As with most card collectors, and baseball fans in general, there are certain players from the past that are so ingrained in the lore of the game that they’ve become gods. Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Cy Young, Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio, Christie Mathewson, Walter Johnson, Jackie Robinson. To own a vintage card of any one of these guys is  almost a religious experience. While I would love to own a 1933 Goudey Babe Ruth, if I could pick one of the baseball gods to own, I think it would be the devil.

Yessir, the Georgia Peach. If Babe Ruth is baseballs Superman, Cobb has got to be its Batman. But the Dark Knight version. Not the Adam West version. The flawed hero.

As with most early 20th Century ballplayers, you normally associate Cobb with the T205 and T206 sets. I’m not 100% sure what set this is from, but if I were to actually buy an original Cobb card, I think I would want it to be some weird set like this. Not that a lot of people own original Ty Cobb baseball cards, but I would certainly prefer to own a card practically no one else would have. Of course, the fact that this card is graded in Poor condition and is still going for $715 with half a day to go answers the question of why I will never own a card like this. But I suppose when you’re talking about “Cards I Would Like to Own”, you might as well set your sights high.

There’s something really cool looking about the bright orange border against the sepia picture. It seems like there is a faint amount of color in the portrait, but either time washed it out, or there wasn’t a whole lot to begin with. I also like that it’s a young Cobb. Let’s see, 1910… I believe he started playing in 1905. I think he was 19 or so as a rookie. I guess he’s in the neighborhood of 24. He was still a rising star at this point.

I swear if I had this card, I would set up a webcam for it, just so I could look at it 24 hours a day.

Tags: Ty Cobb
Filed Under: Cards I Would Like to Own by slangon
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