1910 PC796 Street
 

Charles E. "Gabby" Street. "The Old Sarge". Catcher for the Washington Senators in 1908-1911. 312 hits and 2 home runs in 8 MLB seasons. Debuted with the Cincinnati Reds in 1904. Caught ball dropped from top of Washington Monument. Holds MLB record for longest gap between MLB games at 19 years -- 1912-1931. Managed the St. Louis Cardinals in 1929 and 1930-1933, including the 1931 World Series championship. Managed the St. Louis Browns in 1938.

From Street's SABR Biography: But what was it that makes fans remember Gabby Street? Ironically, it was for something outside the lines of a baseball diamond. No, it was not his appearance on the Simpsons episode “Homer at the Bat,” which aired on February 20, 1992. D’oh! Gabby had passed away 41 years earlier and he was appearing in pop culture.

No sir, Gabby Street was perhaps known for catching a ball dropped from atop the Washington Monument on August 21, 1908. Senators fans Preston Gibson and John Biddle had made a wager of $500 on whether the feat could be done. After all, the ball would travel 555 feet, and at a high rate of speed. Gabby was never one to be deterred from a challenge and set his place at the foot of the monument. Gibson and Biddle climbed to the top with a basket full of baseballs, and constructed a wooden chute so the ball would slide to arc away and clear the wide base of the enormous structure.

The first 10 baseballs caromed off the base of the monument, so the chute was discarded and the pair of fans took turns throwing the ball from their perch. Gabby, dressed in street clothes, with arms outstretched over his head as if to corral a pop fly, made the successful catch on the 15th attempt. It was calculated that the baseball had picked up 300 pounds of force by the time it landed in Street’s mitt, which almost hit the ground from the impact. “I didn’t see the ball until it was halfway down,” said Gabby. “It was slanting in the wind and I knew it would be a hard catch.”

As for Gabby, he went on his way to work. He caught Walter Johnson that day as the Nats defeated the Detroit Tigers, 3-1.

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1618250398
https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1618250521

Those are gorgeous Rick!

George - Great story! The catcher on my team in high school missed a popup and got his nose broken, so I can imagine what would have happened to Gabby... Great card! I owned that one at one time.

.
 

.

How about the PO charging twice as much if there is writing. Lucky for us collectors 100+ years later, the PO was incentivizing senders to leave them spotless!

.

My nicest 796s arrived in the last couple days, thanks to Rick and JVB.

Sorry the scans are so huge...

Interestng that the Bridwells were printed with those lines on the upper/left border, most if not all seem to have this and its the only one.

.
 

.

Awesome Novelty Cutlery postcards of Walsh and Plank. Exceptional condition.

.

.

Related to understanding how even a rookie could make what seems to be a mindless mistake, it is important to remember that back in that time, it was standard procedure for all the players that were on the field the instant the game ended to race into the dugout and thereby avoid being mobbed (and possibly stripped or injured) by the over-excited crowd.

It was standard practice at the time for players to exit the field immediately on a game-winning hit. The same thing happened in a Cubs-Pirates game a few weeks earlier, and Evers tried the same thing, but the umpire(s) wouldn't allow it. McGraw was aware of what Evers had tried, and should have warned his players, but did not.

The first base coach would have been a player who was not in the game (rather than a retired player hired specifically to stand near first base). In this case, I think it was Joe McGinnity, who chased after the ball when he saw Evers calling for it. He apparently got to it before Evers, and then threw it into the stands. Evers later claimed that two of his teammates retrieved that ball, but more likely he got another one from the bench.

.

.
 

.

Looks just like him.

Without the ears, we'll never know.

Fred Snodgrass outlines the "merkle Boner" story in great detail on the "Glory" audio set with great sympathy for Fred, basically saying it could have happened to anybody under the circumstances.

I'm originally from Worcester Mass.

[IMG]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...f4f7465a_h.jpgimg030 by Dave H, on Flickr[/IMG]

<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/189698901@N05/51120679710/in/photostream/lightbox/" title="img029"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51120679710_2cfc3f8ca2_h.jpg" width="1600" height="1041" alt="img029"></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

It was located down near Lake Q. west of Lake Street. It was at the southwest intersection of Anna St and Sherbrooke Ave. St. George Orthodox Church now sits on the site. You can see it here:

http://www.historicmapworks.com/Map/...Massachusetts/

I lived about a mile away on Hamilton St and would go running on the dirt track in Lake Park a few blocks from The Oval.

Thanks for information.

Walter Johnson
 

From Walter's SABR Biography: Walter Perry Johnson traveled a circuitous and improbable route to his major-league debut and subsequent stardom. He was born November 6, 1887, on a farm in Allen County, Kansas, the second of six children of Minnie (Perry) and Frank Edwin Johnson. As a child, he helped his parents scratch out a living on their 160-acre farm and found time for hunting and fishing, which became his lifelong passions. Other than occasional schoolyard pickup games, baseball had no place in his early life.

At the turn of the century, Frank Johnson was forced to give up his farm as a result of the persistent Kansas droughts. The family moved into the town of Humboldt, where Frank worked at odd jobs and Walter attended the eighth grade. At this time, Minnie’s parents and siblings were all moving to the oil fields of Southern California, attracted by the good weather and plentiful jobs. After years of poverty in Kansas, a move to the Golden State seemed very appealing to Frank and Minnie. They joined the migration in April 1902, settling in Olinda where Frank found work with the Santa Fe Oil Company as a teamster.

