SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee

The Hobby’s Most Overlooked Card?

I recently had a chance to join Al Crisafulli as the third guest on his Love of the Game Auctions podcast. We covered a range of topics from SABR and this committee to favorite players such as Hank Aaron and Steve Garvey to a possible role for SABR Baseball Cards in the creation of an authoritative catalog for the Hobby. Feel free to give it a listen (or watch) if you like!

Around the 16-minute mark, Al and I got on the topic of Frank Robinson and in particular why his cards are so inexpensive. The example I gave was his 1975 Topps card, which I suggested was available in pretty nice shape for $3 or so. (Al offered up Robinson’s rookie card as another excellent example.)

As the conversation was live and unscripted, I wondered if maybe I’d underpriced the card. After all, it had been decades since I picked one up and probably 10-12 years since the card made it into one of my eBay feeds. Last night I had time to do some checking, and it turns out if anything I had overstated the card’s value.

The above is just a sampling of the 1975 Topps Frank Robinson cards still available on eBay, and that’s after I scooped up a binder page’s worth for my own collection. (And no, there really wasn’t any good reason I needed nine!)

Admittedly condition might be tough to discern in my pic, so here are some recent sales of copies graded VG-EX by PSA.

Granted, Frank Robinson wasn’t Willie Mays nor was his 1975 Topps card his rookie card. Still, Robinson is undoubtedly one of the 25-30 greatest players in the history of the National and American Leagues, not to mention their first Black manager. As for the card itself, it’s more than half a century old, which (no offense to the bulk of my readers) is really, really old!

I joked on Al’s podcast that the low price tag on the 1975 Topps Frank Robinson proved the Hobby was broken. At the same time, is a broken Hobby such a bad thing? If anything, the Hobby could use even more cards like the Robinson: really old cards of all-time greats for about the price of a gas station coffee. Fortunately, the way coffee prices are going, we’ll be there soon enough!

In truth, the Hobby has plenty of overlooked cards these days, and it may well be that other cards rate even higher than the Robinson in this category. Joe Morgan is another player whose cards attract far less attention than his accomplishments seem to warrant. The same may be true of most Steve Carlton cards. I’m curious which card you might nominate as the Hobby’s most overlooked. Let me know in the Comments.

Did Topps Curse the Pilots?

I’ll start with a confession. This is an article I started writing at the beginning of the year before deciding it might make an even more fun SABR 54 presentation. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), the convention judges did not share my opinion, which is how it ended up back here on the SABR Baseball Cards blog, not to mention why much of it looks like a slide deck!

The inspiration for the topic came from the famous 1969 Topps Larry Haney reversed image error card that caused Haney to appear left-handed. One on hand (no pun intended) the error likely felt harmless to anyone who even noticed it at the time. But on the other hand, take a look at the American League West standings that year. Haney’s Pilots finished last, a full 33 games out of first place. Meanwhile, the team Haney last appeared with as a righty, the Baltimore Orioles, won 109 games and cruised to the American League pennant.

However ridiculous it may seem to blame Topps for Seattle’s miserable one-and-done season, there’s an awful lot of baseball history that says otherwise.

Benny DiStefano

The last lefty to catch in the majors was Benny DiStefano of the Pittsburgh Pirates who caught three games in 1989. The Pirates lost all three.

Mike Squires

Prior to DiStefano the last southpaw to don the tools of ignorance was Mike Squires of the White Sox, who appeared behind the plate twice in 1980. The Sox dropped both games.

Tom Chism

Backing up a year, lefty Tom Chism took on plate duties for Baltimore. It was one of the rare games the American League champs dropped that year.

So if you’re keeping score at home, that’s a six-game losing streak, still active by the way, for left-handed catchers. But wait, there’s more.

Chris Short

In what might at first seem like a typo, All-Star pitcher Chris Short was Philadelphia skipper Gene Mauch’s starting catcher in a game against San Francisco in 1961.

What’s more, Short wasn’t the only pitcher penciled in out of position that day. The lineup card, for strategic reasons, featured a record four pitchers, three of whom were subbed out before even a single pitch was thrown.

By now, I probably don’t even have to tell you the Phillies lost the game, also finishing the season in last place for good measure.

Dale Long

Prior to Short, appropriately enough, the last left-handed catcher was Dale Long of the Chicago Cubs, who caught two games in 1958. Try not to be shocked, but the Cubs lost them both.

Unique among the catch-as-catch-can backstops profiled thus far, Long actually managed a baseball card at the position, courtesy of the 1955 Topps Double Headers set.

The card image was unusual enough as to warrant an explanation on the back.

They were thinking of making a catcher out of lefthanded Dale—thus this rare picture of him. He’s a top prospect for the Buc First Base job this year.

The “they” in question was not just any “they” but the Mahatma himself, Branch Rickey!

As was the case with Larry Haney fourteen years later, Long logged no actual innings as a left-handed backstop in 1955. Still, his Topps card showed him as one, which meant only one thing. The Bucs, like the Pilots in 1969, finished dead last.

Olaf Henriksen

Long’s appearances behind the plate were preceded by a drought of nearly half a century. Still, even back in 1911 the result was the same as ever. With left-hander Olaf Henriksen behind the dish against Chicago, the Red Sox lost the game.

Homer Hillebrand

Six years before Henriksen, Homer Hillebrand lived up to his name, just not by hitting any homers. (His career total was zero.) Rather, it was by setting up behind home plate for three home games in Pittsburgh in 1905. Naturally, the Bucs went 0 and 3.

