1922 W503 Baseball #5, Bill "Rosy" Ryan

As a fan of baseball eras long past, it's fun to think every player has their own piece of history. The one thing they did that few others have. Lou Gehrig played 2130 straight games. Roger Clemens struck out 20 guys twice. Jamie Quirk hit a walk-off homer in his only at-bat as a Cleveland Indian. Legendary stuff.

So what has Rosy Ryan done? To date, he's the only reliever to go deep in a World Series game, taking fellow Senators pitcher Allen Russell out in 1924's game three on October 6 (box score). Many champions have come and gone, many relievers have swung the splinter, but only Rosy got to circle the bases at a leisurely pace.

Ryan earned this opportunity in part from his versatility. No fainting flower on the mound, Rosy also led the NL in ERA (1922) and games played (1923) as a key part of three straight Giants pennant winners, 1922-24 (career stats). He even pitched half of that "relief homer game," nearly five innings in all.

Why include the PSA tag? Because "Gaints."

As for W503 itself, its 64 black-and-white photos are technically strip cards, as they were hand-cut from a multi-card sheet and perhaps distributed with food or candy. They prove so hard to come by that I assume both a small print run and some kind of trade-in promotion. To quote a 2015 Heritage Auctions listing, "Still unknown is exactly who produced and how this scarce set of 64-cards were circulated. The cards are hand-cut...and there is some speculation they may have been issued as a bonus with the purchase of candy or gum."

While finishing a set would be like catching ghosts, you can enjoy more 1922 W503 images for free at http://www.rustywilly.com/1922W503Singles.htm.

2023 update: This Ryan's more trimmed than folded, leaving a clearer image.

Value: Yet to find a W503 #5 to call my own and I assume it'll cost $100+ when I do.

Fakes / reprints: Haven't seen any in the marketplace, but the HOFers are certainly at risk for fakery. Any deal that seems too good to be true goes double for this kind of set.

National Sports Collectors Show 2015, day two (Thursday) highlights

As time and tide wait for no man, neither do your feet adjust to hours of pounding around the robust concrete floors of Rosemont's convention center. Oy vey. But onto the cards!

I spent two hours sifting through variety boxes at one of my favorite National dealers, Kurt Tourdot. Thanks to John and Len, I also spent awhile thinking about a new haircut. Unitas has a classic gridiron look, but Dawson's closer to what will actually happen on my head.

Speaking of haircuts, here's another guy with a buzz.

Despite finishing my own 1976 SSPC baseball set a few years ago, I'd completely forgotten about its #589 George Brett / Al Cowans Cowens masterpiece of no-budget photography. SSPC showcased several great goofball photos in the "high numbers," but I think this is the best.

It's hard to find subtle, excellent design like the colors and script used for 1962 Post Cereal's CFL set. Would've loved this photo design for Post's baseball sets, which feel cramped in comparison.

Other than last year's Allen & Ginter barbed wire card, Dan Gladden is as close as I'll get to seeing "Glidden" on a trading card.

The barbed wire card, with mention of my great-great-great-uncle Joseph.

I spent an hour-plus sifting through a table of oddball postcards and photos, including this snapshot of Joe DiMaggio looking down at something. He also has a good haircut.

One table featured an 800-count box of autographed 1970s minor league cards. This TCMA manager card from Dubuque's Packers, an Astros farm team, was my favorite for many reasons. They are all cornball and exaggerated reasons.

Nice Yankees patch and perfect companion to this Brooklyn patch from day one.

Longtime blog readers might recall the National Poster Stamp Society's "Eureka Sportstamps" article about their Yankees promotional set. Here's another of their products, a booklet of stick-ons to liven up any kids' binder or desk or what have you.

None of these seals had been sealed to anything, so I suspect it was found in storage rather than purchased for 19c by a sports or seals enthusiast.

At one point, I tried to collect the 1936 S&S Game, one of the hobby's easier 1930s sets to finish. While available primarily as singles into today's vintage market, this was the source for all such cards: a boxed board game called The National Game.

This game came complete with lineups, multiple rule cards, and even a "CASH AWARDS" promo that asked players to write a 100-word essay on why they liked the game itself. That last bit's some cunning work by S&S itself, since customer-written essays would give them a ready supply of marketing research and ideas. In this shape it fetches four figures, well above what I can afford on a collectible.

I found a few more type cards, including these from 1927-29 W560, a multi-sport set with one #5 for each card suit.

