Pete Appleton was a journeyman outfielder who played in parts of 4 seasons in Major League Baseball between 1912 and 1920. While his career stats were nothing special, accumulating just 362 at-bats over 121 games, Appleton achieved a measure of fame amongst collectors due to his representation in the early era of baseball card production. Appleton’s rookie season of 1912 coincided with the emergence of mass-produced, gum-included baseball cards and the outfielder would go on to be featured in several different card series in the teens and early 20s, ensuring his name and face endured long after his playing days ended.
Appleton began his professional career in 1912 with the Boston Braves after several years in the minor leagues. The 26-year-old arrived on the scene just as Bowman Gum began inserting baseball cards into packages as a marketing promotion. As a rookie on a major league roster, Appleton was among the players selected for inclusion in the inaugural issues of series like T206 and T207 from the American Tobacco Company. While he saw limited playing time that first season, batting just .226 in 50 games, Appleton found himself instantly recognizable to baseball card collectors across the country.
Over the next few seasons, Appleton continued bouncing between Boston and their minor league affiliates. He maintained his presence in the growing baseball card landscape. Appleton’s rookie appearance made him a sought-after name for collectors of the early tobacco issues. Prominent sets such as 1909-11 T206 White Border, 1914 Cracker Jack, and 1915 Cracker Jack each featured an individual card dedicated to the journeyman outfielder. Appleton’s notoriety as a card subject far outpaced his on-field contributions, a trend that would continue even after his playing days concluded.
Following the 1915 campaign, Appleton’s major league career appeared over as he spent the next two seasons in the minors. Lower level baseball served to keep his name active for collectors. Regional issues from minor leagues on the East Coast such as the Connecticut State League included Appleton amongst their roster of stars. These less widely-produced sets commanded high prices amongst hardcore collectors interested in completing definitive early sets. After two years removed from the big leagues, Appleton received one final chance in 1920.
Signed by the St. Louis Cardinals that season at age 32, Appleton’s short major league comeback coincided with the rise of yet another legendary baseball card manufacturer. In 1920, the National League team paired with the American Caramel Company to distribute player cards with caramel squares. The famed Caramel cards captured and preserved Appleton for collectors at the very end of his MLB tenure. While Appleton totaled just 23 more games and 31 additional at-bats with St. Louis in 1920 before retiring, his inclusion in the rare early Caramel issue ensured his legend lived on long past his career.
Even after 1920, Appleton continued to surface in other sets catering towards growing baseball card audiences. Widely-distributed issues like 1911-12 Sweet Caporal captured images of stars as well as legendary ” Commons” like Appleton to satisfy needs for complete sets. Regional issues from parts of New York and New England where he played minor league ball in the late 1910s brought the journeyman back for specialized collectors. So while Appleton faded from collective baseball memory by the 1920s, his on-going appearances in early 20th century cigarette, bubblegum, and caramel card products turned him into an unlikely memorabilia icon.
The enduring fame of Pete Appleton cards reaches well beyond his pedestrian career stats or contributions as a player. Benefitting from timing and circumstance in breaking into major league baseball during the first golden era of sports cards, Appleton became one of the original “Common” players ubiquitous to sets of that time. While far from the biggest stars of the nascent card boom, journeymen like Appleton satisfied the demand for extensive, serialized sets representing entire rosters and leagues. Their widespread distribution through popular promotional vehicles ensured they achieved levels of name recognition that many greater players never matched. Now well over a century after last playing, Appleton’s name still resonates strongly with dedicated collectors seeking to complete their T206 collections or regional minor league teams. A unique byproduct of the intersection between a brief major league career and the dawn of baseball’s collectibles craze, Pete Appleton achieved his own immortality through cardboard that his playing stats could never bring.
