Deeper dive into the collection

Deeper dive into this collection

Below you will find information about some of the incredible aspects of this collection and how it chronicles the sport of baseball throughout the turn of the century.    

• The American Tobacco Company began the first ad campaign for the T206 set, in the Sporting Life weekly publication. The campaign consisted of two advertisements that prominently featured cards from the T206 set. Advertisements for the the T206 tobacco cards are displayed in 8 different issues with three of them featuring the only ad with the infamous Honus Wagner card.  This is the only known complete collection of these extremely rare T206 advertisements. 

• The earliest mention of "Shoeless" Joe Jackson in Sporting Life takes place in an issue from 1908 in which the writer addresses his nickname along with a possible explanation of its origin.

• Six different issues in this collection feature  advertisements for Sporting Life cards. These ads feature players such as Ty Cobb and Honus Wagner and were available to readers who requested them by mail. 

• Multiple issues in 1904 reference a 17 year old Ty Cobb along with box scores and stat leader charts during his time with the Augusta baseball team. In a 1905 issue, it is reported that Ty Cobb signed with Detroit and references the tragic death of his father. 

• Archibald "Moonlight" Graham who was brought to the big screen in the movie Field of Dreams is featured on two different covers in this collection. One with a 1902 Charlotte team, and another with his 1907 Scranton team.  In addition, the box score of his only major league appearance (without an at bat) is included in this collection along with an excerpt reporting that he didn't get an opportunity to "show off his speed" during the game.  

• The only other known bound collection of Sporting Life of this magnitude was owned by the Baseball Hall of Fame. However, in order to digitize the information within the issues, they were cut from the spine of the binding and sold individually. 

• A 1909 issue featuring Walter Johnson on the cover may be his earliest cover on a publication. 

• Images of the 1908 and 1909 team composite of the Philadelphia Athletics featuring a young "Shoeless" Joe Jackson are inside the pages of two different issues.  

• Many of the covers of these issues feature images from the famed Carl Horner who was the preeminent photographer of the era and whose images are found on many of the early tobacco and candy card sets. 

• A 1904 issue featuring Cy Young on the cover describes Young throwing a perfect game. This was the first perfect game of the modern baseball era. 

• Ty Cobb was accused during his career of intentionally "spiking" other players while sliding into bases. A large part of Cobb’s reputation as a vicious baserunner stems from an incident that occurred in the heat of the 1909 American League pennant race. A famous image of Cobb sliding with his cleats high is found in a 1909 issue.