George Mullin – That T206 life

The “Rosetta Stone” of T206

Luke December 21, 2017 December 24, 2017

This week I’m excited to team up again with Jamie Blundell to tell the story of quite possibly the coolest T206 ever printed. Dubbed the “T206 Rosetta Stone” by net54’s resident T206 Freak, Johnny V., this card is truly one-of-a-kind. Whatever you choose to call it, it’s clearly the most impressive example of T206 Printer’s Scrap in existence. Its simple front gives no indication of the craziness awaiting you on the reverse.

The front features Southern Leaguer Dom Mullaney of Jacksonville. The back has so much going on that it’s almost impossible to pick up with the naked eye. Here is a full list of everything printed on the back of this card:

Brown Old Mill back (The rarest of all T206 backs)*
Upside Down Miscut Piedmont 350 back showing parts of 4 backs
El Principe de Gales back
Upside Down El Principe de Gales back
Upside Down ghost image of Cy Young (Portrait)
Yellow ink pass for Cy Young (Portrait)
Yellow ink pass for George Mullin (Throwing)

Below is a really cool graphic made by T206 collector Chris Browne. He isolated each individual component of the back for easier viewing.

This is one of my favorite T206s in the entire hobby. It’s crazy to think this card survived all these years, while none of the other cards from the same sheet did so. Someone must have salvaged the sheet this card was printed on, cut up the cards, and saved them. My guess is the main reason this particular card survived while others didn’t is the image of Cy Young on the back. I can imagine most of the other cards being discarded due to being both exceedingly strange and depicting a nondescript Southern Leaguer. The presence of Cy Young on this card no doubt elevated it to a higher status within the collection it resided in.

Multi-strike backs are rare enough, but the fact this one features a Brown Old Mill back and a Cy Young ghost (not to mention everything else) makes it an unbelievable, once-in-a-lifetime card. Since the T206 Wagner already staked claim to the term “Holy Grail”, I think “Rosetta Stone” is a fitting nickname for this incredible specimen.

Unlike many T206s whose provenance is a mystery, we can trace this card from its current owner all the way back to its original owner.

Timeline:

In 1970, this card was purchased by a nostalgia shop called Little Nemo’s in Queens, New York from the original owner’s family.
This card, along with around 180 other tobacco cards was purchased from Little Nemo’s by Tom McMorrow, the future owner of East Hampton Auctions on eBay.
In 2008, after owning the card for 38 years, East Hampton Auctions listed the card for auction on eBay. In an effort to promote the listing, he made the video below and posted it on YouTube, where it still resides. Mr. Mullaney (and friends) was won by the owner of the net54baseball.com forum, Leon Luckey, for a final bid of $9,750.

In addition to the video, Tom gave a little more information about the card’s history in the auction description, which was captured for posterity by the website, t206museum.com:

“This card was one of about 180 purchased in a shoebox from a nostalgia type store on Ascan Avenue in Queens, NY named Little Nemo’s back in the early 1970s. The store had just purchased them from original owner’s family. The collection was fairly typical for what a boy growing up in New York area would have collected back in 1911, weighted towards Hall of Famers (three Cobbs, at least five McGraw, several Matty, quite a few New York Giants in the group) all in Gd to Ex condition with a few lower grade, no reverse stock loss on any, and nothing out of the ordinary but for this one. It looked like a normal kid’s collection of baseball cards, much like the Topps cards I had collected in the 1960s. This card was probably obtained by that child back in 1911 the same way kids obtained their cards for generations, by trading, flipping, or straight out of the pack.”

-T206 Museum July 9, 2008

In August 2015, the Leon Luckey collection hit the auction block via Heritage. On August 13, 2015, with a final hammer price of $19,120, the “Rosetta Stone” found a new home in the collection of Jamie Blundell.

