Today on the blog we take a look at my custom card for Hall of Fame pitcher John Clarkson, from my 2018 "1890 Base Ball Champions" set:
Really fun custom set to create and release in special cigarette box packaging with extra goodies thrown in!
Of
course, for those familiar with 19th Century cards, you'll recognize
that I used the 1894 Mayo Plug set as inspiration for this set design,
as the Mayo Plugs are one of my very favorite card sets of all-time.
As
for Clarkson, the right hander from Massachusetts put in twelve years in
the Big Leagues, posting 328 victories by the time he hung them up,
winning as many as 53 games in 1885, with eight seasons of 20+ wins.
In
1889 he took home the pitching Triple Crown when he led the league with
49 wins, 2.73 earned run average and 284 strikeouts, over 73
appearances, 72 of which were starts, completing an incredible 68 of
them for 620 innings of work.
In 1885, when he posted his
career-best 53 wins, he completed 68 of his 70 starts, tossing 10
shutouts and striking out 308 batters while finishing with another
career-best of a 1.85 E.R.A. over 623 innings.
Just amazing.
On
June 4th of 1889 he is credited as throwing the first record
"immaculate inning", doing so against the Philadelphia Quakers in the
third inning of their match-up.
His final numbers: a 328-178
record, good for a .648 winning percentage, with a 2.81 ERA over 531
appearances, 518 of those starts, with 485 complete games and 37
shutouts.
In 1963, Clarkson was elected to the Hall of Fame by
the Veterans Committee, joining fellow 19th Century 300-game winners
like Cy Young, Pud Galvin and Mickey Welch.