Joe Wall

Where the losing streak finally hit a wall was, appropriately enough, with Joe Wall. While with Brooklyn, the lefty somehow caught five games in three days, squeezing in a train ride from Pittsburgh to Chicago in between.

Brooklyn took two of the games even as Wall himself was of little help. His line in the two wins: 0 for 9 with four strikeouts and an error behind the dish. Wall also caught two games for the New York Giants the year before. The Giants dropped both.

The Streaks

Before moving on to the next left-handed catcher, it’s worth appreciating the streaks that began with the second game of Wall’s August 24, 1902, Brooklyn-Chicago doubleheader and remains active to this day. The first concerns the players themselves.

The second concerns only the cards. True, streak may be a stretch for something that’s only happened twice, but here are the century’s two left-handed catcher cards, each reflecting (if not causing) a last place finish and one ending a franchise.

In truth, six other baseball cards from the “Curse Era” show a left-handed catcher, just not as the main subject. Topps used what many collectors might have presumed a generic left-handed backstop for the “Foul Ball” cards in its 1951 Red Backs and Blue Backs sets. (Some super-sleuthing by Eric White sourced the wrong-handed receiver, or at least its reverse, to an old photograph of Bill Dickey.)

Historians of the 1951 season know well that none of the teams reflected on these cards finished last in 1951. In fact Berra’s team (with Dickey as a coach!) even won the World Series. Provided then that these cards even qualify as left-handed catcher cards, they may spell the end of the curse. Then again, I’ll note that 1951 was the final year of the Red/Blue Backs offering, meaning the curse may have jumped the players and teams to afflict entire sets. (More on that later.) Lord only knows whatever happened after 1951 to the company that produced these curious sets!

Century Wrap-Up

The greatest left-handed catcher of baseball’s Modern Era was undoubtedly John Augustine “Jiggs” Donahue, who caught 45 games behind the dish between 1900 and 1902. In contrast with the other backstops thus far profiled, catcher was Donahue’s primary position during these years.

A bit of trivia surrounding Donahue is that he is the last left-handed catcher to homer in a major league contest. Even crazier, he is also the last left-handed catcher to collect an extra base hit. (Benny DiStefano doubled on May 14, 1989, but the hit came before his ninth-inning move to catcher.)

As a final note, Donahue’s T206 card may appear to show him as a catcher, though such a thing should be impossible given that his White Sox didn’t finish last. Sure enough, the card image depicts him as a first baseman, the position he switched to full-time after 1902.

The same is true for this next lefty, Fred Tenney, who caught two games behind the plate for the Boston Nationals in 1901. Though both games went eleven innings, Tenney wasn’t simply a late-inning replacement. He started and finished both games, going a combined 0 for 10 and committing an error.

Unlike the other players profiled thus far, Tenney’s career crossed over into the nineteenth century and included at least one more game at catcher, though not as the starter. In Boston’s final game of the season, for reasons that are likely interesting, Tenney moved from first base to catcher only to be replaced at first base by the pitcher!

The GOAT

While Jiggs Donahue was the best left-handed catcher of the Modern Era, the greatest of any era was without a doubt Jack Clements. Over a 17-year career in which catcher was his primary position, the nineteenth century star batted .289 with power. Over a three-year span from 1894 to 1896, Clement averaged .374 with an OPS of 1.009!

As far as playing era baseball cards are concerned, only his ultra-rare 1887 Kalamazoo Bats shows him as a left-handed thrower. (He is bare-handed in all other fielding poses.) While Clements’ Philadelphia squad had a strong year in 1887, finishing second and winning more than 60% of its games, the same could not be said for the Kalamazoo Bats set. Much like the Seattle Pilots in 1969, the Kalamazoo Bats were a one-and-done.

Modern collectors may recognize that the Kalamazoo Bats image of Clements is the same image used more than a century later for his 2011 TriStar Obak baseball card. Not surprisingly then, 2011 marked the end of the line for TriStar Obak.

The Verdict

Left-handed catchers have nearly always spelled doom, both on the field and on cardboard. Put one in the lineup, and you’ll almost certainly lose. Put one in a pack, and the team or entire set is doomed. So what hope does an upstart expansion team in the Pacific Northwest have when Topps botches its catcher card and turns the guy lefty? Could the Pilots have been anything but cellar dwellers? Then again, taking a look at that Seattle roster, last place may have been inevitable with or without a curse.

Epilogue: The Curse Reversed?

Following initial publication, Cards Committee co-chair Nick Vossbrink alerted me to yet another lefty catcher card, the 1999 Topps All-Star Rookie card of Oakland catcher A.J. Hinch. As with the Haney card, the Stanford alum cracked the exclusive club thanks to a reversed image error.

Though Hinch’s Athletics would ultimately experience a fate worse than last place (John Fisher ownership) and Hinch himself would later earn a yearlong MLB ban, both of these punishments were pretty far removed from his 1999 Topps card. It’s similarly difficult to attach any adverse consequences to Topps itself. I’m not saying there isn’t some cardboard conspiracy theorist out there looking to pin the 1999 deaths of Oakland legends Joe DiMaggio and Catfish Hunter on a baseball card boo boo, but we SABR members are way too smart for that. Aren’t we??

Author’s Note: If you enjoy reading about left-handed catchers, here’s a terrific article on the subject from Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com.

The Card I Hold Every Day

The only baseball card I look at every day has no number and is from a league many baseball fans know little if anything about. The card is from the 1909-11 T212 Obak set (this one from the 1909 series) and features Felix Martinke of the Vernon Tigers. It’s a rare horizontal card — easily the oldest I own — and also the one in the worst condition. It’s barely collectible by any conventional standard, but for me it is nearly priceless.

