John "Pa" Harkins of Baltimore appears here in a crisp studio pose with decent contrast and balanced wear along the top and bottom edges, each with some angle, left-to-right. You can read all the nameplate text, and its reverse is cleaner than many other N172 examples, if slightly toned.

John Harkins played a star-crossed, five-year major league career from 1884 to 1888. As a rookie, he led the NL with an amazing 32 losses in Cleveland, who was well out of contention by midseason. (If that sounds tough, his teammate Sam Moffet went 3-19!) In 1888, Harkins netted six poses as a "Baltimore" pitcher in the Old Judge set, despite pitching just one game for the franchise, which also appeared to be his final career stop. Perhaps he stuck with the club in another capacity and kept his name on their sports pages.

The PSA population report for Harkins shows a dozen total graded examples across five different poses and just two for "hands at chest," making it a tough find indeed among the set's many variations, and especially so when you want a high-quality image like this one.

This particular card has the distinction of appearing as #214-6's reference image on page 260 of the Old Judge photography book by Miller, Gonsowski, and Masson. Love of the Game is proud to offer several cards seen in their outstanding work of research and presentation as part of our 100+ N172 listings in this auction.