The Hall of Fame ace Walter Johnson has penned this postcard to “Mr. John Craig” of Fullerton, California in 1909. Johnson, born in Kansas but raised in Fullerton, was 21-years old in 1909 and in his third season with the flagging Senators. The Senators finished the season 42-110, with Johnson compiling a 13-25 record despite posting an excellent 2.22 ERA. Johnson writes about the futility of the Senators in this letter, writing “Hello John / We win a game once in a while but not very often.” to open the letter. Next, Johnson writes “[Gavvy] Cravath went to Minneapolis today” after the newly-acquired catcher was assigned from the Senators to the Minneapolis Millers after four games with Washington. In the next piece of this postcard, Johnson writes “[Bob] Groom shut N.Y. out today he pitched a good game.” Johnson is describing Groom’s June 1st start against the Yankees in the second game of a double-header at American League Park. The Senators won this game 2-0 as Groom pitched a complete game, five-hit shutout of the Yankees. Johnson has signed this postcard as “Walt”.

The writing on the postcard is done in black steel-tip fountain pen, while the front of this 5.5 x 3.5-inch postcard shows an image of Warren Taft’s presidential inauguration parade on March 4th, 1909. The postcard is stamped with the date of June 1st, 1909 and it features a one cent postage stamp. The postcard comes with a LOA from JSA (Z79723).

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