Category: Player Bios

Jimmy Williams: The Most Overlooked Player in the 150-350 Series?

Despite being an excellent ballplayer, Jimmy Williams is one of the most overlooked players in the 150-350 Series by T206 collectors.  Not too long ago, I was talking with my friend Scott Gross, and shared a scan of a new Jimmy Williams card I had added to my collection.  Scott mentioned that he considered Williams’ T206 card to be one of the most ignored/forgotten cards in the set.  I had to agree.  Once he mentioned it, I realized that I was guilty of it myself.  It’s obviously debatable whether he is in fact the most overlooked player in the 150-350 Series, or just one of the most.  But when you take into consideration how good he was, it makes our collective oversight of him all the more egregious.

Let’s take a look at why Williams has been so overlooked by collectors.  For one thing, the pose used for his card is not particularly exciting.  I happen to find the artwork and colors extremely appealing, but the same can be said for just about any other card in the 150-350 Series.  Aesthetically, Williams’ card just doesn’t stand out.

Another contributing factor is that Williams was not printed with some of the more desirable 150-350 Series backs.  Williams was printed with the following 8 backs:

  • Old Mill
  • Piedmont 150
  • Piedmont 350
  • Sovereign 150
  • Sweet Caporal 150 Factory 25
  • Sweet Caporal 150 Factory 30
  • Sweet Caporal 350 Factory 25
  • Sweet Caporal 350 Factory 30

He was not printed with these 4 backs:

  • Brown Hindu
  • El Principe de Gales
  • Sovereign 350
  • Sweet Caporal 150 Factory 649

Most 150-350 Series poses* were printed with 9 or more of the possible 12 backs.  A few poses, such as Bresnahan (Portrait),  Griffith (Portrait), and Johnson (Portrait) were printed with all 12 backs.  In fact, Williams’ 8 backs is the lowest of any 150-350 Series pose that was printed for the entire production run*.

To the best of my knowledge, there are only three other poses in the 150-350 Series that were printed with just 8 different backs**.  Wid Conroy (Fielding) and Ed Hahn were printed with the exact same 8 backs that Williams was printed with.  Jiggs Donahue was also printed with 8 different backs, but with a slightly different mix.  Rather than an Old Mill back, Donahue was printed with a Sovereign 350 back.

On the field, Williams was a stud.  Three of his first four seasons were nothing short of incredible, and the other seven seasons were very solid.  In 1899, as a 22 year-old rookie for Pittsburgh, he had his best season.  In 153 games, he had 220 hits, a .354 Batting Average, and a .946 OPS.  He led the league in Triples with 27, and placed 3rd in the National League in WAR for Position Players with a 6.9 mark.

Limited to just 106 games in his second Major League season due to an ankle injury, Williams had a disappointing season.  He hit just .264 with an OPS of .712.

In 1901, he was back to full strength and put together another tremendous season.  This was his first season with the Baltimore Orioles.  He played in 130 games and had 159 hits.  21 of those hits were triples, which led the American League.  He hit .317 with a .883 OPS, which ranked 5th in the American League.

In 1902, he put up a remarkably similar season to his 1901 output.  For the third time, Williams led his league in triples, again hitting 21 of them.  In 125 games, he hit .313 to go with an OPS of .861, which was good for 6th in the A.L.

After those first four seasons, Williams came down to earth.  He played seven more years in the bigs, but never again hit .300.  He did however, continue to produce at a very high level.  Throughout his short 11-year career, he was extremely consistent.  If you ignore his second season (1900), in which he played only 106 games, and his final season (1909) when he played just 110 games,  that leaves nine seasons in which he played more or less full-time.  In seven of those nine seasons, he finished in the Top Ten in RBI for his league.  That’s pretty incredible!

In addition to being a very productive hitter, Williams provided value at a premium defensive position.  Williams spent his first three seasons at third base and shortstop.  In sharp contrast to his offensive statistics, he began his career as a subpar defensive player.  He made 67 errors as a rookie in 1899 and followed it up with 54 in just 104 games in 1900.  In 1901, his first season as a full-time second baseman, he committed another 52 errors, this time in 130 games.  He settled in a second baseman and his defense steadily improved.  From 1903 to 1909, his fielding percentage was never below .951.

As a testament to his improvement, in 1903, Williams was 4th in Defensive War in the A.L. with a mark of 1.7.  In 1904, he followed it up with a 1.2 dWar, which was good for 10th in the American League.  All in all, he had a fantastic career, albeit a short one.

