Cup of Coffee: Ginger Clark

Ginger Clark is sort of the Shohei Ohtani of #CupOfCoffee players. Clark pitched in one game, a Cleveland Bronchos 17-11 victory over the Baltimore Orioles. Not only did Clark win the game but he also picked up a pair of hits and scored two runs.  It was the only game Ginger Clark ever played, while it may not have been his choice but Clark retired with an undefeated record as a pitcher and a .500 Batting Average as a batter.   

Sketch of Ginger Clark on a Disposable Coffee Cup

T205 is not exactly the right time frame for Ginger Clark but it is close enough and I love the colorful design. The bats and ball are basic to T205, here they do double duty with the bats representing Clark's two hits and the ball his sole win. At the bottom of the cup we have the date of the game 1902 August 11.  

Extra Innings

According to his SABR Bio Ginger Clark kicked around the minor leagues until 1911 after which he went into business as a paint contractor, the same business as his father. I have added some detail photos here to show some of the tools of trade including this paint brush on the left of the card

and a paint roller on the right

Sources and Links

Cup of Coffee Index

SABR54 Cleveland Cup of Coffee Sub-Indez

SABR Bio - Chris Rainey
Baseball-Reference

International Polar Bear Day: Sherry Magee T205

Tuesday February 27th is International Polar Bear Day. The day is dedicated to raising awareness of the plight of the Polar Bear. You can even Adopt a Polar Bear for just $30 - well virtually anyway.

1911 T205 Sherrwood Magee

Sherry Magee is one of those borderline Hall of Famers from the deadball era that I don't know much about. He was traded away from the Phillies prior to their 1915 NL Pennant winning season so he did not get to play for that squad. He did manage to get into a World Series with the 1919 Cincinnati Reds who defeated the ill-fated Joe Jackson / Black Sox team.

In 2003 Magee was added to the Phillies Wall of Fame during an era that included several other early 20th century Phillies such as Gavvy Cravath and the original Billy Hamilton. Magee's best year with the club was 1910 when he led the league in Batting Average, Runs, RBI and Total Bases. In addition to those traditional stats he led the league in OBP, Slugging, OPS, OPS+, and Offensive WAR. That is a Mike Trout type year kids!

T206 may get all the notoriety because of the Honus Wagner card but I much prefer their 1911 predecessor T205 (see below). There is so much more going on with T205, The color, Gold Borders, Facsimile Signature and Team Logo are all things that stand out and then you flip the card over and...

1911 T205 Sherrwood Magee (b-side)

Look at all that text AND Stats. It may only be Games Played, Batting Average, and Fielding Percentage but they are stats. The Final Stat line includes the League Leading batting average mentioned above. The final line in the biography mentions the 263 Total Bases.

Not sure how many issues prior to 1952 Topps contain both a written synopsis and a stat box.

At the bottom of the card we return to todays theme "International Polar Bear Day". T205 were issued for a variety of Tobacco brands, This one just happens to be Polar Bear.


Retros

2002 Topps T206 #123 Pat Burrell (mini)

Among the Topps many retro brands are both T205 and T206 cards. This is a 2002 mini, which means it matches the size of the original tobacco cards from the early part of the 20th century.

 

2002 Topps T206 #123 Pat Burrell (mini / b-sdie)

 

Flipping over the card we get to see a faux Polar Bear ad, as Topps is not associated with the Tobacco company.

 

One of my minor collections is Polar Bear cards, both originals and retros. I have no official list, but do enjoy picking up the ones I see. Ideally I would like to have 1 T205 from each team - that would make for a good set for me.

 

This is all because my High School Mascot was the Polar Bear. It's a funny connection, I suppose it make me feel good when I hear stories about Polar Bears and I think of my younger days.

 

 

International Polar Bear Day

Yes it is a real think and if you want to learn more about the plight of the Polar Bear you can check here.



Sources and Links
Phillies Wall of Fame Index
Polar Bears International
Baseball-Ref

Year of the Horse 1978: Jimmy Rollins 2003 Topps T205 #69

Today's Year of the Horse posting is an All Phillies edition, birth year 1978. Which means all of these fine folks have either recently turned 36 or will in the next year. This sort of explains the Phillies issue keeping players on the field.

2003 Topps T205 mini #69 Jimmy Rollins

T206 is talked about a lot more, but I have a preference for T205. Overall, I think the originals had a better look. They are more colorful and the gold borders help the cards pop. This really helps the retro cards like the ones Topps put out in 2003.  I am not sure how prevalent minis were in 2003, but I think it was before they were included in every stinkin set.

2003 Topps T205 mini #69 Jimmy Rollins (b-side)

Flipped this one over for a couple of reasons. T205 contain a paragraph of player info plus a short stat line. Just another reason to prefer them over T206 which only had an advertisements. The other reason I showed off the reverse of the above J-Roll card is that it is a Polar Bear back, Team Phungo is always looking for Polar Bear backs.

As mentioned above the 1978 Year of the Horse posting is an All Phils edition. The Phils '78 Horses include:
-Mike Adams
-Cliff Lee
-Chase Utley

Hopefully since the Chinese Zodiac rolling around to these players birth signs will be a good omen for the Phillies 

Year of the Horse Index
1966 Curt Schilling
1990 Yasiel Puig

Links
Jimmy Rollins Player Collection Index