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Collectibles |
NEWSLETTER |
August 2022 |
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Lesser
known & Private Brand
Baseballs |
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Steven KeyMan |
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By Steven KeyMan |
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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 |
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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.. |
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Small sporting goods,
hardware, drug, discount, and
department stores commonly had
privately branded baseball
equipment made for them, to
help promote their business.
J. deBeer and Son, Inc. was
founded in 1889 by Jacob deBeer,
a German Dutch immigrant tanner
that began making his own
baseballs in a converted barn
in Johnstown, N.Y. Private
branding was their specialty.
Specifications on a privately branded baseball that match unique specs &
terminology used by a company
could indicate the
manufacturer. The earliest
trademark logo that the company
used was the Anchor brand.
The earliest Anchor Brand
baseball logos, have "J de
Beer" inside the anchor. Later
Anchor Brand baseballs feature
"J. deBeer & Son," sometime
after the move to Albany. In
the early 1930s, the
Anchor
Brand No. 50 Professional
League baseball was made for a
Quaker Oats Premium.
Soon after the company started to use the Double Header logo, but the
Anchor brand was still used for
many years later.
J. deBeer & Son produced official Little League, Babe Ruth, Colt, and Pony
league baseballs. In the 1980s
the baseball division was
bought by Worth Inc., their
earliest competitor, Lannon
Manufacturing Co. Inc.
 Founded by George Sharp Lannom Jr. in 1912 as Lannom Manufacturing
Company. A producer of leather
horse collars and harnesses, Lannom developed a sporting
goods line in order to utilize
his tannery. Expanding the
business in 1921 they added
helmets, basketballs, baseballs
and later softballs.
Naming the
line "Worth," Lannom created
the slogan "Another Name For
Value," which was placed
on the companies trademark
logo.
By the 1930's, the
Worth-Lannon Manufacturing
Co. Inc., of
Tennessee created a generic
"Official Trade Mark" logo that
was used on baseballs produced
for other companies.
The Official Trade Mark logo was used as recent as the 1980s. Baseballs
include: "Don Larsen's Series
Special," "Mel Stottlemyre
Official League," and the "Lou
Boudreau official league ."
Lannon also produced private
branded baseballs, using that
company's trademark logo.
Not to be confused with
Goldsmith Sporting Goods; P.
Goldsmith's & Sons of
Cincinnati,
Goldsmith’s Inc. of Wichita,
Kansas, was established in
1887.
A Book & stationary store that carried a full line of books, stationery,
confectionery, cigars, tobacco
and gent’s furnishing goods.
They became one of the
country’s largest office
furniture dealers, and
eventually, in 1900, expanded
their inventory to sporting
goods.
Goldsmith's of Wichita included a line of baseball equipment, that carried
the Goldsmith's of Wichita
brand name. The baseball's were
made by Lannon MFG. Co. The "Stratatex"
binding method was patented by
Lannon MFG, Company in 1938,
and this stamp is only found on
Worth baseballs.
Samuel Zackheim and Samuel
Potolsky formed Atlantic
leather Goods Co. in 1915 on
Broadway in New York City. The
company were retailers and
jobbers for leather goods such
as billfolds, satchels, purses
and other accessories.
For a short period of time through the 1920's and into the 1940's the
Atlantic Leather Goods also
sold, baseball gloves and
baseballs under their privately
branded
"Champion Brand
Sporting Goods" name.
The baseballs seem to have been made by
J. deBeer and Son, Inc. as the
stamping and specifications
have a strong resemblance.
The B.F. REPP Co. was a
leather trades company located
in Ohio, that specializes in
harnesses, dating back to the
turn of the 20th century. By
the 1920's B.F. Repp had a
number of small business'
including the REPPS Sports
Equipment Co., which was
established in 1925.
In 1931, the B.F. Repp stores, located in Lima Brian were
merged into one organization,
of witch founder Byard F. Repp
moved to Bryan, and took charge
of the business.
