American Association Milwaukee Brewers
Baseball Cards: Part 1
(1909-1911)
T-201 & T-206
by Paul F. Tenpenny
(Tencentz@aol.com)
Copyright 2008 Tencentzports
Reprinted with permission of the Author
Believe it or not, Vintage Milwaukee Brewers do show up from time to time on baseball cards.
The earliest I have seen are the Old Judge cards from the late 1800’s.
A bit too early for this series.
For our American Association Brewers, I have found 5 from the early years.
Continuing in the tradition of the above mentioned 19th Century tobacco cards like the N 172 Old Judge cards (*Designated N cards for Nineteenth century), Twentieth Century tobacco companies also included some minor league players in their popular card series. (*T Cards for Twentieth century)
*Jefferson Burdick was a pioneer in card collecting and classified his collection into a logical format using letter and number designations, for sorting titles and series by type, etc. His American Card Catalog designations are still being referred to today in the hobby.
Milwaukee Athletic Park – circa 1909
(Photo from Author’s collection, courtesy Milwaukee Public Museum)
” Stoney ”
McGlynn.
Jimmy Barrett played outfield with the Brewers from (1909-1911) and also served as their manager in 1911.
In 1909 Barrett played both outfield and shortstop compiling a batting average of .239 that year. (76 games)
In 1910 while playing the outfield, Barrett raised his batting average to .353.
(51 games)
1911 finds the player / manager doing duty in the outfield again with a B.A. of .224 (79 games).
Stoney McGlynn (1909-1912) led the Milwaukee Brewers to a 2nd place finish in 1909 with a record of 27 wins that year. He went on to win 16 games in 1910 and won 22 in 1911. Not a bad 3 year stretch!
Moving on to the T-206 series we find 4 cards depicting Milwaukee Brewer players. (Issued 1909-1911 )
This T 206 Piedmont card depicts Jack “Shad” Barry who was with the Brewers for 2 years. (1909-1910)
In 1909 outfielder Barry compiled a .236 batting average in 150 games.
In 1910, Barry split duties in the outfield and at first base batting .252 in 130 games.
Here is a scarcer issue “Polar Bear” T 206 of Dan McGann (1909-1910)
Dan played first base for the Brewers. In 1909 he hit .245 in 160 games.
1910 finds this first sacker in 151 games slipping to a .225 batting average.
This Sovereign T 206 is an appropriate “throne” for a repeat appearance as
Stoney McGlynn was definitely royalty with Milwaukee. While only playing for 4 years, he was a superb pitcher compiling 65 victories in 4 years. (1909-1912)
Another scarce Polar Bear card, A T206 of Newt Randall. (1908-1915)
He was an outfielder for the Brews and played on both of the championship teams in 1913 and 1914.
1908 Randall batted .253 in 121 games.
In 1909, he improved to a .279 batting average. (167 games)
1910 was almost a repeat of his last year as he hit .271 in 146 appearances.
1911 Newt jumped on the ball for a whopping .298 average in 148 matches.
161 appearances in 1912 tallied him a .290 B.A.
His .288 average in 140 games helped his team to the Brewers first American Association crown in 1913 and for the “repeat” in 14, he smoked the opposing pitchers with his best ever, .321 average in 168 games.
Newt Randall’s final season 144 appearances gave him a .278 average.
At first glance these cards may seem to be a bit cartoon-ish, due in part to their coloration but when you compare the T 206 series with an actual photograph, they were actually quite accurate pictures of the players.
The 1909 Milwaukee Brewers – Author’s collection, courtesy Milwaukee Public Library
Top Row: Shad Barry 2nd from left with Dan McGann far right.
Middle Row: Newt Randall is seated on the left.
Bottom Row: Stoney McGlynn is seated on the left.