Despite picturing Chicago's Cap Anson after winning the 1886 National League Championship, the "Worlds Championship" was played between the Chicago White Stockings and St. Louis Browns in October of 1886. The Series was won by St. Louis, outfielder Curt Welch racing home on a passed ball and scoring on the "$15,000 slide," one of the most famous plays of its era.  It is theorized that political cartoonist John McCutcheon created this cartoon illustration of Anson in the 1890s but we believe it is more likely that it was initially created for the Chicago Tribune after Anson was elected Chicago City Clerk in 1905.  Late in his baseball career, Anson experimented with theater, and wrote a vaudeville monologue that he performed in the late 1900s and early 1910s; this poster likely originates from the promotional materials related to those performances, although we cannot be certain.

John McCutcheon was an American political cartoonist who received a Pulitzer Price for his 1931 cartoon "A Wise Economist Asks a Question."  He graduated from Purdue University and moved to Chicago in 1890, working as an artist and writer for the Chicago Morning News.  McCutcheon began working for the Chicago Tribune in 1903, where he would remain until his 1946 retirement.  An original printing plate from this cartoon was discovered and sold at auction some years ago, sold as a printing plate from the Chicago Tribune, which would have made it impossible to have been created prior to 1903.  The print measures 10 1/2" x 15", printed on heavy paper with a fold down the center.  Significant wear is evident at the corners and edges of the blank-backed piece, a small tear at the upper left edge resulting in a spot of missing paper.  A few other edge tears are evident, along with the lower corners being clipped.  Still, the overall eye appeal is particularly strong.  A quality, seldom-seen print of an important 19th Century Hall of Famer.