gamiam wrote:I think he was referring to the pre-1900 cards that don't have a team on the drop-down menu, like Sweeney, Barnes, Hecker, Browning, etc.
Thanks, gamian, I think you must be right. And your list makes for an awfully good start. A full list might be hard to construct, though.
But, OK, maybe I can try to make a step in the right direction.
I would be inclined to guess that among hitters additional orphans might include Deacon White 1873 (BRS), Dan Brouthers 1886 (DTW), Jack Glasscock 1889 (IND), Bill Joyce 1894 (WHS), Jessie Burkett 1895 (CLS), Cupid Childs 1896 (CLS), Fred Clark (LOU) 1897.
Among pitchers, additional orphans might include Tommy Bond & Candy Cummings 1875 (HAR), Tim Keefe 1880 (TRO), Jim McCormick 1883 (CLB), Radbourn 1884 (PRO), Pud Galvin 1884 (BUF), Lady Baldwin 1886 (DTW), Ed Seward 1888 (PAA), Nig Cuppy 1896 (CLS).
I've found these names by sorting the latest player database by year and price, and then looking for team names that don't seem to correspond to post-1901 NL teams. I haven't checked these names against the drop-down menus, but these names might be worth investigating. And I've very possibly missed a few orphans as well.
If anyone is willing to check these names against the drop down menus, that would be great and would put us on the way to having a definitive list, assuming that somebody doesn't already have one that they could share.