[cardaholic]

I just acquired a card the same size as the Brown & Bigelow playing cards that has the Lou Gehrig artwork done by Bill Medcalf (who did all the Brown & Bigelow baseball artwork) with an advertisement for Guinness Dog's Head ale on the bottom front (and the Guinness logo in the upper left background). The back has the schedule for Cuban winter baseball for 1951-52. I've seen 2 of these now on eBay, and have found posts on this and other message board referencing the same sponsor and back with the Babe Ruth artwork. Additionally, Brown & Bigelow's artwork was used for MLB team schedules in 1952 - a post on a schedule collector site references the Connie Mack artwork with both Phila. A's and Cleveland Indians schedules on the back.

On what basis do we date the first year of the B&B playing card sets to 1953? It seems odd that B&B would have used their artwork in Cuba before the U.S and that it would have been 2 years between putting out Cuban schedules and American sets.

IMO the schedule-on-the-back cards should be part of the Beckett Almanac and SCBC - there are a lot of other vintage sets where cards had team schedules on the back (often team-issued sets).