The card shows Martinke from the waist up, arms raised and palms open toward the sky, waiting to receive. The image is small and worn, with a blue sky and a stripe of green beyond him. He looks up and outward, not at the camera. A man expecting something.

I first noticed Felix Martinke when I was doing volunteer work for Ted Turocy’s Chadwick Baseball Bureau. My work involved typing box scores from the 1910 Pacific Coast League season into a text file for processing into a master minor league database. But I was unable to resist the game stories alongside those box scores, and Martinke was a sensation in the early months of the PCL’s 1910 season. Vernon was a suburb of Los Angeles at the time, and both the Tigers and the Angels were covered thoroughly by the Los Angeles Times.

I was following his season closely into June when suddenly Martinke was shipped off to Portland’s club, the Beavers, who would eventually win the pennant that season. But Martinke had little to do with their success. He was released by the same man who had bought him from Vernon, Judge McCredie, citing poor on-field performance. Looking at the game stories and box scores, Felix’s strong 1910 season had continued for a few weeks in Portland, then faded severely in July and August.

What went wrong?

Felix Martinke was born in what is now Poland in 1878 and came to America in his parents’ arms in 1881. He grew up in San Diego, and as a young man channeled what sounds like genuine restlessness into baseball, working his way through city leagues and eventually into professional ball. He served in the Army and saw brief action in the Philippines, was discharged honorably in 1903, and eventually settled in Santa Barbara, where he married Mathilda Ruiz, from one of the oldest families in the area.

By 1907, Felix was playing in the Northwest League for Tacoma, and the separation from his family was already taking a visible toll. From the September 1907 Tacoma News Tribune: “Felix Martinke, Tacoma’s left fielder, is anxious to get home to his wife and children, who live at Santa Barbara, California. ‘Marty’ has four in the family and he hasn’t seen them since he came north to play ball.” The separation had worn on him so much that even the sportswriters found it worth remarking on.

He signed with Vernon in 1909 — much closer to home — and had his best season: 210 games played with a .286 average. Felix and Mathilda welcomed their first and only daughter, Camille, in March of 1910, and Felix returned to the Vernon club performing as well as ever. But Vernon sold him to Portland in June, and what followed looks very much like a man who had lost his footing. The distance from his growing family likely undermined his concentration in ways that showed up in the box scores.

Between the card and 1920, Felix’s fortunes fell steadily. He persisted on the diamond for a few more years, playing in city leagues and briefly returning to Vernon in 1912, but was released after two weeks. His play was deemed erratic; he was error-prone no matter where he played. Off the field, his wife grew frustrated with his reduced earnings, and with a family of five to support, the time he spent on baseball became a source of conflict.

Domestic disputes peaked in 1913, when the courts got involved in a custody battle over Camille. She was placed briefly in a Catholic children’s home before being awarded to her mother, with Felix ordered to pay ten dollars a month in child support. Mathilda cited his drinking as cause for her petition — yet she admitted that when Felix had his ballplayer friends over, all was well. His baseball life produced no friction at home. Camille’s own late-life memories recalled nothing negative of her father, and she remained close to him throughout his life.

For a few years Felix managed to keep up his support payments and found work with the telephone company, playing on their ball club. But he sank further into despair whenever he wasn’t on a field. In February 1918, during the off-season, he attempted suicide. Newspapers reported that he “feared he had lost his mind” and that he slashed his wrists with a razor. He survived. The man who had written in his playing days about missing his family — the man who wanted, above all else, to go home — had by this point lost the thread that once connected him to that home. Mathilda divorced him in 1920 and remarried soon after.

For the next forty years, Felix Martinke drifted between Old Soldiers’ Homes and his daughter’s house in Santa Barbara. He was regularly arrested for public drunkenness. His children thrived — his oldest son became a musician who appeared in several films in the 1930s and 1940s — but I suspect his sons had little time for him. When Felix died in 1960, it was Camille who handled all the paperwork to ensure he received a veteran’s funeral and burial.

And now we come back to his baseball card.

He stands with his arms raised, palms upward, as if appealing for something — favor, perhaps, or forgiveness. He is where he wants to be, on a ball field, his whole body reaching. He is probably tracking a fly ball. But knowing what I know about this man, the pose looks like more than that. It looks like a man who knows he is prone to error, asking for something he cannot give himself.

I know there’s a reason this card appeals to me. He was a father, and he wasn’t always a great one. I don’t know a father who thinks he was. But the pose might be a man looking up toward some higher standard, aware of the distance between who he is and who he wants to be. I think most fathers know that feeling. The sense that you need something — patience, steadiness, another chance — that you cannot manufacture on your own.

And that’s what children want from their fathers, in the end. Not perfection. Just an acknowledgment of falling short, and the ask — however fumbling — for understanding.

Every day for a few minutes I hold this card and sit with what I know about this man. He was reaching for something. On the evidence, I think he caught a little of it — enough, at least, for Camille. That’s what the card is about for me: not the error, but the reach.

–Jay Wigley, not Wrigley, is the author of How Retrosheet Saved Baseball History, and is a father of four, husband to one, and the only baseball fan among them.

Introducing the Getty Images “SABR Baseball Cards” Board

During the last 15 years Topps has sourced many of their photographs via Getty Images. The images are typically well documented and a great resource for historical information & details including photography credits. My favorite facet of the image collection is it allows me to tie a trading card to a specific date.*

Recently I have learned that Getty Images has a “Board” option which is basically a bulletin board or folder in which one can “store” images. I have created a Board titled “SABR Baseball Cards” using this function. The board can be viewed using this link.

