M. Huggins Portrait

Miller Huggins (1878–1929) is captured here in his playing-era T206 White Border portrait, issued while he was the second baseman and emerging field general of the St. Louis Cardinals. A switch-hitter who threw right-handed, Huggins broke into the National League in 1904 and built his reputation on plate discipline and on-base ability rather than power, leading the league in walks four times. The Cardinals named him player-manager in 1913, but his lasting fame came after he left the senior circuit — hired by the New York Yankees in 1918, he steered Babe Ruth's clubs to six American League pennants and three World Series titles between 1921 and 1928. The T206 portrait is the most widely collected of his cards, capturing him in Cardinals livery before any of that Yankee glory had been imagined. He died September 25, 1929 in New York City of a skin infection that turned septic, still under contract as Yankees manager. The Hall of Fame elected him in 1964.