One of my favorite things about collecting the T206 set is you can buy a card of an extremely good player like Jimmy Williams for the same price as a card of an obscure player who only played a few seasons in the minors.  If you’re the type of collector who likes to look for tough backs, you’ll want to find either an Old Mill, which is the toughest, or a Sovereign 150, which is also pretty hard-to-find.  If you don’t care too much about backs, a Piedmont or Sweet Caporal should be pretty easy to find.  Whatever you decide, you can’t go wrong.  I think an argument could be made that Jimmy Williams is the most underrated player in the entire set.

* Poses that were pulled from production early, or put into production late will be printed with less than 8 backs.  Examples of these poses are:  All of the 150 Only Subjects, All of the Elite 11 Subjects, as well as Crawford (Throwing) and Jennings (Portrait)

**I am pretty sure this group of 4 players is the full list, but it’s possible that I’m missing a player or two.  As far as I know, there aren’t any reliable checklists to look this up, so I had to go off the top of my head and check my memory against the individual back checklists on t206resource.com.  If I forgot any pose, please let me know in the comments section.

Pulled From T206 Production Early: Tubby Spencer (and the recent sale of a Piedmont 350 SGC 40)

In honor of the Tubby Spencer Piedmont 350 in a SGC 40 holder that sold for $2,839 on June 11, 2018, it’s time for the next exciting episode of Pulled From T206 Production Early!  Spencer is one of the 11 players who were pulled from T206 production very early into the “350” portion of the 150-350 print run.  This group of players are known as the “Elite Eleven” among T206 collectors.  The term was coined by Ted Zanidakis in this Net54 thread, which was published in June of 2013.

Tubby Spencer was a light-hitting backup Catcher for the St. Louis Browns from 1905 to 1908.  He averaged just 68 games played in those four seasons, which makes it a little surprising that he was included in the set in the first place.  In 1909, he appeared in just 28 games with the Boston Red Sox, which presumably made the decision to pull him from the set a fairly straight-forward one.  He spent most of 1910 and 1911 with the St. Paul Saints of the American Association, and then had an 11-game cup of coffee with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1911.

For the next five years, he bounced around the Minor Leagues before catching on with the Detroit Tigers.  In 1916 he played 19 games, and followed it up with 70 in 1917 and 66 in 1918 before returning to the minors for good.

I’m not sure exactly why, but it seems that backup catchers got a lot more love in the deadfall era than they do now.  Spencer’s inclusion in the T206 set seems a little surprising based on his lack of playing time offensive output.  What’s really shocking is that he was chosen to be included in Philadelphia Caramel’s 30-card set (e96) released in 1910, about the same time that he was being pulled from T206 production.

Spencer is considered by most T206 back collectors to be the scarcest of the “Elite Eleven” *.  The recent sale I mentioned above resulted in a few messages from friends, all of which sounded something like, “Did you see what the P350 Spencer just sold for????  What the (heck)???”  Going into the auction I was asked by a couple friends what I thought the card would sell for.  I did give a range that I thought it might fall in (which was way off, sorry guys) but I told them that I didn’t have a great feel for where it might end up.

At the moment it seems that these tough Piedmont 350s are among the most volatile T206s in terms of what they will sell for on the open market.  It makes some sense.  We have near perfect information about many front/back combos, but the “Elite Eleven” Piedmont 350s are still a gray area.  It’s hard to know how many of each player are out there, and even tougher to guess what they’ll sell for when they hit the open market.

* This seems to be the consensus among the collectors I talk to.  If not the toughest, Spencer is certainly in the top three in terms of scarcity

George McBride’s Decade of Defensive Dominance

George McBride was the epitome of the “good-field, no-hit” shortstop.  In fact, he owns the record for lowest career Batting Average for an player with more than 5,000 At Bats (.218).  Because of his lack of hitting ability, it took a while for him to secure a starting job.  Once he did so, he took the job and ran with it.  From 1901 to 1907, he bounced around between 6 different Minor League teams, along with the St. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh Pirates.

In 1908 as a twenty-seven-year-old, McBride was finally given a chance to play full-time by the Washington Senators.  He played 155 games at shortstop and turned in a Defensive WAR of 2.6, which was good for 2nd in the American League.  Of course, WAR wasn’t a stat in use by any teams back then.  However, McBride’s defensive prowess was such that the team didn’t need stats to recognize it.  In 1909, he was named Captain of the Senators, a position he held for his entire tenure with the club*.

1908 was the beginning of a decade of unprecedented defensive wizardry from McBride.  From 1908 to 1916, there was only one season in which he wasn’t in the Top 3 on the American League Defensive WAR leaderboard**.  He placed 2nd in 1908 as well as 1910-11, then 1st in 1912-15.  In 1916, his last season as a full-time player, he finished 3rd in the A.L. in Defensive WAR.

