Samuel "Sam" Barkley was primarily an infielder during his career. He spent 1886 and 1887 with Allegheny City (aka Pittsburg, without the H), making $1,800 in 1887 as the team's First and Second Baseman. He went on to play the final two years of his career with the Kansas City Cowboys of the American Association in 1888 and 1889 where he acted as player/manager in his first year.

Barkley has six different cards in the N172 set, and while graded examples are all scarce, this may be the toughest of them all, especially when considering the larger context of the set. This issue depicts the infielder tagging his teammate Jocko Fields in a studio setting, though Fields is not identified on the card itself.  Just 27 such cards two-player cards exist (including one of Fields tagging Barkley), each dual-player card part of a desirable subset within the issue.

The text is dark and bold, and the image itself is also very nice. The (MK) qualifier here is due to some light writing on the back of the card, which does not affect the front. However, the scarcity of this example far outweighs any technical issues of this highly sought-after issue. This is the only example of this 1887 N172 Old Judge which PSA has ever graded.