October Legends Closing November 1
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/2/2014
Offered is an original scored “Souvenir Card” program for the first ever World Series, which pitted the heavily favored Pittsburgh Pirates against the Boston Americans of the upstart American League. Honus Wagner versus Cy Young…established NATIONAL League versus the junior circuit raiders of the American League. We say raiders because that is exactly what the new American League was under league President Ban Johnson.
First, a little history.
Ban Johnson was the President of the Western League, who capitalized on the National Leagues contraction from 12 teams to eight teams prior to the 1900 season, and began the American League in 1901. The National League had dropped four teams for the 1900 season, with Louisville, Cleveland, Baltimore and Washington folding. However, Louisville owner Barney Dreyfuss purchased controlling interest in the Pittsburgh Pirates, and brought up to 14 players along with him, including future Hall of Famers Honus Wagner, player/manager Fred Clarke, and a rookie pitcher named Deacon Phillippe. Even a young rambunctious hurler named Rube Waddell came over to Pittsburgh from Louisville. In the meantime, Johnson had his sights set on raiding the existing National League franchises, and of the 46 players he targeted for jumping to the American League, most joined, including future HOFers Cy Young and Jimmy Collins, who both joined the Boston squad.
And several years prior, the setting for the first ever World Series had begun.
With Wagner and Clarke, along with veteran Tommy Leach, joining an already potent Pirates pitching staff which included Jack Chesbro and Jesse Tannehill, the Pirates were unstoppable; winning three straight National League pennants from 1901-1903. In 1902 Dreyfuss offered to play against a group of American League All Stars, but the constant blatant raiding of National League teams by Ban Johnson, including talk of raiding the Pirates roster and securing an American League team in Pittsburgh, kept the leagues from participating in a post season series that season.
However, the two leagues put their differences aside, Johnson stopped raiding the “other league” and baseball officials created the National Commission to preside over the entirety of Major League baseball. But the first World Series was decidedly a handshake agreement between the two owners, Dreyfuss of Pittsburgh (who so longed for a postseason), and Harry Killilea of the Boston Americans, in playing a best of nine postseason contest. This agreement was an arrangement primarily between the two clubs rather than a formal arrangement between the leagues. It was strictly a voluntary event, a fact which would result in no Series at all for 1904 (John McGraw refused to allow his New York Giants to face the American League winner - once again Boston), and in 1905 eventually to the formal establishment of the Series as the grand event we know now.
Amazingly, the two respective leagues never even officially sponsored the first ever World Series event!
The two owners divvied up the schedule (four games in Boston, three in Pittsburgh, and two – if necessary – back in Boston), decided on ticket prices, and began play. An interesting side note of the ticket prices and gate receipts is the players of the losing team, the Pirates, actually earned more money per player than did the Boston squad, as the Pirates owner donated his share of the gate receipts to his players.
So, on October 1, 1903, Pittsburgh and Boston, two teams improved a few years earlier through the machinations of a few powerful men, took the field to commence the inaugural World Series. This World Series staged by Boston and Pittsburgh was well received, as evidenced by the 16,242 fans that showed up at Boston's Huntington Grounds to watch Game 1.
This scorecard is from that first game of the first ever World Series, a truly virtual one of one!
The scorecard indicates Cy Young taking the mound in the first inning, retiring the first two hitters before allowing a triple to Leach. Up came Wagner, the reigning National League batting champion. You can imagine Wagner’s bowlegged shuffle up to the plate, all the while thinking about his prior NL at bats against the sturdy hurler…before Young jumped to the junior circuit. Whack! Wagner promptly singled to left field for the First World Series run batted in, and the Game One rout was on. Several more two-out hits plated four first inning Pittsburgh runs, and backed the stellar pitching of Phillippe en route to a 7-2 Pirates victory. Boston would have the last laugh, winning the final three games, and the first World Series five games to three.
This original scorecard bore witness to that historic first ever World Series event, with the anonymous scorekeeper (one of those 16,242 fans) categorizing every play; eyes fixed on each pitch, ball put in play and every run scored. This superb relic is one of the few remaining vestiges of the inaugural game, and one of a few surviving scored “programs” of that historic game. Each of the other known examples resides in prestigious, high collections. The cover features portrait ovals of the two Hall of Fame managers, Jimmy Collins of the Americans and Fred Clarke of the Pirates, two more of the original transfers which directly led to the game being played. At the top is an image of Michael “‘Nuf Ced” McGreevy, who owned the local Boston Bar “Third Base Saloon”, literally the first ever sports bar! He was also the de facto leader of Boston’s Royal Rooters contingent of fans, who are said to have contributed to the American success that series by traveling to Pittsburgh, and signing the song “Tessie” to rattle the Pirates players, and Boston won three of the four games played in Pittsburgh. The pre-printed text along the base of the cover identifies it as a "souvenir card of the World's Championship Games - Boston vs. Pittsburg” – a common spelling of the day.
The scorecard sections list the pre-printed lineups of both teams for Game One including Wagner, Clarke, Collins and Young plus the pre-printed date of “Thursday, October 1, 1903” at the top. This date and the actual scoring of the game fully put this program at that first game of the first World Series. A couple programs have that printed date at the top, but were used to score Game 2. The fold over program measures 5-3/8 x 8 inches in its original state, but this example has separated at the fold, creating two individual sheets. There is a vertical pocket fold down the entire middle, a very common trait in those days of work suits and overcoats worn by fans to most games of the era. In addition, several corners are missing on the score sheets, but only affecting brief areas of two advertisements.
Despite these characteristics, the scorecards displays very well, and all the individual game achievement are clearly noted and completely discernible. It is extremely difficult to assign a technical grade to such a historically complete and extremely rare item. Due to the rarity of such a piece, what does a technical grade actually mean to the enormity and desirability of said scorecard? We believe it means nothing to the prestige surrounding such an item; a new item to the hobby we believe has never been publicly auctioned prior to this event.
So few 1903 World Series programs exist, with estimates of maybe a half dozen known examples, making this particular scorecard from the first ever World Series game one of the few surviving examples, with most others residing in established collections. With this offered example being issued for Game 1 (and being fully scored), distinguishes it as one of the most desirable examples extant, a true rarity from the first ever World Series. Completely Original with no restoration