McBride’s glove was so valuable that it catapulted him into the Top Ten in WAR for Position Players in the A.L. twice, in spite of his bat.  In 1908, his 4.5 WAR was good for 8th in the A.L. despite his paltry .232 Batting Average and .566 OPS.  In 1910, his 4.9 WAR placed 7th in the A.L.  His offensive output was similarly uninspiring in that season, a .230 Batting Average to go with a .609 OPS.

In 1917, he was replaced at shortstop by Howard Shanks and skipper Clark Griffith began to groom McBride as his successor.  McBride played 50 games in 1917, and then less than 20 in 1918-20.  In 1921, Griffith stepped away from his on-field duties and named McBride the new manager of the Washington Senators.

Sadly, he only managed one season (1921).  He was injured when a baseball thrown by Earl Smith hit him in the head during pre-game warmups on July 27th.  He wasn’t able to leave his bed for a week and continued to feel the effects of the injury.  At the time, it wasn’t diagnosed as such, but he likely suffered a severe concussion.  On December 6th 1921, he resigned as manager.  Griffith offered him a job as a scout, but McBride turned it down for health reasons.

In 1925, he returned to baseball and served as Ty Cobb’s bench coach with the Detroit Tigers.  In 1929, he retired from baseball at the relatively young age of 48.  He made a complete recovery from the head injury and eventually passed away at the age of 92 in 1973.

*McBride played his final game with the Senators in 1920

**1909 was a bit of down year defensively for McBride.  He didn’t even crack the Top 10 of Defensive WAR.

Sources:
-https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/bb22ca0e
-https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/mcbrige01.shtml

Both graphics are courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com

Why was George Mullin (Throwing) Pulled From T206 Production Early?

We know that George Mullin’s horizontal (or throwing) pose was pulled early in the Piedmont 350 print run and subsequently left off the print runs of Sovereign 350 and Old Mill entirely.  What we don’t know is why.  Mullin Throwing is a member of the “Elite 11” subset.  The Poses in this subset share the same characteristics:

  • They were printed with El Principe de Gales backs.  In my opinion it is likely that most, if not all of the Elite 11 poses were printed for the entire EPDG print run.  That is debatable though, and some collectors feel these poses were pulled early from the EPDG print run.
  • They were all certainly pulled early from Piedmont 350 production
  • None of the 11 poses were printed with Sovereign 350, Sweet Caporal 350, or Old Mill backs

Many T206 back collectors have memorized the list below.  Something I don’t think many people have considered is, “Why is Mullin included in this group?”  All the other poses make sense, but Mullin sticks out like a sore thumb.

The “Elite 11”
  • Dahlen (Boston)
  • Ewing
  • Ganley
  • Jones, Tom
  • Karger
  • Lindaman
  • Lundgren Chicago
  • Mullin horizontal
  • Schaefer (Detroit)
  • Shaw, Al
  • Spencer

I’ll give a quick rundown of the reasons American Tobacco Company would have had for pulling each of the other 10 members of the “Elite 11” from Piedmont 350 production early.  After that, we’ll take a look at why Mullin’s early exit from the Piedmont 350 print run is particularly curious.

Bill Dahlen 
Released by the Boston Doves on October 23, 1909 and joined Brooklyn the following year.  The artwork on his card was changed to reflect his new team and Dahlen (Brooklyn) took the place of Dahlen (Boston) for the remainder of the Piedmont 350 print run and SC 350 Sov350 and Old Mill print runs.

Bob Ewing
Traded from Cincinnati to the Philadelphia Phillies on January 20, 1910.

Bob Ganley
Selected off waivers by the Philadelphia Athletics on May 18, 1909.

Tom Jones
Traded to the Detroit Tigers on August 20, 1909.

Ed Karger
Purchased by St. Paul on June 9, 1909.  He was then traded to the Boston Red Sox on July 26, 1909.

Vive Lineman
Played his final game in the Major Leagues in 1909.

Carl Lundgren
Played his final game in the Majors in 1909.

Germany Schaefer
Traded from Detroit to Washington on August 13, 1909.

Al Shaw
Played his last Major League game in 1909.

Tubby Spencer
Played just 28 games with the Boston Red Sox in 1909 and did not play in the Majors in 1910.

As you can see, there is a clear reason behind the early exit of each of the other 10 members of the “Elite 11” from the Piedmont 350 print run.  But what about Mullin?  He doesn’t share any characteristics with the 10 players above.

In 1909, he was at the top of his game.  He appeared in 40 games, compiling a record of 29-8 to go with a 2.22 ERA.  He led the American League in both Wins and Win Percentage.  In the 1909 World Series, he appeared in four  games, posting a record of 2-1 to go with a 2.25 ERA.

