On the collection is this government postcard signed by Stuffy McInnis. A fine fielder, McInnis completed his 19-year career with 2,405 hits and a lifetime .307 average. He combined with second baseman Eddie Collins, shortstop Jack Barry, and third baseman Frank “Home Run” Baker to form the Athletics famed “$100,000 infield”.

Baseball historian Bill James rated the 1914 edition of the $100,000 infield the greatest infield of all time, and also ranked the 1912 and 1913 editions in the top five all time. The $100,000 infield helped the Athletics win four AL championships, and three World Series titles in five years.

McInnis retired with a .307 lifetime average in 7,822 at bats. One of the toughest batters in history to strike out, McInnis fanned only nine time in 644 plate appearances in 1921 and only 189 times in his career. He left the game with 2,405 hits and four World Series rings, two in three tires with the A’s, and one each with the Red Sox and Pirates.

For decades McInnis held the big league mark for highest single-season fielding percentage at first base, set in 1921 when he had one error in 1338 innings, .9993%. He also set a record with 1700 consecutive erorr-less chances between May 31, 1921 and June 2, 1922 , a span of 163 games.

Government postcards provide aid to authenticating autographs. Collectors would send a postcard to the desired target. When the autograph returned in the mail it would contain a postmark verifying the exact date and place from where it was mailed.

This postmark reveals an April 23, 1948 mailing from Amherst, Massachusetts where McInnis was in the middle of the season as acting head baseball coach at Amherst College. With College Hall of Famer Paul Eckley ailing, and unable to direct the team, Amherst tabbed McInnins – then an assistant under Eckley –  to take his place.

The Mammoths responded with a season to remember, defeating Holy Cross, Colgate, and Dartmouth, on the way to the Eastern Intercollegiate League Championship. Though Amherst dropped 4-3 to Yale in that game, McInnis impressed the Ivy League’s Harvard enough that they hired him as head coach. He coached there for six seasons before calling it quits. Six year later in 1954, McInnis died after a lengthy illness.