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, showing his profile as he holds a ball in his right hand, which is hip high.

While the image itself is a little on the lighter side, Clarkson's grip of the ball is in full view. The right border nearly fades into the card's image, while each of the four corners displays softness and each edge has some chipping. Some hairline wrinkles are more easily visible when viewing the back of the card. All text is legible, though slightly faded. Above average image contrast increase the desirability of this example of an important 19th Century Hall of Famer.