In 1910, he turned in another strong campaign, appearing in 38 games with a record of 21-12 and an ERA of 2.87.

Unlike the other 10 players, there is no obvious reason why ATC would have pulled Mullin’s (Throwing) pose from production.  In fact, shortly after pulling this pose, they began printing his (Portrait) in the 350 Only Series and followed that with his (With Bat) pose soon after as part of the 350-460 Series.

Mullin’s (Portrait) features his name spelled as “Mullen”.  One possible explanation for the early exit of his (Throwing) pose is ALC thought it had spelled his name wrong on the (Throwing) pose.  This scenario makes some sense, as ALC spelled his name “Mullen” just months after pulling the (Throwing) pose from production prematurely.  Not too long after that, they began producing his (With Bat) pose and again spelled his name “Mullin”, so I’m not sure we can say anything definitively about ALC’s thoughts with regard to the spelling of his name.  In addition, there is precedent for ALC making a minor name change when dealing with a star player’s card (Sherry Magee’s “Magie” card).  I would think George Mullin would have qualified as a star in the same way Magee did in 1910.

When I first got the idea to write this article, I hoped that Pat Romolo’s Piedmont 150 Plate Scratch research would shed some light on the topic.  The Plate Scratch sheets that Pat recreated explain why the “150 Only” subjects were pulled from production early.  I hoped I’d find something similar when I looked for Mullin (Throwing) on Pat’s Plate Scratch sheets.  Unfortunately, the recreated sheet doesn’t offer any clues.  Mullin (Throwing) is located in the top left corner of the sheet above.  The image above is too small to show detail, so please click on the link below:

Piedmont 150 Plate Scratch “Sheet 3” featuring Mullin (Throwing)

The graphic below shows a small section of the sheet where Mullin is located.  As you can see, Schaefer (Detroit) is located two to the left of Mullin.  When I first saw Schaefer, I thought there might be a pattern.  However, those hopes were quickly dashed by Mullin’s proximity to Donlin (Seated) and L. Tannehill, which were not pulled from production.

We may never know the exact reason for Mullin’s early exit, but like so many pieces of the T206 puzzle, it’s fun to try and piece it together.

Pulled From T206 Production Early: Mike “Doc” Powers

In this series of articles, I’ll take a look at the poses that were pulled early from T206 production and the reasons behind their early exits.  Most poses were pulled early either due to a trade, demotion to the Minors, or retirement.  Sadly, the reason Powers was removed from further production is more tragic.

On Opening Day of the 1909 season (April 12th), Powers was injured when he crashed into a wall while chasing a foul pop up. In the 7th inning, he collapsed but recovered enough to stay in the game until it was finished.  As soon as the game ended, Powers was taken to the hospital.  The initial prognosis was optimistic.

The only thing that occurred to cast a shadow over the joy of the fans was the seizure of “Doc” Powers with acute gastritis in the seventh inning. The redoubtable catcher, however, refused to abandon his post behind the plate and though suffering intense agony, pluckily stuck to it until the end of the game. On the verge of collapse, he was taken to Northwest General Hospital where last night it was stated by the physicians attending him that he would probably be able to don a uniform again in a few days.
–Philadelphia Inquirer April 13, 1909

Unfortunately, things soon took a turn for the worse.  It was discovered that Powers was suffering from a rare medical condition called intussusception.  Intussusception is a disorder in which a part of the intestine slides telescopically into an adjacent part.  It results in a blockage that can prevent food and fluids from passing through.  Worse still, it cuts off the flow of blood to the blocked part of the intestine.  In Powers’ case, over a foot of his intestine had become gangrenous due to lack of blood flow.  Surgeons removed the gangrenous section and for about a week, it looked like he might fully recover.  Unfortunately, a new blockage was soon discovered, leading to another -this time more intrusive- operation which was performed on April 20, 1909.  For a few days, the outlook was again positive, but on April 25th it was decided that a third surgery was necessary.  This surgery revealed that Powers was suffering from acute dilation of the heart.  Though he was given blood transfusions and oxygen, there wasn’t anything the doctors could do to save him.  On the morning of April 26, 1909 Mike Powers passed away.

The popular version of the story depicts Powers as the first Major League Ballplayer to die from injuries sustained during a game.  There is even a story that Powers himself posited a bad cheese sandwich he had eaten before the game was to blame for his intestinal problems.  Though being a doctor himself, I’m sure he understood what had in fact happened once he was in the hospital receiving treatment and undergoing surgery.

The “romantic” notion that he died as a result of an on-field injury dominates the stories written about him, even to this day.  The truth is the injury merely brought his pre-existing condition to the attention of the doctors and surgeons at the hospital.  Wikipedia still lists the cause of death as complications following the on-field injury.

