I've been an avid baseball card collector for years. Like everybody else, my mother threw away what could have been a small fortune when she discarded my childhood baseball card collection. This, of course, left me no choice but to start another one in my adulthood. I'm actually pretty limited in what I collect. I have acquired a number of game used jersey cards, because I think they have a real, genuine connection with the player.
I made an exception last week when I bought my first T206 card. These are tobacco cards that date from 1909 to 1912, and the fabled PSA 8 Honus Wagner card, the holy grail of baseball cards, is from this set. As you might imagine of a 100+ year old card, the examples in pristine condition fetch absurd sums. The one I bought cost me less than thirty dollars, but as you can see its condition is PSA 1.5 "fair." That didn't matter to me. It's genuine, the picture is clear and attractive, and most importantly the subject of the card is interesting.
Shown in his Chicago White Sox uniform - which he wore only during the 1909 and 1910 seasons - is pitcher William Thomas Burns known as "sleepy Bill." He only played baseball for five years, and he finished with a very mediocre record of 30 wins and 52 losses. So why is he interesting? Because a few years after he retired from baseball he played a major roll in the 1919 world series "Blacksox" scandal shown in the Martin Sheen movie "Eight Men Out." He was the man who approached the Sox and convinced several of them to throw the series. He was the go-between with Arnold Rothstein, the wealthy gambling kingpin who put up the money for the fix, and added to his fortune by betting against the Sox. When news of the scandal broke, he became a witness for the prosecution, thereby escaping punishment for his involvement. So you see why I regard this card as an interesting little piece of cardboard Americana.
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