NEGRO LEAGUE CUBAN X-GIANTS 1905 REAL PHOTO POSTCARD W/HOF MEMBER FRANK GRANT-SGC ENCAPSULATED.
Item Description
3.5x5.5" matte finish w/choice image of ten players in uniform along with manager in dapper attire. Printed text on bottom margin includes the team name and date. At bottom right is hand inked text by person who mailed the postcard reading "This Team Played The Old Asylums Friday." Reverse used and has postmark of Oct. 1, 1905, just two days after the famous game took place. Players are as follows: (Back row, left to right) - Dangerfield Talbert, Robert Jordan, E.B. Lamar (Manager), Ray Wilson, John Patterson, Clarence Williams. (Front row, left to right) - Frank Grant, Bobby Winston, John Hill, John Nelson, Harry Buckner. This photo was taken in Middletown, NY in 1905 before a contest played against the Asylum Baseball Club. The baseball game that took place that day was a reunion of both teams' star players from the mid-1890s, including a youngster named Jack Chesbro, future New York & Pittsburgh HOF pitcher, who was a baseball player at the Asylum in the mid-1890s. Extensive research at the Middletown, NY Library uncovered the original box score and recap of the baseball game in the local town newspaper. In addition, this exact team image appears in a biography about Rube Foster with all of the players identified and all match up to the game box score and recap. Finally, SGC has included the Frank Grant ID on their slip in addition to the year and team and deemed it "Authentic."
Ulysses Franklin "Frank" Grant (August 1, 1865 - May 27, 1937), nicknamed "The Black Dunlap", was an African-American baseball player in the 19th century. Early in his career, he was a star player in the International League, shortly before Jim Crow restrictions were imposed that banned African-American players from organized baseball. He became a pioneer in the early Negro leagues, starring for several of the top African-American teams of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is widely considered to have been the greatest African-American player of the 19th century. In 2006, Grant was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Clarence Williams was one of the earliest black baseball stars with a playing career dating back to the mid-1880's with the Cuban Giants.
Postcard has slight margin trim in no way affecting the image. Lt. aging mostly to reverse, front image is clean and bold. Fine. Supporting documentation from Middletown Public Library accompanies this postcard.
This is the only known postcard picturing Frank Grant. It is also the only known example extant of said postcard. Additionally we believe this represents the earliest known postcard featuring a Negro League baseball team w/professional level players. For those Hall Of Fame collectors and Hall Of Fame rookie card collectors, this may represent your only chance to add a career-contemporary Frank Grant card to your collection. Historic. Ex-Richard Merkin Collection.
