2. Card Profile: 1947 Sport Magazine DiMaggio Premium

DiMaggio Portrait (blank back premium)

Portrait from p. 15 of Sport (March 1947)

Contrary to occasional statements made in auctions seen on eBay and other venues, the Joe DiMaggio premium shown here was not part of the first issue of Sport, a long-running magazine that distributed its inaugural issue in September of 1946. The magazine's inaugural issue did feature DiMaggio on the cover (along with his then five-year-old son Joe, Jr.; see example cover below) but the premium came later.

While it remains uncertain exactly how the DiMaggio premium was distributed, it has been confirmed that it is associated with the issue of March, 1947, during the magazine's second year of publication (example cover also shown below). The portrait was printed on page 15 of the magazine as part of an article about the chances for a DiMaggio Major League comeback. At that time, DiMaggio had returned to baseball after a three-year hiatus during World War II and a somewhat lackluster (by DiMaggio standards) 1946 season. Note: DiMaggio did make his comeback in the 1947 season and edged out Ted Williams for top spot for the American League MVP award by one vote.

The 8-1/2 x 11 inch premium is printed on paper stock and has a blank back. As shown in the images above, the front of the premium is almost identical to the portrait on page 15 of the magazine. The only difference is the photo attribution: a small "Acme" printed in the upper right corner of the magazine page is replaced by a vertical "SPORT" printed in the lower right border of the premium. And while the back of the premium is blank, the back of the magazine page contains the beginning of another article.

Sport Cover (inaugural issue)

Sport Cover (March 1947 issue)

From the beginning, Sport concentrated coverage on the four major sports, baseball, football, basketball and hockey, but would also offer features on the other major competitive sports such as boxing, golf and tennis. Its generous use of color photography (DiMaggio portrait is just one of many examples) almost immediately made it instantly popular for masses of American sport fans. Editorially, it focused on providing "behind the scenes" accounts of the various sports and player's lives.

Sport was published monthly for over five decades and predated the launch of Sports Illustrated by eight years. It was originally published by New York based Macfadden Publications. Before it's demise in August 2000, however, it had endured ten different owners.

In the end, Sport Magazine failed to compete with weeklies like Sports Illustrated and The Sporting News, or the popular new kid on the block, biweekly ESPN Magazine and emerging online sports news websites.

