a black armband for harry pulliam

in 1909, all national league clubs wore a black armband in the memory of harry pulliam, the league's president who committed suicide during the 1909 season.  this 2004 fleer greats card of honus wagner

shows the pirates' version of the armband, and this 1991 conlon tsn card of al bridwell

shows the new york giants' version.

and this 1982 cramer mordecai 'three fingers' brown card

shows the cubs' version.  note that i don't believe the armband to be a shadow or a dark undershirt - i think it has just slid off brown's sleeve a bit. as a bonus, the card shows brown's stubby index finger.

my newest addition to this group is a 1909 t206 tom downey card

to represent the reds. the artist who colored the card took some license and made the black armband red.

pulliam had been the league's president since 1902, overseeing the establishment of the modern world series in 1903.  as the league's first president, a line of cigars were distributed in his honor in 1903.  in 1908, pulliam was called upon to rule on the 'merkle boner', and he sided with the cubs who had protested that merkle did not touch second base and so was forced out, nullifying the giants' winning run in a late season game.  the two teams were tied atop the standings at the season's end, and so the game was replayed and the cubs won, denying the giants the pennant that they would have secured if the protested game had not been lost.

the decision weighed heavy on pulliam, and it is believed that the criticism he received along with other stresses of his position is what drove him to shoot himself in the head at the new york athletic club in july of 1909.  he was just 40 years old. following his death, a ritual of distributing a card featuring pulliam's photo to players and team personnel prior to the first game of the world series each year was established as a way to remember pulliam and his contribution to the game.  while this commemoration apparently lasted only into the 1920's, i figured it was fitting to post about the memorial armband worn in his honor today - the day that the first game of the 2014 world series will be played.

dime box dodgers by proxy

nick from dime boxes didn't just send me double play cards recently, he sent a few dodger oddballs and parallels, too.  here is a smattering.

1982 fleer stamps steve garvey

i had avoided stamps and stickers for a long time when it came to my garvey collection.  i caved on stickers about 10 years ago or so, but i did not have one of these until nick sent it my way.

1985 topps tiffany rj reynolds

ditto with the tiffany cards.  i still don't have more than a few in my collection.

1986 fleer mini mariano duncan

i did pick up sets of the fleer minis back in the early 2000's - primarily as an easy way to get the garveys and dodgers.  i appreciate the fact that fleer used different photos - the sets weren't just a shrunken down version of the flagship set.

1989 woolworth's mike marshall

why topps didn't include postseason cards in their 1989 set is beyond me.  instead, we have fleer, o-pee-chee and woolworth issuing those cards.  and two of those three manufacturers had relationships with topps!

1991 conlon tsn zach wheat

mr. wheat led the national league in slugging percentage in 1916!  that looks more like the dodgers' 1912 uni than the robins' 1916 jersey.  wheat also played for the franchise when they were the superbas.

here's a 1992 bazooka card that had me scratching my head

a 1953 topps style 4-in-1 in a 1992 bazooka product?  at least some kids got to see preacher roe on cardboard.

the last card for this post is a 1995 upper deck collector's choice special edition silver signature parallel of ramon martinez

the silver/grey border actually works nicely with this card.

thanks nick, but i'm not done yet...