Willie Keeler Portrait

William Henry "Wee Willie" Keeler (1872–1923) appears here on the T206 White Border tobacco set in his portrait pose, depicted toward the end of his playing career as a New York Yankees outfielder — though the bulk of his Hall of Fame credentials had been built years earlier with the Baltimore Orioles and Brooklyn Superbas of the National League. The left-handed hitter, left-handed thrower stood barely 5'4" and 140 pounds, and his "Wee Willie" handle was a literal description rather than an affectionate exaggeration. He hit, by his own famous formula, 'em where they ain't — placing balls into vacated infield holes with the kind of bat control that produced an 1897 batting average of .424 and the longest hit streak the 19th century recorded. By the 1909 T206 cycle, Keeler was 36 and in the Yankees' (then Highlanders') outfield more on reputation than reflexes, but his presence in the set was non-negotiable for any tobacco issue trying to credibly cover the era's batting royalty. T206 produced two Keeler variations, the portrait and a separate batting pose, and the portrait is the cleaner studio composition. He retired after the 1910 season. He died January 1, 1923 in Brooklyn at age 50. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939 by the Old Timers Committee, joining the wave of nineteenth-century stars enshrined in the run-up to Cooperstown's centennial-of-baseball celebrations.