The Base Ball Card Game (1904)

The Base Ball Card Game, designed by the Allegheny Card Company, is an unpublished prototype boxed card game. The prototype contained 112 cards featuring 104 players with an additional eight team "ball counter" cards. There is exactly one original copy of the game, discovered in the 1980s, and it has since had the cards auctioned separately by Lew Lipset in April of 2000. There seem to have been a set of rules found with the prototype, but what became of them after the components were split up is unknown. The game was registered on April 5th, 1904. It was never published. "In 1904, the Allegheny Card Co. produced a 112 card boxed set including 104 National League players and 8 team “ball counter” cards. This issue is believed to be the “sole” produced prototype, having never been distributed to the general public."