In slightly over a century of professional baseball history, seven major league clubs have attained a winning average of .750 or better for a single season. Two of these clubs-the Chicago White Stockings of Cap Anson and the New York Giants of Jim Mutrie-met head-on in what was one of baseball's greatest pennant races: the fight for the 1885 National League flag. The 1885 White Stockings were utterly dominant, going 87-25 to win the 1885 National League pennant. They finished only two games ahead of the New York Giants but were at least 30 games ahead of everyone else.
The team scored 7.38 runs per game, as opposed to the league average of 4.95. The Chicago pitchers, for their part, had an ERA of 2.23 while the league ERA was 2.82. George Gore was perhaps the team's best hitter, with a .313 batting average, an OBP of .405 and 13 triples. Player-manager Cap Anson hit .310 and drove in 108 runs. Perhaps the most famous star of the era, Mike “King” Kelly, playing in the outfield and often at catcher, led the team with 124 runs scored. Abner Dalrymple led the team with 11 home runs. Chicago featured two key starting pitchers, John Clarkson who went an astounding 53-16, and Jim McCormick who was 20-4. After the season, the White Stockings played against the St. Louis Browns of the American Association, fighting them to a tie.
More than a century later, the 1885 Chicago White Stockings are remembered as one of the greatest teams in baseball history. The immortal club is preserved for all-time in this monumentally rare team cabinet photo that is presented here for the first time publicly. The 8 ¼” by 6” studio photograph captures the team posing shoulder-to-shoulder in uniform. Bearing the countenance of champions are Anson, Kelly, Clarkson, Sunday, Williamson, et al. The crisply detailed image contrasts magnificently against a white background. The photograph itself bears no notable condition flaws, while the 10” by 8” mount is similarly problem free save for minor soiling at the outermost edges and a water stain on the lower right edge. A dust shadow affects the right edge on the reverse. The overall EX condition of this profound baseball antiquity is remarkable though dwarfed by the magnitude of its rarity and historical significance.