Also part of the Yahtzee Box Find, this lot includes a total of 51 hand-cut cards from 1915 through 1920 issues of the Zee-Nut E137 Pacific Coast League series. Produced by San Francisco's Collins-McCarthy Co., the cards were distributed in packages of the candy company's Zee-Nut product, a mixture of popcorn, peanuts, and coconuts similar to Cracker Jacks. The first four issues (1911-14) were taller cards (4" to 4-1/4" in height). Starting in 1915, the design of Zee-Nuts got much smaller and more delicate, ranging from 1-3/4" to 2" wide by 2-3/4" to 3-14" tall. There are zero Zee-nut sets (no complete, near or partials from any year) listed in the PSA Registry. That right there tells you just how difficult it is to complete one, let alone get close.
A total of 12 cards in this lot have been graded by PSA: ten are the only graded example in the PSA Pop Report; five are the highest graded examples between both PSA and SGC; and two are the only graded example, period. You will notice that three of the graded cards (and about a dozen ungraded) have an 'MK' qualifier. These pencil marks were done many decades ago by the original collector, a local kid from the San Francisco Bay Area who pulled each card from Zee-Nut snack packages. While these marks are erasable, we chose to leave all cards in their original state out of respect for the collection. Here are the graded results listed by year of issue.
1916 Billy Southworth, Portland Beavers: PSA PR 1 -- higher of two PSA graded; other PR (Q)
1916 Jack Quinn, Vernon Tigers: PSA GD+ 2.5 -- only one PSA graded (1 by SGC, AUTH)
1916 "Truck" Hannah, Salt Lake City Bees: PSA GD 2 -- only one PSA graded (2 by SGC, GD & VG)
1916 Roy "Rhino" Hitt, Vernon: PSA VG 3 (MK) -- only graded example! (none by PSA or SGC)
1917 Roy Hitt, Vernon: PSA VG+ 3.5 -- only one PSA graded (3 by SGC, highest VG-EX)
1917 "Buzz" Arlett, Oakland Oaks: PSA VG+ 3.5 -- only one PSA graded (1 by SGC, VG)
1917 Harry Krause, Oakland: PSA VG 3 -- only one PSA graded (3 by SGC, highest VG-EX)
1917 Emil "Irish" Meusel, L.A. Angels: PSA PR 1 (MK) -- one of two PSA graded
1917 Charles "Spider" Baum, S.F. Seals: PSA PR 1 (MK) -- only one PSA graded (3 by SGC, highest EX)
1920 Samuel "Slam" Agnew, S.F. Seals: PSA VG-EX 4 -- only one PSA graded (1 by SGC, PR)
1920 Otis "Doc" Crandall, L.A Angels.: PSA VG+ 3.5 -- only graded example! (none by PSA or SGC)
1920 Heinie Sand [sic, Sands], Salt Lake: PSA FR 1.5 -- only one PSA graded (1 by SGC, VG-EX)
See all Zee-Nut PSA Pop Reports: https://www.psacard.com/pop/#0%7Czeenut
While Southworth, the legendary St. Louis Cardinals manager, is the only Cooperstown Hall of Famer among the graded dozen, every player but Baum played in the majors and some were bonified stars. Krause led the AL in ERA in 1909 and won two World Series with Connia Mack's Atheltics in 1910-11. Quinn won 247 MLB games and two World Series with Mack's A's in 1929-30. Irish Meusel led the NL in RBI in 1923, batted .310 lifetime with over 1,500 hits, and won two World Series with the Phillies in 1921-22. Crandall was a relief pitching pioneer for the NY Giants, baseball's first consistently used closer of games who led NL in games finished five straight seasons (1909-13); he also played 2B part-time and batted .285 lifetime.