In order to better understand the explosion of the 1930s trading card market, I've also picked up more Goudey and National Chicle cards from that era, including some of Goudey's "Indian Chewing Gum," a large set about the American West.

My first two Indian Gum cards ($3 each) feature a settler and a "border patrol leader," spiritual forerunner of today's Texas Rangers law enforcement unit. Clearly a good set for fans of beards.

#49: "[Gen. Ben McCulloch] introduced into the West that death-dealing instrument, the six shooter..."

Speaking of six-shooters and "Indians," here's Sonny Sixkiller, Cherokee and former star QB for the University of Washington, my alma mater. He reprised this role, kind of sort of, as a player in 1974's "The Longest Yard."

Sonny's the true-life QB in this promo photo, instead of leading man Burt Reynolds, who played halfback for FSU. Sonny's career continued briefly as a pro for the 1970s WFL (which itself played but briefly) and he remains in football today as a TV analyst.

In addition to the earlier pair of W560 type cards, I also scored this 1968 Tipps from the Topps #5 panel on turning the double play for $25, starring the Cardinals' Julian Javier. While I'd written about that set based on scans back in 2012 (set profile), it's great to finally own the real deal.

Total #5 type cards owned now stands at 550 for both major and minor leagues! I know that's far more than I thought existed when this project started. Maybe there's another handful to locate before the show's over...? Day three tomorrow!

1926 W512 Strip Card Baseball #5, Glen (Glenn) Wright

I want to think Mr. Wright looks mean here. Someone threw a pitch at his head, called his puppy an insulting name, or said his nose looked like a handful of raspberries. (In this set, it does.)

On the field, Glenn's cannon arm earned him the awesome nickname "Buckshot." You picture someone like that as all glove and no bat, but Wright regularly cleared .300, first for Pittsburgh and later in Brooklyn. Like Joe Sewell, another top 1920s shortstop, he rarely struck out. SABR wrote a nice profile for Glenn, starting with his unassisted triple play in 1925.

Buckshot earned a minor level of support for the Hall of Fame in the 50s, though eventually dropped off the ballot, probably for lack of overall production. Of all things, a 1929 handball accident ruined his throwing arm and cut his fielding ability from great to average. It's not on the level of some bizarre player injuries, but it's not something you'd expect from a baseballer today.

1926 W512 #6-10 uncut strip

What you see on the card is what you get with the W512s: hand-drawn players, paper strips sold from machines, and fruit-like facial features. The set does have a distinct advantage over others from the 1920s. Its total baseball checklist is ten (10) cards, with names like Cobb, Ruth, Hornsby, and Alexander. If you want to finish an early set full of "legends" for smaller money, this is the one for you. You can even expand into the multi-sport sections, should two handfuls of cards prove unsatisfying.

1926 W512 uncut "left" sheet

This "lefthand" sheet shows Glenn at one top corner and the "righthand" sheet completes the set of 50. You might recognize Hollywood actors, aviators, and other athletes following the initial 10 baseball players.

1926 W512 uncut "right" sheet

Speaking of things that derailed a career, former Boston and Seattle shortstop Rey Quinones had my favorite reason not to play every day: he was too good.

Value: Low-grade W512 singles cost a few dollars, unless they're one of the big baseball stars or a notable name like Charlie Chaplin or Charles Lindbergh.

Fakes / reprints: It'd be easy to fake these, thanks to the crude art and paper stock. Be wary of buying Ruth, Cobb, and other stars without confidence in the dealer.

1920s W542 Sports Drawings #5, Athlete (and Hughie Jennings)

Today's 10-card set popped up in a recent eBay search, and though it's not baseball-specific, I liked its art enough to snapshot the two 5-card strips that comprise the whole thing.

This simple, woodblock style reminds me of turn-of-the-century book engravings, with its childlike proportions and primary colorization. Like most such sets, kids bought them in vertical or horizontal strips from carnival vending machines for a penny or nickel.

Finding this full set scan made it easy to checklist.

1. Training (boxing)
2. Cricket
3. Tennis
4. Boxing
5. Athlete (weight-lifting)
6. Roller Skating (field hockey?)
7. Ice Skating
8. Hockey
9. Catcher
10. Pitcher

Old Cardboard's W542 set profile calls out its similarity to the unnumbered 1919 W552 set, which Mayfair Novelty printed not on strips, but as a 3x4 sheet.

