Opening Day Auction 2014
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 4/26/2014
Chances are, you probably never heard of Lefty Stewart. He wasn't a star - the best pitcher on a series of cellar dwelling teams - but he did manage to win 101 big league contests and start Game One a World Series. In the famed 1933 Goudey baseball card set, you'll find not one but two cards of this diminutive southpaw from Tennessee. In his 10 year Major League career Walter "Lefty" Stewart faced the likes of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Charlie Gehringer, Al Simmons - the greats of the game - and this large collection of newspaper clippings and mementoes gathers together almost every pitch of it. The 10" x 11 1/2" scrapbook is literally stuffed to bursting with newspaper clippings collected by the pitcher and his wife. Most are folded and placed loosely between the pages but some have been mounted with glue or paperclips. Dozens of different newspapers spanning the years 1927 to 1935 are represented as Lefty pitched in Detroit, St. Louis, Washington and Cleveland during his 10 year career. Sprinkled in throughout the pages are little gems like rarely seen 1931 and 1932 St. Louis Browns season passes and a 1929 Browns spring training schedule.
After toiling for 6 years for the hapless St. Louis Browns, Stewart was fortunate enough to be traded to the Washington Senators. Lovingly saved and mounted within is his official American League Notification of Release and a typewritten letter on Browns stationery from the team's business manager W.E. Friel who humorously writes: "Walter, I think Griff (Washington owner Clark Griffith) figured you were a bad actor when pitching against his club, therefore decided you would be more valuable on his pitching staff than on the pitching staff of some other club in the American League." An official 1933 spring training roster of the pennant winning Washington club is also found within this books pages. Stewart's 15-6 season helped the team clinch the pennant and he got to start the first game of the Series against the Giants. Unfortunately Lefty didn't have his stuff that afternoon and he left the game in the 2nd after giving up 4 runs, including a 2 run blast by Mel Ott. Included with in the scrapbook are various Western Union telegrams consoling Lefty on his loss. Stewart's time on the sandlots and minors is represented by two wonderful full body studio photographs, one as an 18 year-old kid in the uniform of the 1919 Bradenton Growers of the Florida State League and the other as a 25 year-old ace of the 1926 Toronto Maple Leafs. There are also a few small snapshots of Stewart taken during his time with the Senators as well, including one with owner and Hall of Famer Clark Griffith.
It's a rare time capsule that lets you look back on the career of a typical journeyman pitcher from baseballs Golden Era.