Monroe Tobacco Cards: Juby and Jones
All of the images were traced from T206 cards using Inkscape and then texture was added using GIMP. The GMs in the league were offered the opportunity to sign the card for their team as the relevant player. So, that’s the source of the signatures on the cards below.
Monroe Tobacco Baseball Cards
Monroe Tobacco Co., owned by the
Richmond Rifles owner, Michael J. Monroe, issued a set of baseball cards to be included in packs of its cigarettes in 1901. Recognizing the growing popularity of baseball, Monroe seized on the promotional potential of including some of the game’s most famous players and most promising youngsters with its tobacco productions. Below is a subset of the cards put out in that infamous set.
Adjusting to life in the big leagues can be hard. Despite showing immense talent with his glove from the very beginning, Juby’s scuffling bat led the Clippers, already overstocked with talented leathermen, to ship him to the Whales of Brooklyn ahead of the 1903 season. The change of scenery helped the athletic shortstop to discover an approach at the plate that worked well-enough for him. Since joining Brooklyn, Juby has been something approximating an average bat while being among the best defenders at shortstop in the LBL. His glove has been so impressive for the Whales that he has won two Grande Snagger awards in three seasons in Brooklyn and finished third in MVP voting in 1905 despite slashing .228/.283/.313. An unlikely surge at the plate, and an unfortunate injury to Philadelphia’s Leo McKenzie, means the 27 year old shortstop could challenge for his first MVP award in 1906.
Debuting with the Boston Banshees in the LBL’s inaugural year—all frenetic energy and hustle—the rookie SS immediately made an impression on Boston baseball fans and the LBL at-large. Jones' high-energy style was at-once a perfect match for the outright hostile and often violent atmosphere at the Boston Yards. Hustle, grit, and spikes-up slides, Jones played to the preferences of his hometown Boston rooters. The dazzling shortstop—as likely to make a diving play as to be the first of his teammates into a scrum—has secured seven Grande Snagger awards at SS. But, as he has developed, he has also become a threat with his bat. He has won two Golden Bat awards in his career. The unexpected trade from Boston to Twin City just prior to Opening Day 1903 left the city of Boston
devastated. Since the trade, Boston has mostly floundered in the standings without their passionate leader—never seriously challenging for a division title—while Twin City has won two Western League pennants behind their ever-charging shortstop.