OT Rant : Lazy Linguistics

Smart-alecks sometimes ask why we Cheeseheads pronounce Brett Favre's name as "Farv."

Probably the same reason Wednesday is Wensday, and February is Febuary . . . lazy linguistics.

For that matter, it's prob-ab-ly, not prob'ly or prolly.

And it's re-mem-ber, not 'member

And irony is pronounced EYE-ron-ee, not eye-er-nee. It's ironic that folks don't have the same problem with "ironic."

I finished my 1969-style Garvey

Well, I did it. I finished my 1969-style Steve Garvey "rookie" card. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out; I think I got the back color much closer to the original hue than I did with my 1969-style Thurman Munson.

I'm going to use this card to test a new process that will allow me to give my cards a glossy front finish like the originals. I found a self-adhesive sheet of lamination that's produced by the same company (Avery) that I use for the sheets on which I print my fronts and backs. I think getting the glossy laminate onto the fronts will be a bit tricky, and I'll likely run the first couple of attempts, but I think the final result will be worth it.

I hope getting this card off the drawing board will prove to be the incentive I needed to get back into more regular production. I've got so many projects waiting in the wings, it's hard to decide which to tackle next.

Tales of T212 #17 : Chester "Pinch" Thomas

Back in the early 1980s I thought I'd combine my interests in minor league baseball and vintage baseball cards by assembling a collection of the Obak cigarette cards that were distributed on the West Coast in 1909, 1910 and 1911.I didn't realize it then, but those cards are so much rarer than most of the contemporary T206 cards from "Back East" that putting together complete sets of the Obak could take decades to accomplish -- and that's if a guy had more money than God to buy the cards when they became available.At about the time I started my Obak collection I also started researching the players who appeared in the sets. Over the course of several long Wisconsin winters I pored over microfilms of The Sporting News and The Sporting Life from the period several years before to several years after the Obak cards circulated, making prodigious notes on 3x5 file cards for each player in the set.I gave up trying to collect the T212s (that's the catalog number Jefferson Burdick assigned the three sets in the pioneering American Card Catalog in 1939), long ago, and have since sold off all my Obaks, one-by-one, first on eBay, then on the Net 54 baseball card forum. As I was selling each card, I included interesting tidbits about each player from my notes. The bidders seemed to like learning a little bit about these guys on the cards, so I thought I'd now begin sharing their stories here.

Among the players who appeared in the 1909-1911 Obak card sets, one of those who enjoyed a significant major league career was catcher Chester "Pinch" Thomas. Thomas not only spent 10 season in the American League as a backup catcher for the Red Sox (1912-1917) and Indians (1918-1921), he was on the winning team in four World Series (Boston 1912, 1915-1916; Cleveland 1920).

Thomas was born in west-central Illinois in 1888. His first stop in pro ball was at age 19 in 1907 with San Jose of the outlaw California State League, where he was a teammate of Hal Chase.

He made his debut in Organized Baseball with Oakland of the Pacific Coast League in 1909. He split 1910 with Oakland and Sacramento, and was with Sac'to in 1911. The back of his 1911 Obak card stretches the truth a little in describing him as the "best hitting catcher in the Coast League." He actually batted only .262 with one home run in those three seasons. Early in 1911, Thomas was beaten and robbed by thugs in San Francisco, and for a time it looked like he would lose the sight in one eye.

Nonetheless, the Red Sox drafted Thomas for 1912, as a backup backstop to Bill Carrigan and Hick Cady. After the 1917 season, he was traded to the Philadelphia Athletics, but he never played for them in an A.L. game, being sold to the Cleveland Indians on June 1, 1918, as a reserve catcher behind Steve O'Neill. He was released by the Indians on July 21, 1921, leaving the big leagues with a .237 career average.

Thomas signed on with Hartford of the Eastern League as playing manager in late 1921. He signed with Salt Lake City for 1922, but didn't play. In 1923 he was a playing manager for both the Portland and Oakland PCL clubs.

Thomas was a successful motion picture director in the off-seasons. He died in Modesto, Calif., on Christmas Eve, 1953.

I've been a slug

I have really been slacking off in my custom card creations. It has been six or eight weeks since I've completed a new card. I've been doing bits and pieces on several on-going projects, but haven't completed anything new.

