What A Rube

 A Rube Manning that is.

Yep, a 3rd T206 post. Based on my metrics people don't appear to care for T206es but I'm sorry, you'll all have to bear with this. These cards are still a big deal to me.

This was over $50, it damn well is a big deal to me.

For some reason I felt really compelled to pick up a 3rd T206 just for the sake of keeping my collection at an even number. Looks nicer when I pull these out and line them up to gaze at them.

Originally I had my sights on another card to follow the Joe Lake I acquired last time but that card was ripped from my list before I could commit to paying for it.

But I quickly pivoted to a Rube to make the sting a little better.

Scan Courtesy of COMC

During the pivot I found out that the T206 set has another, more famous Rube in Hall of Famer Rube Waddell. Which would've been interesting in his own right considering that Rube's career started in 1897, as opposed to Rube Manning who was relatively newer and started his career in 1906.

This was the point I realized that the T206-era (the deadball era if you will) is basically as far back as my recollection of "the past" can really go.

Scan Courtesy of COMC

What I mean by that is that even though I'm aware of the really ancient era of baseball where names like Dan Brouthers were the biggest names in the sport, it's been very hard for me to visualize and connect it to the baseball we recognize as the deadball era.

Part of this is just an issue on my end because I don't read enough baseball books or watch sports documentaries on this topic. I can't learn baseball history through those mediums because I find the presentation to be dreadfully boring. Every now and then I'll read through a Sabr article but those have their limits.

Scan Courtesy of COMC

Which is to say, don't just tell me the first recorded game was on June 19th, 1846, actually name me someone who played in that game damnit. Baseball might be a team sport but it helps to have a face to show an actual human being was actually there. Although interestingly enough one of those players Doc Adams actually has his own Wikipedia article. And his own Obak card apparently.

Also per Duncan Curry (the first President of the Knickerbockers base ball club), the "New York Club" that the Knickerbockers faced was apparently a collection of cricket players. At least if his Wikipedia is to be believed. The New York Club whooped the Knicks 23 to 1 for the record. That kind of incredible petty loser energy all the way back at the sport's genesis that still exists today in the form of GMs and front office personnel fighting to keep their jobs is exactly the kind of stuff that piques and holds my interest.

1860's Baseball Player Charlie Gould
By Van Loo, Leon, 1841-1906 -- Photographer,  -  Public Domain

But back on the topic, the bigger issue for me is that it's hard to attach names and faces to older time periods because I just never got a chance to be familiar with the cards either from that era or modern cards depicting players from that era. The ancient stuff from before the Civil War is non-existent or in museum vaults. The relatively contemporary stuff from before World War I are ungodly expensive and out of reach.

Topps being the only brand in the card world now also means that the part of baseball history it tends to revisit the most are the eras in which Topps themselves were around. So think like the 50's, 60's and 70's.

I get it, being able to reinforce your brand image as the company that produced cards of names like Mickey Mantle, Jackie Robinson, Johnny Bench, Nolan Ryan, etc... is the sensible thing to do. Particularly when you consider that it's the modern era and even more importantly after the racial barrier was torn down.

Scan Courtesy of COMC

But the result is the same. That 1909-11 sliver of baseball lore is really as far back I can go.

When that Charlie Gould person I showed earlier was active, Jack Chesbro wasn't even born yet.

Yes you heard me, this sport goes back so far that a T206 alumni Hall of Famer who played for the New York Highlanders before Babe Ruth made his MLB debut wasn't even born yet. That's how long this sport's been around.

Which brings me back to Rube Manning. A very pedestrian pitcher who enjoyed a 3 year MLB career roughly 60-ish years after the sport was transitioning to some semblance of what we recognize today.

But it's a T206! Ooooh!

14/20

Dare to dream.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care.