Collecting People – A conversation with Tom & Ellen Zappala, authors of “The T206 Collection: The Players & Their Stories”
Tom and Ellen Zappala being interviewed at Mann Orchards in Methuen. Photo by Adrien Bisson.
Sitting next to his wife, Ellen, in the cafe at Mann Orchards in Methuen, a handsome copy of their new book resting open on the table, Tom Zappala held up the baseball card responsible for putting it there.
It is a century-old Lena Blackburne. Zappala was also holding the card a couple of years ago when he found himself compelled to find out what kind of career the guy had.
Zappala didn’t know it, but after 23 years in the hobby, he had just begun a leap that not enough collectors make: from collecting small, rectangular pictures to collecting people. And since that’s so much more interesting a hobby, his wife was willing to make the leap with him.
The end result is “The T206 Collection: The Players & Their Stories.” The T206 — 393 minor and major league players on 524 cards issued by the American Tobacco Company from 1909 to 1911. It is the most famous baseball card series and includes a Honus Wagner card that is the most valuable in the world.
This book has you covered if you’re all about the cards. But if you should run into the Merrimac couple at The Sports Museum in Boston, at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y., or at any of the other spots they’ll be visiting during their book tour of the country this summer you’re more likely to end up like we did — talking about people …
MVM: You’re a businessman, she’s a marketing consultant, and now you’re authors. All because you got curious about one player? TZ:Lena Blackburne was not, I found out, a very good ballplayer, except he became pretty famous in baseball lore because they were always complaining about the shine on baseballs. He did a little research, found a mud pit in the Delaware River that was able to take the shine off the balls without discoloring them, and started the Lena Blackburne Baseball Rubbing Mud company, and Major League Baseball still uses this company today. So I brought this to Ellen’s attention, and she made the suggestion: Why don’t we look at a couple of these other players? As we dug deeper and deeper, I would say probably about 80 percent of these players had stories very similar that were really intriguing, interesting stories. EZ: That’s the thing that interested me. Because you can really build up the story of what was going on in someone’s life by looking at the teams they played on and their stats, and really build quite a narrative out of that.
MVM: What about your love of baseball brought you to this collection? TZ: I’ve always been intrigued by pre-1950s baseball. The players that played back in 1909 and 1910, these are the guys that really started the game of baseball. There are 38 Hall of Famers from this period. These are the guys that really laid the foundation. EZ: Even like now, just looking at this page you opened randomly, this guy here is a pitcher who happened to be deaf (Luther Taylor). TZ: His nickname was Dummy Taylor.
The Zappalas began a book tour throughout the country in the summer of 2010. Photo by Adrien Bisson.
MVM: Nicknames aren’t what they used to be. EZ: That was acceptable in those days, but the whole idea of hand signals in baseball evolved because of him needing to communicate with other players.
MVM: You both seem very fond of these players. TZ: Absolutely. She calls ’em “her boys.” EZ: I fell in love with them, honest to God. These guys, times were different then, they had to work hard and support themselves. Baseball didn’t. TZ: Every player there’s a little story behind. This guy, Wild Bill Donovan, I became particularly fond of him because he was born in Lawrence. Now, a lot of people never heard of Wild Bill Donovan, but guess what? He’s a bubble Hall of Famer. This is a guy who was a fabulous pitcher, he managed in the major and minor leagues for many years, and he died tragically in a train accident just a few years after his career ended.
MVM: Why is this card collection so special to enthusiasts? TZ: Because of one card. One card started it all. Honus Wagner, Hall of Fame shortstop. When the American Tobacco Company released the series, legend has it that Wagner, after some of his cards got out, asked them to pull his plate from distribution because he was opposed to kids chewing tobacco and smoking cigarettes. So they pulled his plate, but a few hundred cards got out, [and] those few hundred cards are now down to 30 or 40, and they became collectors’ items.
"The T206 Collection: The Players & Their Stories"
MVM: So who is going to like this book? TZ: This book is not just for card collectors. This book is for anyone who loves the game of baseball, anybody who wants to know how the game evolved into what it is today. EZ: And I feel it’s going to be very engaging for anyone who is just very interested in history.
MVM: Has this changed the way you watch a game? EZ: I think of Arlie Latham. TZ: He was the first player from New Hampshire to ever play professional baseball. Ellen likes him because Arlie, he was a player-coach and would be on the third base side … EZ: He was the first third base coach ever. TZ: Right, and what he’d do is run up and down the base line taunting the opposing pitcher or batter. So because of Arlie Latham they developed the third base coaching box. EZ:Once you hear that story and go to a game, how can you not think about that?
