E102 NNO Nap Lajoie

Napoleon "Nap" Lajoie (1874–1959) appears here on the E102 Anonymous Set of 25 — one of the smallest and least documented of the 1909-era candy-card issues, distributed without any manufacturer's imprint, which is what the "NNO" (no name on) tag indicates in collector shorthand. The right-handed second baseman, batting and throwing right, was the player his Cleveland franchise was literally renamed after: from 1903 through 1914 the American League club was officially the Cleveland Naps in his honor, only reverting to the Indians label after his departure. By the 1909 candy-card cycle, Lajoie was still the marquee infielder of the American League, the man whose 1901 batting average of over .420 had set a modern AL benchmark that no one has since approached. The E102 set is among the scarcer of the period precisely because of its small 25-card checklist and its anonymous distribution channel, which limited the candy boxes through which it reached the public. Lajoie's place in the set was non-negotiable: any 25-card prestige issue of the era essentially had to include him, Cobb, and Wagner. He went on to manage Cleveland late in his career and finished his playing days with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1916. He died February 7, 1959 in Daytona Beach, Florida. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1937, in the second Cooperstown class.