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BF2-1 Baseball Pennants - Bob Forbes' Information ----------------------------- The baseball pennants were produced in two styles: black print on white felt and white print on colored felt. There are generally only minor differences between the two styles, though a distinct variation is known for Nap Rucker (Nap - white on colored felt, “Nap” - black on white felt). All 97 players have been found in the white print on colored felt style while only a little over half have been confirmed in the black print on white felt version. In many cases, the same player is found on multiple colors of felt (white on colored felt style). The black and white pictures match those used in the M101 Sporting News Baseball Players series (M101-4 and M101-5 sub-sets). The pictures generally measure 1 by 1 1/2 inches (25 mm by 38 mm) though there is some variance due to the fact they were hand-cut. It is not that uncommon to find the wrong player’s picture on a pennant and this generally does not warrant any increase in value. The pennants themselves vary in size, with differences of +/- 1/8 inch or so on each side being fairly common. There is no doubt this was a 1916 issue as ten of the players changed teams after the 1915 season (Baker, Bender, Brown, Gandil, Gedeon, Hendrix, Kauff, Lapp, Meyers, and Tinker) and all are shown with their new teams. The last move was February 15, 1916, which represents the earliest the set could have gone into production. A number of players were traded that summer (Doyle, Hamilton, Herzog, Lavender, Merkle, Oldring, Sallee, Schulte, and Zimmerman) but all are found on their old teams. Therefore, the pennants were most likely distributed between March and June 1916, though it is certainly possible the distribution continued into the summer without changing the team names for those players who had been traded. There are also oversized pennants and pillowtops.