Sprague, Pitcher, Chicago, from the Old Judge series (N172) for Old Judge Cigarettes 1888

This small card, made in 1888 by Goodwin & Company, was meant to be collected and traded. At its center is Sprague, a baseball pitcher from Chicago. His pose, hands delicately holding a ball, is reminiscent of countless depictions of power, of orbs representing earthly or celestial authority. We see it echoed in portraits of kings holding their regalia, the orb a symbol of their dominion. Consider also the iconography of the Christ child holding the world in his small hands, a promise of salvation, but also a symbol of future power. Here, the baseball, though mundane, gains symbolic weight through this repetition. It represents not just a game, but the collective dreams and aspirations of a nation, held in the hands of a single player. The game becomes a stage for enacting cultural narratives of struggle, triumph, and ultimately, the cyclical nature of history itself.