My Favorite Catcher Card

I don't have any autographed cards scanned and ready to go for Signature Sundays this week.  To make up for it, I've got one of my absolute favorite vintage cards to show today.  It's probably my favorite catcher card in my entire collection, one I've been meaning to post for a while now.  I sought this card out for almost two years before finally picking one up for a price and condition that I was satisfied with...

Behold!  Red Kleinow represents just my third T206 card, all of them Boston Red Sox.  This amazing card, which features a great look at turn-of-the-century catcher's gear, is my favorite of the three by a long shot.  You won't find a plaque for John Peter "Red" Kleinow hanging in Cooperstown, but he sure got a gorgeous tobacco card.  After purchasing the card, I found out that Kleinow was one of the early adapters of the chest protector pictured here.  Can you imagine catching a Major League game without a chest protector?  Well, that was the norm only a few seasons before the T206 set was distributed.

This instantly becomes one of my favorite Red Sox cards (a countdown I definitely need to revisit at some point).  To me, the condition is more than acceptable; I'm alright with rounded corners, and the crease in the upper left corner doesn't detract from the image itself, or the overall visual appeal of the card.  Hell, these flaws are the only reasons a guy like me can afford one of these to begin with.

Complicating my search for this card was the fact that two versions exist; one that lists Red with the Yankees, and one that lists him with Boston.  He was sold to Boston by the Yankees during the 1909 season, so at some point during the T206 print run the cards were updated accordingly.  I'm not sure that either version is more rare than the other, but any way you slice it there are less total cards available with each team.

The other thing I loved about this particular copy is that the back, a Polar Bear variation, looks amazing.  No glue spots or rips to be seen!  Still has a lot of color and pop for being well over 100 years old now.

I hope to make further progress on a T206 Red Sox team set in 2015.  I know that Tris Speaker isn't going to happen, but there are still quite a few cards I should be able to get for around $20 - $30 if I keep my eyes open.  Not sure any of them can top this one though...