1917 Collins-McCarthy (E135) Joe Jackson #82 — blank back
1917 Collins-McCarthy (E135) #82, a West Coast candy issue of about 200 thin-stock cards measuring roughly 2" × 3¼". Fronts share a posed photo design with related bakery/store issues (Boston Store, Standard Biscuit, Weil Baking); backs exist blank or advertising those brands. This example is the blank-back variety. Jackson appears in his White Sox years on a scarce regional caramel-era card — the last large candy set of its kind until the early 1920s.
- Issue
- 1917 Collins-McCarthy (E135)
- Year
- 1917
- Number
- #82
- Variation
- Blank Back
- Subject
- "Shoeless" Joe Jackson
- Grade
- PSA AUTH
- Cert #
- 50075638
- Population
- 3 at this grade (per Card Ladder)
1917 Collins-McCarthy (E135)
A 200-card black-and-white candy issue from San Francisco's Collins-McCarthy Candy Company, sold under the "Baseball's Hall of Fame" banner years before Cooperstown existed. The cards came with candy rather than as sets, were printed on thin stock, and are scarce today. The 1917 date places Jackson in his White Sox prime, two seasons before the 1919 Series.
More on this issue →"Shoeless" Joe Jackson
A South Carolina mill-town hitter with almost no schooling, Jackson became one of the purest hitters the game has ever seen: a .408 average in his first full season with Cleveland in 1911 and a .356 career mark, among the highest ever. Babe Ruth later said he had copied Jackson's style because he thought Jackson the greatest natural hitter he had ever seen — a widely repeated attribution, even as historians still argue how literally Ruth meant it. Jackson hit .375 and played errorless ball in the 1919 World Series, yet admitted to a grand jury in 1920 that he had taken gamblers' money. Acquitted by a Chicago jury in 1921, he was banned for life by Commissioner Landis anyway. The unresolved question of how guilty he really was is the reason this collection exists.
More on "Shoeless" Joe Jackson →