Ten Million (baseball player)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ten Million (1889-June 18, 1964) was a baseball player who played for various teams in the Northwestern League. He supposedly played for the St. Louis Cardinals, although no record of this has been found. He is perhaps best known for his unusual name, and for his appearance in the T212 Obak series of baseball cards.
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[edit] Career
Million got his start in professional ball playing for the Tacoma, Seattle, Victoria, and Spokane teams of the Northwestern League. His career was brought to an end by a knee injury.[1]
While several sources report that Mr. Million did play in the Majors, no statistical evidence supporting this theory has been discovered.
[edit] The Obak
Between 1909 and 1911, Obak cigarettes issued a series of baseball cards in order to promote their product. The cards were printed and distributed in a manner similar to that of the American Tobacco Companies' T206 set. The Obak series, catalogued as T212, was unique in that it was the first major set to exclusively feature players from Pacific Coast League teams.
Ten appeared in the 1911 issue while playing for the Victoria baseball team. This card has become quite popular amongst baseball card collectors. This is probably due to the gentleman's name and not his skill as a baseball player. It is not surprising that the T212 issue was one of only two series to feature Ten on one of its' cards. The other series, T4, was a cabinet issue also printed by Obak Cigarettes.
[edit] Personal life
Mr. Million was born in Mount Vernon, Washington and attended the University of Washington. Apparently, his grandmother convinced his parents to name him "Ten". His grandmother turned out to be a persuasive figure in his life, as she convinced him to name his daughter "Decillian" with fifty dollars.[2]
Million attended Broadway High School and graduated in 1908. He then went on to college at UW. After his playing days, he stayed close to home and moved to Seattle. There, we worked for the city as a Claims Adjuster. After leaving that position, he began working for the local Spalding Sporting Goods store. There he met his future wife Christine.
During his downtime, Ten picked up fishing. He was also able to referee in games for several types of high school sports.[1]
