(BASEBALL) | John McGraw Signed ("Your sincere friend Mac") 1904 National League Championship Postcard, with 1905 World Series content. New York: The Rotograph Co., 1904; postmarked, Chicago, October 18, 1905

Property from the Eric C. Caren Collection

(BASEBALL)

John McGraw Signed ("Your sincere friend Mac") 1904 National League Championship Postcard, with 1905 World Series content. New York: The Rotograph Co., 1904; postmarked, Chicago, October 18, 1905

Photo-composite postcard (3 3/8 x 5 1/4 in.; 85 x 134 mm) captioned "New York National Baseball Team" and "New York Nationals Champions 1904," featuring fifteen player portraits, in uniform, arranged around a more formal portrait of manager John McGraw, in suit and tie, the photographs are credited to Carl Horner, Boston, and include Hall-of-Famers Joe McGinnity and Roger Bresnahan (McGraw is also in the Hall). The consignor has independently obtained a letter of authenticity from PSA that will accompany the lot.

A unique baseball postcard, written and signed by Giants player-manager John McGraw proclaiming the Giants victory in the second World Series. After McGraw's New York Giants won the National League pennant in 1904, they declined to meet the American League champion Boston Pilgrims in the World Series, disparaging the junior circuit as a "minor league." The following year, the Giants repeated as champions of the National League and went on to take the World Series from the American League's Philadelphia Athletics, four games to one. 

This card was accomplished and sent just four days after the last game of the Series. The central portrait of McGraw is signed "Your sincere friend Mac," while the longer text is written in the margins of the front of the card and exalts in the Giants' victory: "Proud of our champs? Well I should say yes. Harry old man stand up. Here's to the 'Giants'—Champions of the World. Here's another to Matty [Christy Mathewson] and don't forget Mugsy." The back of the card is addressed to H. J. O'Tooley in Chicago.