The soft yellow and blue colors on the postcard were the first thing to catch my eye. I could tell it was a linen card and thereby had some age on it. Many of the earliest cards were made of linen, something I had learned from seeing so many so often at auction.
Most times, they bore images of stately old banks and hotels that no longer exist. Linen cards were quite prevalent from the 1930s to around 1945. They weren’t actually made of linen, but they did have a high rag content. The finish on the cards resembled linen.
At my request, the auction-house staffer took the postcard from inside the glass case and laid it on top of the counter so I could take a closer look. Near the top of the card stood a ballplayer, his arms to the left, ready to send a baseball singing. Just beneath him were images of the interior and exterior of a restaurant. The card looked to be from the 1940s.
“Famous throughout the world,” it boasted in a slogan just above the player’s head. Stripped across the bottom was the name of the restaurant. It was the namesake of the legendary baseball player pictured at the top of the card. He grew up in the area of this restaurant, the eight child of a man who fished for a living and thought his sons would follow him.
Who was this baseball player? Click on the photo for the answer.
