1898 Cleveland Spiders Baseball Program

[patricka]

Just acquired yesterday in a trade this 1898 Cleveland program and wanted to get Board Members opinions on the players pictured on the cover. In 20 years of collecting vintage programs I have never seen this example before. The program has some condition issues such as a missing piece on the top border that impacts the first 2 pages.

I usually don't pursue items in this condition but the program is for a game against my Cubs and I already have an 1898 Chicago program vs. Cleveland in my collection in which Cy Young pitched and Sockalexis in the lineup so I thought it made a nice companion piece.

The program is neatly scored for a game played on July 23rd. Cy Young pitched and beat Chicago 4 to 2. Appears Clark Griffith pitched in relief for the Chicago. Starting at catcher for Chicago is rookie Frank Chance. Does not appear Sockalexis played but I have not pulled the box score yet.

Another aspect that I like about is that it has a picture of the Cleveland team on the front cover and I assume the player in the top row 2nd from the right is Louis Sockalexis? In the middle of the picture are three players sitting in the center. I assume the player sitting on the left among the three is a Cy Young?

Any thoughts on identifying Young and Sockalexis? Anybody ever seen this program design before?

[baseballart]

Can't help with the identification. I haven't seen the design for such a program before either, very cool

Max

[rhettyeakley]

You have Sockalexis correctly identified but I think Young as on top row fourth from the right. The guy in the middle just to the left of the fold is Ed McKean. Also quick id's Wallace is third from the right in the fron trow, Criger is second from the right. I'll look a little closer later when I have a few minutes. Also, Zimmer is between Young and Sock.
-Rhett

[rhettyeakley]

Had a chance to look at it for a few minutes and these are some id's

Burkett--middle row just to the right of the fold
McAleer-back row just to the left of the fold
Nig Cuppy--front row far left
Tebeau--I'm thinking he is the guy in the middle, middle row--tough to tell with the fold.

I'll keep looking.

Edited to add:
Fred Blake--probably the guy third from left on top row.
Zeke Wilson--probably the mustachioed guy top far left
Jack O'Connor--may be the guy second from left in front row--not 100% on these three

[bcbgcbrcb]

Great item, Congrats! It looks like Rhett has all of the ID's correct.

[jimthorpe]

Very nice Program Pat.

Mike McKee

[bmarlowe1]

That is way cool. It is made from an 1895 team photo with some of the faces pasted over with current team members. I've attached the '95 photo. The ID's for that one are:

back row:
Tom O'Meara, Harry Blake, Jimmy McAleer, Cy Young, Chief Zimmer, Jack O'Connor, Cupid Childs

mid row:
Chippy McGarr (big mustache), JH Robison,Patsy Tebeau, GW Howe, George Tebeau, Ed McKean


front row:
Nig Cuppy, Phil Knell, Jesse Burkett sitting in front of Patsy Tebeau, Bobby Wallace right of him


The men in business suits (Robison and Howe) have been replaced, players added in the back row between other players, and the faces of at least O'Meara, O'Connor, McKean, Geo Tebeau, Burkett, Knell, and McGarr pasted over with other players.


Specifically Geo Tebeau was replaced with Lou Criger, Knell with Sport McCallister, O'Connor with Sockalexis, and Robison with what may be either McKean or it could be another shot of Cy Young - the post is a bit too blurry for me to be sure. I'm a bit too busy to go figure it all out right now.

[barrysloate]

It does look like some of the heads are floating in the 1898 image. Wow, talk about a great program. It's tough enough to find any early program with a photo of the team, but one with Cy Young and Frank Chance, from his rookie year, is really special.

And I believe the image of Ed McKean, which is one of the ones superimposed on someone else's body, is the same one used on his Just So card. I wasn't able to recognize any others from the set, however.

[bmarlowe1]

Hey Barry - can you post that just-so McKean image?

[barrysloate]

I might be able to do it over the weekend (my wife does my scanning- I'm a computer idiot), unless someone else can beat me to it. I'm pretty sure they're the same. I checked Cuppy, Zimmer, Tebeau, and O'Connor but they don't match.

[bmarlowe1]

Never mind, found one. Yes - McKean it is.

[patricka]

Thanks to everyone for their help!