1915/16 M101-5 Sporting News

The 1915/16 Sporting News M101-5 baseball series consists of 200 cards, each measuring 1-5/8” by 3”. Each piece hosts a sepia image with the player’s name, team, position and the card number identified at the lower white border. The set was offered as a marketing promotion by C.C. Spink and Son, publishers of The Sporting News, with the backs either blank or carrying one of several different advertisements, such as one for the Famous and Barr Co., a boys’ clothing store located in the St. Louis area. The M101-5 series lays claim to one of the cornerstones of the card collecting hobby – the rookie card of Babe Ruth (#151) – viewed as one of the hobby’s most important relics. It is further anchored by cards for stars and Hall of Famers Grover Cleveland Alexander (#4), Frank Baker (#8), Dave Bancroft (#9), Max Carey (#26), Frank Chance (#28), Johnny Evers (#55), Joe Jackson (#86), Walter Johnson (#90), Nap Lajoie (#95), Connie Mack (#105), Rube Marquard (#110), John J. McGraw (#114), Eppa Rixey (#142), Casey Stengel (#171), Jim Thorpe (#176), Honus Wagner (#184) and Buck Weaver (#188).  There are three instances of two players having the same card number: #12 Beals Becker and Lute Boone, #23 Mordecai Brown and Forrest Cady, and #186 Bobby Wallace and Zach Wheat.