For the 19th century in general, almost all were mounted because of the fragility of the photos. By 1897-98 though you can find thousands of unmounted snapshot style images that were developed and never mounted. I probably have 2000 of them here at the house (not baseball subjects) so for 1898 I think it is absolutely a possibility that this photo was developed and never mounted, of if it was it was an amateur job. Whether it was mounted in 1898 or mounted in the 1920's I don't think really matters much, what is important is that "cabinet" just means photo glued to thick paper and there are many levels of quality. To me, this is a photo taken by a family member or teammate and then mounted by Delahanty, a family member, or maybe even the newspaper later on but it is not a professional quality cabinet photograph which limits the value. I think $4400 is probably what it is worth and it is super cool, but I doubt there is much left on the bone for someone looking to flip it for a profit. The fact that it is a "cabinet" doesn't really matter when you are dealing with "amateur mounting jobs"