In an attempt to clear up misconceptions and set the record straight about what really killed Mike Powers, the Philadelphia Inquirer published the following on April 28, 1909:

At the conclusion of the ball game on Monday, April 12, Powers was found to be suffering from interssusseption [sic]39 of the bowel, which can probably be better described in homely language as like the tuck put in a man’s shirt sleeve to shorten it when it is too long.

Interssusseption is a condition found most frequently in children and in individuals who have more or less gaseous intestinal distension, and can occur while peacefully lying in bed as readily as while strenuously exercising. The mortality is usually very high; it being regarded as a generally fatal condition.

The need for an operation on Powers was manifested by the fact that he had a mass in the right lower portion of his abdomen, giving excruciating pain, and the opening made into the abdomen over the site of the mass revealed the fact that the lower end of the small intestine had slipped into the colcum [sic] or upper end of the large intestine, rendering about fifteen inches of intestine devoid of blood supply by pressure, and consequent gangrene of this portion of the intestine.

Efforts to reduce this interssusseption or, in plainer language, to restore the intestine to its normal condition, were unavailing, and the fifteen inches of intestine involved were cut out and the ends of the severed intestine were united, with the result that the obstruction was removed and the patient’s symptoms for a week were such as to lead all to believe in his ultimate recovery. At this time, however, symptoms of obstruction recurred and it was found necessary to perform a second operation. An artificial anus was then established in the abdominal walls at the seat of the original operation, when the obstruction completely disappeared and the patient improved and partook of nourishment satisfactorily until Sunday morning, the 25th instant, when suddenly he developed acute dilatation of the heart with collapse. During the day a considerable quantity of liquid was introduced into his circulation directly through openings in his veins; oxygen was administered continuously, but under neither did he respond and death resulted at 9:14 a.m. Monday.

Philadelphia Inquirer, April 28, 1909.

The funeral was held at St. Elizabeth’s Roman Catholic Church on April 29, 1909.  Doc Powers was buried in Saint Louis Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky shortly thereafter.

The Athletics and Major League Baseball in general were stunned and saddened by Powers’ passing.  Connie Mack called Powers the “most popular man of the Athletics”.  Mack soon asked American League President Ban Johnson for permission to stage a benefit for Powers’ family.  Johnson agreed, and the Athletics began preparations for “Doc Powers Day”, which was held on June 30, 1910 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia.  Doc Powers Day consisted of a skills competition followed by an exhibition game between the Philadelphia Athletics and an All Star team made up of players from other MLB clubs. Tickets cost between 10 cents and a dollar.  Tris Speaker, Hal Chase, Jimmy Austin, Harry Hooper, Jake Stahl, Hippo Vaughn, and Germany Schaefer played for the All Star team.

The event was a huge success.  When all was said and done, Doc Powers Day had raised approximately $8,000 for his widow and family.

SABR produced an excellent biography of Powers which tells the real story in it’s entirety.  They go into much more detail than I do here.  I highly recommend checking it out:

A Ballpark Opens and A Ballplayer Dies: The Converging Fates of Shibe Park and “Doc” Powers

Footnotes:

39. The disorder was spelled differently in 1909 (“Interssusseption”) than it is today (“Intussusception”). The original spelling as it appeared in the surgeon’s report is used in the quotation as extracted from the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Sources:

http://sabr.org/research/ballpark-opens-and-ballplayer-dies-converging-fates-shibe-park-and-doc-powers

https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Doc_Powers

“Fully 35,000 Fans See Athletics Beat Boston in First Game of Season,” Philadelphia Inquirer, April 13, 1909.

He Played 3 Games in the Majors in 1891 and Somehow Managed to Appear on a T206 card?

In 1891 a 17 year-old Bill Clymer appeared in 3 games for the Philadelphia Athletics.  He made 13 Plate Appearances but was not able to record a hit.  He did however walk once and steal a base before being sent back to the Minors.  I’m sure many people around the game expected him to be back in the Majors at some point, but it never happened.

You may be thinking: How is he in the T206 set if he only played in 3 games in the Majors in 1891?  His T206 card was released 29 years later, in 1910.  Good question.

In 1892, the speedy shortstop returned to the Minor Leagues, playing for Portland of the New England League.  No stats have survived from that season, but we do have stats from 5 of his next 6 seasons in the Minors.  Clymer played in Portland again in 1893.  He hit .310 and slugged .504 as a 20 year-old.  Not bad for a 155 pound speedster.  He also stole 42 bags that year.

