This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 5/20/2011
Offered is an incredibly well preserved 1888 Joseph Hall team cabinet featuring the 1888 and 1889 world champion New York Ball Club of the National League, with legendary Hall of Famers Tim Keefe, Roger Connor, Buck Ewing, John Ward, Jim O'Rourke, and Mickey Welch. Originally known as the Gothams upon the team's entry into the league in 1883, legend has it that sometime in 1885, after a convincing win against the rival Philadelphia Club, the team's manager, and early baseball pioneer, "Truthful Jim" Mutrie (front and center in his top hat), stormed into the team's locker room and exclaimed, "My big fellows! My Giants!" And the name took; the rest is history. The Giants of course played their games at New York's sacred Polo Grounds, originally located just north of Central Park between 110th and 112th streets in Harlem, but later located between 155th and 159th after the 1888 season. In other words, not only does the presented cabinet feature a striking image of one of Major League Baseball's greatest 19th century teams, it also offers a rare glimpse of what we can only assume is the original Polo Grounds, since the team wouldn't move closer to Washington Heights until the 1889 season, where they'd stay and play until their famous flight west, in 1957. After winning their first NL pennant in 1888, the season ended with the Giants beating the American Association's St. Louis Brown's in the "World's Championship," a precursor to the modern World Series, which wouldn't get under way until 1903. In the 1888 classic, the Giants prevailed over the Browns 6 games to 4, with Tim Keefe adding 4 more victories and 0 defeats to his already staggering Triple Crown season (35-12, 1.74 ERA, 335 Ks), arguably the greatest season of his career. That same year, Roger Connor blasted an amazing 14 home runs, adding to his record-setting total of 138 career knocks, which would stand until Babe Ruth, and Buck Ewing, who many consider the greatest catcher of the 19th century and arguably its greatest player, stole an incredible 53 bases. All three legends, along with Future HOFers "Orator Jim" O'Rourke, John Montgomery Ward, and "Smiling Mickey" Welch, are magnificently depicted on the presented Joseph Hall Cabinet, which would rate about NM or better if not for a mild crease in the card stock, starting at about the "B" in "BALL" and running north-northwest into the legs of those players seated in the front row. Other than some extremely minor foxing, or spotting, on the photograph itself, the image is so well preserved that it appears to have been developed in the 1980s as opposed to the 1880s. Compare the image quality here, for example, with the lion's share of surviving 1880s Old Judge cards and cabinets, of which Joseph Hall was also the primary photographer. Particularly well-imaged in this photograph are Keefe (top left, seated), Ward (middle left, with bat), Connor (above Ward), and Ewing (top, above Mutrie). O'Rourke and Welch are featured next to each other, seated front right, and while the contrast (or difference between the light and dark areas) is not quite as profound on the right third of the photograph, the image is still bold and accurate enough to more than adequately display the details of O'Rourke's characteristic mustache and Mickey's powerful right hand, with which he was able to fashion both an early curve ball and a type of screwball, or early knuckler. Importantly, the aforementioned crease shows no break, or paper loss, in the thin photo stock itself, while the characteristic gold leaf foil on back appears almost perfect, and the expected chipping around the perimeter of the brown-printed card back is almost non-existent. Again, overall, the piece presents at or above the Near Mint level but can only be called Very Good to Excellent at best, due to some tolerable and predominantly unobtrusive stock imperfections. One of our favorite websites, the Cycleback Museum at www.CycleBack.com, notes that the Joseph Hall cabinets are among the "rarest, most desirable and expensive" of all cabinets, and that just one example from the unknown checklist for the issue (they're still, and will always be, that rare) would prove an appealing centerpiece in just about any collection. With the historical significance and undeniable museum quality of the offered team of "big fellows," we simply could not agree more.