I have added a few dozen images to the SABR Baseball Card Board which are related to cards—mostly Phillies.

The Board function also allows comments. For each image added to the Board I have also posted a comment that has the related card year, set and card number. If there is a column written on the card (either here at SABR Baseball Cards or elsewhere) and/or photo I have also added a link to that posting.

Research Process

Researching Card Photos can often be tedious and disheartening. For instance if one goes into Getty Images and searches “Bryce Harper 2025” it returns 4829 images. That is 36+ Photographs for Every Game he played last year (8+/PA). Finding a card in that ocean is just this side of needle/haystack territory. But it can be done:

Let’s work our way through a recent column on Reed Johnson written by John Racanelli.

The best thing about Reed Johnson’s 2012 card (for this type of research) is the seagulls. Searching “Reed Johnson” on Getty returns 3045 images.

“Reed Johnson Seagulls” returns THREE.

And one of those jumps right off the page as the one at the top of John’s column.

Notice the text above the photo gives us a bit of information. We have the Date and Location Wrigley Field June 18 2011. Johnson’s number and position are listed as well as the Cubs opponent, the Yankees. At the end we get the photo credit David Banks—who I am betting is the person that also added “Seagulls” to the description and greatly helped our search.

Editor—Save Authority

If you have editing privileges for the SABR Baseball Cards Board a “Save+” button appears below the photo. This is how we add an image to our Board.

Here is where Editors can add the above mentioned comments.

This is a couple of images I have added to the library. Note below each image there is both a place for a note and there is a count of the number of comments added to the image. Reed Johnson has two, The remainder have one. There is also a notes function that shows where I have duplicated the information for Johnson. I am debating whether to just use this area rather than comments. This is all new and a work in progress.

CrowdSource

There are, of course, tens of thousands of baseball cards. To make this a valuable research tool will take the work of many volunteers. The link above is read-only, if there are any SABR Members interested in contributing to the SABR Baseball Card Board please reach out via a comment below and I will share the edit link.

*Getty Images Misinformation

We should note that the text accompanying a Getty Image is not always accurate, particularly for earlier photos that are often default dated as January 1 of a specific year. This JasonCards column on a Hank Aaron Heritage set notes a number of possible differences we may see between what is on a Trading Card and the data stated within Getty Images. There’s also the Al Kaline story which caught co-chair Nick Vossbrink as well as Topps.

2026 SABR Jefferson Burdick Award Winner – Gary Cieradkowski

We are pleased to announce that the recipient of the 2026 SABR Jefferson Burdick Award is Gary Cieradkowski. In Hobby circles, Gary is best known for his Infinite Baseball Card Set, an ever-growing, independently produced collection of cards highlighting a mix of baseball outsiders, overlooked legends, and untold stories. For the readers out there, imagine if the League of Outsider Baseball never ended and took the form of baseball cards.

Just a sampling of Gary’s Infinite Baseball Card Set checklist includes Alta Weiss, Joe Schlabotnik, Pythias Russ, Andy the Clown, Dwight Eisenhower, Fran Boniar, and Jack Kerouac. And if you found yourself wondering who any of those subjects are or what they have to do with baseball, that’s kind of the point. Gary not only has your curiosity covered with the best card backs in the business but in most cases a companion booklet if not a blog post to boot.

While Gary’s cards generate instant visual appeal, as with everything Gary creates, there is far more than meets the eye. Just about nothing in the drawings is random. The colors, the uniforms, and the background details are as meticulously researched as the write-ups on the card backs, even as occasional Easter eggs might show up in some of Gary’s pieces.

In the end, however, the appeal of Gary’s work goes beyond his skills as an artist and researcher. Gary is also one of the baseball world’s great storytellers. There is a quality to his work that takes the medium of the baseball card to an entirely new realm, one that transports its holder to a bygone time and distant place where unknown heroes in unknown leagues come to life, awash in the magic of all that is beautiful about the sport.

Enjoy the honor, Gary! It’s a pleasure for SABR Baseball Cards to add your name to our list of Burdick Award winners.

2020 – Mike Aronstein
2021 – Doug McWilliams
2022 – Jim Beckett
2023 – Fred Harris and Brendan Boyd
2024 – Dick Perez
2025 – Anson Whaley
2026 – Gary Cieradkowski

Editor’s Note: To learn even more about Gary Cieradkowski, check out his fantastic interview with Dan Wallach on Episode 0504 of the My Baseball History podcast.

You can also read Gary’s own three-part series on the Burdick Award, his favorite baseball cards, and the artists that inspired him.

Part 1 – The Burdick Award
Part 2 – The Burdick Award: My Favorite Cards
Part 3 – The Burdick Award: My Influences

Cardboard Crosswalk: 1914 and 1915 Cracker Jack

The 1914 and 1915 Cracker Jack sets are similar enough that Jefferson Burdick assigned both the same E145 designation in his American Card Catalog. Indeed for many Cracker Jack cards the only clues as to year of issue come from the card backs, inverted in 1915 and with denser text on the bottom that includes mail-in offers. For the players common to both sets, even the same card numbers and bios are used across years.

