Walter Johnson Hands

This card files under the variation tag "Walter Johnson Hands," the T206 White Border pose of the Washington Senators right-hander showing his hands at the belt rather than the alternate "pitching" or "portrait" framings within the same set. The player is Walter Perry Johnson (1887–1946), the sidearming flamethrower from Humboldt, Kansas, who broke in with Washington in 1907 at age 19 and never pitched for another organization. By the time this card hit shelves he was on his way to becoming the most feared fastball in the American League — a label he would not relinquish for two decades, finishing with 417 wins, 110 shutouts, and 3,509 strikeouts, the second of those numbers still the major-league record. He stood 6'1", batted and threw right-handed, and was as celebrated for his control and disposition as for his velocity. Johnson died December 10, 1946 in Washington, D.C., and was a charter member of the Hall of Fame in 1936, one of the five inaugural inductees alongside Cobb, Ruth, Wagner, and Mathewson.