Lot # 94: 1889-1890 E. R. Williams #10 Dummy Hoy/John Reilly PSA NM 7

Graded NM 7 by PSA. Magnificent high-grade example featuring portraits of Dummy Hoy and John Reilly from the E. R. Williams game-card set. Bright, crisp, and clean, both front and back. Hoy is one of the key non-Hall of Famers from this set. While Hoy was a fine overall player, noted for his speed on the base paths and his outstanding abilities in center field. He is best known today as the most accomplished deaf player in MLB history. Legend even has it that the familiar ball and strike hand signals used by umpires today arose to accommodate Hoy, who could not hear their calls. Hoy finished his career with 2,044 hits and a .288 lifetime average, statistics that many of his supporters cite when they lobby for his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Whether he eventually enters the hallowed halls of Cooperstown or not, Hoy's place in baseball history is already well founded given the obstacles he had to overcome to star for so many years at the game's highest level. The E. R. Williams set includes only 19 cards featuring players, each with two players per card. The entire set of cards, together with a small board and few wooden pieces, allowed for the playing of an exciting "indoor baseball game." The E. R. Williams set is one of the few 19th century sets printed in color. While this set has not received the attention of many other pre-1900 issues, in part because it is not a tobacco issue, it is a very rare set, far rarer than many of the most popular issues of the 1880s, such as N28 and N29 Allen & Ginter. This is an extremely desirable, high-grade example of one of the key cards from the set.