A Doozy

A "doozy". One word, multiple connotations.  In the negative sense, it pretty well describes how the past week has gone for me.  You may or may not have noticed that I went six days without a post, which I think is my longest post-free stretch of 2015 so far.  Between work and getting my house in order (by "in order" I mean "ready for Old Man Winter to kick New England's ass again") I've had little time or money for cards of late.

In a positive sense though, I could use the word "doozy" to describe the card I'm posting today in an attempt to get me out of my blogging funk.  Been sitting on this one for over six months now, it's time for this card to have its day in the sun on the blog...

Bill Carrigan here represents my fourth Red Sox card from the 1914/15 Cracker Jack sets, and my fifth example in total.  There's not a whole lot I can add here that I haven't already said about this set when I've posted the cards in the past.  Quite possibly my favorite pre-war vintage baseball card design, period.  I just wish they weren't so rare, or expensive, but I guess that's also part of the allure.

Bill is pretty beat up after 100+ years on this Earth, and is probably tied with the Al Demaree I posted earlier this year for worst condition of the cards I do have from this set.  You really can't be a stickler on condition when it comes to cards this old; it's difficult enough finding these regardless of what kind of shape they're in.  Hell, there's only one of these Carrigan cards available on eBay right now, and while it's in better shape it's going for way more than I paid for this one.

Carrigan is actually a local New England guy, having been born in Maine.  This is the second pretty significant card of his that I've landed this year, as his 1909 Philadelphia Caramel was one of my big finds at the large card show I made it to back in April.  As a Red Sox fan, how can you not like a guy who played his entire MLB career with Boston, and was nicknamed "Rough"?!?!

All of my previous Cracker Jack cards were printed in 1915, this is the first from the 1914 printing.  There are two main differences that I notice.  First, the language at the bottom of the card back is different (did they really print 10 million of these?).  Secondly, the card back is right-side-up relative to the front, whereas on the 1915 cards it's upside down.

That's all for today, hopefully my schedule frees up and my motivation increases so that I can start getting through the half dozen trade packages I have sitting on my desk waiting to be processed...