1909-11 T206 Walter Johnson (Portrait)

A pack of cigarettes and a ballplayer

From 1909 to 1911 the American Tobacco Company slipped small color lithographs of ballplayers into packs of cigarettes and loose tobacco sold under 16 of its brands. Collectors know the result as T206, the catalog number later assigned by Jefferson Burdick in The American Card Catalog, or simply as the white-border set. It runs to 524 cards, more than 100 of them minor leaguers, each 1 7/16 by 2 5/8 inches.

Because the set was printed over three years, many players appear in more than one pose. Walter Johnson has two. The more common shows him in an illustration against a blue background, looking to his left with his hands held tight to his chest. The other, the one collectors call the Portrait, is a close-up photograph of a young, serious-looking Johnson, hand-tinted for printing so that it reads almost like a painting, with his hair colored a bright orange.

The photograph is credited to Carl Horner. The same card front was paired with different advertising backs, depending on the brand it was packed with; graded copies have been offered with Piedmont 150 and Sweet Caporal Factory 649 backs, among others.

The Big Train

Walter Perry Johnson was born on November 6, 1887, in Humboldt, Kansas. His family moved to the oil boomtown of Olinda in Orange County, California, in 1902. In high school he struck out 27 batters in a 15-inning game. He then moved to Idaho, worked for a telephone company and pitched for a team in Weiser, where scout Cliff Blankenship found him. He signed with Washington in July 1907, at 19, and debuted on August 2.

Ty Cobb remembered that first game: 'something went past me that made me flinch. The thing just hissed with danger.' Johnson threw sidearm, which made his fastball even harder for right-handed hitters to pick up. A munitions laboratory in Bridgeport, Connecticut, timed it in 1917 at 134 feet per second, about 91 miles per hour.

Over 21 seasons, all with Washington, he won 417 games, second only to Cy Young, with a 2.17 ERA and a record 110 shutouts. He won 20 or more games twelve times, ten in a row, topped 30 wins in 1912 and 1913, won the pitching triple crown three times and was twice named American League MVP. His career strikeout total, 3,509 by the modern count, stood as the record for more than 55 years until 1983.

He finally reached the World Series in 1924, his 18th season, and won Game 7 with four scoreless innings of relief. After retiring he managed Washington and Cleveland, ran unsuccessfully for Congress, and in 1936 became one of the first five players elected to the Hall of Fame, alongside Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner and Christy Mathewson. He died in Washington on December 10, 1946, at 59.

A losing team and a rising star

When the T206 cards were reaching smokers, Johnson was still a young pitcher on a bad club. Washington finished last twice and next-to-last three times in his first five seasons. In 1909, at 21, he went 13-25 despite a 2.22 ERA. The next year he broke through: 25-17 with a 1.36 ERA and an American League-leading 313 strikeouts in 370 innings. In 1911 he went 25-13.

Washington baseball was becoming a national stage. On April 14, 1910, President William Howard Taft threw out the first pitch before Washington's opening game against Philadelphia, the first sitting president to take part in Opening Day ceremonies and the start of a tradition. Beyond the ballpark, the Boy Scouts of America was incorporated, Jack Johnson beat James J. Jeffries in a heavyweight fight that set off riots, and the Great Fire of 1910 burned about 3 million acres in the Northwest.

From pack to graded slab

Like most T206 cards, the Portrait was printed in large numbers; the tobacco trust distributed tens or even hundreds of thousands of cards of a given player. What separates copies today is condition. Most high-grade Johnson Portraits that exist today trace to an uncirculated hoard known in the hobby as the Southern Find, which is one reason the Portrait, though more popular, is considered easier to find in top condition than the Hands at Chest pose.

The finest copies have their own histories. A PSA 9 from the Harris Collection, a T206 set universally recognized as the finest ever assembled, sold for a then-record $38,358 when the collection was auctioned in August 2000. Its original buyer consigned it again in 2005, when it sold for $37,700 at auction.

In May 2019 another PSA 9 Portrait sold for $135,000 in an online auction. A trade report at the time said the card typically brought around $30,000 in PSA 8, showing how much a single grade point can matter at the top. A PSA 7 with a Sweet Caporal back brought $18,000 at auction in 2016.

