VERY EARLY 1896 PATERSON SILK SOX BASEABLL CLUB BUTTON W/HOF'ERS: HONUS WAGNER AND ED BARROW.
Item Description
One of only three known examples, 7/8" with varnished surface back paper. Only one earlier back paper design is known used in buttons of this size prior to those like this one which includes the patent date April 14, 1896 by Whitehead & Hoag. Dot pattern halftone image of eleven players in "Paterson" uniforms plus two men in civilian dress and some balls and bats in the foreground. Most importantly, an extremely young Honus Wagner is pictured in the back row, third from left along with a very young executive named Ed Barrow, sitting on the left of the two gentlemen in suits. In both cases, this pinback appearance represents the earliest known professional baseball image for both of these future National Baseball Hall of Famers. Earlier in the 1896 season, Wagner and Barrow were together with a Wheeling, West Virginia baseball club and when Barrow left the team to run the Paterson team during the inaugural season of the Atlantic League, he took Honus with him to be his star ballplayer.
The following season, in 1897, Honus Wagner would make his Major League debut with the Louisville Colonels and spent the next three seasons there before joining the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1900, for the start of an 18 year run before retiring as an active player in 1917, while also performing managerial duties for the club that season as well. A number of years later, Honus would rejoin Pittsburgh and play an active coaching role for the Pirates from 1933-51. Widely regarded during his time and forever after as the greatest shortstop in baseball history, Wagner was a member of the inaugural Hall of Fame Class of 1936, which included only four other members: Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson and Christy Mathewson. "The Flying Dutchman" would finish with career numbers of .329 along with 101 home runs, 1,732 RBI's, 3,430 hits and 722 stolen bases along with eight batting titles.
Ed Barrow would begin his professional baseball career in the mid-1890s as an owner/manager of numerous minor league baseball clubs over the next twenty years or so, including this famous 1896 Paterson club with Wagner. Ed would briefly manage the American League's Detroit Tigers for two seasons, 1903-04, but difficulties co-existing with other front office personnel signaled the end of Barrow's time in Detroit. Subsequently, he went back to managing again in the minors until resurfacing with the Boston Red Sox in 1918 as their manager and spent the next two years there with a young lefty pitcher named Babe Ruth. After resigning from the Red Sox job after the 1919 season, Ed signed on with the New York Yankees as their new business manager and would become the primary architect of the first Yankees dynasty of the 1920s, working closely together with another future Hall of Fame executive, Jacob Ruppert. Barrow's efforts would ultimately be rewarded with selection to the Hall of Fame in 1953.
A few light short scratches on lower left quadrant catch reflected light. Exc. The identical image to this pin also appears on an 1896 cabinet card (photo portion shown here) whereby Honus Wagner and Ed Barrow are both easily identifiable. Paul Muchinsky Collection Book Example.