Mayfair's lower-right "first baseman" card is a knock-off of HOF Detroit manager Hughie Jennings' well-known half-leap, seen often in the coaches box during early century Tigers games.

Hughie appears in vintage sets from time-to-time and often in the same pose, even if transitioned back to "batting."

1972 Laughlin Great Feats #23 (red)

Jennings turned his EE-YAH! yell into a catchphrase, similar to the Marines "ooh-rah" of today, and you can read his biography under that same title.

Value: W542 singles cost $5 or less in low grade.

Fakes / reprints: Haven't seen any in the marketplace. I think they're too unknown (and unpopular) to be worth faking.

1921 W9316 Baseball #5, Jimmie Johnston

I'm a fan of strip card issues from the 1920s and 30s. They're relatively plentiful in low grades, often feature interesting designs, and prove affordable for collectors looking for pre-WWII cards. Win, win, win.

Card front (blank back)

Did I say enough good things already? OK, then, let's be honest. W9316 cards leave me "lukewarm" and Old Cardboard's set profile jumps right to "ugly." The set's extremely basic artwork and 10-player checklist seem like a cheap attempt to cash-in on the strip card concept, an already popular promotional vending machine item.

I couldn't find a good checklist and gallery online, so compiled this from several sources.

1. #1 Bob Veach (scan)
2. #2 Frank "Home Run" Baker (scan)
3. #3 Wilbert Robinson (aka Wilbur, scan)
4. #4 Johnny Griffith
5. #5 Jimmie Johnston (scan above)
6. #6 Wallie Schange (aka Wally Schang, scan)
7. #7 Leon Cadore (scan)
8. #8 George Sisler (scan)
9. #9 Ray Schalk (scan)
10. #10 Jesse Barnes (scan)

Value: Cards trimmed poorly, like my Jimmie Johnston, cost around $10. Prices go up from there and sellers often ask more than $100 for HOFers in good condition. (Sisler is the best-known player.)

Fake / Reprints: Gah, who would want to? Haven't seen any reprints and there's probably not enough demand to try it.

1920 W519 strip card #5, Babe Ruth

30 Helens Agree: "It's hard to beat a vintage Babe Ruth card."

This #5 still looks hale and hearty, though a previous owner slimmed it down significantly with some scissors. Fortunately, they left behind the name, number, and the Babe's sly smile. That's enough to catalog it as a W519, part of a 1920 set of 20 strip cards.

W519 card front

This blog already profiled a mirror twin to today's Bambino, the 1921 W521 #5. Both sets probably used the same distribution, as horizontal paper strips sold for a few cents at stores, carnivals, or arcades.

W521 card front

Old Cardboard's profile for W519 notes several design and numbering variations, but the serious collectors at Net54Baseball are still exploring and developing the set's full scope. See a December 8, 2009 thread for discussion, checklist questions, and example scans.

The Babe Ruth Cards site includes scans of several W519s, all slabbed and ready-to-buy. (No connection or endorsement implied.) Of note, the PSA and SGC graders didn't originally distinguish W519-1 and W519-2 varieties, but some recent Net54 scans include that detail.

1921 W516-2-1 Baseball #5, Ty Cobb

We find today's guest in an unfamiliar role: on the field, with a glove, just moving to one side. No incredible batting skills, no legging out a double, and no savage slides with spikes high. Other than a certain set of the Georgia Peach's jaw, this card could be anyone. Is it the only time he failed to stand out from a crowd?

Card front (blank back)

I'll leave aside Cobb's legendary temper and vitriol in favor of interesting aspects of the card and W516 issue itself. As a lefty batter, you could miss that he fielded right-handed, so the glove should be on his left hand. That identifies this card as a reversed image. (Check the southeast corner for confirmation, where "IRC (c)" is also a mirror-image of what it should be.)

While W516s look like a fairly typical strip card issue, the catalog number comprises 3 distinct issues that share a common list of players. Old Cardboard does a great job profiling their differences and respective checklists. As a reversed image with typeset name, my Cobb's officially a W516-2-1. Fortunately, this gaffe doesn't detract from an interesting horizontal layout and vibrant background. Against all strip card odds, I'd want this for my collection, #5 or not.

UPDATE: Saw this purported W516-2-1 Cobb on eBay. It uses handwritten text with name/position on the right, though, so looks like a W516-1-2 instead of the typeset version above.

Horizontal W516 strip cards normally cut along the dotted line below, with name/position at left. This Cobb might be badly mis-cut or could be another W516-related card issue.

