Posted 13 years ago
jscherf
(1 item)
I found this single card behind the baseboard of my home in Iowa. It is in rough shape and hard to see the team name on the baseball uniform. I'm curious if anyone has seen something like this or even would know who the player is and what team.
Any info would be helpful to solve this mystery.
Thank you
This is very cool. I do know there was a set of cards like this from 1927. The difference was that the players' faces were in diamonds in the middle of the card, and the number and suit were on the same side as the player. If I were to make an educated guess, I would say these predate that, possibly predating the 1920s altogether. I will continue my search!
My house was built in 1924 and this was behind the original baseboard so it is possible it's from the 1920's. I'm going to find a magnifying glass today and try to see more on it. I think there may be a date that is very tiny on the bottom right. Thanks for the info VikingFan82.
This is one of the backs from a great series of playing cards known as "The Baseball Boys" that were manufactured in 1910 by the short-lived Willis W. Russell Playing Card Co. They were manufactured in at least three different colored backs - red, blue and green and the decks came with six different back designs, each one portraying a ballplayer in his fielding position who are probably not real players. This one is obviously the catcher. The Joker was the only card in the deck which was different than any standard deck of playing cards. In every deck it featured a catcher and is a collectible in itself. These decks are very desirable!
Thanks for the info cardlover! I never would have found out that much on my own. Now I wish I had the entire deck instead of just one card. I just think it is cool that it stayed behind the baseboards in my house this long with only a little damage to it. Never know what you'll find...
As long time card collectors I was delighted to find an old card behind a wall in our present house. I felt it was good karma for us! It was from the 30's, (not as nice as yours) with neat mouse nibbles all the way around the edges. Cool!