1925 Turf Cigarettes - George Sisler

In 1925, a British tobacco company called Turf put out a series of cards of sports from around the world. For the USA part of the world, baseball was the representative sport. And George Sisler was the representative player. Sisler played for the St. Louis Brows. He was a hitting machine. Many of his records stood for generations.

This Turf card set is somewhat unique for baseball. This and the Churchman example are two of only a few color lithograph baseball cards of the 20s, a printing method abandoned ten years earlier as cheaper and easier ways became more available. Another oddity of this set are the significant errors on the back. They get George's name and key statistic wrong, calling him C.H. Sisler and writing his batting average with the decimal point 5 places to the right.

The Base Ball monument the card refers to has been a bit of a mystery as there is no such monument. It appears that the American League intended to build a monument that would be updated each year with the American League's MVP. The league even committed the money for it. I do not remember (or perhaps never knew) why the project wasn't brought to its intended end. I'll keep looking.

This card can be found for very affordable prices. I think it is undervalued given its appearance, print-method, and star subject, but British tobacco cards aren't nearly as collectable as American tobacco cards.

Here are a few more from the set...