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Black Jack Burdock

Second Base
  • Series: Pioneer Portraits II: 1875-1899
  • City: Boston
  • Team: Beaneaters
  • League: National League

John J. “Black Jack” Burdock (1852-1931) began and ended his 18 year career in Brooklyn, first for the Atlantics and retiring from the Bridegrooms (Grooms). Played for the Hartford Dark Blues during their 1st year in the new National League, ‘76, and the next when Hartford became the Brooklyn Hartfords for a year.

  • Sandwiched in between his stints in Brooklyn were 10 years with the Boston Beaneaters
  • Was player/mgr for the Boston Beaneaters’ 1883 pennant winner, leading the club in average at .330
  • One of the best infield defenders of his era, Burdock led the NL in putouts by a 2nd baseman five straight years, 1876-1880
  • Led his league in fielding percentage by a 2nd baseman 6 times
  • Achieved a career .250 batting average with 1,231 hits, 778 runs and 501 RBI

Auction History

Lou Bierbauer

Second Base
  • Series: Pioneer Portraits II: 1875-1899
  • City: Philadelphia
  • Team: Athletics (AA)
  • League: American Association

Louis W. Bierbauer (1865-1926) was the treasure, buried then in the snows of Lake Erie, who gave his beloved Pittsburgh team its new name. Ned Hanlon was the privateer who braved the icy waters of Presque Isle in winter to sign the second-baseman away from the Athletics. This “piratical” act became so celebrated it gave the Alleghenys their permanent identity. Louie had done very well by the Athletics’s for his first four years in MLB. His year in the Players’ League with Ward’s Wonders was equally effective, causing the canny Hanlon to seize on Philadelphia’s lapse (they had not “reserved” Bierbauer). Lou rewarded his new club with six fine years at second base. Over his 13-year career, Lou would hit .267 with a .656 OPS. His performance stumbled a bit after joining the Pirates, but Bierbauer remained a strong hitter and defender through the 1896 season.

  • Per Sporting Life in ’89: “Bierbauer is undoubtedly the king-pin second-baseman of the [American] Association”
  • Ended his major league tenure in 1898 but continued in the minors. Lou managed the Canadian League’s St. Thomas Saints in 1915, his final year in pro ball

Auction History

Charley Bassett

Second Base
  • Series: Pioneer Portraits II: 1875-1899
  • City: New York
  • Team: Giants
  • League: National League

Charles Edwin Bassett (1863-1942) was a well-traveled infielder with the Providence Grays, Kansas City Cowboys, Indianapolis Hoosiers, the New York Giants and Louisville Colonels for nine major league seasons from 1884-92. Bassett had three fine years with the Hoosiers, getting nearly a hit a game. His most productive season was 1891 with the Giants, batting .260 in 524 at-bats. In his 917 games he drove in 402 runs and stole 116 bases.

  • Hall of Stats ranks Bassett 189th among all second-basemen
  • Bassett attended Brown University in his native Rhode Island

Auction History

Ross Barnes

Second Base
  • Series: Pioneer Portraits II: 1875-1899
  • City: Boston
  • Team: Red Stockings (NAPBBP)
  • League: National Association (NAPBBP)

Charles Roscoe Barnes (1850-1915) was the best player in the five year history of the fist professional baseball league, the National Association of Professional Baseball Players (NAPBBP), 1871-1875. Barnes is the all-time NAPBBP leader in runs, hits, doubles, walks, stolen bases, total bases, batting average, OBP and SLG%. He then dominated the National League in its inaugural year, 1876, leading the league hits, runs, average, OBP, SLG%, total bases, doubles, triples and walks. He also hit the 1st HR in National League history, for the Chicago White Stockings, 5.2.1876. Over the first six years of his major league career, Barnes' batting average was .397. An unidentified illness limited Barnes to just 22 games in 1877, and he was never the same player again, retiring shortly thereafter at the age of 31.

“Roscoe C. Barnes…was the greatest second baseman the game ever had…” - A History of the Boston Baseball Club, 1897.

"No matter how great you were once upon a time — the years go by, and men forget. Ross Barnes, forty years ago, was as great as Cobb or Wagner ever dared to be. Had scores been kept then as now, he would have seemed incomparably marvelous.” - W.A. Phelan, Baseball Magazine, 1915

  • Because he played in the second game in MLB history, is credited with the 17 other players that day as the 27th player to debut in MLB
  • 1st hitter to win batting titles in 2 leagues: NA in ’72-73 and NL in ‘76
  • In 1918, made Cap Anson’s all-time team as the shortstop
  • Barnes was selected as SABR’s ”Overlooked 19th Century Baseball Legend “ for 2013

Auction History

Eddie Collins

Second Base
  • Series: Pilgrims
  • City: Philadelphia
  • Team: Athletics (AL)
  • League: American League
  • Hall: National Baseball Hall of Fame

Edward Trowbridge Collins Sr. (1887-1951) was sold by Connie Mack to the White Sox in 1915 for the amazing sum of $50,000. His salary put him behind only Cobb and Speaker. He left the “$100,000 infield” of the Athletics for what would become the most notorious team in MLB history. He never believed the rumored “fix” for the Sox in 1919 and survived the scandal to lead the team in its aftermath.

  • Only man to play for 2 teams for at least 12 yrs each
  • Spent 15 yrs as GM for the Red Sox under his friend Tom Yawkey
  • Elected to Hall of Fame: 1939

Auction History

Cartophilia

T201 Mecca Canvas: Eddie Collins