1888 Philadelphia Athletics Team Cabinet with Wilbert Robinson SGC POOR 1

Extremely rare team cabinet card of exceptional quality featuring bust-length composite images of fourteen members of the 1888 American Association Philadelphia Athletics, including Hall of Famer Wilbert Robinson. The remaining players pictured, all of whom are identified by name directly below their images, are Ed Seward, Harry Stovey, Mike Mattimore, Gus Weyhing, Henry Larkin (designated as team captain), George Townsend, Tom Gunning, Denny Lyons, Curt Welch, Lou Bierbauer (spelled "Bauer" on the card), Tom Poorman, Bill Gleason, and Mike Sullivan. All the photos are formal studio poses picturing the players in uniform. Published by "Vandyke & Co" as noted along the base. This is a particularly distinctive and beautifully designed nineteenth-century team cabinet card, and appears to be a unique "one-card set" produced by Vandyke & Co. for, while we have offered three examples of this card over the past 22 years, all have been the 1888 Philadelphia Athletics; we have never seen another team. Philadelphia was a member of the American Association during its entire ten-year existence (1892-1991). Despite leading the league in a number of offensive categories in 1888, including team batting average (.250), runs (827), slugging percentage (.344), doubles (183), and triples (89), the Athletics could manage no better than third place, finishing ten games behind the pennant-winning St. Louis Browns. Wilbert Robinson made his Major League debut with the Athletics in 1886 and remained with the club for four-and-half years before later enjoying greater fame as a member of the legendary Baltimore Orioles. The card (4.25 x 6.5 inches) displays a few scattered spots of paper loss on the front and evidence of album removal on the reverse. Graded POOR 1 by SGC.