Coffee Talk – Collecting People – May/June 2010
Collecting People – A conversation with Tom & Ellen Zappala, authors of “The T206 Collection: The Players & Their Stories”
Tom and Ellen Zappala being interviewed at Mann Orchards in Methuen. Photo by Adrien Bisson.
Sitting next to his wife, Ellen, in the cafe at Mann Orchards in Methuen, a handsome copy of their new book resting open on the table, Tom Zappala held up the baseball card responsible for putting it there.
It is a century-old Lena Blackburne. Zappala was also holding the card a couple of years ago when he found himself compelled to find out what kind of career the guy had.
Zappala didn’t know it, but after 23 years in the hobby, he had just begun a leap that not enough collectors make: from collecting small, rectangular pictures to collecting people. And since that’s so much more interesting a hobby, his wife was willing to make the leap with him.
The end result is “The T206 Collection: The Players & Their Stories.” The T206 — 393 minor and major league players on 524 cards issued by the American Tobacco Company from 1909 to 1911. It is the most famous baseball card series and includes a Honus Wagner card that is the most valuable in the world.
This book has you covered if you’re all about the cards. But if you should run into the Merrimac couple at The Sports Museum in Boston, at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y., or at any of the other spots they’ll be visiting during their book tour of the country this summer you’re more likely to end up like we did — talking about people …
MVM: You’re a businessman, she’s a marketing consultant, and now you’re authors. All because you got curious about one player?
TZ: Lena Blackburne was not, I found out, a very good ballplayer, except he became pretty famous in baseball lore because they were always complaining about the shine on baseballs. He did a little research, found a mud pit in the Delaware River that was able to take the shine off the balls without discoloring them, and started the Lena Blackburne Baseball Rubbing Mud company, and Major League Baseball still uses this company today. So I brought this to Ellen’s attention, and she made the suggestion: Why don’t we look at a couple of these other players? As we dug deeper and deeper, I would say probably about 80 percent of these players had stories very similar that were really intriguing, interesting stories.
EZ: That’s the thing that interested me. Because you can really build up the story of what was going on in someone’s life by looking at the teams they played on and their stats, and really build quite a narrative out of that.
MVM: What about your love of baseball brought you to this collection?
TZ: I’ve always been intrigued by pre-1950s baseball. The players that played back in 1909 and 1910, these are the guys that really started the game of baseball. There are 38 Hall of Famers from this period. These are the guys that really laid the foundation.
EZ: Even like now, just looking at this page you opened randomly, this guy here is a pitcher who happened to be deaf (Luther Taylor).
TZ: His nickname was Dummy Taylor.
The Zappalas began a book tour throughout the country in the summer of 2010. Photo by Adrien Bisson.
MVM: Nicknames aren’t what they used to be.
EZ: That was acceptable in those days, but the whole idea of hand signals in baseball evolved because of him needing to communicate with other players.
MVM: You both seem very fond of these players.
TZ: Absolutely. She calls ’em “her boys.”
EZ: I fell in love with them, honest to God. These guys, times were different then, they had to work hard and support themselves. Baseball didn’t.
TZ: Every player there’s a little story behind. This guy, Wild Bill Donovan, I became particularly fond of him because he was born in Lawrence. Now, a lot of people never heard of Wild Bill Donovan, but guess what? He’s a bubble Hall of Famer. This is a guy who was a fabulous pitcher, he managed in the major and minor leagues for many years, and he died tragically in a train accident just a few years after his career ended.
MVM: Why is this card collection so special to enthusiasts?
TZ: Because of one card. One card started it all. Honus Wagner, Hall of Fame shortstop. When the American Tobacco Company released the series, legend has it that Wagner, after some of his cards got out, asked them to pull his plate from distribution because he was opposed to kids chewing tobacco and smoking cigarettes. So they pulled his plate, but a few hundred cards got out, [and] those few hundred cards are now down to 30 or 40, and they became collectors’ items.
"The T206 Collection: The Players & Their Stories"
MVM: So who is going to like this book?
TZ: This book is not just for card collectors. This book is for anyone who loves the game of baseball, anybody who wants to know how the game evolved into what it is today.
EZ: And I feel it’s going to be very engaging for anyone who is just very interested in history.
MVM: Has this changed the way you watch a game?
EZ: I think of Arlie Latham.
TZ: He was the first player from New Hampshire to ever play professional baseball. Ellen likes him because Arlie, he was a player-coach and would be on the third base side …
EZ: He was the first third base coach ever.
TZ: Right, and what he’d do is run up and down the base line taunting the opposing pitcher or batter. So because of Arlie Latham they developed the third base coaching box.
EZ: Once you hear that story and go to a game, how can you not think about that?