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#1
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The First Baseball Card -- Latest Candidate
Posted By: CoreyRS.hanus
Okay, I know we’ve been this route before. REA asked us to consider the Jordan Marsh CDV/ticket of Harry Wright (to be subsequently joined by other players of the same issue), the CDV/trade card of the Currier & Ives image “The American National Game of Baseball” and the “Old Man” CDV depicting Dave Birdsall. Other candidates would of course be the Peck & Snyder memorial trade card of James Creighton, the Peck & Snyder trade card of the 1868 Brooklyn Atlantics and the 1860-61 CDV of the Brooklyn Atlantics. While reasonable people may differ on the precise year of issuance of some of these items and, more important, whether some of them even should be defined as baseball cards, they are the candidates for that hallowed title of the first baseball card. That is, until now. |
#2
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The First Baseball Card -- Latest Candidate
Posted By: barrysloate
First Corey, nice little pick up of a piece that has not been discussed before in the hobby. |
#3
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The First Baseball Card -- Latest Candidate
Posted By: barrysloate
I would be remiss if I didn't add that I always felt the Peck & Snyder of Jim Creighton was the first baseball card. Now that you found this, the owner of the Creighton sure will be mad. |
#4
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The First Baseball Card -- Latest Candidate
Posted By: leon
Great discussion question. I have always held that the stamp "admit the bearer" to mean that the item in question was a ticket and not a baseball card. So that does it for those tickets, in my mind, though it is certainly debatable. I think it might be easier to identify the very first professional (all paid) baseball card, which is the 1869 Red Stocking CDV. Of course the 1868 Atlantics predated it but to the best of my knowledge I don't think that team was "professional" in the sense that all members were paid. Very good topic.... |
#5
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The First Baseball Card -- Latest Candidate
Posted By: ramram
Now, just to clarify, the "ticket" is for the dance, not a game of baseball. |
#6
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The First Baseball Card -- Latest Candidate
Posted By: PC
No matter how you spin it, that is a ticket, not a card. |
#7
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The First Baseball Card -- Latest Candidate
Posted By: ramram
Gotta say though, that representation is incredible, considering it's 1844! |
#8
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The First Baseball Card -- Latest Candidate
Posted By: Anonymous
Gotta say, I agree that this is not a baseball card. It's a ticket with a baseball theme on it. |
#9
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The First Baseball Card -- Latest Candidate
Posted By: leon
The only way to tell a card from a ticket: |
#10
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The First Baseball Card -- Latest Candidate
Posted By: barrysloate
Leon has just articulated the meaning of the term "baseball card" better than anyone else to date. |
#11
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The First Baseball Card -- Latest Candidate
Posted By: Jay
Corey--You missed the one rule that is needed for an item to qualify as the first baseball card--it has to be in Rob's auction. Unless you consign this it cannot so qualify. |
#12
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The First Baseball Card -- Latest Candidate
Posted By: Shawn
Here is a neat little article referencing (the same?) Magnolia Ball Club in 1867 on page 248. |
#13
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The First Baseball Card -- Latest Candidate
Posted By: CoreyRS.hanus
Putting aside the issue of whether it is a card, a ticket, some combination of the two, or something else (and in all fairness even though technically it does possess such characteristics as to allow one to reasonably argue it is a card, I do agree its ticket characteristics are more pronounced than its card characteristics), to me what is most significant about the item is that it identifies a never-before known baseball club playing what appears to be the modern game of baseball before the modern rules were formally codified. Historically, to those of us into that sort of thing, it is extraordinary. It is concrete evidence that the 20 rules the Knickerbockers codified in 1845 (baseball's ten commandements) reflected in substance a game already being played at Elysian Fields, not only by the Knicks but apparently now also by a least one other club (the Magnolia's). That coupled with the item being the first known illustration of baseball more or less as we know it today is what makes it so special, much more whether it should be characterized as the first baseball card. |
#14
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The First Baseball Card -- Latest Candidate
Posted By: barrysloate
Corey- I think the way you described it in your last post better captures the historical significance of the piece, which is great. |
#15
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The First Baseball Card -- Latest Candidate
Posted By: Paul
Just as a matter of personal taste, I would be more interested in owning "the first baseball card that depicts an identifiable player" rather than "the first baseball card." Regardless, it's obviously a fantastic item. |
#16
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The First Baseball Card -- Latest Candidate
Posted By: david
check out the latest american memorabilia auction. they have a card they date to the 18th century. i guess they are too busy taking pictures of women in game used jersey's to employ a proof reader. |
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