With the baseball season ending in a Red Sox World
Series title I figured I might as well post up one last baseball Vintage Card
of the Month.
This month’s card is from the 1909-11 T206 release. Mike
Powers, also known as Doc Powers because he was a licensed doctor, was a
catcher who played for four different teams between 1898 and 1909 and had a
rather mundane career. He will go down in MLB history though not for his play,
in a turn of bad luck he was the first player to die due to results from an
in-game injury.
On April 12, 1909 the Philadelphia A's were playing the Boston Red Sox in Philadelphia, Powers was playing catcher for the A's and
ended up crashing in to a wall while reaching for a foul ball. By the 7th
inning he was in intense pain but continued playing, he was brought to the
hospital when he collapsed after the game. The next day he had surgery to repair
his injured intestines, by April 25th he had two more surgeries and
doctors were at a loss. He died on April 26, 1909 due to post-surgery
infections.
The card itself is in bad shape, it shows its age. The
edges are dinged and rough, the corners are all rounded and there are creases
running from side to side and the card is cut off-center. The Sweet Caporal back
is in surprisingly decent shape.
Condition be damned, that's a beauty!
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