"Young Cy" Young

Here is an eBay pick-up from a week ago. 1906 Fan Craze Irving Young. He pitched from 1905-1911, mostly for Boston of the N.L. He holds the post 1900 record for the most wins in a season by a pitcher with a below .550 record. He went 20-21 in 1905. 


According to his SABR page he was known as "Young Cy" or "Cy the Second" Those are references, of course, to Cy Young who was raking up a bazillion wins for the Red Stockings in those days. 


It's in super condition, looks even better than my scan. I almost always break cards out of cases but I may leave this one as is, at least for awhile.

Here's a little about the 1904/1906 Fan Craze cards from an auction catalog:

The Fan Craze playing card sets feature what many collectors consider the finest portrait poses of turn-of-the-century ballplayers ever produced on baseball cards. Fan Craze were issued in 1904 (the American League set with backs printed in blue) and in 1906 (the National League set with backs printed in red) by the Fan Craze Company of Cincinnati. These playing cards were designed to be used to play an exciting indoor baseball game. Fan Craze have a special significance to collectors. They are one of the few sets issued in the earliest years of the twentieth century, and the set includes many players who appear in no other card sets. Because of its year(s) of issue, it is also one of the few sets which include a blend of 1910-era stars along with players who made their mark in the nineteenth century, such as Joe Kelley and Jake Beckley, who in 1906 were just winding down their playing careers. Fan Craze are one of the few and one of the most important issues of the era, and in the opinion of many these cards also represent one of the best values of all cards issued in the early 1900s.

I have never owned one of these before. It was hard to pass up a 106 year old card in this kind of shape for the price.