In 1893, he signed with the Buffalo Bisons of the Eastern League who made him an outfielder.  He continued to rake, hitting .337 and stealing 36 bags.  Looking at his stats, it’s incredibly tough to believe he was never given another shot in the big leagues.

In the five seasons following his cup-of-coffee in the Big Leagues, Clymer’s average season looks like this:

  • 116.8 Games
  • .298 Batting Average
  • 27 Doubles
  • 31.6 Stolen Bases

I have to imagine some of the clubs in the Majors at time could’ve used some help at the plate from their middle infielders.  But, for whatever reason, he was never given another shot.  During the last of the five seasons mentioned above, Clymer played for the Rochester Patriots/Ottawa Wanderers of the Eastern League (the team left Rochester in July and re-located to Ottawa.  During this season, he was given his first shot as a player/manager.  Though he only managed for two weeks in 1898, he must have made an impression because he went on to manage the Wilkes-Barre Coal Barons of the Atlantic League in 1900 (though the league disbanded on June 12th).  His promotion to manager coincided with a precipitous decline in production on the field, but he proved to be an excellent skipper.

In 1902, Clymer was named the new skipper of the Louisville Colonels of the American Association.  They finished 2nd in the AA that year, and they duplicated that feat the following season.  With Louisville he bounced back at the plate.  After a handful of disappointing offensive seasons, he hit .290 in 1902 and an astonishing .351 in 1903.

In 1904, “Derby Day Bill” became the manager of the Columbus Senators, also of the American Association.  His club finished in 2nd place in the league.  1904 was his last full season as a player.  He played in 139 games, but hit just .224.  In 1905, Clymer lead his first squad to a league pennant, and followed up with a repeat in 1906 and a three-peat in 1907.  In 1905, he appeared in only 47 games as a player, and that number dropped to 15 in 1906.  In 1907 he was strictly the manager of the club.

In 1907, Sporting Life magazine predicted that Bill Clymer would be named the new Boston Red Sox manager for the 1908 season.  However, the prediction never came to fruition.  Clymer never managed in the Major Leagues, although he did serve as a coach on the 1925 Cinicinnati Reds staff.  1909 was his last season managing in Columbus.  In 1910, he was featured as the Columbus skipper on his T206 card.

He would go on to manage for approximately 29 years in the Minor Leagues.  He returned to Wilkes-Barre, Buffalo, Columbus, and Louisville along with one-year tours in Tulsa, Toronto and Seattle.  His teams went 2,122-1,762 over that span, winning an impressive seven pennants.  Baseball Reference shows that he appeared in one game as a player in 1922 for the Newark Bears of the International League, although he didn’t record any stats.

In 1989, Bill Clymer was inducted into the Buffalo Bisons Hall of Fame in recognition of his 11 years of service to the ball club (see the HOF plaque below).

I’d like to thank Baseball Reference, Baseball History Daily, and the Buffalo Bisons.  Baseball Reference for the use of their stats, biographical information, and the cartoon that appears above.  The picture at the top of this article is courtesy of Baseball History Daily.  The Buffalo Bisons Hall of Fame plaque is courtesy of the Buffalo Bisons.

 

The Most Obscure Major Leaguer in the T206 Set

In 1910, 31 year-old John Frill made his Major League debut with the New York Highlanders.  He appeared in 10 games, starting 5 of them.  He went 2-2 with an ERA of 4.47 over a total of 48 innings pitched.  Nothing too interesting about any of that.  Just a career Minor Leaguer getting a cup of coffee and eating some inning for the big league club.  Only July 13th 1910, Frill was back in the Minors, his contract having been purchased by Eastern League club Jersey City.  In 1911, he turned in a 16-17 record with a 3.78 ERA for the Jersey City club .  That same year, American Tobacco Company made a curious decision when they included Frill in the 460-Only portion of the T206 set.

There is no shortage of obscure players in the T206 set, but Frill may be the most extreme example, at least among Major Leaguers.  He was a bit of a late-bloomer in baseball terms.  His first taste of professional ball came as a 27 year-old in the Connecticut State League, where he pitched parts of the 1906 Season with Bridgeport and Springfield starting 29 games and going 11-15.  In 1907 he started 6 games for Newark of the Eastern League, before joining East Liverpool of the Pennsylvania-Ohio-Maryland League.  He appeared in 30 games for East Liverpool, but no other stats were kept.  In 1908, Frill re-joined Newark, where he turned in solid seasons in both 1908 and 1909.  In 1908 he went 13-10 with a 2.39 Run Average (the ERA stat was not kept, presumably because errors were not recorded).  In 1909 he was 16-13 with a 3.34 Run Average.

