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Todd SchultzThe national distribution requirement would torpedo many or most prewar issues from including someone's rookie card, and should probably be ignored. Still, apart from its minor league aspect, the 1914 Baltimore News set seems awfully local to me.
As for Ruth(and others), the m101-s satisfy both the Major League and national distribution requirement in any event. Mendelsohn advertised the blank-backed m101-5s in a periodical of national circulation--The Sporting News--and therefore it was presumably available wherever the mail could be delivered, at least in the continental US. Similarly, the m101-4s with Sporting News back were available to anyone who took up the nationally-distributed paper on its offer. Add to that the diverse and many areas of the country that distributed the same card fronts with their own advertising on the back, including Successful Farming magazine with its own national circulation, and I think it's safe you can call the m101s a national issue of major league players sufficient to meet someone's definition of rookie.