Where has all the 19th century baseball memorabilia gone?

[ValKehl]

Originally Posted by Hankphenom

"Gone to collections, every one," to paraphrase Pete Seeger's famous "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" Every once in a while I think of all the rare and unusual items in my niche of the hobby--WaJo and the Washington Senators/Nationals--of which I've seen an example or two or three many years ago and then never again. Of course, decades had to pass before I realized just how scarce those things were. Just one example of many: the first two Washington yearbooks, from 1949 and 1950. I've handled a number of those in my time as a dealer, but it's been 10 or 15 years now since I've seen either of them. Shows, auctions, eBay, etc., nada, all now comfortably residing in collections, I suppose, and until their owners pass away or have another reason to put their stuff back onto the market, there won't be any for a good while. I'm happy to have picked up some cool and rare stuff in the old days, but I do wish I hadn't been so cavalier in passing on things that I figured I could always get the next time around if I wanted to, because in many instances that time just never came around again. It's the old collector's lesson: when you see something you like at a reasonable price, go ahead and pick it up!

Hank, many, many years ago, dealer Bill Rosenthal convinced me that this small (approx. 5.5" x 8.5"), 16-page, 1947 pamphlet is actually the Washington Senators first "yearbook," which resulted in my probably greatly overpaying for it. Page 4 contains a nice tribute to your grandfather, who passed a year earlier.

We've all heard the saying, "Washington is first in war, first in peace, and last in the American League." This was pretty much true in the early years of the AL. But, as the chart on Page 8 of this "yearbook" shows, Washington did NOT ONCE finish in last place in the AL from 1910 through 1943, a period of 34 years!!