Two More T205s Added - Bob Ewing & John Titus

In my show summary post for the recent Philly Show held in Valley Forge, I mentioned the addition of two 1911 T205 Gold Border Phillies cards to my collection.  Here they are, in all their dinged, creased and stained glory.  Not counting variations, there are 12 Phillies cards in the T205 team set, and I'm now amazingly a third of the way there.


Bob Ewing spent the first eight years of his career with the Cincinnati Reds before joining the Phillies in 1910.  In parts of two seasons with the club, Ewing went 16-15 with a 3.42 ERA, striking out 114 and walking 100 in 279 1/3 innings.  How long ago do you think Arthur scrawled his name on the back of this card?

John Titus, who according to Baseball Reference earned the nicknames Silent John and Tight Pants, played 10 seasons for the Phillies between 1903 and 1912.  The team's primary right fielder during those years, Titus hit .278 over 1,219 games with the Phillies.  The baseball card dealer who sold me this card wanted me to know that Titus is the only player within the famed T206 set with a mustache. I have no reason to doubt this information, and I now have the immediate desire to add Titus's T206 card to my Phillies collection.

1911 T205 Gold Border Collection
Charles Dooin
Mickey Doolan
Bob Ewing
John Titus

1911 T205 Gold Border Michael J. Doolan

When putting together my 1930-1939 Phillies Have List back in April, I wrote this:

A few months ago, I put together my 1883-1929 Phillies Have List.  A want list for these years was a bit ridiculous I thought, since I couldn't imagine (a) needing to refer to the list on a regular basis or (b) readers browsing through a want list and deciding to send me a few T206 Phillies cards. 

To date, I've been wrong about the (b) part of the statement as I have yet to have a reader send along a T206 Phillies card.  However, I can now say that I have had a reader (and fellow obsessive Phillies baseball card collector) send along a T205 Phillies card, which is pretty cool.

Amazingly enough, Matthew over at 14,000 Phillies decided he'd do his part to bulk up my 1883-1929 Phillies Have List.  I recently returned home from a miserable day at work to find a package from Matthew sitting in our pile of mail.  I immediately opened it, as he had e-mailed me that he'd be sending along a few Phillies autographed cards from recent years and a hard-to-find Ryan Howard card.

When I first saw the steady gaze of Mickey Doolan peering back at me, surrounded by a beautiful gold border, my initial thought was that I had picked up the wrong envelope.  My second thought was, "What a cool reprint card."  Finally, my third thought was, "Holy crap, Matthew just mailed me a 1911 T205 Gold Border card completely out of the blue."

Thank you for the awesome addition to my collection!

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Doolan, spelled "Doolin" on Baseball Reference but "Doolan" everywhere else I checked, played nine seasons with the Phillies from 1905 to 1913 as their primary shortstop.  He was known more for his glove than his bat, hitting just .236 in 1,302 games with the Phils.  He appeared in quite a few baseball card sets around the turn of the century, including the famous T206 set.  His only modern day card, other than reprints, is his card within the massive 1990 Dodgers Target set.

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.