John Clarkson was one of the first truly great pitchers in baseball history. While it's hard to argue against his 1889 Pitching Triple Crown season as being his best (49 wins, 284 Ks, 2.73 ERA), his 1885 season for the Chicago White Stockings may come close to topping it. That year, Clarkson won 53 games, going the distance in 68 of his 70 starts. He threw 10 shutouts, and struck out 308 batters in 623 innings. All of those numbers led the league, and none of them are typos. He had a 1.85 ERA, finishing third in the league behind Hall of Famers Tim Keefe (1.58) and Mickey Welch (1.66). Clarkson went on to have a Hall of Fame career, himself, finishing with 328 wins in 12 seasons.

Clarkson has seven different cards in the N172 set. This issue features the pitcher as a member of the Chicago White Stockings, standing at the plate with a bat at the ready over his right shoulder.

Centering is east and north on the canvas, with some light stains appearing toward the bottom left and top right borders. Paper loss in the bottom left corner goes all the way through the card at one small point, with the back exhibiting more staining and paper loss, possibly evidence of a previous removal from a scrapbook page or photo album. Even still, the image on the front presents nicely, and is a rare glimpse of the Hall of Fame pitcher holding a bat. An less frequently-seen pose of a Hall of Famer from this remarkable 19th Century issue.