Sweet Caporal are all over the place and are usually cheaper because of that.

Some of the other sets are very rare and thus very expensive per card.

Polar Bear cards sticks out to me. Mostly because I was a fan of the TV show Lost. There was a polar bear on a jungle island! No way! How weird is that? Plus, a polar bear on an island with a "smoke" monster! Coincidence? I think not!

I have seen some of these cards and I like the way the backs look. Polar Bear is the only company that wasn't a cigarette maker, but rather a seller of loose tobacco. They are not as common as Piedmont and Sweet Caporal, but still not hard to come across.

I like that midrange target.

In trying to find information on who Polar Bear Tobacco was, I came across this.

"In 1901 the Luhrman and Wilbern Tobacco Company of Cincinnati was moved into part of the Sorg Tobacco Company's plant by The American Tobacco Company. It was the manufacturer of what came to be called "Polar Bear Chewing and Smoking Tobacco." By 1909 the Middletown Branch of The American Tobacco Company employed 1700 people, with a payroll of over $15,000 per week, and a daily capacity of 150,000 pounds of manufactured product."

This is a poorly worded paragraph! "It was the manufacturer" of Polar Bear. Presumably, the "It" is Luhrman and Wilbern Tobacco Company.

 An old pack confirms that Luhrman and Wilbern produced Polar Bear Tobacco.

 Herbert Fall, an artist around the early 1900's, did drawings of scenes in Middletown, OH, including one of the Polar Bear Tobacco Factory.

"One of the most common smoking and chewing tobacco brands in the United States was Polar Bear, manufactured in Middletown by the Paul J. Sorg Company and later the P. Lorillard Company. For years Polar Bear was painted on the corner of the plant that covered a full city block and employed 1800 workers. Prospective laborers bound for the plant climbed off the train when the conductor yelled "Polar Bear" making the call of Middletown unnecessary, c. 1900."

 So, Middletown, Ohio is the home of Polar Bear Tobacco around the time the T206 cards were being produced.

Good to know. I'm good with my Polar Bear history now!

The Tobacco Companies of T-206

T-206 cards are somewhat confusing. These cards were put out over three years (1909-1911), so some players have more than one card, set apart by new teams or new poses.

On top of that, the backs of the cards are different based on what company put them out and what printing.

Some of the larger sets include Sweet Caporal and Piedmont, which you will see most commonly.

A complete T206 set is assumed to be 524 cards, but within that there is tremendous variation based on what player pose or card back.

That being the case, some collectors just try to get all the Hall of Famers, others collect card backs--trying to get cards from just one tobacco company, and others try to get as many individual players as possible.

Here is a list from T206 Resource of the tobacco companies.

• American Beauty
• Broad Leaf
• Carolina Brights
• Cycle
• Drum
• El Principe De Gales
• Hindu
• Lenox
• Old Mill
• Piedmont
• Polar Bear
• Sovereign
• Sweet Caporal
• Tolstoi
• Uzit

What Does T-206 Mean?

One of the cool things about collecting T-206 cards is that you can call them "T-206 cards."

How cool does that sound?

"Ebay? Yeah, I do Ebay. I buy and sell T-206 cards."

Watch the immediate respect and awe you receive by casually dropping references to T-206 cards in your daily conversation.

Actually, it's neither respect nor awe, it's confusion.

Where does the T-206 name come from?

It's a good question, one I think few people who know about these cards would know the answer to.

The T-206 designation is from The American Card Catalog put together by Jefferson Burdick. It catalogs American trade cards published before 1951. It includes Cards put out by tobacco companies as well as bakeries, cabinet makers, caramel and candy makers, Cracker Jacks, and even egg and ice cream distributors.

T-206 cards are known for their white borders.
 

There are other similar sized baseball cards of the time, but the white borders set the T-206 set apart.

T-205 have gold borders and were put out in 1911.

T-207 cards all have brown backgrounds and were put out in 1912.

Most of these independent issued cards came to an end when Topps more or less took over the industry. Topps, incidentally, was a candy maker, which is why many fine, fine old Topps baseball cards have gum stains on them. Topps was originally a tobacco company known as American Leaf Tobacco.

Huh, you learn something new every day.

Introduction to T-206 Cards

T206 cards were produced from 1901-1911 by a handful of tobacco companies.

I bought a couple of these cards years ago and later sold them to get some cash. Although I no longer have the cards, they intrigue me.

There is something cool about these cards, I don't know what resonates with me about them, other than, they're cool!

I enjoy history and baseball has always been a favorite pastime. These cards capture both. They not only have history on them, but the story of each card, how they survived all those years, is fun to think about.

The number of people produced when these cards were is declining. How could a piece of cardboard survive better than some people?!

My first goal is to educate myself on these cards. Then move on to the players and the stories about the game from 1909-1911.

I am a novice to this niche hobby, but find myself drawn in. I look forward to what I will learn.