Part of the problem was a computer change. The power supply on my old computer just crapped out. I've got a new unit up and running now, but the set of fonts that I have been relying on for my card creations for the past 5+ years was compromised. Now, each time I need to resurrect one of my old favorite fonts, I have to schlep to the office and download it from my old, old laptop, then bring it home and upload it on the new computer.

I ran into that again this morning as I was working on a 1969 Topps-style rookie card of Steve Garvey. So, I'll have to halt production on the front of the card until I get a particular font family installed.

I thought I'd share with you a bit of Photoshop manipulation I used for the pictutre on the 1969 Garvey. For the past six month or a year, the images that Topps puts on eBay of the vintage transparencies they sell from their "vault," have carried a watermark. It makes "borrowing" an image for making a card somewhat more difficult, but not impossible. With a couple of hours of noodling on Photoshop, I've been able to eliminate the watermark, or at least minimize it to the point it's not visible on the finished card.

I thought I'd share a before and after look at the Garvey photo I'll be using. Besides getting rid of the Topps logo, I've added a bit of brighter blue to the sky.

I'll be sure to share the final results here when I'm done . . . hopefully by the end of the weekend.

Tales of T212 #14 : Blaine Thomas

Back in the early 1980s I thought I'd combine my interests in minor league baseball and vintage baseball cards by assembling a collection of the Obak cigarette cards that were distributed on the West Coast in 1909, 1910 and 1911.I didn't realize it then, but those cards are so much rarer than most of the contemporary T206 cards from "Back East" that putting together complete sets of the Obak could take decades to accomplish -- and that's if a guy had more money than God to buy the cards when they became available.At about the time I started my Obak collection I also started researching the players who appeared in the sets. Over the course of several long Wisconsin winters I pored over microfilms of The Sporting News and The Sporting Life from the period several years before to several years after the Obak cards circulated, making prodigious notes on 3x5 file cards for each player in the set.I gave up trying to collect the T212s (that's the catalog number Jefferson Burdick assigned the three sets in the pioneering American Card Catalog in 1939), long ago, and have since sold off all my Obaks, one-by-one, first on eBay, then on the Net 54 baseball card forum. As I was selling each card, I included interesting tidbits about each player from my notes. The bidders seemed to like learning a little bit about these guys on the cards, so I thought I'd now begin sharing their stories here.

How'd he make the majors?

Looking over my index card for Blaine Thomas, I have to assume that a promising pitching career was cut short by injury or illness.

Nicknamed "Smoke," (sometimes called "Baldy") Thomas was a California native, born in 1888. At the age of about 23 he made his professional debut in 1911 with the Victoria Bees of the Class B Northwestern League. He had a 7-11 won-loss record, but somehow earned a trial with the Boston Red Sox, making his big league debut on Aug. 25.

Thomas had two starts with the Red Sox, but pitched only 4.2 innings, giving up three hits, two runs and walking seven batters. His official ML record is 0-0 with an ERA of 0.00, because the two runs he allowed were unearned.

It looks like Thomas returned to the West Coast as Vancouver (NWL) property for 1912, though he never pitched for them in an official game. He went to Sacramento in the Pacific Coast League in mid-season. He got one start with the Sacts, pitching a complete game loss, giving up 12 hits, five runs and three walks.

There's no record of Thomas in the pros after 1912, and he died young, on Aug. 21, 1915 at 27 years of age.

Photo finally obtained for 1928 Greiners Bread

It has probably been about 10 years since we added the 1928 Greiners Bread set to the Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards. In all that time we never were able to acquire a photo to use to illustrate the listing. That deficiency has been remedied by collector Greg Zayatz, who provided the scans that appear with this post.

At one time Greg was negotiating with a fellow to purchase a group of these rare cards, but because there was no real-world pricing to reference, a deal was never made, though he did obtain two examples of the cards, Tris Speaker and John McGraw.

As indicated in the SCBC, Greiners Bread cards are a parallel of the 1928 W502 set of 60. The backs indicate they were packaged with loaves of bread and in other pastries. Product stains on Greg's cards seem to verify that. We still don't know where Greiners was located.

