Piggy Paige's Cup of Coffee

With yesterday's Hub Perdue packed and ready for shipping, the question is why did I buy a card, a Southern Leaguer at that, which I already owned.  Well, intrepid reader, the answer was to get a George Paige of Charleston card. 



If you search eBay for T206 cards, you can usually find most of the set available for purchase at any point in time.  However, some of the short print cards and Southern Leaguers require a combination of patience and persistence to obtain these cards, especially in more affordable (read lower) grades.

When my set was in its infancy, I would often buy small lots, allowing me to add a few cards at a time.  However, as I near the 90% completion mark, I am forced to either buy cards one at a time, or re-home a portion of the lot, preferably as soon as possible.  With commons, it's a bit harder to move the card, but I gambled that I would be able to move the Hub Perdue fairly quickly for cash or trade.

So, needing the Paige for my set, I rolled the dice, fended off another bidder and took the pair of cards down last Friday night.  I did so, because I cannot find any record of my bidding on another T206 Paige in the past.  I know I held one at the National, but thought the price was prohibitive, even as I added seven Southern Leaguers that fine day in Baltimore.

As to Paige himself, I knew nothing of him before buying his card, other than he played for Charleston in the Sally League.  I know a good amount about many of the players in the T206 set, but some of the minor league players stump me, because they had short or non-existent careers in the majors. 

Piggy or Mabel Paige, whose nicknames are distinctly above average for the era, was a pitcher.  In 1911, he pitched in two games for the Cleveland Naps (at the time named after Napoleon Lajoie), comprising his entire big league career, despite tryouts with the Giants and Dodgers at other points in time.   The only otherwise noteworthy point of Paige's career is that he liked to jump teams.  Quite a few times, he would walk out on his contract, only to return either to the team or another team in the circuit a short time later.

And to think, a century later, people still care about Piggy Paige and his cup of coffee, because he had the good fortune to be depicted on a baseball card.