A mysterious figure, this little black and white thumbnail is the only picture I could find of John Frill

Including Frill in the set as a member of Newark in 1910 would have made a lot of sense.  Including him as a member of the New York Highlanders in 1911 is a real head-scratcher however.  My best guess as to why Frill was chosen for inclusion in the set is that he may have been a relatively well known player at the time as a result of his 1908 and 1909 campaigns in Newark.  This still doesn’t make a lot of sense, as most fringy Major Leaguers in the set either had a long Major League career, or a short and notable one.

Whatever the reason, Frill’s T206 card is one of my favorite of the 460-Only Series.  Though there are a number of cards with green grass and blue sky backgrounds, the colors on this one have always stood out to me.

In 1912, John Frill returned to big leagues for another cup of coffee.  He appeared in 3 games with the St. Louis Browns before being selected off waivers by the Cincinnati Reds.  He pitched in 3 games for the Reds, and then returned to the Minor Leagues for good.  In 1915 he pitched for Albany and Syracuse of the New York State League before hanging up the spikes at 35 years of age.  In 1918 he passed away far too young in Rhode Island at the age of 38.

John Frill’s T206 can be found with Uzit, Lenox, American Beauty 460 and Cycle 460 backs.  The Uzit was recently discovered and is the only copy known as of this writing.

George Stone’s Monster 1906 Season

T206 George Stone Old Mill

George Stone came out of nowhere in 1905 as a 28 year-old rookie.  Well, not exactly nowhere.  He spent the entire 1904 season in Milwaukee, dominating the American Association.  It’s hard to believe he stayed in the Minors all year given the stats he was putting up.  He hit .406 with a .558 Slugging Percentage to go with 36 Doubles, 19 Triples, and 7 Home Runs.  Prior the the 1905 season, he had played just 2 games in the Major Leagues, both with the Boston Red Sox in 1903.

In 1905, he played in every single game for the St. Louis Browns.  That in itself is pretty impressive, but more importantly, he played at an extremely high level.  A rundown of his achievements in 1905 is enough to make your head spin.  He led the AL in Plate Appearances (691), Hits (187) and Total Bases (259).  His .296 Batting Average ranked 6th and his .756 On Base Plus Slugging Percentage ranked 4th among American Leaguers.  A rookie in the truest sense of the word, George Stone posted the 4th highest Offensive WAR (4.8) in the AL.

Stone’s T3 Turkey Red Cabinet

Following Stone’s stellar 1905 campaign, expectations were no doubt high for him in 1906.  However, I can’t imagine that anyone expected what came next.

In less Plate Appearances (658 v.s. 691 in 1905) George Stone put up one of the most impressive offensive displays of the Deadball Era.  He led the AL in Batting Average (.358), On Base Percentage (.417), Slugging Percentage (.501) and OPS (.918).

George Stone E92 Nadja Caramel

His 91 Runs Scored were 5th in the AL and his 71 Runs Batted in were good for 6th.  He again led the league in Total Bases. this time with an astounding 291.  His 208 Hits were 2nd only to Lajoie’s 214.  Stone’s 20 triples trailed only Elmer Flick among American Leaguers.  He finished third in the AL in Home Runs with 6, which trailed Harry Davis’ 12 and Charlie Hickman’s 9.

George Stone’s historic 1906 season was worth 8.7 Wins Above Replacement, which ranked 3rd in the AL behind only Nap Lajoie’s 10.0 and Terry Turner’s 9.4.  Take only offensive metrics into consideration, and Stone’s year at the plate looks even better.  His Offensive Wins Above Replacement of 7.9 ranked 1st in the American League.  This time he edged out Lajoie’s 7.6.  Flick was a distant 3rd at 6.2 and Harry Davis and Turner tied for 4th at 5.2.

Stone had another great year with the Browns in 1907.  He hit .320 and put up an OPS of .787.  In 1908 he took a step back, but still posted a solid campaign with a .281 Batting Average and .714 OPS.  He played his final major league game in 1910 at the age of 33.  Stone is one of many Deadball Era stars who had short careers.  He only played 6 season of Major League ball (7 if you count the two games he played in 1903) but he definitely left his mark on the sport.

Today, many T206 collectors look at a George Stone card and think “common”.  But the truth is he was anything but.

T206 Player Bio: Harry Lumley

T206 Harry Lumley Sovereign 150

During his short MLB career, Harry Lumley was one of the most feared sluggers in the game.  He played only 5 full seasons in the Majors, and his stats are staggering.  He was sidelined by injuries, rheumatism, and a tendency to put on weight.  If he had remained healthy, it’s not hard to imagine him as a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

In 1903, Lumley played for Seattle of the Pacific Coast League, which was an outlaw league at the time.  He led the league in batting average with a .383 clip.  Following that season, the PCL joined organized baseball.  As a result, all of Seattle’s players were eligible for the Rule 5 Draft, and Lumley was selected by the Brooklyn Superbas.  As a 23 year-old rookie in 1904, he led the National League in both triples (18) and home runs (9).  He put up an average of .279 with an OPS of .759.  It was an incredible rookie season, but he was just getting started.