Another key difference is the size of the sets. The 1914 checklist has 144 cards while the 1915 checklist has 176. Unrelated to the crosswalk, a quick of the 1914 set is that it includes two different cards of Chicago Whale Rollie Zeider. Presumably, card 116 was issued as a second-series correction of card 60, which showed Zeider in a uniform he last wore June 1, 1913. (The 1914 set was most likely released in two distinct series of 72 cards apiece. Notably, cards 1-72 advertise a print run of 10,000,000 while cards 73-144 up the number to 15,000,000.)

Unsurprisingly, the 1915 set would retain the second Zeider card but not the first, making Zeider’s card 60 one of only five cards from the 1914 checklist not to hold its spot, including numbering, in 1915.

Like Zeider, the other subjects on the 1914-only list have good reason for losing their spot. Lord barely played in 1914 and didn’t have a roster spot in 1915 until late May when he jumped to the Federal League. Cashion similarly saw scant usage in 1914 and by 1915 was toiling in the American Association. As for Chance, he resigned as manager of the Yankees in late 1914 and would not return to the majors until 1923. As for Callahan, the Sox moved him from his field general job to the front office after the 1914 season, making him an uninteresting subject for a baseball card in 1915.

The result is that the 1915 set included 37 new subjects, the five cards that replaced the 1914-only issues and the 32 “high numbers” from 145-176.

Returning to the 1915 set’s 139 repeated subjects, eleven appeared with new teams. In the case of Nap Lajoie and Sherry Magee, artwork was revised minimally to reflect the updates. In all other cases, artwork remained the same, even when cap and jersey identifiers from the previous team were quite prominent.

Here is the complete list of all subjects appearing on new teams in the 1915 set.

The case of Hall of Fame pitcher Rube Marquard is an unusual one in that he never pitched for the Brooklyn Tip Tops, the team assigned to his 1915 card. However, he did sign with the club in December 1914. The only problem was he was already under contract with the New York Giants, so the move never happened. That said, the Cracker Jack card may have been prophetic in two ways.

First, the artists left Marquard in his Giants uniform, which proved accidentally correct for the bulk of the 1915 campaign. Second, Marquard did end up finishing the season with a Brooklyn club. It just wasn’t the Tip Tops.

Apart from players who changed teams (or at least were thought to have), the only other significant update between the 1914 and 1915 sets came with the card of Christy Mathewson, which curiously switched from an action pose in 1914 to a portrait in 1915.

For collectors interested in pursuing the similarities and differences across the two Cracker Jack sets further, here is my Google Sheet. Let me know if you find anything interesting.

I Mustache You a Question

Did you know Ryne Sandberg once sported a wildly controversial mustache?

The second annual Cubs Convention (née Die-Hard Cubs Fan Club Cubsfest) was held in 1987 at Chicago’s Hyatt Regency on the last weekend of January. Ryne Sandberg appeared as a panelist at the “For Women Only” session to answer fan questions, along with teammates Gary Matthews, Keith Moreland, and Jamie Moyer. The Chicago Tribune’s Paul Sullivan deemed it noteworthy to include, albeit parenthetically, that Sandberg was “sporting a new mustache” that weekend.

When the Cubs reported to spring training in February, the legend of Sandberg’s new look continued to grow. Initially, his whiskers were described as “pencil-thin…more like Wayne Newton’s than Hulk Hogan’s.”

Sandberg’s wife, Cindy, took the blame, “he ran out of shaving cream and I forgot to get some. It looks okay I guess. I’m kind of used to it.”

In mid-March, Fred Mitchell of the Chicago Tribune noted, “Sandberg has a new mustache but plans to approach the 1987 season with the same workmanlike discipline that he has shown in the past.” The article included a photo of the mustachioed Sandberg.

The Chicago Sun-Times then ran a poll, asking readers to vote whether Sandberg should keep the mustache or ditch it. Some responders were pragmatic, “I don’t care if he looks like Abraham Lincoln. Just so he hits .300 and steals 50 bases,” wrote one. Others described the look as “sexy,” “distinguished,” and “a slice of heaven.” Another anointed Sandberg “the new Tom Selleck.”

Regardless, the results announced by the Sun-Times on April 5 were overwhelmingly in favor of a clean-shaven Ryno. The tally was 602 in favor of shaving the mustache and 68 for keeping it. Another 21 undecided votes were submitted.

The results of that poll were published a day late, however.

Fed up with the frivolous attention his facial hair was getting, Sandberg reverted back to a glabrate upper lip in advance of the Cubs’ April 7 home opener, “I shaved it off last night [April 4]. It got so the mustache was all anybody wanted to talk about. It was becoming kind of a distraction. I just want to concentrate on playing baseball.” Sandberg explicitly denied the Sun-Times poll had anything to do with his decision.

Despite sporting a mustache for a very short duration, photos of Ryno with his mustache can be found in several baseball card issues, mainly in issued in 1988.

Additionally, his whiskered look was memorialized on the cover of the 1987 Cubs Gift Catalog and a wall poster.

I mustache you now, how do you feel about a mustachioed Ryne Sandberg?

Checklist:

A list of baseball issues depicting the hirsute Ryno follows, including variations for the completists among us. If you happen to know of any others, please let me know!

