Spectacular 1889 printing of Hall of Fame pitcher Amos Rusie's N172 #395-2 card, one of five poses of Rusie featured in the Old Judge issue.  According to the scarcity listing published in The Photographic Baseball Cards of Goodwin & Company, Amos Rusie is the third most scarce of all the Hall of Famers, his cards extremely desirable in any grade. Rusie, who played in just four minor league games, made his major league debut at just 17 years old and never looked back. He struck out 341 batters in 1890, a number only bested by four pitchers in the entire history of the game. Connie Mack, who spent 7 decades in baseball, said Rusie was the fastest pitcher he'd ever seen. He threw the first no-hitter by a New York pitcher in 1891, but Rusie's greatest contribution to the game was one that remains today: he was such an intimidating pitcher that to settle the fears of opposing batters, the league agreed to move the pitcher's mound from 55 to its current 60' 6" - the last alteration made to the baseball diamond.

This is not an ordinary example of an N172 Rusie. It is the finest we have ever seen. When we saw it, we were so excited that we literally begged our consignor to let us sell it.  The image is simply flawless, with unimprovable contrast and incredible detail. With the naked eye one can see the padding of Rusie's uniform pants, the baseball in his hand, the wrinkles in his jersey. Under magnification the image comes to life even further. The borders are crisp and fresh as new, with fantastic, dark and perfectly-registered typography. The reverse is clean, though some surface wrinkles can easily be observed, none of which are visible on the card front. The edges are sharp, with an irregular cut to the left edge. That irregular cut is what results in the "miscut" designation and "Authentic" grade assigned by SGC.

To understand the Old Judge manufacturing process is to understand why we take umbrage with the assigned grade. As described in the Spring, 2005 issue of Old Cardboard in an article entitled "N172 Old Judge Brooklyn Minis: A Long Standing Mystery Solved" (Gonsowski & Miller), the Old Judge production process was largely a photographic one, in which cabinet-sized photos (in 1889, trimmed-down N173s were used) were arranged on sheets containing four rows of six columns - 24 cabinets in total. Advertising banners were placed on top of the cabinet mounts, underneath the photos, and then the entire sheet was photographed from above. In examining the Rusie, one can see evidence of the N173 mount in the form of a thin line underneath the last line of text, which reads "Goodwin & Co., New York." The photographs were then pasted onto cardboard backings and cut into cards by hand.

The process of hand-cutting the Old Judge cards yielded a variety of cuts, and cards of all shapes and sizes. It is, indeed, quite common for multiple Old Judge cards, placed side-by-side, to exhibit observable variances in size, and also frequently in shape. These variances manifest themselves most frequently in cards that are short, or thin. In this case, the card is a standard 2 3/4" in height, but is clearly wider at the bottom than the top. Unlike cards that measure short or thin, however, SGC (and PSA, who also examined this beauty), have elected to place this card in an Authentic holder. SGC designated the card as "miscut," which indicates their belief that the card has not been trimmed or altered in any way, but was cut irregularly at the factory in 1889. We maintain that since all scholarly descriptions of the issue indicate that the cards were cut by hand at the factory, none of them can be technically miscut. The "Authentic" grade, in this case, grossly mischaracterizes an incredible card with a description that is both inaccurate and unfair.

As a result of the technical grade, we feel it is appropriate to offer this card with a reasonable reserve that properly reflects its beauty and rarity. As is our policy with reserves, if it has yet to meet the reserve, the actual amount of the reserve will be disclosed approximately one week before the auction close, and the bidding will be brought up to the next increment beneath the reserve. An incredible example, easily the finest we have encountered, featuring one of the most scarce and desirable Hall of Famers in the N172 issue.