1948-49 Cleveland Indians Team Issues

[rhettyeakley]

I found a bunch of 1948-49 Cleveland Indians photos that appear to be just from the Team Issued Photo Packs but these all have thick script writing on them as opposed to the facsimile autographs I have always seen on these. Can anyone shed any light on these for me? There is a mix of portrait and action photos and even a few that appear to be on different type of paper. Any help is appreciated...

Total of 15 photos found

10 portraits like that of the Paige below on textured, thick paper...
1 portrait like Garcia below on a thinner non-textured paper stock...
3 action shots like the Gromek below on thicker, textured paper...
1 action shot like Boone below thtat is on a thinner paper stock...

Anyways, I just had never seen the Satchell Paige with the thick writing on front like the one I have.

-Rhett

photos:

[Rob D.]

Rhett,

Is the size of the photos the same as those in the Indians photo packs? Are they all the same size?

The different type of scripts kind of remind me of the ones used on the various Indians team-issued postcards from the same era. When I get home I'll look through my PCs to see whether the placement of the names is the same that's on your photos.

[rhettyeakley]

Rob, all the photos are the same size, and are the size of the "regular" photo pack issue. When I saw the script writing I immediately thought it looked like the writing on the Bond Bread issue.

[rhettyeakley]

duplicate message

[Rob D.]

I checked my Indians postcards and came up empty trying to match the fonts that are shown on your photos. A couple were close but not a match. I'll keep checking through my Indians paper collectibles and advertising pieces to see whether any clues pop up.

[Chris Counts]

I recall there was a similar thread a few months back and it was suggested by several people that they are a 1950 team issue. The original poster had the envelope they came in, and it was the same envelope as the '48 set ... ...

[Bob Lemke]

I had a posting about the 1950 version of this set on my blog on May 23. You can hit the link below and check the older posts to find it.

[rhettyeakley]

Bob, thanks for chiming in. It does appear to be similar sets but they don't match with the players I found and my Gene Beardon is a portrait and not the action scene you show.

Here is a list of mine...
Ray Boone (batting)
Steve Gromek (pitching)
Thurman Tucker (batting)
Frank Papish (pitching)

all the rest are portraits...
Mike Garcia
Satchell Paige
Mickey Vernon
Jim Hegan
Joe Gordon
Sam Zoldak
Allie Clark
Gene Beardon
Lou Boudreau
Dale Mitchell
Bob Feller

The following subjects aren't in the 1950 set you describe...
Frank Papish
Satchell Paige
Mickey Vernon

the first two were no longer w/ the Indians in 1950 so it appears mine is a 1949 issue if anything.

-Rhett

[novakjr]

Your Boone is from a different set. I have this set and there is 20. 17 portraits, and then the action photos of Gromek, Tucker and Papish. The photo on your Garcia is the right one, but as you stated the stock is different(I can't reasonably explain why). The stock on mine does match the rest, so it does belong in the set. My set has the envelope as well, but it's completely torn to hell.

-Bob Feller
-Allie Clark
-Jim Hegan
-Johnny Berardino
-Joe Gordon
-Sam Zoldak
-Mike Garcia
-Frank Papish ACT
-Steve Gromek ACT
-Bill Veeck
-Mickey Vernon
-Bob Kennedy
-Dale Mitchell
-Thurman Tucker ACT
-Ken Keltner
-Bob Lemon
-Larry Doby
-Lou Boudreau
-Satchell Paige
-Gene Beardon

The portraits are scoped out versions of the same photos from the '48 set. With the exception of Vernon, I don't know why they had a portrait of him to work with. And along the same lines, I'm led to believe Papish was an action photo because there wasn't a '48 portrait to work with, so they used his action photo from the '49(facsimile signature) set. But then again, why did they have a portrait of Vernon and not Papish? And why did they use action photos of Tucker and Gromek as well, when they had the '48 portraits to work with?

All questions aside, I believe these are all 1 set from '49, because it include some players that weren't on the '48 team, and also others that weren't on the '50 team. These are also a completely different issue than the "Autographed pictures"(which are often mis-referred to as the photo pack) that most people are familiar with. These are "Cleveland Indians Photographs" as stated on the envelope. It also has information about the "big league novelty co." on it. I also noticed that on Bob Lemke's blog, Chuck Lobenthal had commented, and appears to have the same 20 that I do, and so does 1 seller on ebay. It's seemingly too much of a co-incidence that three different partial sets would all have the exact same 20 photos. So I imagine that this set would be complete at 20.

[novakjr]

The other set on ebay. This one also contains 20 photo's.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Lot-20-1940s-Cle...item5182f87698

[tedzan]

I have the 1948 Team Issued Photo Pack (25 photos) and here are two sample photos from my pack.
All the photos are of player's portraits

The ones you have are either the 1949 Display photos or the 1949-50 Team photos.









TED Z

[Exhibitman]

Not sure where this fits in but I've also seen early 1950s Cleveland Indians PCs that don't match the cataloged lists, so I suspect that the depth of materials that were produced exceeds the catalog base. I have a nice Al Rosen signed and addressed in his hand to a fan and postmarked in a year when there aren't any cataloged Rosen PCs.

[novakjr]

Yeah Exhibitman, those were the team issued postcards. I believe the team used the same pc's for number of years. I think they were used when someone requested an autograph, they would have them signed and then mailed back to the person who requested it. I have one signed by Larry Doby, postmarked 1951. I can't honestly say that I've ever seen one not signed. So I can't really confirm whether or not there were ever actually sold-or how many total.

Once again, as with most team issues, they were the same photograph that Bowman used. My PC is the same photo used for the 1949 "Autographed Photo" pack(I believe they used the same photo for 50, 51 and maybe 52 but I'm not sure), the Num Num chip releases, 50 Bowman, 51 bowman, and I've seen the same PC signed and postmarked at least up to '54.

I'm sure you'll see similar instances with probably most players.