1916 Sporting News / Mendelsohn Set (M101-5)

Posted on September 7, 2016 by Pre-War Cards

‘It’s In The Details’

Title	M101-5 Sporting News / Mendelsohn
Year	1916
Size	1 5/8″ x 3″
Images	Black and White
Type	Various
Number in Set	200

1916 M101-5 Sporting News / Mendelsohn Overview

A total of nine different subsets make up the famous M101 Sporting News and Supplements series. The nine subsets are categorized as M-Cards in the Periodicals section of the American Card Catalog. The nine sets are a mixture of both cards and large supplements issued by the Sporting News. With approximately 700 cards and supplements, the issue is a large one, to say the least.

The M101-5 series is one of the more well known-issues and includes smaller, traditional trading cards. The cards feature black and white images of players along with the name, position, team, and card number on the bottom. It is very similar to the M101-4 set with some player differences.

Most players are found in both the M101-4 and M101-5 sets, although some are only in one. A key addition in the M101-5 set not found in M101-4 is a card of multi-sport athlete Jim Thorpe, who played a few seasons of baseball.

The key to the set is the major league rookie card of Babe Ruth.

Babe Ruth Rookie Card

The most important card in the set is undoubtedly the major league rookie card of Babe Ruth. Even beyond this set, the card is one of the most valuable baseball cards of all time.

The card is No. 151 in this set and is also found in the similar M101-5 set. It features Ruth as a pitcher with the Boston Red Sox. Ruth is seen throwing the ball, which is quite ironic since he would become known as the greatest slugger of all time.

Its popularity and value is such that it is one of the more heavily faked pre-war cards. Even low-grade examples these days are often more than $100,000. Like the Honus Wagner T206 card, finding one raw is usually cause for skepticism.

A few other key rookies beyond Babe Ruth exist in the sets. Hall of Famers George Sisler and Red Faber, among other players, have recognized rookie issues in both M101-4 and M101-5.

Here’s more on this iconic baseball card.

Sporting News Misnomer

While the set is often called the Sporting News set, numerous advertisers used these cards in their own sets. A better name for the set would be the Mendelsohn set as they were created by Felix Mendelsohn.

That is particularly true for the M101-5 set since Sporting News cards only exist in the M101-4 set. Calling the M101-4 set the Sporting News set is only partially accurate but assigning that name to M101-5 is entirely incorrect. I’ve classified the set here, in part, as the Sporting News set since that is the name it is often known by. However, there are no M101-5 Sporting News cards and a better name would be, as stated, the Mendelsohn set.

While the set is often called the Sporting News set, numerous advertisers used these cards in their own sets in both the M101-4 and M101-5 sets. Some sets used the checklist from M101-4 while others used the checklist from M101-5. Others used a mixed checklist from both sets. Each company used its own advertising on the backs and numerous advertisers exist, including:

Some companies have different types of backs, too.

Reprints and Fakes

Reprints and fakes of these cards exist. Official reprints are relatively easy to spot as the word ‘reprint’ is at the bottom.

However beware of cards that measure short and appear trimmed at the bottom to remove that text. Additionally, reprinted cards from this set will often have a much brighter white border area than the authentic ones.

With regards to fakes, some of those are easy to spot. The biggest telltale sign is that many of them have a large white space in between the photograph and the black border around the picture. Not all reprints have this large space but some do.

Authentic cards, such as one shown here, can have a tiny space between the photo and border. However, the non-authentic cards have a much larger space.