We Have a Winner!

Six people entered the giveaway for the following book:

With six people in the running, I decided a die toss would be a good random way to pick a winner. I listed the six on a paper in order of when their comments arrived, and went to Random.org and told it to throw a virtual die.

The result:

Congratulations to Spiegel83. Drop me an email (my contact page is at the bottom of the left side of this page) with your info and I'll get the book out this week.

Thanks to those who entered

Reminder

On Friday, I offered up this book as a giveaway to anybody who wanted it:

Due to a defect, I ended up with an extra copy. If you're interested in getting that copy (and don't mind the fact that the cover is separated), go to my original post and make a comment. Right now, only one person is in the running...so if you'd like to be considered, don't waste time. I'll keep the comments there open until midnight Eastern time (9 PM Pacific) tonight.

Book Review -- "Sayonara Home Run"

Thanks to some credits I had on Amazon, I went and picked up this book recently for my own collection:

Sayonara Home Run! by John Gall and Gary Engel

I have written a few articles about Japanese baseball cards in the past (most notably this one), where I mentioned the book above. I also showed off what is still the only Japanese card in my personal collection:

While that card isn't shown in the book, I did learn a little more about it. While I knew it was a Menko card and had several game elements on the back, the book explained that these particular cards are also called "Tobacco" Menkos, because they're similar to what American collectors know as T-series cards. They were not, however, issued along with any tobacco products. They're called that to differentiate themselves from Menkos from the late 1940s through the early 1950s, which used cartoon-style artwork rather than photographs.

This book isn't an in-depth reference book, nor is it intended to be one. Instead, it's an introduction to a new "world" of cards from another country, where baseball is considered as much of a National Pastime as it is here. Hundreds of cards are pictured, going back to postcards from 1913 that featured collegiate players. It goes from there through the World War II era and then the two main eras of Menko cards in the postwar years. It also delves into the cards issued with gum and candy products, as well as those that were part of games. They also cover Bromide cards of the era, which show photos on them and were sometimes available as bookmarks.

Along the way, players are spotlighted, from Russian-born Victor Starffin to Sadaharu Oh. Sections talk about the early influx of baseball into Japan, the exhibition tours of American teams into the country and the proliferation of gaijin (foreign-born players) later on. While the "meat" of the book featured images of baseball cards, the extra information fills in the details about the subject.

Here's a link to pick up a copy if you're interested:

Here's where I get to the rest of the story...

When I ordered this book, it arrived in defective condition. The cover had come off from the body. The seller (Diane Publishing of Darby, Pennsylvania) immediately sent me a new copy that was intact. I couldn't finish this review without pointing out their act of customer service. I've ordered stuff through Amazon for years and have never had this problem before; their quick fix was something I never expected.

But...now I have an extra copy of this book (they wouldn't take it back since it was defective). If you're interested in the subject, I'll offer my defective copy as a giveaway this weekend. If interested -- and unconcerned about the removable cover -- leave a comment below and I'll do a drawing on Sunday night.

Reader Question -- 1940s Leaf Cards

Here's a card from my collection I've shown here before:

This is from a set I've called 1948-49 Leaf both in my own Website and in this blog. A reader named John sent me this email:

"I just spent a few relaxing and entertaining hours reading the info in your pages. I stumbled across them while searching for info about the 1948-49 Leaf set.


I notice that you still consider that the set was printed and distributed over both years, 1948 and 1949. However, I recently completed reading the backs of every card in the set and I am convinced that it is strictly a 1949 issue, despite the occasional card with a 1948 copyright.


Every single card, with the obvious exceptions of the Wagner and Ruth cards, shows stats from the 1948 season; every single card that makes a specific mention of them refers to them as "last year." Additionally, the backs of the Cleveland Indians' Lou Boudreau and Jim Hegan mention their performance in the 1948 World Series and the Hank Edwards card mentions the Indians' World Championship. The other 1948 World Series team, the Boston Braves, has three player cards that mention their performance in the World Series, Alvin Dark, Tommy Holmes and Warren Spahn.


Therefore, the earliest that this set could have been printed would have been in late October, 1948, which is highly unlikely, given that card sellers typically stop selling their sets at that time of year due to loss of interest by the kids who buy their products. I'm convinced that the Leaf issue was strictly a 1949 issue and should share with Bowman the bragging rights of having the first post-war color set and that rookie player cards from each set should also be recognized.


Many sources seem to have reached the same conclusion, but most are reluctant to remove the reference to 1948 from the Leaf set and list it as strictly a 1949 set. They still call it the "1948-49 Leaf Set." I think there is no longer any doubt and that it should be recognized as the "1949 Leaf Set."


What do you think?"

I'll preface this by saying that I wrote the original Web page John read back in 2001, and used many of the same references that he refers to as I wrote it. I'm fairly open to changing the text to reflect new information, but my own dealings with this set are admittedly sparse. I own two cards, and haven't done the level of investigation as John obviously has.

However, in looking at my own two cards...one (the Seery card above) has a 1948 date and the other (#17 Frank Overmire) has a 1949 copyright. Seery's card mentions his 1948 performance, using his season-end totals, which would seem to confirm John's analysis.

