From Collins-McCarthy, the company which offered the long run of
Zeenuts cards, this 1917 set now known as E135 offered 200 new subjects.
While the company had been known for producing cards featuring players
of the Pacific Coast League, the E135 set switched
their focus to the National and American Leagues. Produced at a time
when few
sets were being issued, it gave collectors and baseball fans on the West
Coast a look at players they had only read about in the newspapers or
in
the annual Spading guides. While this set shares many photos with the
later E121 set and the much-later E126 issue (both from American
Caramel), this E135 set came first.
White Sox pitcher Claude "Lefty" Williams is appropriately wearing black stockings in this example, which is centered beautifully. Lots of creasing and surface wear pair with rounded corners and soft edges to explain this card's grade. Regardless of the number, the importance and scarcity of this issue far outweighs any cosmetic flaws on this example.
Williams helped lead the White Sox
to the World Series this year over the New York Giants, which many
people forget about as they only remember the "Black Sox" who threw the
Series two years later. While Lefty was one of the participants in that
fix, he was an integral part of the 1917 team winning it all.
SGC has only ever graded 6 total
examples of this 1917 E135, with only TWO receiving a higher grade than
the Poor 1 offered here of Claude "Lefty" Williams in black stockings.