Card Statistics
Caught at the end of his delivery, “Sleepy Bill” Burns appears with the Chicago Americans in a sweeping follow-through that carries his body almost completely across the mound. His deep blue uniform dominates the composition, contrasting strongly with the pale stockings, warm infield earth, and yellow-green evening sky. The turned torso and extended throwing arm give the image considerable movement, while Burns’s glance back toward the plate suggests the instant immediately after releasing the ball.
The original artwork was painted by Natalia Valiukavich in watercolor. She builds the unusually dark uniform from layered cobalt and blue-black washes, using heavier shadows along the back, waist, and trousers to describe the twisting pitching motion. The white undersleeve provides a sharp interruption to the mass of blue. Behind the figure, the field is reduced to broad areas of green and ochre, with a dark fence and loosely suggested trees silhouetted against a luminous sky.
William Thomas “Sleepy Bill” Burns was a talented left-handed pitcher whose major-league career ran from 1908 through 1912. After beginning with Washington, he joined the Chicago White Sox in 1909 and proved capable of beating the best pitchers of his day; during his Chicago tenure he defeated Walter Johnson three times and threw several notable shutouts. Burns finished his major-league career with a 2.72 earned-run average, but his later notoriety came from an entirely different chapter of baseball history. In 1919 he became involved with the conspirators seeking to fix the World Series between the White Sox and Cincinnati Reds, and he later testified for the prosecution at the 1921 Black Sox trial. (Society for American Baseball Research)
Numbered #96, the Burns card introduces one of the more complicated personalities in the T3 checklist. As a Chicago subject he belongs to the same broad Deadball Era setting as Ed Walsh, Doc White, and other White Sox figures, yet Burns’s subsequent role in the 1919 scandal gives the card an additional historical dimension. His story joins genuine pitching ability with one of the darkest and most closely studied episodes in early professional baseball.
Produced in Helmar’s distinctive handcrafted tradition, the card combines original watercolor artwork, an unusually bold blue-uniform composition, and a player whose career became intertwined with the history of the Black Sox scandal.
Original watercolor artwork by Natalia Valiukavich.
- Description: Pitching follow through
- Team: Chicago White Sox
- Population (# Sold): 12
- First Date Sold: 2021-08-03
- Latest Date Sold: 2026-08-18
- Card Status: Active
- # Sold in past year: 1
- Highest Auction: $ 32.51
- Average Auction Result: $ 15.33
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Visit these teammates on the Chicago White Sox in the T3-Helmar series
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