By: Danny Gallagher

Canadian Baseball Network

The set of some 300 baseball cards wasn't worth much money, but there was a sentimental value to it.

Back around 1993, I read in an airline magazine during one of my travels about the Conlon Collection of black and white cards from the Golden Age of Baseball.

I forget the airline. It may even be out of business now, but the rare collection by photographer Charles Martin Conlon piqued my imagination so I ordered it for oh, $35 U.S. or so, including shipping.

It held a place in my collection category until recently when I discovered I couldn't find the cards. After selling and buying houses and moving, somehow they disappeared. Maybe they accidentally got thrown out as we got rid of excess stuff.

I looked and looked and found nothing, although one single card has always been in my wallet for years and years: Babe Ruth in a suit, smoking a cigar.

But there is a wonderful ending to this tale. Noticing a classified ad in the Clarington This Week newspaper east of Toronto, I went to a recent “end of year’’ garage sale in Whitby, not far from my home in Bowmanville. The ad mentioned that "100s of sports memorabilia cards'' were available. Wouldn't you know it, the seller pulled out a pack of cards and wondered if I would be interested in it.

"That's the Conlon Collection,'' I immediately said, upon looking at it.

I told him my story about losing my previous collection. I got out my glasses to read the back label of the enclosed pack and confirmed that, indeed, this was part of the Conlon Collection. The guy threw in a huge Limited Edition 1992 Blue Jays World Series pin and the deal was done for $30.

Conlon was a proof-reader for the New York Telegram and transitioned into photography with his Graflex single-lens camera as a hobby, shooting the likes of Ruth, Honus Wagner, Jimmy Foxx, Mel Ott, Lou Gehrig, Walter Johnson, Hack Wilson, Hank Greenberg, Red Ruffing, Joe Cronin and Rogers Hornsby.

A Bob Feller insert shows up with his autograph, the only one in this pack with anyone’s signature. One card is of Ruth taken in 1916 when he was with the Red Sox.

Conlon’s photo documentary are mostly headshots of players looking at the camera and some looking away. Some smiling, some not smiling. Some players were taking a swing or throwing a pitch. All cards have notes on the back about each player. In many cases, the player’s quotes are included in the captions. Priceless.

Conlon didn’t forget managerial greats such as Miller Huggins, John McGraw and Connie Mack, who shows up in this pack in three different poses.

Even obscure, unheralded players such as Montreal native Joe Krakauskas were rescued from anonymity by Conlon's camera. Conlon didn’t discriminate.

Krakauskas, 26-36 lifetime in the majors, grew up in Hamilton and was the last pitcher to give up a hit to Joe DiMaggio before his 56-game hitting streak came to an end July 16, 1941. The lefty was pitching for the Cleveland Indians at the time when Joltin’ Joe doubled at League Park in Cleveland.

Conlon snapped Krakauskas in a Washington Senators’ uniform somewhere between 1937-40. Krakausksas died in Hamilton in 1960 at age 45 of pneumonia. His wife Margaret died at age 99 in 2015 and is buried next to her husband in the Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Burlington, Ont.

From what I can ascertain, the Teutonic sounding Krakauskas of Lithuanian descent is the only known Canadian in this pack I have, although I imagine Canadians have been snapped by Conlon somewhere along the line and they could be contained in other packs.

Conlon’s most famous photo, shot from under a hood supported by a tripod, is the action one of Ty Cobb, biting his lip, sliding ferociously into third base. A remarkable action photo in an era when shutter speed was pretty much non-existent.

One of the earliest photos Conlon took, from what I can see, is a shot Christy Mathewson from 1904. It’s believed that Conlon’s last photos of major leaguers were taken in 1942. He died in upstate New York in 1945 at age 77.

For years, the Sporting News Publishing Co. had the Conlon cards available under licence from the Curtis Management Group. The Sporting News is no longer involved with the Conlon Collection, but the Curtis organization remains the rights holder for many of the photos.

Conlon once had 30,000 images but threw a lot of them out. About 8,400 remain in circulation. The National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown doesn’t yet have an exhibit for baseball cards, but it boasts numerous Conlon cards, all through donations.

The best bet is that if you want to get a hold of some of these cards then you just need to check out the online marketing companies. Black and white photos of bygone eras are pretty neat for anyone’s collection.

Now that I have this new set of Conlon photos in my midst you will bet that they will never disappear. Oddly, this pack doesn’t contain the photo of Ruth in street clothes, smoking a cigar. The one in my wallet will suffice.

Conlon Collection cards bring baseball's past to life