This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 5/25/2012
We originally considered presenting this 1888 Yum Yum tobacco example of King Kelly in two lots but later decided it would look better in an attractive holder from NJ-based grading authority SGC. All kidding aside, the 1888 Yum Yum Tobacco set, produced and distributed by August & Beck Company of Chicago, is one of the most cherished and elusive baseball card issues of the nineteenth century, and King Kelly is one of the set's key cards, a distinction he shares only with legendary baseball man and full-time bigot Cap Anson. While not exactly a superstar of Anson's status, Michael Joseph "King" Kelly was one of the game's earliest and most creative innovators, often credited with developing the hook slide, the hit and run, and the practice of catchers backing up first base. While there has been much ado about Kelly's exact role in developing these tactics, the consensus is that he played a critical role in popularizing these and other innovations, and for this and other feats he was elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame by the Old Timers Committee in just their second-ever vote in 1945. One of just two professionally authenticated examples on record in the hobby, this weathered piece has been re-backed in order to keep it together, and it also shows several other self-evident condition problems, but it nevertheless manages to showcase a surprisingly rich rendering of King Kelly's full-length action pose, a drawing derived from an actual photograph some advanced collectors might recognize from other issues. In terms of scarcity, we know of only one other example on record in the hobby, a technically superior SGC 10 POOR example that shows a noticeably inferior image and can be found on SGC's Set Registry website for reference. With no examples yet on record at PSA and no other examples at SGC, and with just a small handful of examples rumored to exist in private nineteenth century collections, Hall of Fame type collectors looking to represent key Yum Yums in their treasured collection might not encounter another crack at King Kelly in their lifetimes.