Working on the Kansas farm and in the oil fields, Walter developed a strong, muscular, 6-feet’1 frame which eventually filled out to 200 pounds. At 16, he gained his first baseball experience with a sandlot team. Shortly afterward he started his first game against adults, pitching for a semipro team sponsored by the local oil company. Soon he was a permanent member of the oil company team, and was so impressive that a reporter commented, “Johnson was presented as a high school kid, but he is certainly a graduate in the science of delivering the ball.”

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1618680038

.

.
 

.

Your 805s are unreal Rich. I hope you can finish it out, you know of anyone with a complete set of those? Yours are all so nice. Did you get that nc pc on the bst last night?

I scored a couple more upgardes to my set, not as cool as the 805s but I like 'em...

.

Of course I do! Putting out the feelers, the Speaker is pretty sought after for the moment...Id trade mine for yours though!

Steve,

I like the composition of your Speaker card - too bad that's not Cy Young or Ed Cicotte in the background. I wonder why your Plank card has that big bottom border - compared to the cut of other cards? Also interesting how the Speaker card has those decorative dots just to the left of the name - I don't believe any of the other cards have that. Would be interesting to know more about the 796 set - I think the set is a real diamond in the rough.

So my question on the background, what in the world in that player holding behind his back? Its white and looks like he is purposely hiding behind him, looks odd to me?

No idea on the symbol, only card in the set that has it. And the Plank border, again, the only card in the set that has it. It looks like the image was cropped too short and they just said screw it.

I posted this on the 805 thread last night, but the 796s look like a "rough" draft of sorts for the 805s. The company moved in 1910 and found themselves next to the photo business. The 796s have so many fonts including multiples within the same card, names on the top and bottom, weird symbol in front of Tris, weird border on Plank and then that all was cleaned up on the 805s and the NC Co. was added as well. The only non-uniformity on the 805s is the names, having some players with front and last but most with just last. 805s didnt correct the spelling of Honas either for some reason.

Plus the postmark on a 796 in 1910 while 805 is 1911...even though there is just 4 of them. IDK, 796s just seem like a rushed rough draft of what the 805s became with the nice border applied and uniformity, wonder why they blurred out some of the backgrounds though?

.

.
 

.

1910 Novelty Cutlery postcards
 

Has anyone done a deep research dive on the connection of Vignos & Hurford Photography and the production of the NC postcards?

They were making cabinets by the 1890s...

https://www.tias.com/pr-early-1st-co...tos-38497.html

Novelty Cutlery was founded in 1879 by Augusts Vignos. Lost right arm in Civil War. Farmer, Janitor, Postmaster of Canton. Novelty became famous for "transplant-handled" knives which were invented by Henry and Reuben Landis also of Canton.

Cutlery was at 67 Barr Street in 1910, later moving to 515 McGregor Avenue in 1928. Vignos died in 1925 and the firm passed to son Alfred. Stopped making knives in 1948.

Interesting that Vignos was a photographer prior to the Cutlery business and had an photography studio adjacent to his Novelty Cutlery plant. See attached postcard, lower left (no longer my postcard).

Here's another fun photo.
Canton’s first letter carriers with Postmaster Augustus Vignos, 1882. Front, from left: James C. Shoop, John Ryan. Standing: Alvin Hurford, David Pletcher, Randolph G. Garber, Augustus Vignos. Boy on the porch is Ralph Shoop. Courtesy McKinley Presidential Library & Museum, Canton, OH

Cleraly Vignos & Hurford were close. Also a 1903 photo taken in front of the post office where they worked together. May have even been taken by them. Photos are not mine.
_

Vignos and Hurford started their photo business together by this point I believe.

Interesting way to take the picture so it blocks Vignos missing limb he lost in the war.

Wow. Some of those postcards are AMAZING.

My own contribution is very modest. Card of a baseball game in Osaka from 1913 or earlier.

Vignos founded Novelty Cutlery in 1879 so I think there is some crossover there.

Great Osaka postcard Frankish.

.
 

.

Cool team postcard. Not a big deal, but J L Wilkinson is name of the person who started this team, not Wilkerson. The team was definitely around in 1909 and did not last for very long, so I always assumed that it was a 1909 postcard, no matter what SGC calls them.

.

Also, as has been mentioned more times than I can count, it’s not actually JL Wilkinson on that team postcard. He has a hat that looks just like JLs, but a hat isn’t going to help with IDing the manager of that Hopkins Bros team. Yes, SGC got it wrong. I think the misinformation, interestingly enough, originated from a board member. It’s amazing how things like this get perpetuated and turn into “fact”.

I do not think he is hiding anything behind his back. It is some sort of canvas or cloth pouch. You can the the leather strap slung over to his right shoulder and under the bat.

I'll get off the 796 train and go with the Big Train on this...love this card even though its 1910. Some cards feel more like a piece of history to me and this is one of them.

Wow! Nice card - that one sure got my attention!

Steven, That has to be one of the coolest postcards ever. I love that pose of the Weiser Wonder. So stoic.

Near the top of my list for WaJo cards. It will come as a surprise to those familiar with the Weiser studio portrait that there is an alternate pose, uncovered in the research for my book and posted here for the first time.

Hank - someone on facebook was inquiring as to what you think of Craig Kreindler's take on 'The Weiser Wonder'?.


.

WHOA! Wow, that is just...

Can I ask, where was that found?

Thanks for showing this...wow!

Here is Graig Kreindler's "Weiser Wonder" painting.

And that is an absolutely beautiful painting Kevin...