1907 real photo postcard depicting the class D Bangor White Sox of the Maine State League. Relatively nondescript with one major exception the presence of Louis Sockalexis the game's first Native American and first minority to play in the National League. Sockalexis excelled at baseball and football and enrolled at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts. There he took hitting lessons from Cleveland Spiders Jesse Burkett and Chippy McGarr who signed him to a contract with the Cleveland Spiders in 1897. When manager Patsy Tebeau expressed his enthusiasm for the newcomer to sportswriters a headline in the Cleveland Plain Dealer referred to the team as "Tebeau's Indians." From there the Spiders nickname disappeared the team quickly becoming known by its new moniker named after the turn of the century term for Sockalexis' origin. Sadly Sockalexis struggled with alcoholism and did not last very long in the major leagues. He returned to Maine and after playing with a few loosely organized clubs played one last season in organized ball with the Bangor team pictured in this postcard. Sockalexis is pictured sitting on the ground in the front row left. The postcard is graded GOOD 30 by SGC due primarily to light soiling and pencil writing on the reverse along what what appears to be a very slight edge tear at the top. Several small wrinkles are also evident. The image quality however are aming the strongest we have seen with this image with clearly defined contrast. This is truly an outstanding example. Sockalexis sadly passed away in 1913. In 1914 the Cleveland baseball team who had renamed themselves the Cleveland "Naps" in honor of Nap Lajoie elected to permanently rename themselves the Indians in honor of the popular and tragic Sockalexis. An excellent postcard depicting an important figure in the development of the Cleveland Indians' identity.