I know that the Leaf set had several "unknown" factors among hobbyists for several years, and even in the 1960s it was believed that more cards might eventually surface. Furthermore, the fact that the company issued two similarly-designed football sets in 1948 and 1949 likely muddied the waters about when the baseball set was released.

Any collectors of this set who would like to add an input here?

Pre-NHL Hockey Cards

Today this blog features some of the earliest hockey cards. They are tobacco cards from the same era when  the T-series cards appeared. Unlike their American counterparts, however, these didn't have any brands advertised on them. I'm not sure if that was due to Canadian regulations; perhaps one of our friendly readers in that country can add a comment to explain.

What we now know as the National Hockey League wasn't organized until 1917. Before that, the main professional league was the National Hockey Association and it began play in 1910. Later that year, it is believed that this 36-card set appeared:

C56 Hockey #3 -- G. Roberts

Another thing that is different from most American-issued tobacco cards is the fact that these are numbered. Otherwise, they're the same size as the T206 and similar cards.

When Jefferson Burdick came up with his nomenclature for the American Card Catalog, he lumped all of the Canadian-issued tobacco cards -- regardless of their sport -- into the C-series. The grouping included one baseball series as well. Rather than using a specific date, he went by manufacturers when he knew them, by card size and by the set's subject. That's why the numbering system for the set from 1911-'12 might look odd at first:

C55 Hockey #20 -- Fred "Cyclone" Taylor

C55 was issued later but comes before the C56 set in Burdick's book simply because the banner on the back says "Hockey Players" and comes before "Hockey Series" alphabetically. There were 45 cards in the set, with one card having two variations.

One of the neat things in this set's design is the way it uses two hockey sticks to form part of the border. The player above is Fred "Cyclone" Taylor, one of the first professional hockey stars. Before Babe Ruth famously out-earned the President of the United States, Taylor earned more money than Canada's Prime Minister.

For 1912-'13, the "tobacco" era was largely over in the U.S., and in Canada the color was dropped from the cards:

C57 Hockey #46 -- Jack LaViolette

C57 is also the hardest of these three sets to complete, and ironically has the most cards. The complete set has 50 cards.

The storied Montreal Canadiens club was established during the NHA's tenure, as opposed to other clubs, which largely came from competing leagues. They were put together in order to have a French "alternative" that could interest hockey fans in Quebec as well. Since then, all the other teams around them came and went, but the "Habs" are still around today and have enjoyed long spells as a dominant club. And Jack LaViolette (shown above) was their leader and first coach.

The tobacco cards stopped there, as cigarettes largely migrated to using coupons and other premiums. As for the NHA, they were so affected by the conscription of players into the Army during World War One (which Canada entered in 1914) that there was a team made up entirely of players who'd enlisted in the Army. However, the thing that shut the league down was a money dispute. Several owners feuded with Toronto Shamrocks owner Eddie Livingstone and ended up forming the NHL in 1917 using the NHA as a framework.

They Still Aren't Dolls...

Last month, I featured some pictures of baseball players who were found in the toy aisle as plastic figures in 1969 and '70. While they predated the Starting Lineup figures, they weren't the first plastic statues of players. These came out between 1958 and 1962:

 This is Nellie Fox, and he was one of the 18 baseball players who were made into plastic keepsakes that we now call Hartland Statues.

Hartland Plastics was a company based in the Midwest that made bottles to hold perfume. During the holiday season, they offered these treasures (evidently during the Holiday season) to fans. There are collectors who assign values to the statues based on the presence of the original box, the tag that originally came with the figure, and accessories such as the bat that came with many players.

The Hartland name has been resurrected a few times over the years. A 25th anniversary line appeared in 1987 and look a lot like the originals. Dealers who offer the statues will be able to identify the originals from the newer models. A "new" series of the statues appeared in the 1990s featured more realistic-looking players, but as with most "manufactured" pieces of memorabilia, their value is nowhere near the originals.

Some Bills in Honor of "Tax Day"

Yesterday was "Tax Day," the deadline set by the IRS for American taxpayers to have their tax forms filed. While I hope everybody reading this post took care of that little issue -- or at least got an extension -- this blog will feature money of a different sort:

Willie Mays is part of a 96-piece set (they're heavy paper, and calling them "cards" would be incorrect) from 1962. It was a specialty set, issued in its own wrapper. While most of the players were issued as $1 "notes," several stars were assigned higher denominations. 24 of the players were given $5 denominations and ten of the biggest -- all of them Hall of Fame players except for Ken Boyer -- would get a $10 assessed value, including Willie Mays.

Here's the back of Willie's example:

As you can see, the design of these bills was team-specific. The fronts featured a drawing of the player's home stadium, and the backs features a team logo.

Topps must have liked the concept, since they inserted another series of the bills in with the regular wax packs of their football set later that year:

There were 48 bills in the football set, and all are found with a vertical crease since they were folded over to fit in the packs.

Another set of 24 bills was also inserted into the wax packs for 1962-63 Topps hockey. Since the cards were widely distributed in Canada, they were given the appropriate "look," including bilingual denominations: 

But Topps didn't limit these cards to their sports sets. In 1962, they also featured a set of cards marking the centennial of the U.S. Civil War. And guess what was tucked inside each wax pack?

Yep...a reproduced Confederate banknote.