John J. McGraw MGNew York-N 12/28/10

John J. McGraw (1873–1934) ran the New York Giants from the dugout for thirty-one seasons and made the National League's most coveted manager's job his personal property. A left-handed hitter and right-handed thrower with a third baseman's hard edge from his Baltimore Orioles playing days, McGraw shaped the Giants into perennial contenders, taking the franchise to ten pennants and three World Series titles. This particular card is a Sporting News supplement issue dated December 28, 1910 — one of the oversized photographic premiums distributed loose with the trade weekly between 1909 and 1913, capturing managers and players in formal portraiture rather than the candid action poses of the tobacco issues. McGraw died February 25, 1934 in New Rochelle, New York. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1937 as a manager, on the second ballot the Cooperstown electors ever cast.