The first Italian American of baseball.   Ed Abbaticchio.

What was the Black Swamp Find?

Is it unbalievable that a E98 Honus Wagner card exists in a GEM mint 10 conditon?  Well there is a great debate over this rating "Gem Mint 10".  Take a look.  Yes this is a beautiful card.  One of the best I have ever seen.  But Gem Mint?  You be the judge.

Chief Wilson and President Wilson

In an article of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette on November 6, 1912 columnist, James Jerpe, wrote a few lines about the Pirates players of the day.

Honus was saying he thought there ought to be a week off for the players around the 4th of July.  He said it would bring better baseball and it was hard work playing ball all the time.  It didn't sound like he was complaining but just saying.

He talked about how Ham Hyatt was kidding around with some folks at various times.  Maybe the term "Ham" was cause he was a kidder.  Some say he struggled fielding and that is why the name.  But according to others "Ham" refers to "ham-handed".  Webster's Dictionary says that refers to a person that is clumsy or lacks dexterity.

I thought it was interesting that during the game a particular game the Chief Wilson hit a triple but before it he went to bat he said "Here goes for Woodrow, my old college chum from Jersey."  This occurred the same day Woodrow Wilson was nominated to run for President of the United States.

Net54 is a great resource.

http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=147401

Check it out.

SGC Registry - By the way I really like SGC better than PSA right now.

I have recently discovered "Set Registry" on the SGC website.  Check out some of my cards.  Search for 1909 Pittsburg Pirates in the "Collect My Way" section.

http://www.sgccardregistry.com/index.aspx

Of course only the Fred Clarke is registered there out of these two cards but I wanted to show them both.

Tip Top Bread Base Ball Cards

1-13/16" X 2-3/8 in size these cards were unusual in shape for the era. More square the most cards issued. These cards are very scarce today because they were a regional issue in 1910. They had "World Champions" on the front and the back of the cards had a check list of the 25 cards in the set. The back also had an advertisement for Tip Top Bread. Today it is hard to find any of these cards in decent shape under $400.00 a piece. The Wagner card is commonly sold for $3000.00 to $4000.00 or more. In the American Card Catalog the cards are designated as D322's. They were produced by the Ward Mackey Company and were awarded for collecting 50 Tip Top bread wrappers. The have a thin white border and have an attractive pastel lithograph image.

Card # Description
1 Barney Dreyfuss (Team President)
2 William Locke (Team Secretary)
3 Fred Clarke (Player/Manager)
4 Honus Wagner
5 Tom Leach
6 George Gibson
7 Dots Miller
8 Howie Camnitz
9 Babe Adams
10 Lefty Leifield
11 Nick Maddox
12 Deacon Phillippe
13 Bobby Byrne
14 Ed Abbaticchio
15 Lefty Webb
16 Vin Campbell
17 Owen Wilson
18 Sam Leever
19 Mike Simon
20 Ham Hyatt
21 Paddy O'Connor
22 John Flynn
23 Kirby White
24 Tip Top Boy Mascot
25 Forbes Field

Ham Hyatt

I am currently working on a checklist of Robert "Ham" Hyatt baseball cards. He played various postions during his career. The legand is that he could hit good but not field so well, hence the name "Ham" or "Ham Handed". Either way he was a contributer to the Pirates 1909 season and victory in the World Series. This is what I have so far:

1903-11 W600 Sporting Life Cabinets
1910 E286 Ju Ju Drum Candy Chips
1910 E90-2 American Caramel
1910 D322 Ward-Mackey Co. Tip-Top Bread
1910-11 M116 Sporting Life
1910 E104-2 Blanke-Wenneker Candy
1911 T5 Pinkerton Tobacco Co. Cabinets
1912 T207 American Tobacco Co. Brown
1913 Pirates Voskamps
1914 B18 Egyptienne Straights
1921 PD3-1 Bastian Bros. Co
1921 E137-7 Collins-McCarthy Co. Zeenuts
1922 E137-8 Collins-McCarthy Co. Zeenuts
1972 Classic Cards