I think the 1888 date is a good possibility, based on the redemption coupons Greg has shown and the following career data. Three of the four players were playing for Major League teams during that year (Dell Darling, Hardie Henderson, and James O'Neill), while the fourth (E.A, or Ernie Burch) finished up his ML career in 1887, but did play for St. Louis in the Western Association in 1888. This league seemed to have pretty good talent, including Kid Nichols for the Kansas City team, but Burch's St. Louis team disbanded on June 20th, 1988, and it doesn't show that he was picked up by any other team after that. He was out of baseball in 1889, which in my eyes the mid-season departure in 1888 plus being out of organized ball in 1889 makes it less likely that a card of him would have been issued in 1889.
On an unrelated historical note, three out of these four died pretty young: 36 for Burch, 40 for Henderson, and 42 for Darling. O'Neill lasted until the ripened old age of 55. The Curse of the Kimball Champions baseball players?
Just think...not much more than a century ago, if we instead lived during that time frame, a lot of us wouldn't have been around long enough to build up our collections as much. A sobering thought.
Stick that in your Festivus pipe and thank your lucky stars that your collections were assembled in our era.
Brian
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