UPDATE: Found this W516-2-3 on eBay, to see what the corrected version (with type-set name and position) looks like.

Value: W516s probably hold the title of cheapest Cobb from his playing days. I plucked this one off eBay in 2004 for the low, low price of $26. Another trimmed version appeared in a $20 box at the 2008 National. Online sellers usually ask a lot more (tsk tsk), but it should be your best shot at the legendary Tiger outfielder for reasonable money.

Fakes / reprints: They might be out there (being Cobb), but I haven't seen any personally.

1922 W501 #5, Bobby Veach

In 1925, today's guest appeared in a single game for the Boston Red Sox. Bob (aka Bobby) made 3 catches in left field, rapped a two-run single, and walked once in 6 trips to the plate. As a career .300+ hitter and competent outfielder, you'd expect more work. Unfortunately, Beantown sank quickly into last place and older players--Veach was 37--became expendable.


In May, the Sox shipped Bobby to another troubled team in search of a supporting cast, the Yankees. While Bronx's Bombers played well at home (42-36), a lineup of sluggers Ruth, Gehrig, and Bob Meusel couldn't save their road record (27-49). Veach batted well off the bench, even pinch-hitting for the Babe on August 9th, but New York cut him soon after. A final fortnight with the pennant-winning Senators in September closed his career at 2063 hits and 127 OPS+.

1922's W501 set includes 120 players with hazy black-and-white photos and white borders. Being strip cards, they often feature ragged edges and other wear. The design closely resembles caramel cards like the E121s and E135s, with rarity somewhere between the two. Low-grade commons cost $10 to $20, depending on the trimming and picture quality. I cropped rough edges from today's scan to make the picture less muddy. It's a solid PR-FR and cost $22 from eBay last year.

1921 W520 Baseball strip cards #5, Art Fletcher

Today's guest served lengthy tenures both on the field and in the coach's box. He followed an unremarkable run as Philadelphia's shortstop with a handful more as their manager, but couldn't lift them from the second division. (This scan shows him in Philly's natty uniform.) He shifted to the Yankee clubhouse in 1927 to coach the team better known as Murderers' Row, where Fletcher remained through 2 decades and 9 titles. (Wouldn't you?)


Art's career batting performance sat at exactly average, an OPS+ of 100, but he regularly led the league in being hit by pitches, "punching up" his on-base percentage somewhat. Four World Series appearances as a New York Giant produced no wins, so I assume 2 soaring decades coaching the Yankees proved more satisfying.

This hard-to-find strip card issue includes 20 players, similar to the recently profiled W521s. Its simple, blank-backed design "shares" front images with a 1920 contemporary, the W522 set. (See the W520 gallery and W522 gallery at OldCardboard.com.)

Ungraded strip cards command fairly low prices, given their crude design and typically poor edges, and you can find them for less than $10 online or at shows. Someone trimmed my Fletcher pretty well, but it lost a corner and picked up several creases in the last 90 years. It cost $12 (including postage) from eBay in 2004. If you like old cards and can accept the simpler design, it's much less expensive--if relatively challenging--to assemble W520s compared to the monster T206 set.

• eBay search for W520s
• Beckett Marketplace search for W520s
  

1921 W521 Baseball strip card #5, Babe Ruth

This rather homely, baseball-only strip card set contains 20 players and slotted the incomparable Babe Ruth fifth. W521 closely parallels one of 1920's W519 strip card sets, copying--but reversing--its images and numbering system. You can easily distinguish one set from another by the player's shirt, which buttons (correctly) left-over-right on W519s and (incorrectly) right-over-left on W521s.


Based on periodic searching, strip cards markedly lag more "popular" 20s and 30s sets in available information. I finally found a decent W521 checklist at subscription site Vintage Card Prices. It includes a scan of #15 Ray Schalk, a White Sox backstop selected to the HOF on the strength of his excellent defense (and penchant for catching no-hitters).

Value: A 2006 auction yielded this W521 Bambino for about $125. My version features heavy wear to the corners and edges, but could be much worse.

Fakes / reprints: I particularly recommend using personally trusted dealers for cards of Ruth, since he generated more reprinting and counterfeiting than any other player.

1920-1921 W514 Baseball #5, "Shufflin' Phil" Douglas

Shufflin' Phil Douglas owns a great baseball nickname, right up there with Puddin' Head Jones and Hot Potato Hamlin. Unfortunately, the imaginative title masks a greatly troubled player, as Phil's drinking towered over his prodigious pitching talents. We could remember him as a World Series winner and one of the last legal spit-ballers, but Douglas casts a larger shadow as a recipient of one of baseball commissioner Kennessee Landis' lifetime bans from baseball.

