Today on the blog, a fun thread to start after many years, a spotlight of one of my first custom sets to be produced, my 1890 "Baseball Champions" set celebrating the greats of the game before the turn of the Century, beginning with legend Al Spalding:
This
set was definitely a "labor of love", putting in a ton of work with
elaborate packaging, having the player cards come in cigarette box with
authentic 19th Century Tobacco Tax stamp along with 100+ year old
"Nations of the World" pin and bonus 1869 Cincinnati Red Stocking
cabinet card.
The
cards themselves came on textured card stock in familiar 19th century
card size, somewhat resembling one of my all-time favorite card sets,
the 1894 Mayo Plug set.
Al Spalding was the premier pitcher with the Boston club in the National
Association before helping form the Major Leagues in 1876 and heading
the Chicago team.
Ever since I got my first Macmillan Baseball Encyclopedia around 1980 I became obsessed with these 19th Century players, and Spalding was one of THE reasons.
Just look at his ridiculous stats between 1871 and 1876!
All he did was put together a 251-65 record as a pitcher, with a .795 winning percentage and a 2.13 earned run average.
Sure the game was not nearly what it evolved to be years later, but those numbers are hilarious, almost a joke, so for a young kid like me seeing these for the first time I was amazed.
Oddly, since then I have read pretty much every book on 19th-Century baseball and cannot seem to remember why Spalding decided to stop playing the game at the age of 26 and really put his efforts into administration, organization and equipment manufacture.
I mean, yes he was immensely successful with all three, but it would have been awesome to see what he ended up with stat-wise.
As it was, he finished with a 252-65 record, leading his league in wins every single season he played except for his abbreviated 4-game season of 1877.
In 1875 he posted a phenomenal 54-5 record with a 1.59 ERA, seven shutouts and nine saves over 72 games, 62 of which were starts.
Ever since I got my first Macmillan Baseball Encyclopedia around 1980 I became obsessed with these 19th Century players, and Spalding was one of THE reasons.
Just look at his ridiculous stats between 1871 and 1876!
All he did was put together a 251-65 record as a pitcher, with a .795 winning percentage and a 2.13 earned run average.
Sure the game was not nearly what it evolved to be years later, but those numbers are hilarious, almost a joke, so for a young kid like me seeing these for the first time I was amazed.
Oddly, since then I have read pretty much every book on 19th-Century baseball and cannot seem to remember why Spalding decided to stop playing the game at the age of 26 and really put his efforts into administration, organization and equipment manufacture.
I mean, yes he was immensely successful with all three, but it would have been awesome to see what he ended up with stat-wise.
As it was, he finished with a 252-65 record, leading his league in wins every single season he played except for his abbreviated 4-game season of 1877.
In 1875 he posted a phenomenal 54-5 record with a 1.59 ERA, seven shutouts and nine saves over 72 games, 62 of which were starts.
After
his playing days he would become one of the most important figures in
the game's progression to that of the "National Pastime", though by both
boosting the game's appeal world wide, and by lying to help create the
Nelson Doubleday myth of the game's origin.
Nevertheless
the man was a business stalwart, creating the "Spalding" equipment
empire, or as we in the Brooklyn area in the late-1970s called it,
"Spaldeen", a brand still producing goods to this day!
Amazing life
