Amusement for Boys to Cut Out McLoughlin Brothers, 1894-95

Figures cut out from a Detroit team set, pasted into a scrapbook -- above, left to right: right field (reversed), batter, baserunner (reversed) / pitcher, left field, 2nd base, 3d base, catcher, shortstop, 1st base (reversed). Positions are indicated as "reversed" relative to their original orientation in the 1892 Base Ball Game.

Figures cut out from a Boston team set -- above, left to right: same positions as Detroit set, plus center field at far right.

Figures only partially cut out from a lighter blue Chicago team set -- above, left to right: 2nd base, catcher, batter, shortstop, 3d base, left field, right field (reversed), baserunner (reversed) / pitcher, center field, 1st base (reversed).

 
      Figures cut out from an unidentified team set -- 
      top row, left to right:  batter, 1st base (reversed), baserunner (reversed) / pitcher, shortstop, catcher;  
      bottom row, left to right:  left field, center field, right field (reversed), 3d base, 2nd base.  



A slightly closer look at the 3rd basemen for Detroit, Boston, Chicago, and, uh, the Red Diamonds.


And a closer look at the 2nd basemen from the New York, Philadelphia, and darker blue Chicago sets. The actual figures are the same size in each set, we just don't have a larger image of the Philly player.


 
    At left, figures from Boston (tan), Detroit    
    (front), and unidentified (red diamond) 
    team sets, glued onto wooden backings. 
The backings, wooden bases, and labels featured on examples such as these, seen occasionally before the discovery of the uncut Amusement sheet, fueled frequent speculation that the figures were game pieces, but even prior to the evidence provided by Amusement, it was obvious at a glance that these were alterations made at some point in the last hundred years or so -- probably quite recently, relatively speaking -- and were not original to the paper figures.



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