The PSA 4 copies that this entry tracks sit in the middle of the population. Graded VG-EX, they sit five grades below the finest known copies. One sold for $5,640 with buyer's premium in August 2022 after 33 bids; another, with a Piedmont 150 back, sold for $4,080 at auction in 2024.

What to look for

Check the pose first. The Portrait is a tight head-and-shoulders photograph on a yellow background, Johnson's hair tinted orange. If the card shows an illustrated pitcher on blue with his hands at his chest, it is the other Johnson card. Then read the back: the brand and factory number identify the variation, and collectors track Portrait copies by back.

Condition drives everything. The grading service's census lists six PSA 9 copies at the top, followed by eight PSA 8s, with no PSA 10. In the middle grades, the count of PSA 4 copies in one back category alone was 59, with 70 graded higher in that category. The value of the set has also attracted counterfeiters for decades, so authentication matters.

The numbers

1909 season

13-25, 2.22 ERA, 40 G, 36 GS, 27 CG, 4 SHO, 296.1 IP, 164 SO

1910 season

25-17, 1.36 ERA, 45 G, 38 CG, 8 SHO, 370.0 IP, 313 SO (AL leader)

1911 season

25-13, 1.90 ERA, 40 G, 36 CG, 6 SHO, 322.1 IP, 207 SO; fifth in MVP voting

1913 season

36-7, 1.14 ERA, 11 SHO, 243 SO; AL MVP

Career (1907-1927)

21 seasons, 417-279, 2.17 ERA, 531 CG, 110 SHO, 5,914.1 IP, 3,509 SO

Honors

AL MVP 1913 and 1924; pitching triple crown 1913, 1918, 1924; Hall of Fame 1936

As a manager

529-432 with Washington (1929-1932) and Cleveland (1933-1935)

Timeline

1. Nov 6, 1887

   Walter Johnson is born in Humboldt, Kansas.

2. 1902

   His family moves to Olinda, California.

3. Jul 1907

   Johnson signs with Washington at 19.

4. Aug 2, 1907

   He makes his major league debut.

5. 1909

   The American Tobacco Company begins issuing T206 cards, including Johnson's Portrait.

6. 1910

   Johnson goes 25-17 with a 1.36 ERA and 313 strikeouts.

7. 1911

   T206 distribution ends.

8. 1913

   Johnson wins 36 games with a 1.14 ERA and is named AL MVP.

9. 1924

   He wins Game 7 of the World Series in relief, and his second MVP.

10. Oct 15, 1927

    Johnson is released at his request, ending his playing career.

11. 1936

    He is elected to the Hall of Fame in its first class.

12. Dec 10, 1946

    Johnson dies in Washington at 59.

13. 1983

    His career strikeout record is finally passed.

14. Aug 2000

    The Harris Collection PSA 9 Portrait sells for a record $38,358.

15. 2005

    The Harris PSA 9 sells again at auction for $37,700.

16. May 2019

    A PSA 9 Portrait sells for $135,000 in an online auction.

The world in 1910

• Jan 10, 1910

  The first U.S. aviation meet opens near Los Angeles.

• Feb 8, 1910

  The Boy Scouts of America is incorporated.

• Apr 14, 1910

  President Taft throws the first presidential Opening Day pitch, in Washington.

• May 11, 1910

  Congress establishes Glacier National Park.

• Jul 4, 1910

  Jack Johnson defeats James J. Jeffries in Reno, sparking riots nationwide.

• Aug 20, 1910

  The Great Fire of 1910 begins, burning about 3 million acres in two days.

• Oct 23, 1910

  The Philadelphia Athletics win the World Series over the Chicago Cubs.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, 1909-11 T206 Walter Johnson (Portrait) is number 83 of 100 in the trading cards entries of the FLOAT 100. 97 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (12 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Johnson was 13-25 in 1909, the year his T206 card began appearing; within two years he was a 25-game winner.
• The Portrait began as a photograph, hand-tinted for printing; Johnson's hair came out a bright orange.
• Most high-grade Portraits trace to a single uncirculated find, which makes the less popular Hands at Chest pose the harder of the two in top grade.
• Johnson once threw a silver dollar across the Rappahannock River on George Washington's birthday in 1936 to show the legendary feat could be done.
• He lost 65 games in which his team failed to score a run, and went 38-26 in 1-0 games, both major league records.
• The finest-known copy in 2005 sold for slightly less than it had brought five years earlier.