Spring Premium Live and Catalog Auction Ending May 20(1-70) and June 3
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 6/4/2017
After more than two decades of sub-standard baseball, the Chicago Cubs embarked on a re-tooling financed by chewing gum magnate Bill Wrigley. The gum manufacturer hired Bill Veeck, Sr. to run the front office and an obscure minor league manager named Joe McCarthy to manage the team. In a matter of three years, Veeck and McCarthy had assembled one of the greatest rosters of power hitting names ever assembled.
From 1929 to 1938, the Cubs would win the pennant every three years, making them the most dominant franchise in the National League in the years leading up to World War II. This incredible ball brings together the heavy artillery of the pennant winning 1929 Cubs - Hack Wilson, Kiki Cuyler, Rogers Hornsby, Charlie Grimm and Riggs Stevenson. Like the Yankees of a few years earlier, these big hitters were dubbed “Murderer’s Row” - perhaps more appropriately as they played in the gangster-ruled streets of Al Capone’s Chicago. During the 1929 season, Wilson pounded out 39 home runs and batted .345, Cuyler hit .360, Stevenson .362, Grimm .291 and Hornsby led them all with a .380 mark and tied Wilson with 39 homers.
Chicago ran away with the pennant, winning it by 10 ½ games over Pittsburgh and faced the Philadelphia A’s in World Series. Each ballplayer has signed the 1926-1933 John Heydler Spalding Official National League Baseball in blue fountain pen. Kiki Cuyler and Hack Wilson stand out the most, their signatures bold and bright against the cream colored leather. The Wilson signature has a slight scuff on the “c” and “n”, though they do not distract in the slightest or affect the legibility. The Hornsby, Stevenson and Grimm signatures are considerably faded by comparison. One panel has the inscription “Murderer’s Row Chicago Cubs Champions 1929” and a red stamp reads “Property of Majestic Radio”.
In 1929 Majestic became the first radio manufacturer to seek celebrity athlete endorsements for the new technology, featuring eight of the World Champion Philadelphia A’s stars in their advertisements. That this ball carries the Majestic stamp makes it apparent that the company was also courting the Cubs, the A’s World Series opponents that year. Due to Hack Wilson’s brief but brilliant career and early death, his signature is one of the most sought after of all Hall of Famers, and this one is a very choice example, signed during one of his greatest seasons. The ball comes with a full LOA from PSA/DNA (AC03160) for the signatures.