W551 Ruth - Status in the Hobby

[FrankWakefield]

I used to think just like what Jay just posted. The paper reminded me of that thick construction paper that I used in primary school. I'd be trying to draw, trying to color, trying to cut out pieces of paper lefthanded with those ridiculous cheap metal scissors... And many of the strip cards looked like that: something I'd have drawn, colored, and jaggedly cut.

I've found being a hater is easy. One of my daughters, wiser than I was at her age, as we looked at something that someone else was proud of and as I criticized it a bit, she said, "Dad, don't blah somebody else's bling." It took a few seconds of reflection for that to sink in. I still criticize, but I think it is less often and less harshly.

So, back to hating. I really like a Sports Americana book, I think it's a 5th edition, green cover, Baseball Card Alphabetical Checklist. There are newer editions that have a bunch of 21st century players... The green edition I like best. With it, I can look up a player who will be listed alphabetically, and then there's a bunch of letters and numbers, eg E102. That means the player is in the E102 set. The book has a few mistakes, but it's mainly well done. If I read about a player and he interests me, then I'll be wanting a card of him from his playing days, and if I don't have one, I start searching for that green book. What I'm I hating? I hate that there's not a vintage set that had all 8 of the Eight Men Out - Blacksox. (I get annoyed at how there wasn't a significant card issue that shows Jack Rothrock as a Cardinal, he wasn't up very long, and realistically didn't deserve to be in the 1933 or 1934 Goudy sets, nor the Diamond Stars... so I'm making do with Rothrock on a matchbook cover, and on a 4in1 Exhibit card.)

The closest we can get to all 8 of the Blacksox is SEVEN, in the W514 strip cards. The cutting is a mess. If you want graded cards then strip cards don't grade well. The Paper has a slightly low ph, they'll degrade with time, they're fragile. And strip card haters, don't leave out that Wagner isn't in the set. But golly gee, the set has a fantastic assortment of HOFers. How many sets have both Mathewson and Stengel, or Babe Ruth and Southworth??? Or how about non HOFer Burt Shotton and Ty Cobb?? A very few. W514 is a snapshot of 20th century baseball immediately after the 1915 Cracker Jacks and M101-5s... and before the flood of candy cards of the early to mid 1920s. Joe Jackson, Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, Rogers Hornsby, Pete Alexander, Christy Mathewson, Nap Lajoie... Wow!

I don't know if my thoughts have matured or manured, but I have learned to not hate the W514s, and have even gotten to like them. They are the green eggs and ham of the immediately post WW1 baseball cards. I'm glad people still hate them, makes them less expensive than they could be.