1887 Tobin Color Lithographs

Many early examples of baseball cards are actually advertisements for different retail shops. The Tobin Color Lithographs stand out from others that came out in the era because of the detailed caricatures. It's a small set of ten cards, but the lineup is very impressive.

Mike "King" Kelly of the Boston Beaneaters

Cap Anson of the Chicago White Stockings

Dan Brouthers of the Detroit Wolverines

Jack Glasscock of the Indianapolis Hoosiers

Tim Keefe of the New York Giants

Mickey Welch of the New York Giants

Ed Andrews of the Philadelphia Athletics

Charlie Ferguson of the Philadelphia Athletics

Jim McCormick of the Pittsburgh Alleghenys

Paul Hines of the Washington Senators

I can't even decide which I like the most. They all have a strange appeal. The cards remind me of the illustrations in a Humpty Dumpty storybook I read when I was very young.

I would be hard pressed to find them in my collection because my team did not exist yet, but I would never say no to having them in my collection. I love all the oddities you can find and the great artwork out there, if you just dig a little. This set is definitely out of Topps' comfort zone.

1887-1888 Scrapps Die Cuts

Issued directly after the 1887 season, this 18 card set features 9 players each from the American Association's St. Louis Browns (the modern day Cardinals) and the National League's Detroit Wolverines (a team that disbanded in 1888). These two teams met in the World Series in 1887.

The Wolverines beat the Browns 10 games to 5. The Wolverines won the series on October 21st, but since the games were already sold, the teams played the remaining four games.

St. Louis Browns
1 Doc Bushong
2 Bob Caruthers
3 Charles Comiskey
4 Dave Foutz
5 Bill Gleason
6 Arlie Latham
7 Tip O'Neill
8 Yank Robinson
9 Curt Welch

Detroit Wolverines
10 C. W. Bennett
11 Dan Brouthers
12 Fred Dunlap
13 Charlie Getzen sic (should be Getzien)
14 Ned Hanlon
15 Hardie Richardson
16 Jack Rowe
17 Sam Thompson
18 Deacon White

While there are Hall of Fame players in the set (Dan Brouthers, Sam Thompson and Ned Hanlon), the most valuable and most sought out is the Charles Comiskey. 19th century cards are usually riddled with errors and this set is no exception. Charlie Getzien's name is misspelled.

These die cut cards were popular in its day and were prime candidates to be glued into albums. It's extremely rare to run across examples of these cards today that haven't spent some time glued into an album.

What have we learned from these cards? Despite what revisionists would have you believe the World Series and die-cut cards are not inventions of the twentieth century. They've both been here all along.