Up on the blog today, we spotlight my early custom card for Hall of Famer George Davis, from my "19th Century Base Ball Stars" set released back in 2018, in a fun faux 1890's cigarette pack with all sorts of goodies:
Sure wish I could get in my time
machine and jet back to that era to buy up all the cigarette packs I
could find so I could pull out cards like this!
I'm especially fond of the 1894 Mayo Plug set, which this set right here was modeled after of course!
As
for George Davis, his inclusion in this set was based on his stellar
20-year Big League career that saw him as one of the best shortstops of
the era, playing for the New York Giants, Chicago White Sox and
Cleveland Spiders between 1890 and 1909.
Over his 2372 games,
he'd hit .295 while picking up 2665 hits, with 453 doubles, 163 triples
and 73 homers, with 1545 runs scored and 1440 runs batted in, as well as
619 stolen bases.
He would topp 100 runs scored five times,
while also topping 100 RBIs three times, including a league-leading 135
in 1897 with the Giants.
He'd hit .300 or better nine times,
all in a row between 1893 and 1901, with a high of .355 in 1893, his
first year with the Giants, when he also established his career-best in
hits with 195 and incredible 27 triples and 11 home runs.
Some
100 years later, the Veteran's Committee voted him into the Hall of
Fame, finally getting him some recognition that slowly evaporated over
the decades since his playing days ended, and rightly so!
