W503: Some old news with a new twist, and might as well show what you got!

[brianp-beme]

The W503 set is a fantastic medium sized issue, in both dimensions and amount of subjects. It features some of the best Black and White photos seen in 1920's sets, especially in my opinion the action shots possess unusual clarity. Futhermore this set has the distinction of still being incorrectly identified as a hand cut strip card issue, which if studied closely, is clearly not the case.

The reason I am posting is to point out that both PSA and SGC identify this set on their labels as a 1922 issue. In Lew Lipset's The Encyclopedia of Baseball Cards published in the mid-1980's Lew pointed out that the W503 set was likely released in early 1923. In fact, not mentioned in the W503 article in Lew's book, the Herb Pennock card, which shows him with the Yankees, indicates that this card had to be printed after January 30th, 1923, as that was when he was traded to the Yankees from the Red Sox. Interestingly enough, the Norm MacMillan card shows that he is with the Yankees, but he was sent to the Red Sox on January 30th, 1923 for, you guessed it, Herb Pennock.

Lew theorized that this set was issued in two separate printings, cards 1-32 and 33-64 due to a series of reasons, first being the script differences between the first 32 numbered cards and the second group of 32 cards, as shown in the examples below, the fact that all the portraits seen in the set are contained within cards # 1 to 32, and the fact that 25 of the first 32 cards are either Giants or Yankees players, both participants in the 1922 World Series, while only 4 additional Giants and Yankees are seen in card #'s 33 through 64.

This focus on 1922 World Series participants in the first 32 cards point to a likely post-1922 World Series issue for this first series, thus card #10 of McMillan, who, as mentioned earlier is pictured as a Yankee, and card #51 Pennock, also identified as a Yankee, and who were traded for each other on January 30, 1923, would indicate a possible late 1922 issue for the first series of cards, and an early 1923 issue for the second issue.

The inclusion of #8 Jimmy O'Connell with the Giants, and #29 Willie Kamm with the White Sox, makes the first 32 cards being issued in late 1922 a little cloudy, as they both started their major league careers in 1923 for their respective club. To make matters even more atmospheric, however, is the fact they were both purchased by their respective clubs from the PCL San Francisco Seals much earlier, O'Connell on December 21, 1921, and Kamm on May 29th, 1922, but both continued to play all of the 1922 season with the Seals. A final card I think swings the entire set being issued solely during 1923: #14 Al DeVormer is shown as a Red Sox, and he was traded to the Red Sox on January 3, 1923.

Also admittedly the makers of this set were not too current with team designations in some cases, for example Rube Marquard is shown with the Dodgers, a team he last played for in 1920, and Lee Meadows is shown with the Cardinals, a team he last played for in 1919!

In conclusion the 1922 date utilized by both PSA and SGC is incorrect, as this set should be identified as 1923 instead, with the first series early in 1923, and the second series likely sometime later in 1923.

Brian (I was inspired to post this due the latest postings of this awesome thread on the Memorabilia side of the Net54 block...check it out, and the whole thread is worthwhile too: http://www.net54baseball.com/showthr...=141145&page=4)