The Sporting Life billed itself as “The Paper That Made Baseball Popular”. How true that big of boastful pride may be is hard to say but it certainly didn’t hurt. The company brought sports news to the public starting in the 1800s and in the early 1900s, produced some of the most attractive baseball cards of the pre-War era through various mail-in offers. Now, … [Read more...]
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Five Great Rube Waddell Baseball Cards
Perhaps no player of the first decade of the 20th century mixed talent with tragedy more than George Edward "Rube" Waddell. Born in rural Pennsylvania in the nation's centennial year of 1876 he made his debut with the Louisville Colonels in 1897, but it was not until he joined the Philadelphia Athletics in 1902 that he became a national sensation. A remarkable talent was … [Read more...]
New Stash of High-Grade W600 Sporting Life Cabinets Graded
They weren’t hiding in someone’s attic but their emergence proves there are still plenty of great cards that have yet to be graded. PSA recently received a submission of numerous W600 Sporting Life cabinet cards from the famous series produced in the first decade of the 1900s. Included in the valuable group were several Hall of Famers. Scarce in any condition, they newly … [Read more...]
Consignment of the Week: W600 Wagner
Unless you’re a serious collector of pre-War baseball cards, you may not realize the famous image of Honus Wagner that serves as the face of the famed T206 tobacco card was actually made from a photo taken a few years earlier. The same Carl Horner portrait photo of Wagner was used in the Sporting Life cards including the ultra-rare W600 cabinet. One of the higher … [Read more...]
Rare W600 Lajoie Coming to Auction
A record-breaking salary. A jump to a new league. A court challenge. It may seem like the elements of a story you’d fine in the pages of a recent sports media website but actually, it was part of the baseball landscape in 1902. Philadelphia star Nap Lajoie was offered big bucks to sign with the new American League in 1901 and for a salary of $4,000 (the equivalent … [Read more...]
History of The Sporting Life and its Baseball Cards
The Sporting Life newspaper was born from the mind of Francis Richter, who believed America was crazy about its games. With a successful career in journalism by 1883, he set up the publication that covered all sports but focused in on the wildly popular game of baseball. By the latter part of the decade, The Sporting Life had a circulation of 40,000. Richter's weekly … [Read more...]
