Does This Even Count?

During the multi-decade process of attempting to acquire one card of every single person to take the field for the Chicago National League Ballclub, from 1870 through today, I've had to venture to the outskirts of the known cardboard universe.  After all, when you're looking for obscure mop-up pitchers and scant utility infielders - oftentimes literally older than sliced bread - you have to open up your binders to more than just Topps Flagship and the rest of the usual suspects.

With this in mind, oddballs become the name of the game and my Cubs All-Time Roster Collection tome is stuffed to the gills with such curiosities.  My horizons have expanded to include such non-traditional trinkets as greeting cards, unfurled matchbooks, postcards, stickers, and stamps, in addition to traditional, 2.5" x 3.5" pasteboards.  Furthermore, while my binder includes plenty of offerings from Topps, Bowman, Upper Deck, Donruss, et al, it also includes some more off-the-wall representatives; i.e., TCMA, Honus Bonus, Platinum Series Baseball, Ars Longa Art Cards, and Broders, among other fringe sources.  Without these alternative set producers, my collecting goal would be even more impossible than it already is!

On that note, this Christmas, I added another new "edge of the cardboard universe" manufacturer to my CATRC trapper.  This is one that I'd never heard of before - with a name like Skeetersoft, I think that I would have remembered if I had!

Now, there's really nothing to get "Rowdy" about here, this Harold Elliott card is not exactly exciting.  In fact, I think I can safely say that this is one of the most boring cards in my collection; although, it does have some equal company, which is a point I will elaborate on momentarily.

Before we delve too deeply into the circumstances surrounding this colorless, image-less "baseball card," let's take a look at the ballplayer which it purports to represent.  Rowdy Elliott was a back-up catcher and baseball journeyman who's five-year, MLB career took place entirely between 1910 and 1920, but who's minor league tenure extended far beyond that time frame.  Elliott had quick cameos with the Boston Braves to start, but the bulk of the Kokomo, IN native's MLB time came with my beloved Chicago Cubs from 1916-18.  Elliott was part of a pennant winner in 1918 - though he only appeared in five games that season because he enlisted in the Navy at the onset of our involvement in WWI.  Once he returned to the States, he had a 41 game stint with Brooklyn before returning to the bushes, where he would play ball in several dusty locales through 1929.

Sadly, his life was cut short in February of 1934, when he plummeted from his own apartment window in San Francisco - he was only 43.  To this day, the circumstances surrounding his death remain a mystery.

Here's a photograph of ol' Rowdy, so you can actually picture the man, since the Skeetersoft card doesn't help.

Skeetersoft, Inc. was a company behind one of the many tabletop baseball games which were popularized in the middle 20th century onward.  National Pastime was the name of their coffee table simulation and it was played with cards and materials exceptionally similar to those of the more well-renowned American Professional Baseball Association, aka APBA.  In fact, Skeetersoft's output was often marketed and used as aftermarket additions for it's more popular cousin, as it's formula was compatible with the game play of APBA.  Of course, there were a few slight differences which claimed to create a more lifelike sim.  What those tweaks are, I'm not sure, as I have never played either game and I'm not going to pretend like I know how to do so.

If you're interested, while the original Skeetersoft company appears to be defunct - though there is an online version of the diamond sport simulation, with updated stats available here.

Skeetersoft in action.

Both APBA and Skeetersoft use dice and mathematics to simulate the actions of a baseball game.  Cards are created to represent teams and players from all across the professional baseball timeline - these bare-bone game pieces feature assigned numerical values which correspond and interact with the dice and the game board.  Without truly understanding the game play myself, that's about the best summation I could possibly hope to come up with.

As you can tell, the cards created for these games were not intended to be collectible - they are there simply to serve a larger purpose, much like the property cards in Monopoly or the knowledge-packed cards of Trivial Pursuit.  Of course, that doesn't stop us obsessive baseball card collectors, constantly looking for new items to add to our precious player collections or oddball stores.  I know that I've come across several of these oddities on such reliable hobby sources as Ebay, Comc, and Sportlots and I've even seen a few in my local card shops.  I mean, they are cards and they do pertain to baseball... therefore, they must be baseball cards, right?

While Rowdy Elliott is the first Skeetersoft card to come into my possession, I do have a small sampling of APBA cards already resting comfortably in my CATRC book.  Desperate times call for desperate measures, so I have turned to these sources to fill otherwise nigh-unfillable gaps in my collection.

For example, above you see an APBA game card for Norm McMillan, starting third baseman for one of the greatest Cubs squads to ever take the field - the 1929 NL Pennant winners.  Despite his important status on an iconic team, Norm has exactly one official baseball card on the market, according to Beckett, and it's an uber rare strip card from 1923.  This penny-pincher is likely never going to come across one in my budget, if I ever come across one at all.  Thus, this game token allows me to scratch another name off of my list without costing much scratch itself.  Similarly, Rowdy Elliott only has a handful of sparse, original Zeenut singles to his name - different player, same situation.  Such is pre-war collecting, I'm afraid.

With that, I feel compelled to ask you, the reader, your opinion on a very important question - should these count?

Seeing as these flimsy game pieces hold no inherent collector's value and do not so much as even depict a silhouette of the player featured, should they count towards my Cubs All-Time Roster Collection, or even as baseball cards in general?

For me and for now, I do include these cards in my collection; but, only as a last resort and they will get booted if and when I can track down a proper, picturesque card.  Elliott, McMillan, and Clyde Beck are the only three such instances and I am not exactly seeking out more; that being stated, as plain and dull as these maybe-cards are, I'd much rather see these in my binder than an empty gap.

APBA and Skeetersoft are not the only game tokens to appear in my collection; the aforementioned Platinum Series Baseball and MLB Showdown hold down a few pockets each in my Ultra Pro pages.  However, unlike their brethren, these game cards feature actual photographs of the player which they represent, making them more like a traditional baseball card WITH game play characteristics.  Obviously, the plain jane APBA and Skeetersoft singles lack that duality.

What do you think about this situation?  Were you in my shoes, would you include these cards in your binders?  Perhaps you already do have them in your own, personal collections?  Do you even think of them as baseball cards?  Maybe you think I'm a touch too fanatical and wouldn't use these for anything other than board game night?  I encourage you to weigh in and share your opinions below because I'm truly curious how the blogosphere feels on this topic.

Just try not to let the debate get too "Rowdy!"