Agnew (1913-19) caught both of Babe Ruth's World Series victories for the 1918 Champion Red Sox; "Slam" also went to jail for knocking out Senators HOF manager Clark Griffith during a 1916 brawl. Sand was the Phillies starting shortstop for six years (1923-28) who "went easy" on the Giants in an infamous 1924 bribary scandal caught by Commissioner Landis. Buzz Arlett, considered the "Babe Ruth of the minor leagues," had 432 career homers in the minors, mostly with the Oakland Oaks. In his lone MLB season with the Phillies in 1931, he battted .313 with 18 HR and 72 RBI, but put on too much weight to be effective in the field. Hitt (1907 Reds SP) and Hannah (1918-20 Yankees catcher) also had short runs in the bigs. SP Spider Baum led the PCL in 1915 with 30 victories and finsihed with 302 career minor league wins; he was essentially the "Crash Davis" of pitchers in the minors, having piled up 667 games pitched and over 4,000 innings without getting a sniff at The Show.
Here are the 39 ungraded cards, all in similar PR to VG condition, listed alphabetically by year:
1915 Hub Pernoll (SF), 1916 Otto Hess (VER), 1916 Tom Hughes (SLC), 1916 George Kahler (LA), 1916 Roy Mitchell (VER), 1916 Billy Orr (SLC), 1916 Bill Prough (OAK), 1916 Buddy Ryan (SLC), 1916 Les Sheeham (SF), 1916 Jimmy Shin (PCL), 1916 Tubby Spencer (VER), 1916 Pete Standridge (LA), 1917 Sam Beer (OAK), 1917 Walter Boles (LA), 1917 Buster Callan (OAK), 1917 Cress (SLC), 1917 Frank Decanniere (VER), 1917 Stan Dougan (SLC), 1917 Pat Dougherty (SF), 1917 Red Downs (SF), 1917 Frank Hall (SF), 1917 Truck Hannah (SLC), 1917 Billy Lane (OAK), 1917 Harl Maggert (LA), (2) 1917 Polly McLarry (VER), 1917 Babe Penelli [sic, Pinelli] (POR), 1917 Prough (OAK), 1917 Buddy Ryan (PCL), 1917 Paddy Siglin (POR), 1917 Harry Wolverton (SF), 1920 Les Cook (SAC); Rudy Kallio (POR), 1920 Walt Leverenz (SLC), 1920 Duster Mails (SAC), 1920 Ike McAuley (LA), 1920 Billy Orr (SAC), 1920 Biff Schaller (POR), 1920 Sloppy Thurston.
Among the 39 ungraded cards in this lot, some notables include George Kahler who pitched for the Cleveland Naps (1910-14) in the same starting rotation as Cy Young for two years; he was the PCL's highest paid player in 1915; Sloppy Thurston, who won 20 games and led AL in complete games for 1924 White Sox and also pitched an "immaculate inning"; Duster Mails, who went 7-0 with a 1.85 ERA for 1920 World Champion Indians and pitched 1-0 shutout in Game 6; Hub Pernoll, a stocky 5'8" SP nicknamed "Piano Legs"'; Rudy Kallio, Cobb's 1918-19 Tigers teammate; Buddy Ryan, 1911 PCL HR and batting champ who had over 2,000 PCL hits; Babe Pinelli, 1922-27 Red 3B who later became NL umpire 1935-56 and officiated 6 World Series; Paddy Siglin, who hit .344 and led PCL in HR, doubles and hits in 1921; Walt Leverenz, who won 269 games over 21 minor league seasons; and Biff Schaller, the PCL HR leader in 1915.
In all, there are seven PCL Hall of Famers represented in this lot: Arlett, Baum, Crandall, Hannah (2, one graded), Hitt (2, both graded), Krause and Buddy Ryan (2, both ungraded).
These two sites provide great info about all Zee-Nut issues, including checklists and design:
http://www.starsofthediamond.com/zeenuts.html
https://prewarcards.com/2016/10/03/1911-1938-e136-e137-zeenut-sets
For more on the "Yahtzee Box Find", see Lots 3 and 4 or read these recent hobby media articles.
https://sportscollectorsdigest.com/auctions/texas-tommy-vintage-card-collection
https://www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/yahtzee-1914-texas-tommy-find-includes-cobb-jackson