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3. Latest Additions to the OldCardboard.com Website We are continually expanding the Old Cardboard website with more set profiles, checklists and card galleries. Recent (past 30-40 days) additions include: Set Profiles have been added for: 1916   Obsequio de Susini Set Checklists have been added for: 1916   Obsequio de Susini Set Galleries have been added for: 1909   T204   Square Ramly 1916   Obsequio de Susini Updating the website with checklists and full set galleries for additional vintage sets is an ongoing project, so check back often to check out the latest additions. There are now many thousands of card images on the website and the list continues to grow. We welcome and encourage feedback with checklist additions, card images, error corrections and suggestions. Please send all input to editor@oldcardboard.com. 4. Book Review: Baseball's Dead of World War II As most students of either baseball or of World War II are aware, Hall of Famers Ted Williams, Hank Greenberg and Bob Feller all served admirably in the war. But as Feller later said, "I'm no hero. Heroes don't come back." Two Major Leaguers--Athletics' catcher Harry O'Neill and Senators' outfielder Elmer Gedeon--did not come back. While they are perhaps less well known today, they and many of their fellow soldiers are the true heroes of the conflict. In his just completed book, "Baseball's Dead of World War II," Gary Bedingfield profiles O'Neill and Gedeon along with 125 minor leaguers who also lost their lives during the war. The volume, in essence, is a compendium that focuses on the personal lives, baseball careers and wartime service for each of the 127 players. Despite its sobering title, the book provides impressive and captivating details of the lives of each of these player-heroes. The profiles documented in Bedingfield's book have been compared to the biographical profiles that might have been printed on the backs of their baseball cards had they returned from the war to continue their professional baseball careers. Bedingfield, a freelance training consultant based in Glasgow, Scotland, has a passion for professional baseball and is dedicated to preserving the memory of the pro ballplayers who died in service during the Second World War. His Baseball in Wartime website and frequently updated Blog are a testament to his exhaustive research of both baseball and the war. Following an Introduction to help place the biographies into perspective, the profiles are organized by branch of service. Appendices provide tabular summaries and source footnotes of Bedingfield's research. A detailed index is also provided. Printed in a 7 x 10-inch format, the 272-page book is illustrated mostly with images from the author's collection. "Baseball's Dead of World War II" is scheduled for release in March 2010. Retail price is $39.95. It can be obtained from the publisher (McFarland & Co., Inc., Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640), online (www.mcfarlandpub.com) or at your local bookstore. 5. News Briefs (A Digest of Recent Hobby Happenings) E254 Waddell-Minneapolis Image Found.  Reader and Old Cardboard author John Spano has provided a scan of the Waddell-Minneapolis card from the popular E254 Colgan's Chip set. The card has now been added to the E254 Set Gallery. With this addition, we now need only two cards (out of a total of 289) to complete the E254 gallery. The two missing cards are Lord-Philadelphia and Rowan-Philadelphia. To complete the Gallery, please forward a scan if you have one. 2009 Articles added to Vintage Baseball Card Index.  Articles from all 2009 issues of both Old Cardboard magazine and the Old Cardboard monthly eNewsletter have been added to the Vintage Baseball Card Article Index. Index entries for additional articles from the venerable Trader Speaks issues from throughout 1975 have also been added. With these additions, the Index now contains references to 812 articles published in seven different hobby publications. All are related to vintage baseball card collecting. The Index is easily accessible from an icon on the Home Page of our website. Harvey, Herzog, Dawson Added to HOF Rookie Card Database.  The most recent electees to the Baseball Hall of Fame--Doug Harvey (Umpire), Whitey Herzog (Manager) and Andre "Hawk" Dawson (Player)--have been added to Old Cardboard's Hall of Fame Rookie Card Database. All three will be officially inducted in ceremonies at Cooperstown on July 25. The additions bring the total Hall of Fame member count to 292, of which 19 have been elected as Managers, 9 have been elected as Umpires and 203 elected as Players. 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The following is Shieber's full reply: The Boston Daily Globe of July 14, 1886, notes that "The Star club of Lawrence [MA] has several open dates in July and August, and would like to arrange games with strong amateur teams having enclosed grounds. Address J. Ward, Jr., manager, Lawrence, Mass." ..... The following year the paper noted in its April 18, 1887, issue that "The Stars of Lawrence, champion amateurs of Essex county, have reorganized for the season of '87." The short note again references "J. Ward, Jr., manager, Lawrence." ..... Though my research is not yet complete, I think it likely that after the club won the 1886 championship they awarded their manager this walking stick..... While Shieber states that his research is not yet complete, we believe that his evidence is "99.44 percent pure" and are thus convinced that he has uncovered the correct Ward. Thanks Tom, for your excellent research and for sharing with our readers. Shieber also expressed his frustration with the auction description--also stated in his email: ..... I am appalled that Lelands would recklessly state that the cane had anything whatsoever to do with John M. Ward. He was not a "junior" and was not associated with a Star Base Ball Club in or around 1886. This is clear even with an absolute minimal amount of research. Additionally, their statement that he "developed the first curve ball" is patently false.                 --Tom Shieber, Senior Curator, National Baseball Hall of Fame 2009 (Vintage) Texas Hold'em Winners Announced.  The results are now in for the Old Cardboard 2009 Texas Hold'em Tournament Series with Steve Murray taking top honors and winning the roving trophy. Top five places (and winners of personalized "Mini-Trophies" go to (in order of year-end ranking): Steve Murray, Lyman Hardeman, Steve Lucas, Joshua Levine and Brett Hardeman. Detailed results can be viewed on the Leaderboard for 2009 Trophies page of the Old Cardboard website. The 2010 Series gets underway on January 26 at 20:30 EST (7:30 pm Texas time). All vintage card collectors are invited to participate. Details can be found on the Old Cardboard website at www.oldcardboard.com/misc/2010/2010-poker.asp. Lyman and Brett Hardeman Old Cardboard, LLC. Old Cardboard, LLC. was established in December 2003, to help bring information on vintage baseball card collecting to the hobbyist.  Produced by collectors for collectors, this comprehensive resource consists of three components: (1) Old Cardboard Magazine, (2) a companion website at www.oldcardboard.com and (3) this eNewsletter. 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