If you’ve been reading this site for awhile, you may remember the article I wrote with Jamie about his incredible T206 Ty Cobb Back Run. If you missed it, that article can be read by clicking on the link below:

The Greatest T206 Back Run Ever Assembled: Ty Cobb Red Background Portrait

It’s really surprising to me that the market wasn’t stronger for this card when it sold at auction. In my opinion, it’s much more desirable than any of the other Brown Old Mill Southern Leaguers. Don’t get me wrong, any Brown Old Mill is an amazing card, and isolating the Brown Old Mill back by itself is arguably more pleasing to the eye. I just feel the Rosetta Stone has a mystique unlike any other card, save perhaps the Eddie Collins With Bat Proof.

Brown Old Mill Southern Leaguers are incredibly rare. They are all hand-cut and were not distributed in cigarette packages. The prevailing theory is the printers used brown ink by mistake, and scrapped the sheets. The cards were then cut up and saved either by one of the printers themselves, or perhaps by kids from the neighborhood.

A few Brown Old Mill Southern Leaguers have sold publicly in the years since Jamie won the Rosetta Stone. I was surprised to see a couple of them sold for more than the Rosetta Stone:

Sid Smith SGC A sold for $24,000 in REA Spring 2015 auction

J.R. Helm SGC A sold for $14,400 in REA Spring 2016 auction

Dutch Revelle SGC A sold for $20,400 in REA Fall 2017 auction

I want to thank Jamie for sharing the story of this amazing card, and for providing me with much of the info presented above, which helped me put together the ownership timeline.

*Or the 2nd rarest if you consider the Ty Cobb back to be a T206

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

Luke December 9, 2017 December 10, 2017

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.

Collecting Star Players Who Are Priced As “Commons”

Luke May 21, 2017 2 Comments

George Mullin is one of the best pitchers in Detroit Tiger history

My last post about my new Ed Killian Tolstoi made me think about an aspect of my collecting approach that I don’t hear talked about much. Whenever possible, I prefer to add T206s that feature star players over players who had a short MLB career, or were career Minor Leaguers. This isn’t a hard-and-fast rule, just a preference. I have a number of Minor Leaguers and Major Leaguers with nondescript careers in my collection that I love as well.

Heinie Zimmerman was a prolific hitter who won the National League Triple Crown in 1912

I’m not sure how many other T206 collectors share this collecting philosophy with me. I know many people collect the entire set without much regard to how good each player was (or wasn’t). And of course you have your Hall of Fame collectors. It makes sense that collecting star players who are not Hall of Famers would be a less common approach. Finding out which players were stars of the day takes some work, whether it be scouring Baseball Reference, or reading books about the Deadball Era.

George McQuillan was one of the best pitchers in baseball in 1908 but he never reached his potential due to off-the-field struggles

It took me a little while to arrive at this approach. When I first started collection T206, I was in love with the artwork and colors and I just wanted one of each front for my set. I knew about almost all of the Hall of Famers from reading about them as a kid, but I didn’t know anything about the players who were not enshrined.

Sherry Magee was an absolute beast offensively, leading the NL in RBI four times

I collected the set without knowing much about the players for about three years before deciding I wanted to know everything I could learn about not only the T206 set, but baseball from 1909-1911 specifically, and the Deadball Era in general. Baseball-reference.com was a great resource, and the one I used mostly. I also have really enjoyed a couple of books that were released by SABR: Deadball Stars of the American League, and Deadball Stars of the National League.

Ed Reulbach is one of the greatest pitchers in Chicago Cubs history – He went 182-106 with a 2.28 ERA for his career

Nowadays, I get almost as much enjoyment from finding a card of an “almost Hall of Famer” as I do a Hall of Famer. I love that I can get a star like Doc White, Sherry Magee, George Mullin, or Larry Doyle at the same price of a fringe player like Herbie Moran. To me, that feels like a huge spot of inefficiency in the market.

From 1906-1909, Orval Overall went 70-32 with an ERA under 2.00 for the Chicago Cubs

Obviously, supply and demand dictates the market price for the cards we collect. I hope that I can continue to find cards of my favorite players at “common” prices. I’m curious if any other collectors use a similar approach when looking to add new cards to their collections.