- Series: Beginnings: 1880's
- City: Omaha
- Team: Omahogs
- League: Western Association
William Walter Andrews (1859-1940) played for the Louisville franchise of the American Association which lasted ten years under two identities, both of which employed Andrews. Wally debuted with the Eclipse in May of 1884 as a right-handed first baseman and utility player. He got into 14 games that season and hit a meager .204. He played in the minors for awhile and had a bang-up year for the Memphis Browns in 1887 where he hit .422 and 28 HRs. Not surprisingly, Louisville gave him another look. By 1888, the team was the Colonels and Andrews, now age 29, got into 26 games where he fared a bit poorer than his first stint, managing a .194 average in 93 at-bats. He did yeoman service defensively, however, making only a single error in 294 chances for a .997 fldg %.
- Born on the eve of the Civil War in Philadelphia, Andrews died in Indianapolis just as World War II raged in Europe, on January 20, 1940
- Series: Beginnings: 1880's
- City: St. Paul
- Team: Apostles
- League: Western Association
Warner Samuel Anderson (1866-1941) was a right-handed pitcher who played part of 4 seasons with the Indianapolis Hoosiers & Washington Senators. Primarily a minor leaguer, Varney began his professional career with the Milwaukee Cream Cities of the Northwestern League in 1887 and his debut was promising: starting 40 games & going 24-15 with a 2.94 ERA. By ’89 the Hoosiers gave him a try but the 23-year-old got into only two games. Five years later, he got another opportunity with the Senators where he pitched substantially in only the 1895 season, hurling 204 innings with a 9-16 record. His other significant year was 1897 with the Rockford Forest Citys of the WA, where he won 17 & lost 9. When he played, he hit. His two strong seasons with Milwaukee & Rockford he hit .295 and .324 respectively, and in ’95 batted .289 against ML competition. For unknown reasons, he was only a spot-starter for most of his career.
- Varney pitched for one final club – Rock Island in 1898 – starting and winning his only game. He also went 1 for 3 at the plate
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Cartophilia
- Old Judge Pose: 7-5
- Buchner Canvas: Nick Nicholl
- Series: Pioneer Portraits II: 1875-1899
- City: Minneapolis
- Team: Millers
- League: Western Association
John Ryn (1862-1928) came out of Ohio and the Ohio Institute for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb, a nursery of some of the great baseball talent of the 1870s and 80s. A teammate of William Hoy and Edward Dundon, Ryn never followed them into the majors but floated on the periphery of the big leagues from 1884 to ‘95. The strapping first baseman had power and character but injuries and bad timing conspired to keep him in the minors. Hearing-impaired players made a significant imprint on the early game, none more so than Hoy, the “King of the Mutes” in the benighted lingo of sports scribes then. Ryn was able to carve out a pro career that spanned a dozen teams ending with the Twin Cities Hustlers of the Interstate League. The sketchy data indicate a .270 overall BA but press coverage consistently portrayed Ryn as a man to be reckoned with on the diamond.
- John and his sisters were deaf, their parents were not. A lifelong bachelor, Ryn made a living as a manual laborer and lived out his life with sister Anna in Marion OH
- Series: Pioneer Portraits II: 1875-1899
- City: Omaha
- Team: Omahogs
- League: Western Association
- Hall: National Baseball Hall of Fame
Charles Augustus Nichols (1869-1953). A right-handed, switch-hitting pitcher, Nichols played 15 major league seasons for 3 different clubs. Nichols had 11 seasons with 20 Wins or more, 10 consecutively, 7 of which exceeded 30. He quit MLB for 2 years to own & pitch for a minor league team, with whom he won another 48 games.
- Youngest to 300 Wins (30 years)
- 5x NL pennant winner
- His 361 Wins ranks 7th all-time
- Elected to Hall of Fame: 1949
- Nichols' uniform color on this card was changed in September, 2017, from red-striped to blue-striped to reflect recent reliable research by Craig Brown & friends at Threads of Our Game. Seven cards were previously released featuring a red-striped uniform.
- Series: Pioneer Portraits II: 1875-1899
- City: Cedar Rapids
- Team: Rabbits
- League: Western Association
William Fuller was a minor-league catcher and infielder, primarily at first-base. His closest shot at the majors came in 1888 with the Milwaukee Brewers of the Western Association. It was in that uniform that the Old Judge photo-shoot captured Will in right-handed throwing and left-handed batting poses. Will had begun the previous year with the Kalamazoo Kazoos in the Ohio State League before being picked up by the Brewers where he played in 67 games, batting .236. He came back with Milwaukee in ‘89 but got into only ten games and hit a paltry .100. Thereafter, Fuller saw limited duty with the Burlington Hawkeyes of the Central Interstate League before heading west to toil for Tacoma in the Pacific Northwestern League. After a four year absence (or at least an absence of data) Fuller showed up with the Birmingham Bluebirds of the Southern Association in 1896 before returning to the Western Association with the Cedar Rapids Rabbits in 1897.
- His swan song was sweet: Will played in 124 games, hit a fine .305, tying for the team lead in hits with 155
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