1911 T205 Gold Border Chas. S. Dooin

Back in the day, before the internet made it possible to click and buy just about any baseball card your budget could afford, we relied on four sources to add “vintage” cards to our collections – 1) Trades with friends, 2) Local hobby shops, 3) Baseball card shows or 4) Mail order.  For the fourth option, I scoured the advertisements of Baseball Cards magazine and the tabloid newspaper-style Sports Collectors Digest daydreaming about ordering bulk lots of older baseball cards.  I remember that the ads for the far-off, West Coast-based Kit Young Cards were amazing – even awe-inspiring.  I don’t remember the first time we ever ordered from Kit Young, but my detailed purchase logs for my 1956 Topps set and several 1970’s Topps sets show that he was responsible for adding several “vintage” cards to my collection – via my parents as birthday presents or via Santa under the tree on Christmas morning.

I found myself browsing through Kit Young’s on-line store recently, and I pulled the trigger on the card you see here – a 1911 T205 Gold Border tobacco card of long-time Phillie, Charles “Red” Dooin.  The card is amazing.  It’s now by far the oldest card in my collection and it’s the first actual pre-war tobacco card I possess.  It’s thinner than I thought it would be and it might be my imagination, but I think it smells a little like tobacco.  Or it could just be the previous owner was a heavy smoker, but that’s less romantic, isn’t it?  And yes, I smell my old baseball cards.

I’m extremely happy to have this 100-year-old card in my collection, but even happier that it cost me less than a blaster box of 2011 Topps Whatever from Target.  I know there aren’t many more Phillies baseball cards out there from the turn of the last century within my modest budgetary means, but it will be fun to try to track a few more of these down.

(Santa: If you’re reading this, I have a few other suggestions for you.  If you check your list, you’ll see that I’ve been pretty good this year.  E-mail or text me.  Thanks.)

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Dooin, born in 1879, played 13 seasons with the Phillies from 1902 to 1914 as the team’s primary catcher.  He also managed the club from 1910 to 1914, compiling a winning record of 392-370.  He’s credited with helping develop Grover Cleveland Alexander into the Hall of Fame pitcher he’d become.  Dooin played in 1,219 games for the Phillies, catching in 1,124 of those games.  Only Mike Lieberthal has caught in more games for the franchise.  He hit .241 with 10 home runs and 335 RBIs for the Phillies before wrapping up his career with the Cincinnati Reds and New York Giants in 1915 and 1916.  His career trajectory is somewhat similar to that of Lieberthal’s – both were long-time catchers for the Phillies and they both left the franchise the year before the team made it into postseason after long dry spells.  In Dooin’s case, the Phillies lost to the Red Sox in the 1915 World Series and in Lieberthal’s case, the Phillies lost to the Rockies in the 2007 N.L.D.S.  Dooin passed away in 1952, at the age of 72.