1923-24 Billiken card of long-time Negro Leaguer ,Isidro Fabre. In a 22-year Negro League career that spanned from 1918 to 1939, this native Cuban had numerous highlights including pitching an 18-inning marathon and walking only a single batter.
In his homeland during a 1920 series against the visiting New York Giants he compiled a 2-1 record including a 3-hit shoutout victory against Jesse Barnes.
The 1923-24 Billiken set is considered by many to be the greatest issue ever produced in Cuba with breathtaking images of some of the all-time greats. This card shows Fabre as a member of the Almendares team.
Graded a 1 by PSA, this is a nice example of this issue. The technical grade of 1 is due to a bughole near the top left corner. Cuban card collectors know how common bugholes are and have come to accept them as inevitable parts of the Cuban card collecting game. But any card with a bughole is automatically given a technical grade of “1.”
This card is a great example of why bugholes don’t matter to many Cuban card collectors as the bughole is in the border of the card and does not affect the image whatsoever. On a photographic card such as the Billiken issue, image quality is paramount. The likely grade of this card without the bughole would be VG/EX.