This 4.5 x 7.5 inch Sporting Times cigar trade card features the 1888 World Series Champion New York Giants, with all 19 players identified along the bottom border. Produced from an image of renowned photographer Joseph Hall (whose name appears in the lower left corner) includes Hall of Famers Tim Keefe, John Ward, Mickey Welch, Buck Ewing, Roger Connor and Jim O'Rourke plus manager Jim Mutrie.

      While most known examples derived from one find a few decades ago, all of those had stains and corner chips, this example exhibits better overall eye appeal with zero staining, but appears to be trimmed along the top edge and still has the standard financial ledger notations on the reverse. Interesting aspect of this ledger notes the date stamp is from 1898, 10 years AFTER the card was produced. During this World Championship season, pitcher Mickey Welch started and completed all 47 of his games, throwing 425 innings. How’s that for pitch counts and innings limits? This is a very scarce team card featuring a World Championship team with six Hall of Famers, created from a photo of a “Hall of Fame” photographer, which is one of the most eye appealing examples known. Authenticated and encapsulated by SGC as AUTHENTIC. Tremendous team photo.

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