1988 Fleer Baseball MVPs #29
1988 O-Pee-Chee Stickers #23 1987 World Series WS, VAR: Ryne Sandberg (6) back
1988 O-Pee-Chee Stickers #36 Ozzie Virgil VAR: Ryne Sandberg (6) back
1988 O-Pee-Chee Stickers #57 / 225 Ryne Sandberg / Terry Kennedy VAR: John Franco (32) back
1988 O-Pee-Chee Stickers #57 / 225 Ryne Sandberg / Terry Kennedy VAR: Dan Plesac (65) back
1988 O-Pee-Chee Stickers #102 / 165 Kevin McReynolds / Tony Phillips VAR: Ryne Sandberg (6) back
1988 O-Pee-Chee Stickers #138 / 280 Buddy Bell / Jeff Reardon VAR: Ryne Sandberg (6) back
1988 O-Pee-Chee Stickers #147 Ryne Sandberg AS, Bruce Hurst (62) back
1988 O-Pee-Chee Stickers #151 Darryl Strawberry AS, Ryne Sandberg (6) back
1988 O-Pee-Chee Stickers #158 George Bell AS, Ryne Sandberg (6) back
1988 O-Pee-Chee Stickers – Super Star Backs #6 Ryne Sandberg
1988 Panini Stickers #260
1988 Topps All-Star Set Collector’s Edition (Glossy Send-Ins) #14
1988 Topps American Baseball (UK Minis) #65
1988 Topps Coins #52
1988 Topps Stickers #16 1987 NLCS, VAR: Ryne Sandberg (6) back
1988 Topps Stickers #27 / 240 Jim Deshaies / Pete O’Brien VAR: Ryne Sandberg (6) back
1988 Topps Stickers #34 / 245 Bill Doran / Dwight Evans VAR: Ryne Sandberg (6) back
1988 Topps Stickers #36 Ozzie Virgil VAR: Ryne Sandberg (6) back
1988 Topps Stickers #57 / 225 Ryne Sandberg / Terry Kennedy VAR: Dale Murphy (18) back
1988 Topps Stickers #57 / 225 Ryne Sandberg / Terry Kennedy VAR: Ozzie Virgil (24) back
1988 Topps Stickers #57 / 225 Ryne Sandberg / Terry Kennedy VAR: Mark McGwire (36) back
1988 Topps Stickers #57 / 225 Ryne Sandberg / Terry Kennedy VAR: Keith Hernandez (3) back
1988 Topps Stickers #84 / 307 Denny Martinez / Mike Dunne FS, VAR: Ryne Sandberg (6) back
1988 Topps Stickers #100 / 190 Roger McDowell / Jimmy Key VAR: Ryne Sandberg (6) back
1988 Topps Stickers #103 / 275 Sid Fernandez / Tom Brunansky VAR: Ryne Sandberg (6) back
1988 Topps Stickers #134 / 195 Doug Drabek / Jim Gantner VAR: Ryne Sandberg (6) back
1988 Topps Stickers #137 / 208 Nick Esasky / Cory Snyder VAR: Ryne Sandberg (6) back
1988 Topps Stickers #142 / 227 John Franco / Billy Ripken VAR: Ryne Sandberg (6) back
1988 Topps Stickers #161 Terry Kennedy AS, FOIL, VAR: Ryne Sandberg (6) back
1988 Topps Stickers – Super Star Backs #6 Ryne Sandberg
Unknown Poster Promo Ryno with Rhinoceros NNO

Sources:

http://www.tcdb.com

Paul Sullivan, “Cubs Give Die Hard Fans Words to Live By,” Chicago Tribune, February 1, 1987.

Joe Goddard, “Cubs Bits,” Chicago Sun-Times, February 20, 1987.

Fred Mitchell, “Despite Mustache, It’s Same Old Sandberg,” Chicago Tribune, March 15, 1987.

Fred Mitchell, “Sandberg’s Mustache Fails to Make Final Cut,” Chicago Tribune, April 5, 1987.

Eddie Gold, “Poll Suggests a Close Shave for Sandberg,” Chicago Sun-Times, April 5, 1987.

“Let’s ‘Stache All that Talk About Ryno,” Chicago Sun-Times, April 6, 1987.

Question Everything: Reed Johnson Edition

Reed Johnson was one of those scrappy players who became a fan favorite by virtue of pluck. Despite a promising start to his career in Toronto, however, Johnson was often overlooked and relegated to fourth outfielder status.

As a rookie for the Blue Jays in 2003, Johnson slashed .294/.353/.427 and slugged 10 home runs. In his first Major League Baseball start on April 20, 2003, Johnson was hit by a pitch, knocked in a run with his first career hit, and was then hit with another pitch. He got plunked 20 times that season, just one shy of league leader Jason Giambi’s total. Johnson did not receive a single American League Rookie of the Year vote.

In 2006 Johnson slashed .319/.390/.479 with an OPS+ of 124. He also clubbed a career-high 12 home runs and led Major League Baseball with 21 HBP. He also posted a career-best bWAR of 5.1 but did not receive a single MVP vote—despite posting a bWAR higher than winner Justin Morneau (4.3).

In 2007, Johnson missed some time in spring training with nagging back issues. Regardless, he was Toronto’s Opening Day left fielder and played every inning of seven of the Blue Jays’ first eight games. However, he sat out the game in Detroit on April 12 when he “showed up at the ballpark with a wonky lower back.” Johnson did not return to the lineup until July 6 and ended the season with his worst offensive output as a Major Leaguer. Johnson was released by Toronto on March 23, 2008 and signed a couple of days later with the Chicago Cubs as a free agent.

On April 25, 2008 Johnson was in center field as the Cubs visited the Washington Nationals. In the fifth inning Felipe López drove a ball to deep center field destined for extra bases. On a dead sprint, Johnson did his best Superman impression. He laid out, landed on the warning track, and crashed into the wall. He leapt up with the bill of his hat askew and the ball in his glove. Although the Cubs eventually lost the game, that single play epitomized Reed Johnson’s grit and instantly endeared him to Cubs fans everywhere.

