Beautiful and perhaps one-of-its-kind cabinet portrait of versatile New York Giants pitcher Doc Crandall, as photographed by the Hall's Studio of New York. PSA has graded one example each of six N.Y. players from this impressive, nostalgic set, with several offered in this auction. Its size almost demands to be displayed and seen, as was the custom with cabinet cards of that era.

Sharp-eyed collectors will recognize this large Hall's Studio image as the source for Crandall's own T206 card, which those editors retouched for color printing. This original photo gives a more wistful sense of the Deadball Era, with young Doc ready to contribute as needed. Crandall did indeed play an unusual role for those Giants, alternating between starting and closing roles on the mound, and led the NL in games finished four straight seasons. He even followed players to the Federal League in 1914 and spent non-pitching days as the St. Louis second baseman.

An extremely difficult cabinet issue, PSA has graded just six examples, all submitted by Love of the Game over the past few months. As a possibly unique issue, researchers used the cabinet production style and players included to set a 1908-09 date range. 1909 saw the first Crandall tobacco cards, so this image seems his earliest available and thus his first rookie card.