B18
Felt Blankets
A Closer Look
by
Jeffrey Obermeyer
Originally printed in The Vintage & Classic Baseball Collector
#6 May/June 1996
Reprinted with permission by Jeffrey Obermeyer
Information about this
unique tobacco issue has been hard to come by in recent years.
The "major" price guides published by Krause and Beckett
are paltry at best: in fact Krause has used the same description
of this set in all of their price guides over the past 6 years.
The best source for information available is Lew Lipset's The
Encyclopedia of Baseball Cards, Volume 3 (1986). My analysis of
the set will rely on a number of sources including Mr. Lipset's
book, his newsletter "The Old Judge" (TOJ), various
price guides and of course The Baseball Encyclopedia.
"B18" is
the set's designation in Burdick's American Card Catalog. The
issue date of the B18 set has been firmly established by Lipsett
as 1914, and a number of specimens have been found as part of
unopened tobacco packages with the brand name of Egyptienne Straights
Cigarettes. The felt squares or blankets, measure approximately
5 ¼" on each side with a brown boarder all the way
around. B18's are occasionally found as sewn together as large
blankets containing upwards of 300 individual squares, and often
these larger blankets include other celebrities of the day, especially
actresses.
There are 90 different
players represented in the set, nine from each of ten different
major league teams. Each player can be found with two different
color schemes, and in addition players from Boston(NL) and Detroit
can be found with a third color scheme -the very rare "red
infield" variation and that of "Kavanagh" His name
is misspelled as "Cavanaugh" and found in the same color
schemes as the other players from the Detroit team. A "Kavanagh"
blanket also exists and is found with only one color variation
(white infield). With the addition of the Kavanagh blanket (not
scarce) the set is considered complete at 181 blankets.
I will not go into
detail here about the various color schemes as this is one topic
that is sufficiently covered in every available price guide. Suffice
to not that the National League team shares its color combinations
with a corresponding American League Team, and that the areas
of the blanket which can vary in color are the infield bases,
basepaths and pennants. The scarcest color variation is the red
infield for Boston and Detroit players. While most agree that
this coloration resulted from a printing flaw, they are still
in demand and command a premium price. The next scarcest and probably
most sought after variation is the brown infield for the same
two teams.
At least three different
players are reported to exist in color schemes which are not standard
for the set. Franc Chance is known with yellow pennants and basepaths
and a blue infield. Tom Griffith is known with red bases and pennants,
blue basepaths and a white infield. Connolly is known with light
red base and pennants, deep red basepaths, and a white infield.
These variations are not considered part of the set.
As mentioned earlier,
there are ten teams included in the set. Five are from the National
League (Boston, Brooklyn, New York, Pittsburgh, St. Louis) and
five from the American League (Cleveland, Detroit, New York, St.
Louis, Washington). Why the other six major league teams (Boston
AL, Chicago AL, Chicago NL, Cincinnati, Philadelphia Al, Philadelphia
NL) are not included is unknown. The Philadelphia Athletics had
won three of the four World Series prior to 1914 and boasted five
future HOFers on their roster yet were left out of the set. It
has been hypothesized that these cities were not markets for Egyptienne
Straights Cigarettes, but this does not explain why members of
Boston's NL franchise are in the set while the AL team in the
same city is omitted. It is likely we will never know.
The B18 set includes
9 HOFers as well as a number of other notable players such as
Ray Chapman, Chick Gandil, Shoeless Joe Jackson and Fred Snodgrass.
Gandil and Jackson were involved in the Black Sox scandal of 1919
and banned from Baseball for life. Chapman remains the only player
to die as a result of an injury sustained during a game, having
been hit in the head by a pitch from Carl Mays in 1920. Snodgrass
is remembered for the fly ball which he muffed in the bottom of
the tenth inning during the eighth game of the 1912 World Series.
While the list of HOFers
is impressive, there are also a number of HOFers left out of the
set even though the teams for which they played are represented.
Each can be found in a number of tobacco issues during the same
time period as the B18 set, and all seven can be found in the
T206 set issued 3 years earlier. With the exception of Wagner,
whose stance on being featured in tobacco issues is well-known,
it is impossible to say why these players were not included, especially
considering that Rube Marquard had the least major league experience
in the group, and 1914 was is seventh season. These were not rookies
or up-and-comers who were passed over. While these greats ere
left out, such players as Paddy Baumann (played 3 games in 1914,
295 games lifetime), Ray Demmitt (did not play in the majors between
1911 and 1913) and Bill McAllester (career consisted of 47 games
in 1913) can be found. The McAllester (spelled McAllister in the
set) blanket may well be his only appearance in any baseball issue.
There are four misspellings
in the set including Bauman (correct spelling Baumann), Cavanaugh/Kavanaugh
(Kavanagh), Gainor (Gainer) and McAllister (McAllester). Also
of note regarding names is the Covaleski blanket is not HOFer
Stan, but his brother Harry, and Baker is not HOFer Frank, but
Del (played in 172 career games)
B18's can be found
in a wide range of conditions, but most collectors agree that
the most important feature is the border. The ideal blanket has
a brown border at least 1/8" wide on each side. It is not
uncommon to find a blanket missing a border on one or more sides
or having a smaller boarder, as these were often trimmed. Because
the blankets are felt, creases are not a problem as these can
be ironed out (but be careful!). The most common defects include
tobacco stains, paper stuck to the blanket, frayed edges, loose
threads, fading and holes. Frayed edges are often "repaired"
by trimming a portion of the blanket. It is for this reason that
many collectors insist on a 1/8" border intact. I have heard
that taking blankets to a dry cleaner can remove even the most
stubborn stains, but this is not recommended as the chemicals
used may have a long term effect on the fabric. Blankets are also
found on occasion with colors which have bled or mixed together.
The most recent annual
guide (SCD's Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards, 5th edition)
prices the set at $4,000 (NM), with commons going for $20, brown
infields for $80, and red infields at $240. These prices are low
in general, as sets are known to have sold at more than $8,000
and red infields in the neighborhood of $750-1,000 each. By far
the most coveted blanket in the set is the Cobb red infield, an
example of which sold at the Copeland auction in 1991 for $10,450.
It has been my experience
that the prices of these blankets vary considerably, with commons
in EX condition ranging in price form $15 to $40. The most sought
after players in the set are the Cobb, Jackson, Johnson, and Stengel,
with the Jackson being the most difficult and in general the most
expensive. The brown infields of Boston and Detroit are the most
desirable color variations and are rarely found for less than
$100. I do not include the red infields due to their extreme scarcity
and my belief that only a handful of collectors are actually looking
for them.
In conclusion, this
unusual and puzzling set offers a number of challenges to even
the most advanced collector. It contains a number of quality HOFers,
yet still remains affordable due to its general lack of popularity.
It is one of the few issues from this era which can be completed
with a reasonable chance of success and without destroying your
collecting budget.
Hall of Famer's in
the B18 Set
Max Carey Frank Chance
Ty Cobb Miller Huggins
Walter Johnson Zack Wheat
Casey Stengel Bobby Wallace
Rabbit Maranville
Hall of Famer's Left
Out of Set
Sam Crawford Johnny
Evers
Nap Lajoie Rube Marquard
Honus Wagner Tris Speaker
Christy Mathewson