Mired in a May 2008 slump that saw Johnson’s batting average drop 40 points to .256, however, the Cubs signed Jim Edmonds to a free agent deal on May 14, after Edmonds had been given his outright release by San Diego. By the end of 2008, Johnson had worked himself back to .303/.358/.420 in 374 plate appearances.

Despite his contributions during the regular season, Johnson did not make an appearance in the NLDS for the Cubs, with Edmonds making all three starts in center as the Cubs were swept by the Dodgers. The Cubs granted Edmonds his free agency in October 2008.

On January 9, 2009, the Cubs signed Milton Bradley (and all his baggage) to a free agent contract following his season in Texas in which Bradley had led the American League in OBP (.436), OPS (.999) and OPS+ (162). Bradley was given the starting role in right field and Kosuke Fukudome was moved over to center.

On Easter Sunday, April 12, 2009, the Cubs played in Milwaukee. Bradley started in right field for the Cubs and was hit by a pitch in his second plate appearance leading off the top of the fourth inning. Johnson came to run for Bradley and eventually scored on a bases loaded walk to Koyie Hill. The Cubs batted around and Johnson came to the plate, ending the inning on a ground out.

The Cubs were staked to a 6-2 lead as the Brewers came to bat in the bottom of the fifth. Cubs pitcher Ryan Dempster gave up singles to Rickie Weeks and Craig Counsell and then hit Ryan Braun with a pitch. With no outs and the bases loaded, slugger Prince Fielder strode to the plate. Fielder murdered Dempster’s 1-1 offering to right field, a towering ball destined for the seats; a dramatic game-tying grand slam.

Johnson turned and gave chase. He timed his jump and leapt, extending his glove a foot and a half above the wall. He came down with the ball in his glove and fired it back into the infield. Fielder stood near first base, dumbfounded. That well-struck ball with so much promise ended up an ordinary sacrifice fly in the box score. The Cubs hung on for an 8-5 victory in front of 40,000-plus at Miller Park.

This play is Reed Johnson’s favorite career highlight.

Ultimately, Johnson’s playing time was limited for the Cubs in 2009, as he appeared in just 65 games. After a disappointing season in Los Angeles in 2010, Johnson returned to the Cubs in 2011 as a free agent.

Johnson appeared in the 2011 Topps Update set as a member of the Cubs. The photo shows him in what appears to be a (walk-off?) home run trot. He is screaming with his hands balled up in fists. This was probably an exciting moment in his career, so when did it happen?

Some clues from the photo include a home uniform and the distinctive wall along Wrigley Field’s first base line. Johnson is wearing long sleeves, so it was probably an early-season game. The stands look empty, so it may be cold and/or an extra innings affair. The patches on the uniform were no help, and neither was the identification of Majestic as manufacturer.

Considering that Johnson had played two previous seasons with Chicago, the search began with Johnson’s home run log. He hit 65 home runs in his career but there were no April home runs at Wrigley Field and no walk-offs during his prior stint with the team. Accordingly, it seemed probable that the photo used in the 2011 Topps Update set had actually been taken earlier that same season.

I had an opportunity to speak with Johnson at the 2026 Cubs Convention. I first told him I was personally at that 2009 game in Milwaukee when he robbed Prince Fielder. [I also let him know that we were not paying attention very well and when the right fielder went up to grab that ball, we all thought Milton Bradley was still in the game. Doh.] This is when I learned that was Johnson’s favorite catch of all time. There is no doubt as to why.

I also wanted to see if we could pinpoint the date the photo was taken on his 2011 Topps Update card. As Johnson signed the card, he knew immediately it was an extra-inning walk-off home run against the Padres—his only walk off home run as a Cub. Not surprisingly, this was another one of his favorite baseball memories.

However, if I had been paying better attention, I could have just looked at the back of the card, which plainly indicated “On April 21, 2011, he rocked Wrigley with an 11^th inning homer vs. San Diego.”

Mystery solved?

Well, not quite. The card does not exactly say the photo was from that particular home run. And even more troubling was that the Cubs did not play a game against anyone on April 21, 2011.

However, Reed Johnson did hit an 11^th inning walk-off home run off Padres twirler Luke Gregerson on April 20, sending the Cubs to a 2-1 victory in the first game of a weather-related Wednesday doubleheader.

Mystery solved and uncorrected errors confirmed! (Topps included that incorrect walk-off home run date on Johnson’s 2012 card, as well.)

Sources:

Baseball-Reference.com

Retrosheet.org

TCDB.com

Author conversation with Reed Johnson, January 17, 2026

Robert MacLeod, “Toronto’s Offence Hurting,” The Globe and Mail (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), April 13, 2007, 111.

A new way to look at the Monster

Author’s note: The 1909-11 American Tobacco Company “White Borders” (T206) set has been no stranger to exhaustive study and research. As a result, it may be that nothing I present here is truly new. Still, I’ll call it “new to me,” and perhaps new to many of you. Certainly let me know in the Comments if this really has been covered before.

Background

While most collectors have some familiarity with the different T206 card backs, Piedmont and Sweet Caporal being the most plentiful, the topic of “print groups” is more typically reserved for the die-hards. Still, for collectors interested in the deeper structure and evolution of the T206 checklist, print groups are not just useful but essential.

Eddie Cicotte has “150” and “350” backs, hence belongs to Print Group 1

If you are not yet familiar with the T206 print groups, I encourage you to review these pages from the excellent T206 Resource website.

