Our posting today takes inspiration from two seemingly unrelated events occuring later this week: the Major League Baseball Championships leading up to the World Series, and the 2010 Festival of Cartoon Art at Ohio State University’s Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum (being held October 14 - 17). Billy Ireland was a college student at OSU in 1909 — his Teck Haskins character was featured here last month, on SuperITCH. That entry showed excerpts from Ireland’s 1909 book Teck Haskins at “Ohio State”, depicting Teck as OSU student and rabid football fan.

Today’s entry focuses on another W.A. Ireland book, “Teck” 1909, in which when it’s baseball rather than football season, Teck’s fanaticism turns towards Columbus, Ohio’s minor league baseball team, the Columbus Senators. (Columbus is the home of OSU.) Below, the cover & introduction to “Teck” 1909.

Click on any picture, to make it larger.

Below left, Teck giving a pep talk to coach Bill Friel, and other actual team members of the 1909 Columbus Senators. Right, Teck under restraint, as part of psychiatric therapy for his excessive fanaticism.

Left, Teck under observation at the local insane asylum. Right, free again, Teck barely tolerating his mother-in-law’s insufficient (by his standards) understanding of the game.

Left, the cast of Ireland’s Teck get into uniform. Right, the cover from a period Teck Haskins songsheet.

Doug Wheeler