Card front (blank back)

Phil debuted with a cup of White Sox coffee in 1912, just the first stop on a journey that covered five franchises over ten years, as teams progressively passed along his off-the-field issues like a track baton. John McGraw's Giants traded for Douglas in 1919 and Phil stuck around long enough to win two games in the 1921 World Series, but away from the diamond, he clashed with the discipline-minded manager, garnering both team suspensions and a bizarre dry-out kidnapping.

Tempers and drinking being what they are, it wasn't long before Phil's desire to sabotage McGraw shot himself in the foot. Douglas penned a foolish letter to a friend on the second-place St. Louis team, offering to "disappear" for the rest of the season (and thus denying New York their best pitcher), if the Cardinals provided some inducement. Despite a sober retraction, Commissioner Landis granted Phil's wish by banning him for life on August 16, 1922.

I like the downcast, introspective expression on this card. New York's uniform hangs slack and a little empty, long wool sleeves itchy against its humid summer winds. Douglas plays his last and longest stop in the bigs. Victories on the field come often, but the manager is a pain-in-the-ass. Bottles offer both solace and demons. Phil wonders: can't a guy have and eat his cake once in a while?

Most sets from the teens and twenties have an ephemeral feeling, with cheap paper stock and simple drawings like today's W514s. Without company info or statistics, it's hard to narrow a set's print date to one year, so players that change cities frequently help pin down a year by their listed team. Some catalogs date this set as 1919, but Phil didn't join New York until late that year, making it too early unless they rushed out the set for the World Series.

I think this set printer started production in the winter of 1919 and debuted them close to opening day in April 1920, with stock continuing to fill carnival vending machines through 1921. The dotted line on my #5's left edge hints at a neighbor; most came in strips of 5, leaving it to young collectors to hand-cut them down to singles. See Robert Edwards Auction's 2005 lot of several uncut strips for more.

Value: This #5 cost $15, about right for low and mid-grade singles. As with other prewar sets, stars cost a good deal more.

Fakes / reprints: Not sure if anyone reprinted Shufflin' Phil, but they probably exist for HOFers.

1923 W515 Baseball #5, Ed Rommell

The silent, corkscrewed face of Ed Rommel shows such determination, I have to wonder--is that a person? A statue? The essence of focus, narrowing all visual cues to only the strike zone and the catcher's signals? He even ignores whatever's going on behind him, algae bloom or burning bush. (God's calling, Ed! Just turn around!)

Card front (blank back)

Mr. Rommel (spelling error to the card) is known to baseball for a number of reasons. Most significantly, he developed the knuckleball pitch as an effective weapon and used it to win more than 20 games in a season multiple times. However, Ed's final MLB victory was assuredly the most unusual. Due to the scheduling oddities teams endured in the 20s, the A's took only two pitchers to a one-game series against the Indians. Rommel relieved Lew Krausse after a single inning in what became a barn-burner. Deadlocked at 15-15 after nine innings, the A's eventually won 18-17 in 18 innings. His (winning) numbers seem bizarre: 29 hits allowed (still a record), 17 innings pitched, and many, many runs. Perhaps his superhuman focus had wavered by then and the eyes wouldn't screw as tight as they used to.

Ed's facial expressions aside, the W515 strip cards look better than many other pen-and-ink issues. (That's called "damning with faint praise.") They use multiple colors, are fairly detailed, and actually resemble the player named.

UPDATE: Prior to 2011's opening day, Baseball-Reference.com highlighted two classic Opening Day Duels, one of which pitted Rommel and Walter Johnson against each other. Rommel eventually lost 1-0 in 15 innings, but clearly pitched an incredible game.

Value: You can find commons like Rommel for less than $10 and often as group lots. The set features a variation in size, dubbed imaginatively W515-1 and W515-2. This one's trimmed down to the colors, so I'm not sure which one it is. I'll roll my "expert collector" dice and say it's a W515-1. Who can say otherwise? ("PSA 0 trimmed?" No kidding!) Just in case I decide I really need the other one for my type collection, I'll bust out a ruler at this year's National and measure other Rommels until I find the 1/8" difference.

Fakes / reprints: Reprints probably exist, though this set's not valuable enough for them to be widespread.