Print Group	Description	Checklist
1	150/350 Subjects	checklist
2	350-only Subjects	checklist
3	350/460 Subjects	checklist
4	460-only Subjects	checklist
5	Super Prints	checklist
6	Southern Leaguers	checklist

Alternatively, you can simply think of the T206 set as one that came out in waves rather than all at once. Apart from tiny details, you can view Print Groups 1-4 as sequential releases of 155, 200, 60, and 46 subjects respectively and ignore the other two, at least for the purposes of this article.

A Closer Look

What I hope to do here is characterize the second and third T206 print groups in a way that is far from a random Monster mash and should prove useful in understanding the set’s evolution. To keep things from getting too abstract, I’ll start with this arrangement of the Brooklyn team set, organized by print group.

Click image for full size diagrams of all teams

Or if you prefer the Washington Senators, be my guest!

One thing to notice about the Brooklyn and Washington team sets is that all of their Print Group 1 cards are of different players. As it turns out, however, a similar statement can only be made for half of the sixteen major league teams.

Fred Clarke is one of many repeated subjects in Print Group 1

On the other hand, three other features of the Brooklyn and Washington diagrams really do extend across the entire set, or at least nearly so.

Print Group 2 adds new players but no new images of earlier players.
Print Group 3 adds new images of earlier players but no new players.
No (studio) portraits appear in Print Groups 3 or 4

While the first two of these characterizations have exceptions across the larger set, the exceptions are relatively few. Focusing on the first, there are five teams of the sixteen that break the rule and repeat players from the initial print group. Even then, however, all but one (Detroit) does so only minimally.

Print Group 2 by Team

Moving onto the second observation, despite the addition of 60 new subjects, Print Group 3 introduces only four new players to the set: Frank Baker, Heinie Berger, Joe Doyle, and Jeff Sweeney.

Everyone else in the print group is making (at least) their second appearance in the set. Before wrapping things up, here is two more team layouts, which unlike Brooklyn and Washington will break the rules a little bit.

Philadelphia Athletics by Print Group

First, note that Bender (far left), who had a card in Print Group 1, gets another in Print Group 2. Second, note that Baker (far right) enters as a new player in Print Group 3. Finally, while two different Harry Krause cards in Print Group 2 don’t break any rules, they are certainly different from the Brooklyn and Washington pictures. Regardless, I think the most reasonable interpretation of the diagram is that Print Group 2 primarily introduces new players and Print Group 3 primarily introduces new poses.

The busiest diagram of all belongs to the New York Giants even as only a single card, Rube Marquard’s portrait from Print Group 2, breaks any of the rules.

New York Giants by Print Group

Of note are the many non-studio portraits in Print Group 4. The die-hards and photo buffs may recognize their common origin in a New York Giants team photo from 1909.

Having seen four of the sixteen major league teams you might wonder about the other twelve, so here are the data. A catch-all row covering the sixteen (non-Southern) minor league teams has also been added.

New and Repeated Players by Print Group

This same chart as well as detailed visual layouts for all sixteen major league teams are available here.

Conclusions

Apart from the so called Super Prints (Print Group 5) and Southern Leaguers (Print Group 6), which I’m deliberately ignoring, the evolution of the Monster might most simply be understood in this manner:

Following its initial batch of subjects (Print Group 1), the main strategy for expanding the set was to add new players (Print Group 2). With that accomplished, the next stage of growth (Print Group 3) primarily involved adding new cards of existing players. The final push (Print Group 4) did a little of each.

As simple and useful as this explanation seems (i.e., PG2 as more players, PG3 as more poses), it’s not one I’ve run across thus far in my reading on the set.

Optional Addendum

Just in case you were wondering whether or how the two print groups I avoided play into all of this, it’s actually quite simple. (The only thing tricky about them is their timing, depending who you ask, but their structure is as simple as it gets.)

Print Group 5, dubbed the Super Prints by T206 researcher Scot Reader, consisted solely of six cards. All were repeats of players already introduced. In that sense, the print group functioned much like Print Group 3 (i.e., new poses rather than new players).

Print Group 6, the Southern Leaguers, consisted of 48 subjects from six different minor leagues across the American South. All were making their first appearance in the set. In that sense, the print group functioned similarly to Print Group 2 (i.e., adding rather than repeating players).

The six “Southern Leaguers” of the Texas League

Finally, as a reminder, terrific detail on not just these two groups but all six is available at T206Resource.com.

Call for Nominations – 2026 Jefferson Burdick Award

Through February 28, the SABR Baseball Cards Research Committee is accepting nominations for the Jefferson Burdick Award for Contributions to the Hobby.

NOMINATION CRITERIA

Nominations should come from active SABR members (click here to join) and honor a living person who has made significant contributions to the hobby of baseball card collecting in such areas as—

Research/scholarship
Design/production/innovation
Collector resources (e.g., publications, websites, communities, events)
Expanding access to or enjoyment of the Hobby

In short, we are looking for the individuals who have made baseball card collecting better for the rest of us.

NOMINATION AND AWARD PROCESS

Have someone in mind? Here is what we’d like you to do.

No later than February 28, use the Contact form on this website to let us know your nominee(s) along with with a brief description of their role or contributions. A few sentences is sufficient at this stage in the process.
Be available for follow-up in case more information is needed.
Publicize this Call for Nominations to other SABR members with an interest in baseball cards.

On our end, we (your committee co-chairs, Nick and Jason) will vet the nominees and then work with our Awards Subcommittee to choose the award winner.

PAST RECIPIENTS