Said to be one of the most difficult 19th century baseball sets (perhaps after Four Base Hits?). There is a main set, N690, comprised of sixty known cards, six team cards, called N693, and 34 known cabinets, also cataloged as N690, sometimes called N690-1. The aim of this page is to present a visual checklist. I have used scans found freely on the internet; if you are the owner of the scan and object to its use, OR if you have scans to share, please email me at gsl -at- litwack dot org. Huge thanks to Wayne M. Delia for the use of his scans; go check out his amazing repository of card images at his webpage. Thanks also to Robert Lifson of Robert Edward Auctions for his images!

1887 Kalamazoo Bats - N690
Cards measure 2¼” by 4″ and are on thick cardboard; they are unnumbered. Players shown are from New York and Philadelphia only. Backs are blank or with advertising, as pictured below, with an original box.

A second box - thank you Jon Canfield!

Ed Andrews

Charles Bastian and Denny Lyons

Louis Bierbauer

Louis Bierbauer and William Gallagher

Charlie Buffington

Daniel Casey

Jack Clements

Roger Connor

Larry Corcoran

Ed Cushman

Pat Deasley

Jim Devlin

Jim Donahue

Mike Dorgan

Dude Esterbrook

Buck Ewing

Sid Farrar

Charlie Ferguson

Jim Fogarty

Jim Fogarty and Deacon McGuire

Elmer Foster

Whitey Gibson

Pete Gillespie

Tom Gunning

Arthur Irwin

Arthur Irwin and Al Maul

Tim Keefe

Ted Larkin and Jocko Milligan

Jack Lynch

Denny Lyons

Denny Lyons and Taylor

Fred Mann

Fred Mann and Robbie Robinson

Charlie Mason

Bobby Mathews

Al Maul

Al Mays

Jim McGan

Deacon McGuire, catching

Deacon McGuire, throwing

Tom McLaughlin

Jocko Milligan and Harry Stowe

Joseph Mulvey

Candy Nelson

Jim O’Rourke

Dave Orr

Tom Poorman

Danny Richardson

Robbie Robinson

Chief Roseman

Ed Seward

Harry Stowe, hands on hips

Harry Stowe, hands outstretched

Sleepy Townsend

Jocko Milligan and Sleepy Townsend

Monte Ward

Gus Weyhing

George Wood

Harry Wright

1887 Kalamazoo Bats team cards - N693
The same size as regular N690s? These cards are quite rare, with some cards said to have only one existent example.

Athletic Club

Baltimore Base Ball Club

Boston Base Ball Club

Detroit Base Ball Club

Philadelphia Base Ball Club

Pittsburg Base Ball Club

1887 Kalamazoo Bats cabinets - N690
The cabinets measure 4¼” by 6½”. I don’t know how they were distributed; they’re not listed as prizes for the exchange of smaller cards. They come in two varieties - on a black mount with gold embossed “Smoke Kalamzoo Bats” advertising, and a version with no mount and no advertising - with an embossed oval stamp. The black mount type is much rarer, possibly prototypes for the final product. According to Bruce Dorskind:

During the course of my collecting I have only seen six Kalamazoo Bat Team Cabinets in private collections (and two in the collection in the New York Public Library). The late Sir Edward Wharton Tigar, author of the five part World Tobacco Index owned three cards which he obtained from Burdick back in the 40’s. Sir Edward, who passed away about a decade ago, donated his collection to the British Museum. He and I traded cards back in the mid-70’s. He owned 400 Ramlys and 2000 Old judges. Two of his three cards eventually landed up with Lew Lipset who sold at least one in one of his auctions. I know of three others in private collections. And I own the sixth- a beautiful card of Philadelphia with Harry Wright pictured “right in the middle.”

A standard type cabinet of Tom Gunning. You can see the oval stamp floating above the base.

Standard type Louis Bierbauer and William Gallagher. Note the dropcloth background!

A one of a kind Philadelphia cabinet with gold lettering from the collection of Bruce Dorskind.

Boston black and gold team cabinet.