Old Red Sox Cards from 1916

The after-Christmas purchases are starting to arrive.  This week a couple of Red Sox oldies from 1916 came.  1916 was similar to previous years' issues in that the cards could be found with a variety of backs.  Sporting News was probably the most well known.  But there were local companies like Famous and Barr, Standard Biscuit, Weil Baking, and Fleischmann Bakery.  How these small (by today's standards) businesses got on the backs of these cards, I don't know.  But with address, logo, and sometimes a slogan on the back, they were obviously meant as advertisements.

H.B. Leonard was better known as Dutch.  His name is familiar to me because he was on this 1979 Topps card from my youth.
 

He got on this card because of his 0.96 ERA in 1914.  Leonard was the starting pitcher in one game apiece in the 1915 and 1916 World Series with the Red Sox, winning them both.  He missed out on the famous 1918 World Series championship due to leaving the team mid-season in order to avoid the WWI draft.  He was traded to the New York Yankees before the 1919 season. But due to a salary dispute, and ticking the team owner off, he was moved to the Detroit Tigers and never pitched for the Yankees.  An interesting fact about Leonard; when he died in 1952, he left behind a record collection of 150,000 discs and an estate worth $2.1 million.

 

Mr. Lewis here has seen his better days.  But for this old a card, I'm willing to accept a lesser condition.  Lewis was in that same trade to the Yankees as Dutch Leonard.  He won World Series championships with the Red Sox in 1912, 1915, and 1916.  And also like Leonard, he missed out on the 1918 World Series.  He served in World War I and missed the entire season.  Some interesting facts about Lewis; he lived until 91 years of age, dying the same year the Leonard card above was released.  He had no known relatives at the time of his death, and was buried in an unmarked grave.