In 1905, Lumley’s average climbed to .293, though his triple (10) and home run (7) totals dropped a bit.   His 7 HRs were still good for 3rd in the NL.  1906 was his best year by far.  His batting average jumped to .324, good for 3rd in the NL behind only Harry Steinfeldt and Honus Wagner.  He led the league in slugging (.477) and was second in triples (12) and home runs (9), trailing only his teammate Tim Jordan.

1907 was another great year for Lumley, but sadly it was the last season he performed at a high level.  He hit 9 home runs, good for second in the NL and slugged .425, which slotted in just behind Wagner and Magee on the NL leaderboard.  Near the end of the season, he broke his ankle while sliding, which ended his season after 127 games.  The injury lingered into the 1908 season and made it tough for him to keep his weight down.  Prior to the season, he was named team captain.  He played 127 games in 1908, but only hit .216 with 4 home runs.

Prior to the 1909 season, Brooklyn owner Charles Ebbets named Lumley manager.  He skippered his squad to a 55-98 record, which was good for 6th in the NL.  That doesn’t look too good at first glance, but in 1908 the club went 53-101 and finished 7th, so it was a nice, if small, improvement.  As a player, Lumley appeared in 55 games, but injuries and weight gain had sapped him of his effectiveness.  He put up a decent average (.250) but didn’t hit a single home run.

After the season, Ebbets replaced Lumley with Bill Dahlen as the new manager.  Lumley started the season with the club as a player, but he only played 8 games before being released in June of 1910.

If the T206 set had begun production in 1904, Lumley might have been featured on three or four cards.  As it was, he made the cut to be included mainly because he was the current manager of the 1909 Brooklyn team.  Fans no doubt were hoping for him to return to form, but injuries had taken their toll.  Lumley is one of the more compelling players in the T206 set, and I am very happy he was included, even if we only got one card of him.

T206 Lumley back run

I want to thank baseball-reference.com for the stats and leaderboards and Tom Simon for his great article that can be found here.  Both of these resources were a big help to me in telling the fascinating story of Harry Lumley.

T206 Player Bio: Harry Krause

T206 Krause portrait
Krause won the AL pitching title in 1909 with a 1.39 ERA

In 1909 the Philadelphia Athletics rotation was absolutely stacked.  Co-aces Eddie Plank and Chief Bender were flanked by Cy Morgan, Jack Coombs and a 20 year-old rookie name Harry Krause.  Plank went 19-10 with a 1.76 ERA and Bender was 18-8 with a 1.66 ERA.  Morgan won 16 and lost 11 with a stellar 1.65 ERA.  Coombs went 12-11 and his 2.32 ERA was just about league-average.  Krause managed to outperform all of them.  The left-hander went 18-8 and led the American League with a 1.39 ERA.

It comes as no surprise that the American Tobacco Company rushed to include him in the 350 series print run.  In 1910, they released not one, but two cards depicting him.  We know them as the portrait and pitching poses.

Prior to his incredible 1909 campaign, Krause has only started 2 games in Major League Baseball.  Just as quickly as he achieved stardom, he lost it.  The Athletics were World Series Champions in 1910 and 1911, but Krause did not play a huge part in either title.  Due to arm trouble he started only 11 games in 1910 and his ERA rose to 2.88.  In 1911, his last full year in the majors, he went 11-8 with a 3.04 ERA.  In 1912, he struggled and was sent to the Minor League Toledo Mud Hens.  After a couple months, he was purchased by the Cleveland Naps, where he appeared in 2 games, posting an ERA of 11.57.

T206 Krause pitching

He threw his last pitch in the majors in 1912, but went on to have an impressive career in the Pacific Coast League.  In 1913, he won 17 games for Portland with an ERA of 2.28.   In 1917 he joined the Oakland Oaks, with whom he would play for the next 12 seasons.  His stat line from 1917 is hard to believe.  He threw an astounding 428.2 innings, winning 28 games and dropping 26.  Despite that ridiculous workload, he put up an impressive 2.35 ERA.

When he finally hung up the cleats at the age of 40, he owned a 249-220 record and 3.22 ERA in 16 PCL seasons.  After his career ended, he was inducted into the Pacific Coast League Hall of Fame.

Thank you to baseball-reference.com for all the stats.