1909-1912 Pittsburgh Pirates

We just received a collection that consisted of only Pirates players from the T205, T206, and T207 sets. Although the modern Pirates organization hasn't experienced much success, this collection reminded us that those early Pirates teams were some of the best in professional baseball. Aside from Honus Wagner, whose career we have already discussed in our W600 blog, there are many notable Pirates from the first decade of the 20th century.

The cards from this particular collection were printed at a time when the Pirates had just won the World Series. The 1909 Pirates team, which finished the season at 110-42, had outstanding starting pitching - all of their starters had an ERA under 3 and winning percentages over 0.600. Howie Camnitz, who was featured prominently in this collection, had his best year ever, going 25-6. This collection also includes Bobby Byrne, the third baseman who led the league in hits (178) and doubles (43) in 1910. In 1913, one year after the T207 cards were issued, both Byrne and Camnitz were traded to the Phillies.

The early Pirates teams are definitely some of the most fun to collect because there were so many talented players with so many great cards. If you are interested in selling any Pre-War cards, please click here.