Walter Johnson Port

Walter Perry "Big Train" Johnson (1887–1946) appears here in the T206 White Border portrait, one of the highest-grade pickups for any Senators or deadball collector. Born November 6, 1887 in Humboldt, Kansas, the right-hander reached the majors with Washington in 1907 at age 19 and would never wear another uniform across his twenty-one-year career through 1927. He retired with 417 wins, 110 shutouts — a record no pitcher has approached — and 3,509 strikeouts that stood as the major-league mark for half a century. Johnson's fastball was reputed by hitters of the era to be effectively invisible; Ty Cobb said he had never seen anything like it. The T206 portrait was issued early in his career, before his 1913 MVP season and his 1924 World Series triumph as the Senators finally claimed a championship. He later managed Washington from 1929 through 1932 and Cleveland from 1933 through 1935. He died December 10, 1946 in Washington, D.C. and is buried at Rockville Union Cemetery in Maryland. He was elected in the inaugural Hall of Fame class of 1936.