1910 Walter Johnson All-Star Watch
Watch
GUEST:
That watch belonged to my great-uncle, who was Walter Johnson. It's kind of come down through the family since then. And it's an appreciation watch that was given to him after a rather strange series of ballgames between this so-called all-star team that he was pitching for and the Philadelphia Athletics in 1910.
APPRAISER:
So did you know Walter Johnson himself?
GUEST:
No, he passed away in 1946, and I was born a couple years before that, so if I met him, it's not something I remember.
APPRAISER:
Let's flip it over. It says, "To Walter Johnson "of the all-star American team, 1910, "in appreciation from American Baseball Club of Philadelphia." So the Philadelphia Athletics, who of course won the pennant in 1910 and when on to annihilate the Chicago Cubs four games to one in the 1910 World Series.
GUEST:
I believe that's correct, yeah.
APPRAISER:
It's a very interesting story. People think "all-star game," they think the very first all-star game, 1933, but here we have, in 1910, this interesting occurrence. And the Philadelphia Athletics obviously wanted to stay on top of things for this week leading up to the series, they wanted to keep in shape, so they organized this all-star team of players from the Red Sox, from the White Sox, and also from the Washington Senators. And of course, on the Senators is a 22-year-old fireballer, Walter Johnson. Give him a few more years, he starts to accumulate the wins, he ends up with 417 wins, second all time. He has the most shutouts in history. And of course, he's one of the first five people inducted into the Hall of Fame. He is a legend of epic proportions. What's cool about this watch, obviously it commemorates a unique moment in history when this happened, and what's really neat is you have this beautiful enameling here of the Philadelphia Athletics logo, with the famous elephant. They still use that logo today. The Oakland Athletics now still have an elephant in certain logos they use. As a gold watch from this era, and there are a lot of them out there, the watch is probably worth about $300 to $500 without that particular engraving, without that particular enameling. You're dealing with Walter Johnson here, your relative and perhaps one of the most legendary baseball players of all time, so it really adds something special to the watch. Everything is going for it, the provenance, everything. It's a family heirloom, and I understand with family heirlooms, you want to keep them insured. I wouldn't insure this watch for anything less than $50,000.
GUEST:
Okay! (laughs)
APPRAISER:
It's a treasure. It's one of the finest pieces I've ever seen on the show. It's magnificent.
GUEST:
Wow. Wow, that's impressive.
Appraisal Details
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