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Manager Walter Johnson Signed Lineup Card

1955 Wrigley Field Special Ground Rules

Spring Training Card used in Regular Season 

1967 Official Batting Order Card Yankee Stadium (Visiting Club)

1990's Cincinnati On Road Carbon Blank
 

George Brett 3000 hit Lineup Cards

1996 Yankee Stadium Batting Order Card


Sparky Anderson Signed Lineup Card

Don Denkinger Lineup Card Collection

 KeyMan Collectibles  NEWSLETTER December 2019  
Official Batting Order Lineup Cards - By Steven KeyMan
 Steven KeyMan
Steven KeyMan
Founder of Keymancollectibles.com, and a long time collector, Steven KeyMan has more than 30 years of experience in researching, and cataloging information on Baseball Memorabilia. Researching his own personal collection, and helping others find information on their collectibles, the website grew into the largest online resource for baseball memorabilia
 

   Ask Steven: Direct your questions or feedback, about Baseball Memorabilia to Steven KeyMan Steve@keymancollectibles.com You can also Send KeyMan pictures of your personal Memorabilia Display, and get your own Free  Collectors Showcase Room featured on the website..   

  In the early days of organized baseball, the rules did not require that the batting order be announced before game time. This permitted strategic decisions regarding batting order to occur while the game was in progress. Rule V, Sec. 2 of the 1876 Playing Rules of the National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs states: "The batsmen must take their positions in the order on which they are named on the score-book. After the first innings, the first striker in each innings shall be the batsman whose name follows that of the third man out in the preceding innings."
 
   
    During the 1880s, organized baseball began mandating that the batting order be disclosed before the first pitch. It was not until 1889 that the National league sufficiently defined Rule 19 stating: "The printed or written order of batting, which each captain of the contesting team presents to the umpire prior to the commencement of the game; and such order, on approval of the umpire, should be copied verbatim in the score book of the official scorer of the game, as the official copy, to the secretary of the League or Association the club belongs to."

  It has always been stated in rule 19; that the batting order of each team must be delivered to the umpire before the game who shall submit it to the inspection of the captain of the other side. But its not until 1910 when it is stated in Rule 39 - that the batting order of each team must be delivered before the game by it's captain to the umpire at home plate. This revision marks the beginning of the pre-game ritual of swapping official batting orders, and going over the ground rules with the umpire at home plate.

It is not known when pre-printed official batting order cards were first used. The oldest Lineup cards to surface into the hobby are from the 1930's. After the cards are submitted to the umpire by the manager or coach of each team before the game they go over the ground rules. Some that are unique to the home teams ballpark are listed and printed on the back. The umpire keeps one copy of the lineup card of each team, and gives the second copy to the opposing manager. A copy is also sent to the official scorer but it's not clear on who provides it.

  The value for batting order lineup cards will vary based on age, the lineup for that game, the signature of the manager on the original copy, team, stadium, and accomplishments of noted players for that game. As with all collectibles condition is important but the crease caused by folding is normal.

 This "Official Batting Order" Lineup Card for the visiting club is from the game played on May 21, 1934, at St. Louis' Sportsman's Park. The undated batting order card was filled out by Connie Mack in pencil and signed at the bottom.

For the most part but not true in every example found since the 1940's, "On Road" official batting order cards were printed with a blue or greenish tint, with the home team printed in white, beige or a lighter tint. It seems that most clubs carried their own lineup cards when on the road.

 These cards will not have the ground rules printed on the back. There are also examples found that were provided to the visiting club by the home team, which do not have a team name at the top or reads "Visiting Club" and will have the ground rules on the back.

 There are standard formats used in printing the official batting order cards that could be attributed to specific eras. The printing style used for lineup cards from the 1930's (see 1934 card above) leaks into the 1940's. By 1946 the format was changed as seen in the example above. Sometime around 1954 another change was made. It was not mandatory to use one format or the other, and as shown here these two 1954 New York Giants lineup cards were used in the same year. They used up the older cards before using the new. It is common to find cards without a date.

