(Zack) Wheat Wednesday: 1926 Spalding Baseball Guide Page Addition

Another day, another oddball Zack Wheat addition to showcase from the realm of Spalding Baseball Guide pages. This time around Wheat is not only the most notable name on the page but is the only notable name on the page. Cotton Tierney, with whom Wheat opened up a bowling alley post-career and who is the namesake of Cot's Contracts, also makes an appearance.

Joining all of my other pages, I can now cross 1926 off of my imaginary needs list.

(Zack) Wheat Wednesday: Landing A Wowzer Of A Wheat White Whale!!

A while back I posted asking if there was a white whale you had ever missed out on as I had missed out on a couple in 2023. Both of those haunted me in some way or another for quite a long stretch of time, particularly as I was fairly certain neither would show up again considering their rarity and scarcity. Combine that with my general lack of luck and I wrote them off until fate or something close intervened.

The gentleman who bought the 1909-11 S74 Zack Wheat Silk I missed out on had a second Wheat Silk he had purchased in an attempt to go after a complete Wheat run (there are colored and white silks to chase). He decided against the run and I had already contacted him previously to chat about the Wheat and congratulate him as I love his Brooklyn collection. Thankfully I had made that contact as he thought of me first when moving it.

I jumped as fast as one can jump and shortly thereafter this arrived in my mailbox in all of its glory. I dropped it off with SGC at a show out here in Vegas later in 2023 and it now resides comfortably and securely -- forever -- in my Wheat PC.

Evidence of trimming and portions hanging on by the literal threads this is composed of? I genuinely love it more for that. Zack himself is clear as day, as is his name and the "Brooklyn Nationals" and Brooklyn B around his portrait. That's all I need to be happy with it!

(Zack) Wheat Wednesday: 1912 Spalding Baseball Guide Page, Quartet Edition

I really can't get enough of these Spalding Guide Pages as the mainstream Zack Wheat releases I need dwindles to the exceedingly rare or exceedingly expensive (or both). In the meantime, as I search out a few cards, these awesome vintage oddities will continue to bring me joy and give me something to chase.

I always prefer seeing Zack straight on with the Brooklyn B somewhere on his person, and this page delivers with a nice throwing pose and the hat prominently featured. Most notable in joining Wheat on this offering is Nap Rucker with the B on his shoulder facing the audience.

A Shoeless Joe Jackson Is Finally Mine!

It only took well over a decade of collecting for me to finally land a piece featuring a baseball legend and tough hobby target: Shoeless Joe Jackson. I almost certainly could have picked up more conventional items for reasonable prices had I focused on this goal earlier on, but things happen and players are missed. Owning one now is better than not owning one at all.

I can always find a card down the road when money is more plentiful or the market allows, but for now this sweet 1911 Spalding Guide Baseball Team page pairing the Cleveland Naps and Boston Red Sox will certainly do. Shoeless Joe only has but so many items and none are that affordable, so oddball was likely always going to be the direction I went in. I am a huge fan of these Spalding pages so adding one was always a solid path to finding a Jackson piece to add to my collection.

The added bonus of Joe bringing along some recognizable friends in Cy Young, Nap Lajoie, Addie Joss, Elmer Flick, and Harry Hooper was icing on the random vintage goodness cake.

A Modern Jackie Robinson Card

A rare modern item is today's featured piece of cardboard. Back when I still worked at PSA I went through a phase of submitting a lot of stuff I would not submit today. I was bored, it was Covid, and I was working a ton so more money was coming into my pockets. If I thought it would be cool in a slab I sent it in.

And then PSA decided to PSA and this awesome Jackie Robinson 2018 Allen & Ginter mini returned as a 10....but incorrectly labeled. Why would anyone working there in multiple departments know that the A&G back is a variation and it needs to be on the label itself? Of course they wouldn't -- it's not a billion-dollar industry-leading card company or anything that we're talking about.

And it's not like PSA has multiple departments who handle every card and could catch such a mistake, saving me from having to send it back in for a mechanical error. The card eventually returned correct, but if it sounds like I'm annoyed after seeing dumb shit like this for years while working there....well, you'd be correct in feeling that about my mood with that company.