Besides adding the photos to the catalog listing, I'm considering deleting the pricing information that has run virtually unchanged since the set was first listed. As best I can recall, there has not been a single example of a Greiners card offered on eBay or in a hobby auction in all the time the set has been listed. That being the case, the prices carried in the 2010 book are likely low-ball and are probably best eliminated unless or until some verified sales can be recorded.

As seen in the back scans below, there is a slight variation in the typography on the two cards. The McGraw card's back (top) has the second, third and fourth lines of each paragraph justified at left. On the Speaker card's back (bottom), the third and fourth lines are not quite justified with the second.

Tales of T212 #15 : Dutch Schafer and Walter Schmidt

Back in the early 1980s I thought I'd combine my interests in minor league baseball and vintage baseball cards by assembling a collection of the Obak cigarette cards that were distributed on the West Coast in 1909, 1910 and 1911.I didn't realize it then, but those cards are so much rarer than most of the contemporary T206 cards from "Back East" that putting together complete sets of the Obak could take decades to accomplish -- and that's if a guy had more money than God to buy the cards when they became available.At about the time I started my Obak collection I also started researching the players who appeared in the sets. Over the course of several long Wisconsin winters I pored over microfilms of The Sporting News and The Sporting Life from the period several years before to several years after the Obak cards circulated, making prodigious notes on 3x5 file cards for each player in the set.I gave up trying to collect the T212s (that's the catalog number Jefferson Burdick assigned the three sets in the pioneering American Card Catalog in 1939), long ago, and have since sold off all my Obaks, one-by-one, first on eBay, then on the Net 54 baseball card forum. As I was selling each card, I included interesting tidbits about each player from my notes. The bidders seemed to like learning a little bit about these guys on the cards, so I thought I'd now begin sharing their stories here.

Walter Schmidt, a "better" little brother

Perhaps it is because his older brother, Charles "Boss" Schmidt had his major league career at the peak of the tobacco-card issuing era and that he played on three American League championship teams in the 1900s, but baseball card collectors generally are more familiar with Boss Schmidt than with his kid brother, Walter.

In actuality, Walter had a longer and slightly better, statistically, career than Charles, even though he never hit more than two home runs in a season (OK, it was the deadball era) and hit over .300 only once.

Walter J. Schmidt was born in Coal Hill, Arkansas, in 1887. He turned pro with Class D Helena of the Arkansas State League at the age of 21 in 1908. He played with Winston-Salem of the Carolina Assn. in 1909, and with Roanoke of the Virginia League in 1910.

In 1911 he moved west to the AA Pacific Coast League, where he was the first-string catcher for the San Francisco Seals through the 1915 season. He had made his baseball card debut the previous year in the Contentnea (T209) and Old Mill (T210) cigarette series, but in 1911 was pictured on his only Obak card.

After the 1915 season, Schmidt was called up to the big leagues, with the Pittsburgh Pirates, with whom he played nine years before moving on to St. Louis for 1925. He appears on a number of contemporary candy and other card issues from that era.

In 1926, Schmidt returned to the PCL as playing-manager for the Mission Bells. He moved behind the plate for Seattle, still in the PCL, for 1927-28, then ended his pro career back with San Francisco as a 42-year-old catcher.

After retiring, Schmidt evidently remained out in California, where he died in 1973.

George "Dutch" Schaefer, I struck out on him

Other than the notation that his name was George, his nickname was Dutch, and that Obak misspelled his name as "Shafer," my notecard for this Vernon Tiger is utterly blank.

Thanks to the SABR Minor League database, however, we can fill the blanks on Dutch's pro career. A pitcher throughout his playing days, he compiled a 93-95 record in 10 minor league seasons.

Schaefer began his pro career with the South Bend Greens of the Central League from 1903-05. He remained in that Class B circuit with Wheeling in 1906 and Terre Haute in 1907-08. Those teams had two of the more unusual nicknames in that era. Wheeling was known as the Stogies, and Terre Haute as the Hottentots.

Schaefer made his way to the West Coast in 1909, pitching for Vernon in 1909-10, and for Los Angeles in 1911.

His last year as a pro was 1912, with the Class D Ludington Mariners of the Michigan League.

Even though he was in the PCL for all three years of Obak cigarette card issues, the 1910 card was his only appearance in T212, and probably his only baseball card.