 Carbon copies show up around 1960, as seen with this World Series game 3 lineup copy featured in a 2005 Heritage Auction. The format used in the printing for this lineup card differs from the cards common to after 1965. It has a diagonal manager line at the bottom right as seen with the cards printed in the 1930's, but with a different header.

 The paper used is also thinner. Carbon copies will have a lower collectors value than the original which features the actual signature of the manager.

  The 1972 Official Batting Order cards came in a 4 part carbon copy pad that consisted of 4 sheets like this one filled out by Ted Williams and used for this Texas Rangers lineup.

 The original on the top was filled out by the manager which made 3 carbon copies, one for the manager to keep, one for the umpire, one for the opposing manager, and one for the official scorekeeper.

The examples shown here are from game 3 of the 1974 World Series between the visiting club, Los Angeles Dodgers, and the home team Oakland Athletics. The "On Road-Official Batting" card used by Los Angeles for this game has a different printing format than the "1974 Official Batting Order" card used by Oakland.

The Lineup card used by the Athletics is the same format used in the 1985 Exhibition Stadium game below. The Los Angeles "Visiting Managers copy" and the Oakland "Official Scorer's Copy" were both used by the home plate umpire Doug Harvey. Little attention was paid to who received which copy.

These "1985 Official Batting Order" Lineup Cards are from the game played on October 6th, at Toronto's Exhibition Stadium. In this the last game of the 1985 season, Yankees MVP Don Mattingly hit Home run 35, and Phil Niekro became the 18th pitcher in Major League history to win 300 games. The 46-year-old knuckleballer also became the oldest pitcher in baseball history to toss a shutout, when the Yankees beat the Blue Jays 8-0.

These 1990's era Official Batting Order lineup cards; are from the game played at Dodger Stadium on July 28, 1991, when Montreal Expos pitcher Dennis Martínez pitched a perfect game against the Los Angeles Dodgers. These copies belonged to Tommy Lasorda, where he made the notation "Lose-2-0 Prefect Game-"
 
 
 
 
 Through the years there have been errors made filling out the lineup, as was the case with a game played on August 28, 1988. Before the game between Detroit and Milwaukee, Brewers manager Tom Trebelhorn meant to put newly acquired Mike Young into the 5th spot of his lineup card.

 But out of habit, when he wrote "Y-o-u-n," he automatically put a "t" instead of a "g" on the end of the name. That's Yount, as in Robin, the veteran Brewer whom Trebelhorn already had listed in the third spot.


Rule 4.01 section d states in part: Obvious errors in the batting order, which are noticed by the umpire-in-chief before he calls 'play' for the start of the game, should be called to the attention of the manager or captain of the team in error, so the correction can be made before the game starts.... Teams should not be trapped later by some mistake that obviously was inadvertent and which can be corrected before the game starts.
 
    Home plate umpire Mike Reilly made the mistake in not noticing that "Yount" was listed in the third spot as the center fielder and the fifth spot as the DH. But when Tigers manager Sparky Anderson returned to the dugout from the pre-game meeting at home plate, he handed the lineup card to Dick Tracewski who noticed the error. Anderson waited until Young came to bat in the 5th spot, then called the mistake to the attention of the umpires.

 After first deciding to overlook the error, the umpires sided with Anderson and ordered Yount out of the game. Trebelhorn was ejected for arguing, and played the rest of the game under protest. Because the Brewers won, the protest is canceled. But had the Tigers won, it seems the protest could have been upheld by American League president Bobby Brown. The game would then have been resumed from the point of protest. "Teams should not be trapped later by some mistake that obviously was inadvertent and which can be corrected before the game starts."
 
 
 
   "Game-Used" Official Batting Order lineup cards are unique to each game played, and hard to come by. Most are made available to the collectors market through estate sales, or collections from ex-managers, and umpires. A collector coming across a lineup card of interest, might never see another again. Chances are that one of the other 2 copies will never hit the market. And, the original filled out by the manager could be one-of-a-kind.  
 
 
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