When the world gets me down I turn to baseball cards. For my money, it doesn't get much better than the horizontal T206 cards...

A neat experience seeing the small portion of the Jefferson R Burdick Collection currently on display at the Met. From their website: In 1947, Syracuse electrician Jefferson R. Burdick (1900–1963) began to donate his collection of approximately 303,000 advertising inserts, postcards, baseball cards, and posters to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Jefferson R. Burdick Collection constitutes a primary part of the Museum’s collection of ephemera, and helps tell the history of popular printmaking in the United States.

The photos:

1. 1887 Gold Coin (N284)

2. 1909-11 White Borders (T206)* and 1912 Brown Background (T207). *There is a Wagner in the collection, but it is not on display.

3. 1911 Gold Borders (T205)

4. 1933 Goudey (R319)

5. 1938 Goudey Heads-Up (R323)

6. 1951 Bowman (R406-5)

My vintage card of the week. T206 Piedmont Christy Mathewson Dark Cap. This was my first T206 card. When I was collecting as a kid in the junk wax era, the old tobacco cards seemed absolutely ancient. As I’ve aged, they seem a bit less ancient to me, but also more important to the history of the hobby and the game. When I decided I wanted to go after a T206, this card was my first choice. I think it’s just a gorgeous card, and I prefer its appearance to the white cap version and the portrait. And I’m into collecting pitchers because that’s what I did back in my day. My favorite pitcher of all time is Greg Maddux, and everything I’ve read about Matty suggests he was the Professor of his era—focusing on location and movement to disrupt a hitter’s timing rather than overwhelming a hitter with velocity like a Randy or Walter Johnson.  Matty even wrote an article called “Outguessing the Batter” for Pearson’s Magazine back in the day. Look it up; it’s a good read.

T-206…reprint.