The
J.H. Grady Manufacturing Co.
was organized as a subsidiary
of Rawlings Sporting Goods in
1923 for the production of
Rawlings baseballs. John Henry
Grady, who made baseballs for
J. deBeer as a youngster, was
named President.
The factory opened with 100 employees at 1310 North sixteenth Street,
and in 1931 moved to 927 Tyler
street St. Louis. MO, a little
more than 1 mile away. In 1946
Rawlings acquired the J.H.
Grady Production Organization.
This was Rawlings' entry into baseball and softball creation. This
acquisition paved the way for
Rawlings to develop into the
official baseball of Major
League baseballs in 1977.
The Varco 10V Cork and Rubber
Center Official League Baseball
was manufactured for
Fred
Varney & Co. of St Louis Mo.
Fred Varney was a distributor
of Electric supplies,
equipment, and Sporting Goods,
located at 2300 Olive street,
in St Louis.
The company would accept items on consignment that was flown in to be
distributed to retailers across
Missouri, Illinois, and
Kentucky.
Products included; Radios, televisions, outboard motors, "sidewalk
bicycles," golf balls, bait
castings, baseball gloves,
bats, and "Play Ground
baseballs." Stamping and
specifications have a strong
resemblance to baseballs made
by. J. deBeer & Son.
KAYDEE was the trademark
in-store brand name for
sporting goods at the
Katz Drug
Company Department Store.
The company carried a large variety of goods which included; drugs, toilet
goods, sundry, electrical,
tobacco, liquor, housewares,
paints, toys, and a full line
sporting goods. Spalding,
Wilson, Adirondack, Louisville
Slugger, Harwood, Arkansas
Traveler, Hanna, Worth, and
more.
This KADEE No. 951 Major League, red and blue stitched baseball, was made
by Worth-Lannom Manufacturing
Company. Worth specialized in
private branding, used the same
exact "Major League" stamping
on the sweet spot, and
specifications on other No. 951
baseballs.
This "Official League"
Cushioned-Cork Center baseball
was made for the
Guy Temple Inc. Sporting Goods
Store, of Moline Illinois.
The ball would have been
manufactured by a company such
as Worth - Lannom Manufacturing
Co.
The Horsehide cover baseball can be loosely dated to about 1963 when the
two letter state abbreviations
came into use, to about 1973,
when in 1974 manufacturers
stopped using horsehide covered
baseballs.
It is not clear if the Illinois abbreviation on this ball is two or three
letters. If it is in fact
three, the ball would then date
to about 1950-1962. The red
stitch retail baseballs became
more common after the the
1940s.
The Belknap Hardware & Mfg Co.,
wholesale hardware supply co.
was established in 1840. They
began by producing iron
products in a small shop, such
as horse and mule shoes, nails,
spikes and other forged items.
Their catalog of items grew
from 100 to over 75,000 over
the years.
Since 1890 their catalog included a line of sporting goods that included
baseball equipment, made by
other manufacturers. The
Belknap brand name was placed
on the items.
The "Blue Grass" trademark was registered on April, 27, 1954., and became
the Belknap in-store brand. The
Blue Grass logo on this
D49-BG00 Official League
baseball dates to the mid to
late 1950's-1960's. By the
1970's baseballs were stamped
with the Belknap Script logo.
The
Cambridge Sporting Goods
Corp., was a distributor located
at 625 Broadway, New York, NY,
sometime around the
1960's-1970's.
The Company carried a full line of sporting goods made by the major
manufactures but also carried a
Cambridge line of sporting
goods that were manufactured
and privately branded for them
by other companies. Like this
baseball their baseball gloves
were imported from a Japanese
manufacture.
In 1961 Cambridge, along with the A.J. Hollander & co. Inc., and the
Olympic sporting Goods Co. were
prosecuted by the FTC because
the gloves they were importing
from Japan had the names of
ballplayers that did not
legally give endorsements to
use their names. Pee Wee Reese
was not part of the lawsuit but
it's a good chance that his
name on a ball made in Japan
was not authorized either.
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