Hey guys,

At the risk of sounding like a certain infamous poster (Would you still collect baseball cards if baseball had never been invented? What if it were called ball base?)

My actual question is -- what deadball era player was featured on the most cards issued DURING his playing career. Cobb springs to mind just because of his lengthy career and popularity. Chase springs to mind as he pops up on tons of smaller issues. Primarily wondering about FRONTS...and not a myriad front back combinations. For example: Chase's T206s count as only 5 cards regardless of backs.

Has anyone researched this or is there a thread in the archives?


Thanks!

Shawn

I think it's a great question, but then, I'm the guy who recently asked, "Who was the best player never to appear on a card." So what deadball player was on the most cards? I haven't the foggiest idea, but now I'm curious!

Cobb and Eddie Collins. Both came up about when BB cards took off and played into the late 1920s. I'd guess they were in almost every set of significance for 20 years. Speaker shares the same timetable, but for some reason doesn't appear in quite as many sets (he's not in E92, E101, M101-4/5, for example).

If you did limit it only to pre-1920 issues, then I think Frank Chance would be right up there too. I have a ton of Chance cards-- he seems to be in almost everything before 1915. including (these are the ones I have-- I'm sure there are others)
M116 T205 E98 T201 T202 T206 T207 T3 M101-2 E95 E90-1 E92 Tom Barker E93 M101-4/5 E101 E94 E254 T222

Jack Quinn must be right up there ... he's the only guy I can think of whose active career lasted from the peak of the tobacco card era (T206) to the beginning of the gum era ('33 Goudey) ...

Took a quick look at my lists (strictly prewar cards) and Tim pretty much nailed it.

Deadball:(in groupings of similarity)
1st--Cobb (by quite a bit)
2nd--Collins and Speaker were almost in dead tie
3rd--McGraw and Johnson
4th-- Wags followed closely by Matty
5th--All about the same--Bender,Chance,Evers,Jennings,Lajoie,&Tinker(last in group)

Tweeners(continued well into "live-ball")
1st--Ruth (by a comfy margin)
2nd--Hornsby

Non-HOFers in Deadball:
1st--Larry Doyle (kinda surprised by this)
2nd--Hal Chase
3rd--several including George Gibson and Chief Meyers

-Rhett

Rhett,

good info. you must have quite an impressive list.

You wouldn't by chance have them listed by team as well as set?

martyOgelvie
New York Yankee cards

Rhett,

That is good stuff...did you happen to keep a numeric tally next to the players. I'd be curious to see how your numbers compared between players.

S

When I was only collecting George Gibson cards, I created a checklist of every George Gibson card (postcard, pin, disc, felt...) that I could identify. If memory serves, the total checklist was in the neighbourhood of 100 cards, but that included a few modern cards (ie. post-1960), a couple cards that depicted him as a manager, and all of the backs I could identify (ie. T205, T206, T3, M101-4, E92, E104, etc). Less those, the number was probably in the area of 70 cards from his playing days.

Regards,

Richard.

I once did this exact same tally a few years ago but I based it solely on card sets featured in my 1981 beckett/eckes price guide lol.
It was Cobb barely beating out Eddie Collins and than Johnny Evers third. I can put on a detailed list however, the guide didnt include a lot of sets like colgans, domino discs, pins, strip cards, etc.