- Series: Beginnings: 1880's
- City: Louisville
- Team: Colonels
- League: American Association
Louis Rogers Browning (1861-1905) starred in the outfield for six teams over twelve seasons and was the best hitter in the ten-year history of the American Association. Pete’s nickname with the Eclipse was The Gladiator, but Browning is known to history as the Louisville Slugger: the first player to order bats from Hillerich & Bradsby after the owner’s son, Bud, invited the slumping slugger to the woodworking shop for a custom-made model that produced three hits the next day. Bud defied his dad’s unwillingness to bother with baseball equipment and sealed the company’s reputation when Honus Wagner became the first star to officially endorse a bat. Browning always ranked among the batting leaders and won the crown three times. Fighting the excruciating pain of mastoiditis with alcohol, Browning dominated at the plate even as his drinking increased. The chronic childhood affliction caused deafness and contributed to Pete’s erratic performance afield.
- Only four right-handed batters have eclipsed Browning’s .341 lifetime average
- A lifelong eccentric, driven by his demonic ailments, Pete lovingly named his bats and retired them when he deemed them to have used up their quota of hits
- Selected as SABR’s 2009 Overlooked 19th Century Legend still awaiting the Hall
- Pete's nephew, Tod Browning, was a film director best known for his films Dracula (1931) & the classic cult film Freaks (1932)
- Browning's uniform color in this card was changed from black to maroon in January, 2017 to reflect recent reliable research conducted by Craig Brown and friends at Threads of Our Game. Nine cards had been previously released featuring a black uniform.
- Series: Beginnings: 1880's
- City: Boston
- Team: Beaneaters
- League: National League
Thomas Tarlton Brown (1860-1927) began a long career in MLB with the Baltimore Orioles in 1882. The young Englishman would go on to roam the outfields of ten franchises, ending with the NL’s Senators in 1898. Tom hit his stride with Boston’s Beaneaters and Reds. With the latter, he starred for a rare team to win pennants back-to-back in two leagues, as the Reds captured the Players’ League title in 1890 and the American Association flag in ’91. The fleet-footed Brown covered a lot of ground in the outfield, perhaps too much. He holds the MLB record for 490 OF errors, far more than the records in the AL and NL. His speed paid dividends on the bases as Tom led the league twice in steals, compiling a career total of 657.
- Selected for A.G. Spalding’s “World Tour” taking baseball global on an 1888 trip to Europe/Africa
- Enjoyed a career season in ’91, leading the AA in triples (21), SBs (106), hits (189) & runs (177)
- Is considered to have been part of the innovation of the platoon system with the ‘87 Indianapolis Hoosiers, paired with Gid Gardner
- Series: Beginnings: 1880's
- City: Philadelphia
- Team: Quakers
- League: National League
George Edward Andrews (1859-1934) was an outfielder for the Philadelphia Quakers from 1884-89 before becoming caught up in the turbulence of the early ‘90s when leagues and teams were forming and folding with abandon. He played the last year of the Indianapolis Hoosiers’ franchise in 1889, then for the Players’ League (John Montgomery) Ward’s Wonders of Brooklyn in 1890 and (Mike “King”) Kelly’s Killers in Cincinnati in 1891, his last season in the majors. Andrews’ lifetime batting average was .257 with more hits (830) than games played (774).
- The speedy Andrews stole 35+ bases three times, including a NL-leading 56 in 1886
- The Ohio native was a rare college graduate in the early days of baseball, an alumnus of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland
- Series: Diamond Heads '15
- City: Brooklyn
- Team: Robins
- League: National League
- Hall: National Baseball Hall of Fame
Zachariah Davis Wheat (1888-1972) starred in left field for the Brooklyn Superbas/Robins/Dodgers and still holds team bests in hits, doubles, triples, RBI and total bases. Wheat defied the Deadball trend of choking up on the bat, swinging away with a “smashing swipe” according to one reporter. Yet, his stylish fielding drew the most praise (“the finest craftsman of them all.”)
- 5 of his 9 HRs in 1914 were over the fence, rare in that era
- Again defying tradition, used a light (40oz) bat and a wrist-snap unheard of then
- Survived long enough to see the lively ball, hitting .357 at age 37
- Elected to Hall of Fame: 1959
- Series: Diamond Heads '15
- City: New York
- Team: Giants
- League: National League
James Francis Thorpe (1888-1953) grew up in the Sac and Fox nation in Oklahoma, a hardscrabble existence that saw him in and out of boarding schools. Orphaned and troubled, the teenager found himself in faraway Pennsylvania and came under the tutelage of the renowned Pop Warner. Thorpe’s athletic skill would carry him to heights few have attained, a Renaissance man of sport, bestride the 20th Century. Acclaimed as the world’s greatest athlete in the 1912 Olympics where Thorpe played in two exhibition baseball games, presaging a professional career. A rare “free agent” in the era of the reserve clause, he was able to choose the Giants over the last-place Browns during the 1913 season. He played sporadically but went to the World Series and was the star of the global tour of Giants/White Sox players that off-season.
- Team owners caromed Thorpe from team to team with limited playing time, ending his MLB tenure with the Boston Braves in 1919
- Hit the ball that Hippo Vaughn misplayed, ending the remarkable “double-no-hitter” in 1917
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