I have been watching Ken Burns' 'Baseball' lately in preparation of the upcoming release of 'Inning 10.' During my viewing of this groundbreaking documentary, I have been trying to research some of the historic players of the early days of baseball. I have been checking out ebay auctions, seeing if I can get some cards of a few of these hall of famers at a decent price.
I happened upon a T-206 Addie Joss last week and was able to win it for less than $20. Not bad. As you can see it is all effed up. The back of the card is what I had shown last week. I do intend on watching the youtube video of the glue/paper removal once I can tell that my connection is dependable. I'm still a little leery of putting a 100-year old card in boiling water. I have enough geology books here (studying for part II of the ASBOG exam) to dry the card out, but I'm still scared I'm going to mess it up (worse than it already it is).
Joss is the only Hall of Famer to have played less than 10 years. He was forced to retire at age 30 when he contracted tubercular meningitis. It was this disease that took his life a year later at age 31.
The first 'All-Star Game' was played for the benefit of Joss' family.
Joss was elected to the Hall of Fame via the Veteran's Committee in 1978 with a career won-loss record of 160-97 (for 9 seasons... WOW), a career ERA of 1.89 and 920 strikeouts. Joss played his entire career with the Cleveland Bronchos/Naps (Indians) from 1902-1910.
A 1909-1911 T206 Rube Waddell. As you can see, it is in rough shape, but I'm still happy. Below shows that it is a Piedmont back card, which is pretty cool as well. 
Hearing stories about Waddell are pretty funny. He would chase fire trucks during games. Opposing fans found that they could distract him by holding up puppies or shiny objects. He was Manny Ramirez before Manny. I bet, if he were playing today, he would be crucified by the news media (and probably diagnosed with some form of mental disorder). I doubt we'd see headlines that read 'Rube being Rube.'
