1948-49 Trinidad y Hermano Almendares booklet. Trinidad y Hno made booklets for each of the four professional teams in the Cuban League during the 1948-49 season. Each booklet has individual pages with color images of the team’s players. The Almendares team features HOFer Monte Irvin, "The Rifleman" Chuck Connors, and several Negro Leaguers like Sam Jethroe, Avelino Cañizares and Héctor Rodríguez, in addition to the rest of the Almendares team which won the championship that season.

It appears that this particular booklet is a variation that has different images for several players than the regular Almendares booklet: The Chuck Connors image in this booklet is not actually Connors. The Avelino Cañizares image shows him batting instead of a portrait. The Santos Amaro image shows him batting instead of a portrait. The Conrado Marrero image shows him pitching instead of a portrait.

There is some water damage to the top edge of the first few pages, but fortunately that does not extend to the most important page which has Monte Irvin on one side and Sam Jethroe on the other side. Both SGC and CGC will slab and authenticate individual pages from this booklet, but that does not make them cards. THESE ARE NOT CARDS, in spite of some people believing they are. These booklets use some of the same images used in the 1946-47 Almanaque Deportivo set, however these booklets were not meant to be cut up or glued into an album like Almanaque Deportivo cards were.

There is no album for these booklet pages because THESE ARE NOT CARDS. Having said that, less than a year ago the individual page that has Monte Irvin with Sam Jethroe on the reverse sold for $3,894 in Hake’s. It was authenticated and in a holder by CGC. It was not graded with a number because THESE ARE NOT CARDS and grading companies should not be giving number grades to them. As far as we know, no page has been graded with a number grade by one of the grading companies. At least not yet.

Please note that this item is not a consignment. This is one of the few lots Ryan has in this auction. If it had been a consignment, the description of the lot would not have been actively seeking to have it sell for the lowest possible amount. But regardless of whose item it is, THESE ARE NOT CARDS.