Beschreibung:

[Chicago: Felix Mendelsohn, c.1916.]
3 x 1 5/8 inches (41 x 76 mm). Encapsulated by PSA and graded 5 (83747279).
Provenance: acquired by the present owner's grandfather at Gimbels department store, Milwaukee, WI, 1916; by descent through the family to the present.
THE RARE GIMBELS VERSION OF THE M101-4 1916 BABE RUTH ROOKIE CARD.
In 1916 Babe Ruth was a rookie pitcher with a lot of promise whose career to that point had moved in fits and starts. He was signed by the Baltimore Orioles in 1914 but soon sold to the Boston Red Sox, who sent him back down to the minors before returning him to the team in 1916 as a solid pitcher and a promising hitter. His trade to the New York Yankees in 1919 is remembered as one of the most disastrous managerial decisions in all of baseball and sparked the legend of the "Curse of the Bambino," the 86-year World Series drought that the Red Sox suffered after the trade. Ruth went on to have a legendary career with the Yankees—maybe the greatest career ever—with four World Series titles. His 60 home runs in 1927, breaking his own record of 59 set in 1921, stood for nearly 35 years.
But in 1916, Ruth was still part of the Red Sox team. Meanwhile in Chicago, baseball card publisher Felix Mendelsohn produced what we now call the M101-4 set, a collection of 200 baseball cards featuring the top players of the day, with the cards featuring black and white photography instead of the color lithography formerly in use. Though the M101-4 set seems prosaic to us today, the 1916 fans found it incredibly compelling to see real photographs of their favorite players instead of artistic renderings. The set featured the top players of the day including Ty Cobb, Joe Jackson and Jim Thorpe. Rookie Babe Ruth was a promising new player, but not the star he would be in just a few years. The fronts of the M101-4 cards are uniform, but the backs often feature different information, depending upon which of Mendelsohn's clients distributed the sets. Mendelsohn's biggest client was The Sporting News, a St. Louis-based publication that dominated baseball news in the U.S., and most of the examples of the Babe Ruth M101-4 cards bear "Sporting News" imprints on the verso (so much so that the M101-4 Babe Ruth rookie card is often referred to as the "Sporting News" card). But at least 18 different companies distributed the M101-4 card sets, including the Altoona Tribune, Famous & Barr, H. Weil Baking Co., Successful Farming—and Gimbels Department Store.
In April of 1916 Gimbels Department Store launched a promotional campaign advertising a free giveaway of 20 baseball cards to kids who came in person to the Boy's Clothing Section (Sportscollectordaily.com, March 21, 2015). The ad published in the Wisconsin papers reads: "Attention! / Boys of Milwaukee / Especially—You Baseball 'fans' / How would you like to have Photographs of 200 Major League stars and other "Stars of the Diamond"? You can have them in lots of 20—each Saturday. / First bunch of 20 photographs on Saturday FREE / These are actual photographs of the players in their favorite action, and in ten Saturdays you will have the entire 200 players. Won't that be great? / Just sign your name and address below and present this 'ad' in Gimbels Boys' Clothing Section on Saturday, the 15th, and receive the first 20 pictures FREE."
As the promotion went on, fans late to the party could buy the previous sets for a nominal sum, except series #2, which featured superstar Ty Cobb and sold out early. The present owner's grandfather was a 10-year-old Milwaukeean in 1916 who took advantage of the Gimbels promotion, holding on to his beloved Babe Ruth card until the end of his life, when he left it to his descendants.
This example, graded a five, features slightly bumped corners. The Gimbels text on the verso, "Everything for Boys of Every Age / Popular Prices / GIMBELS," is remarkably dark and crisp. A profound and desirable rarity in any condition, Ruth rookie cards are one of the most sought-after trading cards in existence. Ruth's larger-than-life personality, record-breaking achievements, and memorable moments, such as his "called shot" in the 1932 World Series between the Yankees and the Cubs, when Babe pointed two fingers at center field before driving a mammoth homerun deep into the center field seats, all contribute to his enduring legacy.