Revisiting Billy Sunday in the Old Judge Baseball Card Set

When I first learned that famous evangelical preacher Billy Sunday was found in the Old Judge set, I was dying to get my hands on one of his cards. I’ve always been fascinated by Sunday and learning he was actually a professional baseball player was news that I didn’t quite expect.

Sunday was not a star by any means. He was only passable as a hitter, with a .248 career batting average, and only collected more than 100 hits twice in his career with the Chicago White Stockings (then a National League club), Allegheny City (Pittsburgh), and, briefly, the Philadelphia Phillies.

While Sunday was primarily an outfielder, he does hold the distinction of also having an infinite ERA giving up two hits and two runs in an 1890 appearance while not retiring a batter.

Still, don’t be fooled. He was a legitimate major leaguer, as evidenced by spending eight years in the majors.

My First Billy Sunday Old Judge Card

Like many players, Sunday is featured on several cards in the massive N172 Old Judge baseball card set. I’m not sure how many cards he has in the set, but I know of at least five — two batting cards, two fielding cards, and a throwing variation.

These cards had real printed photographs affixed to pieces of cardboard and were among the first cards of baseball players inserted in packages of cigarettes. Unlike the 20th century tobacco cards like T206, these had a much rougher appearance and were significantly thicker. Even skinned ones can still be as thick or thicker than a T206 card.

I landed my first Sunday Old Judge card back in 2019. It was skinned and rebacked, and I was glad to have it graded by SGC since it looked much more presentable than in raw condition. I realize a lot of older collectors are not fans of graded cards but having that Sunday graded was a perfect example of having cards in poor condition adjudicated. It makes some of them look much nicer and that was the case with my Sunday.

Nevertheless, the appearance was quite low-grade. In addition to being rebacked it was also trimmed on all four sides making it even shorter. This first Sunday card shown here. It just wasn’t a real pretty card all things considered. So I decided to move on and eventually pick up a nicer one.

Reacquiring Billy

Problem was, Sunday’s cards do not come cheap. And the longer I waited, the more expensive they seemed to get.

I did find some from time to time that were reasonably priced but I never acted on any. And these days, buying even a low-grade Sunday card is almost always over than $1,000 for something presentable.

I sold some cards earlier this year to chase a few things that I really wanted. And one of those was a Sunday card, about five years after picking up that first one. I found this excellent fielding pose card that I was drawn to with the photograph capturing Sunday catching a ball. It’s a mock photo, of course, since the images for these cards were shot in studios or in non-playing situations. But it’s such a great picture and it sold for a premium because of the clarity of the image. Many Old Judge cards have faded over the years and ones with crisp pictures like this, always command more money. Despite the very minor trim at the bottom, this is exactly what I was looking for.

I planned to stop with that card. I really did. But I saw a second one that I enjoyed just as much and, well ..

About a month after picking up that Sunday, I found a second online. This one is even nicer. It isn’t trimmed, has another great pose, and is graded a PSA 3(MK).

Some cards with an MK (writing/marking) designation can be ugly, just because of the wide variance in what MK means. It’s one of the things that annoys me about grading qualifiers. This card has a small ‘888’ written on the back, which is the reason for the MK designation on it. But card with scribbling that covers an entire front or back receives the same MK designation and there’s no distinction. It can mean a stray line or it can mean someone went to town and drew a picture of Alfred E. Neuman on the back of a blank card.

No complaints here and most collectors obviously take into account what caused the MK. In this case, it’s a small amount of writing added to the back of the card and the front is fantastic looking. It’s another great fielding pose of the famous Sunday in his White Stockings uniform.

I’m probably done buying Sunday cards for now. If he had only one more, I might try to grab that to complete the subset. But as I mentioned, he’s got at least three other cards and that’s probably a bit much. However, I’m glad to finally have at least a couple of nice examples.