- Series: Diamond Heads '15
- City: Philadelphia
- Team: Phillies
- League: National League
- Hall: National Baseball Hall of Fame
Eppa Rixey, Jr. (1891-1963) was one of the most durable left-handers of all-time. Until 1959 he was the NL’s winningest southpaw. That year, Warren Spahn surpassed Rixey and for the first 60 years of the century, only Walter Johnson and Pete Alexander started more games. The pitcher never played a day in the minors thanks to his University of Virginia coach’s rave reviews. Cy Rigler was a well-regarded umpire when not mentoring college players so his scouting report counted and the Phillies responded, signing him for the 1912 season. The club won a pennant in 1915 but Rixey labored for a mostly sub-par team until traded to the Reds in 1921. Rixey’s debut season with Cincy was stunning, allowing only one HR in 301 innings en route to a league-leading 25 wins. Staying with the Reds through 1933, Rixey’s labors for two lower division franchises meant the losses added up, too. So much so that he owns the dubious record of most losses in a career for a lefty: 251.
- The hard-working, likable southerner lived just long enough to learn of his selection to Cooperstown, exclaiming to his family “I finally made it!”
- Elected to Hall of Fame: 1963
- Series: Beginnings: 1880's
- City: Washington, D.C.
- Team: Nationals
- League: National League
James B. Donnelly (1865-1915) had eleven seasons in the majors, playing third base for nine teams. While he toiled in relative obscurity for most of his career, Donnelly had the thrill, in its waning days, of being part of a remarkable championship season with the Orioles in 1896. In that storied year, the club walked away with its third straight NL pennant, besting second-place Cleveland to win the Temple Cup in the post-season. Donnelly had, by far, his greatest offensive production in ‘96, hitting .328 - over a hundred points above his lifetime average. That effort would have been a headliner for any other team, but in Baltimore Donnelly was only the sixth-best on the squad. Jim was overshadowed by pretty good men: Wilbert Robinson .347, Jack Doyle .339, Hughie Jennings .401, Willie Keeler .386, and Joe Kelley .364. Talk about Murderers Row! The Ned Hanlon/John McGraw powerhouse was soon to disband as the NL went from twelve to eight teams to accommodate the new American League a few years later.
- Series: Beginnings: 1880's
- City: Chicago
- Team: White Stockings
- League: National League
William H. Clarke (1865-1911) learned early why the major leaguers get the big bucks: he had uniformly outstanding success on the mound in the minors with an overall 1.81 ERA. Things were always tougher with the big clubs: an ERA of 4.16 and a journeyman record of 44-51 during seven seasons. Dad’s best year came with the Giants in 1895 where he won 18 with a 3.39 ERA. Things must have looked different when he came out of Lorain, OH to the Sandusky Suds in 1887 winning 21 with a rookie ERA of 1.13. Similar results followed in Des Moines and Omaha. Clarke even got to do a turn out west with the San Francisco Haverlys and a short stay with the Jacksonville (IL) Lunatics where it must have maddened him to go 3-3 despite a 0.87 ERA. Always a strong-willed character (the nickname reflected a grizzled visage), Dad sparred and stormed through a long up-and-down career.
- Per SABR, Dad’s innovative “system” of pitching “slants” influenced Big Train Johnson to perfect his own motion
- Series: 1880s: Diamond Duos
- City: Philadelphia
- Team: Quakers
- League: National League
Pop Schriver:
William Frederick Schriver (1865-1932) was a durable catcher for several mostly National League teams from 1886 through 1901. His debut for the AA’s Brooklyn Grays was his only stint outside the NL. Pop had a solid .264 lifetime batting average over a 14 year major league career. During his time with Cap Anson’s Colts, to promote a game with the Senators, battery-mate Clark Griffith made a 555’ “toss” to Schriver (off the Washington Monument). Accounts differ on Pop’s performance and Griffith later said Schriver dropped the ball. In any case, history has credited Gabby Street with the first successful accomplishment of the stunt, largely on the testimony of Griffith who by then was owner of Street’s Senators. In 800 games, Schriver made 720 hits in 2,727 at-bats.
- During 1894, the year of the D.C. feat, Pop was among the league leaders in most defensive categories
- In 1901 Schriver led the league in throwing out runners attempting to steal
Charlie Bastian:
Charles J. Bastian (1860-1932) was the model “good field, no hit” infielder, squeezing 4 different leagues and 6 teams into his 8 year career. He started in MLB with the Wilmington Quicksteps of the evanescent Union Assoc’s only year, 1884, and finished with a game in the Players’ League in 1891.
- Lifetime BA of .189 defeated his finesse in the field
- Led all NL second-basemen in fielding % in 1886
- His main club was the Quakers, who were the Phillies when Bastian returned for one game in ‘91
Auction History
Cartophilia
Old Judge Pose: 23-6
- Series: Beginnings: 1880's
- City: Indianapolis
- Team: Hoosiers (NL)
- League: National League
- Hall: National Baseball Hall of Fame
An error or a practical joke? The Old Judge series is littered with errors, primarily in the form of misspelled names. There are also a number of cards that are intentionally humorous. The McGreachery card is likely a display of the sense of humor within Goodwin’s art department rather than a mistake.
During this card’s production run from 1887 to 1890, James Laurie White was the oldest player in the major leagues all four years, spanning his age 39 to age 42 campaigns. By that point, White was a baseball veteran of 20 seasons whose tenure predated the National league by five years and ended with the birth of the Player’s League in 1890. By all accounts, White was a serious, religious and principled man who earned the nickname Deacon. White didn’t drink, smoke or gamble and was as knowledgeable and articulate about farming as he was about baseball. Henry Chadwick wrote that White’s character was beyond reproach. Combine White’s character, values, baseball moxie, and his old world perspective - which purportedly included a belief that the Earth is flat - and you can see why the folks at Old Judge might poke fun.
- Excluding the Ars Longa 1880s Diamond Duos & Spotted Ties subsets, Deacon White will be the only player represented in the 1880s base set twice, although his name will still only appear on one card. I just couldn’t resist paying a little tribute to the humor in the Old Judge series by creating a card for the dear old crank McGreachery.
- Why the Old Judge folks assigned the fictitious McGreachery as a manager may be obvious. Why they assigned him to Indianapolis is a mystery and perhaps an inside joke that has long since lost its insiders.
- Watch Burnham is a man who appears in the Old Judge series who actually did manage the Indianapolis Hoosiers - for all of 28 games (losing 22 of them). Perhaps the absence of an enduring Indianapolis manager in the Old Judge series prompted McGreachery's assignment there.
- Only two examples of the original Old Judge card are known to exist
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