- Series: Beginnings: 1880's
- City: New York
- Team: Gothams
- League: Independent
- Hall: National Baseball Hall of Fame
King Solomon White (1868-1955). An infielder, manager, executive, sportswriter, and historian, Sol was also influential in establishing the Negro Leagues. Well traveled, White played for 11 different teams over 24 seasons. In 1907, White published the first history of black baseball, Sol White’s History of Colored Baseball.
- Credited with a lifetime batting average of .356
- Batted .404 in 1895
- Elected to Hall of Fame: 2006
- Sol White did not appear in the Old Judge series. This image is taken from a photo that appears in White's book, Sol White's History of Colored Baseball.
- Series: Beginnings: 1880's
- City: St. Louis
- Team: Browns (AA)
- League: American Association
William H. Robinson (1859-1894) became one of the most proficient “on-base” artists of his day. He knew how to capitalize on the evolving base-on-balls rules during the mid-to-late 1880s and crafted outstanding years from fairly meager hitting. Yank played infield for a decade in the majors, 1882-92. He was a starter for Charles Comiskey’s St. Louis Browns during their pennant stretch from ‘85-88. No doubt Charlie had noticed the item in the Post-Dispatch proclaiming Yank “the best all-around player in the Union Association,” during its ‘84 season. Robinson had such a knack for waiting on the pitcher that his walks exceeded his hits the last six years in the majors. Opinions of Robinson’s defense vary but considering he eschewed the glove, some historians have credited him with superior skills.
- Yank had a notorious tussle with owner Chris von der Ahe in 1889 over a uniform the boss wanted changed. Robinson won the “strike” and the argument led him to jump to Pittsburgh’s Players’ League entry the next year
- Series: Beginnings: 1880's
- City: New York
- Team: Giants
- League: National League
Daniel Richardson (1863-1926) played 2B and SS for the Giants, Grooms, Senators, and Colonels over an 11 year span. His stints with the NY Giants included one year when the team played in the Player’s League (’90). He contributed to two Giant league championships in ’88 & ’89.
- During his one year with the Washington Senators, Richardson was player/manager
- Achieved a career BA of .254 and stole 225 bases
- Series: Beginnings: 1880's
- City: Des Moines
- Team: Prohibitionists
- League: Western Association
- Hall: Baseball Australia Hall of Fame
Joseph James Quinn (1864-1940) came a long way to play baseball for the Dubuque Rabbits. And it would be over a century until the next Aussie made the trip to the big leagues of America. Joe quickly advanced to that level with the Union Association’s St. Louis Maroons in 1884. Joe brought his working-class background to the ballpark and soon became one of the mouthpieces for players in an era when they were chattel. “Ol’ Reliable” was a leader in the Players’ League revolt in 1890, an interruption in Joe’s long National League career, primarily in Boston and St Louis. He had another memorable detour when called upon to take the “worst job in baseball” managing the doomed Cleveland Spiders in 1899. When owners shipped out Cy Young, Jesse Burkett, Bobby Wallace and others to their St. Louis Perfectos, Quinn was left with the unenviable task of shepherding the lousiest team in history to a 12-104 record. Even in defeat, Joe’s men followed him, a tribute to his character.
- In 1893, The Sporting News awarded Joe a gold watch as “the most popular player in baseball”
- Elected to Australian Baseball Hall of Fame: 2013
- Quinn's uniform color was changed in August, 2017, from black to blue to reflect recent reliable research by Craig Brown & Friends at Threads of Our Game. Six cards were previously released featuring a black uniform.
- Series: Beginnings: 1880's
- City: Des Moines
- Team: Prohibitionists
- League: Western Association
James Dickson Phelan (1854-1931) began playing professional baseball at age 28 with the Peoria Reds of the Northwestern League and went on to a lengthy career, taking him all the way to age 44 with the Southern League’s Dallas Steers. Early on Dick got his shot at the big leagues. He was brought up from Peoria to the Baltimore Monumentals for their year in the Union Association, 1884. The next year he played for the Buffalo Bisons and St. Louis Maroons of the NL. His ML batting average was .242 in 107 games as a second-baseman. The most games he played for one team was with the Memphis Browns in ’87 where he tore up the Southern League with a .370 average and stole 60 bases. He also played for Memphis when they were the Grays, Giants and the Fever Germs. The latter was Memphis’ identity in 1893 with the Southern League.
- It is presumed the team took its name in memory of the tragic outbreak of yellow fever in 1878, said to have begun “in the filthiest part of the filthiest city in America”
- That historic plague killed more in Memphis than the Chicago fire, San Francisco quake and Johnstown flood combined
- There may not be an I in team, but there are 4 of them in Prohibitionists
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