Pre-War Cards

‘It’s In The Details’

Title	New York World Leaders in Baseball
Year	1916
Size	4″ x 9″
Images	Black and White
Type	Publications
Number in Set	5

1916 New York World Leaders in Baseball Overview

This short, unique set featured New York baseball players while serving as an advertisement for a newspaper, the New York World.

The name can be a little confusing. For those not familiar with the New York World publication, the set name could be interpreted as ‘New York’s world leaders in baseball.’ However, it is meant to reflect baseball’s leaders as stated from the New York World newspaper.

The World ran from 1860 until it ceased operations in 1931. Before that, however, it created this set of oversized cards (or blotters) for its readers. In addition to the baseball part of the cards, they boasted the paper’s impressive circulation rates and stats regarding its advertising figures (by agate lines).

In reality, baseball was a very small part of these cards. Approximately 2/3 of the card was used to detail the paper’s superiority to other New York publications. The remaining 1/3 was used on a baseball player’s image, name, and the “Leaders in Baseball” name. The cards also managed to squeeze in the checklist of included players. Along the top running the full length of the cards horizontally read, ‘The World – Pennant Winner in Advertising and Circulation.

Backs of the cards were entirely blank.

While considered a baseball card of sorts by collectors today, it’s very clear that these issues were newspaper puff pieces first and baseball cards second.

One interesting thing about the set is that, the players listed below, were said to make up Series II. It is unknown what players or subjects made up the first series.

1916 New York World Leaders in Baseball Checklist

1. Home Run Baker
2. Jake Daubert
3. Buck Herzog
4. Dave Robertson
5. Zack Wheat

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