Sotheby's and SportsCards Plus to Sell Important Sports Memorabilia and Cards on June 10, 2005 On Friday, June 10th, Sotheby's and SportsCards Plus (SCP) will offer more than 350 lots of Important Sports Memorabilia and Cards, spanning the history of baseball, basketball, football, boxing, tenn
being voted the Most Valuable Player in Major League Baseball (est. $30,000/50,000). A spectacular 1917 Honus Wagner Day Sterling Silver Cup (est. $20,000/$30.000) presented by the city of Pittsburgh will also be offered.
ESTATE PROPERTY AND PRIVATE COLLECTIONS
The sale will feature property from a number of private estates and collections, including sports memorabilia belonging to Lefty Grove, Ernie Lombardi, Tom Connolly, Jim Murray and Arthur Ashe.
Items from the Tom Connolly Collection
In addition to the first baseball pitched at the 1912 opening of Fenway Park, an offering from the Tom Connolly Collection will include 21 game balls, among them a Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig signed baseball, celebrating one of the most legendary hitting duos in the history of the game (est. $20/30,000), a baseball signed by Connie Mack, the Hall of Fame Manager of the Philadelphia Athletics for fifty years (est. $2/3,000) and a 1924 World Series baseball signed by umpires Connolly, Klem, Bill Dineen and Hank O'Day (est. $2/3,000). A number of other Opening Day baseballs will be included in the sale, signed by such important figures as President Woodrow Wilson on April 20, 1916 (est. $20/30,000) and Vice President Calvin Coolidge on April 13, 1921 (est. $6/8,000). Other highlights include Connolly's Hall of Fame pin from 1953, the year he was honored along with Bill Klem as the first two umpires to be recognized (est. $1/1,500), and a group of 17 press pins from World Series that Connolly attended from the 1920s to 1950s (est. $2/3,000), among others. Another personal element of the offering is Connolly's rule book, a handwritten lineup sheet from the 1914 game between Cleveland and Boston and a group of letters (est. $1/2,000).
Items from the Estate of Lefty Grove
About 30 items will be featured from the Estate of Robert Moses "Lefty" Grove, one of the finest pitchers in baseball history and a mainstay of the Philadelphia Athletics and the Boston Red Sox. Highlighting this offering is a Game-Used Louisville Slugger Bat from Grove's 1934 Tour of Japan teammate and friend, Lou Gehrig, who was appropriately nicknamed "The Iron Horse" for setting the benchmark in hitting statistics for consecutive games played (est. $50/75,000).
Grove was traded from the Athletics to the Red Sox in 1934, pitching for the team through the 1941 season. From this period is a 1939 signed Red Sox Jimmie Foxx half bat, including the rookie signature of Ted Williams (est. $8/12,000). In Grove's final game in 1941, he became the twelfth pitcher to win 300 games, joining an elite group of players that to this day only numbers 22. A signed "299th" win ball from 1941 will be featured in the sale (est. $7/10,000) as well as a plaque commemorating Grove's 300th win (est. $1,500/2,500). A ball signed by Babe Ruth, Lefty Grove, Frank Baker, Walter Johnson, Tris Speaker, George Sisler and Eddie Collins (est. $10/15,000) highlights an offering of signed Hall of Fame balls.
Items from the Estate of Ernie Lombardi
