October Legends and Americana Ending November 14th
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/15/2015
Before Mantle and Maris, DiMaggio and Williams or even Ruth and Gehrig, there was the original baseball rivalry: Cobb and Wagner. In the first decade of the 20th century those two ball players were the face of professional baseball. And while both possessed a natural talent that stood them head and shoulders above all their peers, you couldn't have found two more divergent personalities. Cobb was the son of a wealthy doctor from Georgia, Wagner the son of poor German immigrants from the mines of western Pennsylvania. Cobb was angry and built like a racehorse, Wagner kindly and the complete opposite of what one thought an athlete should look like. When the two men met for the first time in the 1909 World Series, the sporting press expected a collision of epic proportions - but there wasn't. Over the years legend had it the the combative Cobb taunted his rival, calling him "Krauthead" until Wagner bloodied the Georgian's lip in a steal attempt. In fact the two men had a mutual respect for one another. Although singled out the two greatest players in the game, both recognized that their approach to winning were very different, and both men acknowledged the other's results. Almost forty years later after their historic meeting, Wagner and Cobb faced off again, this time as managers of opposing boy's baseball teams. The event was the August 9th, 1946 All-American Boys Baseball Game held at Comiskey Park. Sometime during that afternoon in 1946 the two men reunited and signed this Official American Association ball. As if to demonstrate once again how different each man was, Cobb signed a side panel in black fountain pen, his large, flowing script finished off with the date "8/9/46". Wagner signed the ball's sweet spot in blue fountain pen, adding "Pirates", the ball club he became a legend with and still coached for. The signatures rate a 6-7/10 and both have been position so that they are both visible at the same angle. Baseball's original rivalry has been written about in countless books and article, but not many pieces brings them both together quite like this one. Letter of Authenticity from JSA.