1939 Autographed Baseball Hall of Fame Program
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GUEST:
This is the day the Hall of Fame opened in Cooperstown, New York, on June 12, 1939. And my grandfather was there. He rode the train from New York City on that day. It was called the Cavalcade of Baseball. He got the majority of the original inductees' autographs there that day. He told me when I was probably ten years old that he hid in the bathroom after the Old-Timers' Game or the All-Star Game that day. And as they were having the reception, he, I guess he came out of the bathroom and everybody was there. All these greats of baseball at the time were in the reception hall, and he, that's where he got everybody's autograph. That would’ve been an impressive room to be in.
APPRAISER:
Country's coming out of the Depression. This meant a lot. College football and baseball.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
That's, that's what it was all about back then. You've got heroes, you've got titans, you've got guys retiring. Now how are we going to celebrate 'em? Oh, I got it, we'll enshrine them. Whose autograph did he get?
GUEST:
Well, I guess the most famous one that everybody knows is Babe Ruth. Then there's Walter Johnson, and there's Honus Wagner. And there's Cy Young and Connie Mack. And there's Larry Lajoie and there's Tris Speaker, and... But he never got Ty Cobb's autograph. He wasn't there yet, in that famous picture right here. Ty Cobb's not in that picture. I think as far as autographs go, he's got 80% of them, of those guys right there.
APPRAISER:
It's a large program, and you had some other signers. They simply weren't as significant as these guys. Everything there is to see and all the autographs there are to have-- but Ty Cobb-- are on this page. Really strong autographs, it's a delicate piece. There's age-induced wear and toning, the kind of thing you expect. How'd your grandfather come to possess the photo?
GUEST:
Actually, later years, I found out about the photo, and I acquired it.
APPRAISER:
What we have here is just a nice image of all the men sitting there that day, enjoying being enshrined, being beloved. You familiar with who's on here?
GUEST:
Babe Ruth's in the middle, and, and that's Connie Mack sitting beside Babe Ruth.
APPRAISER:
That's... What's funny is, they, they made Honus stand, he's, he's over on the far left, standing, staring menacingly at Ruth. "Hey, you got my, you got my seat, kid." (laughs) Um, yeah, there's Ruth in the middle, next to Connie Mack. And you got Walter Johnson standing on the far right, as well-- it's a who's who. (laughing) It's a great photo, not original.
GUEST:
No.
APPRAISER:
But it's a nice showpiece.
GUEST:
It is, it is.
APPRAISER:
On its own, not a lot of value, couple bucks.
GUEST:
Right, right.
APPRAISER:
I want to poke fun at you for shellacking this page, and I don't want to name names and who did what. It's not the worst thing you could have done, certainly fire would have been worse, uh, but, uh, we, we weren't a fan of the shellacking. Uh, but that said, it really hasn't ruined the autographs. (chuckles): In fact, it may have served to preserve at least the Babe Ruth autograph. Uh, you know, moving forward, no more shellacking.
GUEST (laughing): Okay. That was Granddad, not me.
APPRAISER (laughs): I love the story. I love the "Mission: Impossible"... I love that he, that he did everything he could. How, how old was he?
GUEST:
Uh, at the time? Uh, Granddad? Oh, he's probably 35.
APPRAISER:
Okay. (laughing) So this is a grown man...
GUEST:
Yeah, yeah.
APPRAISER:
...who's just going to steal away... (both laughing) ...to go get some autographs, I love that.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
Value. An auction estimate we think a, appropriate for this piece, with all of the autographs-- we're talking about the Centennial, 1939 Cooperstown program-- we think an auction estimate, appropriately, is at $10,000 to $20,000.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
Okay?
GUEST:
Insurance-wise, we think a proper insurance value for this is $50,000.
GUEST:
Interesting.
APPRAISER:
Okay?
GUEST:
Yeah. Uh, well, Granddad, this was his, uh, crown jewel. He loved-- he knew he had something special, and he, he loved sharing the stories with us.
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