Pretty excited to pick up this 1911 Bill Steen Obak card from his time with the Portland Beavers. Steen was a Bloomer in 1909 and went 18-15 that year - as shown on the back of this card. He went 30-15 for the Beavers in 1911.

Steen went 28-32 over 4 big league seasons. He spent time with Cleveland and Detroit.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=steen-001wil

I picked up this T206 of Jack Powell at the recent REA Auction. Jack Powell did not play for the Bloomers, but was born right here in Bloomington on July 9, 1874.

He went on to win 245 games against 255 losses in 16 MLB seasons with a 2.97 ERA. In 1899, Powell pitched 373 innings and won 23 games (2nd most on the team - he trailed a fella named Cy Young who won 26).

This is my first horizontal T206, too. It’s a pretty sweet card!

https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/jack-powell-3/

I was able to pick up an awesome snap shot of Chico Hernandez attempting to make a play at the plate. Hopefully the ump didn’t need to review the photo to see that the ball is loose! What a shot!!! I’m going to dig more into the details of the photo to try to learn the name of the other players and the ump. Chico drove in 85 runs and hit .337 for the 1938 Bloomers. He went on to be a part of the first all Latin battery in MLB history when he caught Hiram Bithorn in a Cubs game in 1942.

https://mchistory.org/assets/resources/articles/pantagraph-hernandez-chico-1732307477.pdf

I love the 1945-46 Deportivo set! Ramón Bragaña is in the Mexican, Cuban, and Latino Baseball Halls of Fame. “El Professor” won over 300 games in various leagues and some historians think he may have won over 400. In 1928 he played for the Cuban Stars East in the Negro Leagues. I blame Matt from @Cardhound for my love of the Cuban sets…

https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/ramon-bragana/

Saw this card at a show a few months ago and didn’t get it. I’ve regretted not buying it ever since. Hit a small show in Mattoon, IL and lo and behold…the same card and same guy! I didn’t make the same mistake twice. Pretty excited about having one of the coolest Luke Easter cards I’ve seen!