October Legends and Americana Ending November 14th
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/15/2015
Stan Musial must have thought he would be playing in the World Series every year. Musial’s St. Louis Cardinals teams made it to the Fall Classic in each of his first four full big league seasons from 1942-1946 with the exception of the entire 1945 season which he missed while serving in the Navy. While Musial could be forgiven for taking the World Series for granted after enjoying such a spectacular run of early success; he played for four National League pennant winners and three World Series championships from age 21 to 25, the Cardinals 1946 Series victory over the Boston Red Sox would be his last. Stan “The Man,” was the NL MVP in 1946, leading the league with a .365 batting average, 50, doubles, 20 triples, 228 hits and a whopping 1.021 OPS (which they didn’t actually keep track of back then). The Cardinals finished the 1946 season with a 96-58 record, tied for first place with the Brooklyn Dodgers, and swept the “Bums” two games to none in a best-of- three-playoff to reach the Series. The Cardinals dashed the Red Sox hopes in dramatic fashion when Enos “Country” Slaughter made his “mad dash” around the bases scoring the winning run all the way from first base on Harry Walker’s hit to short center field in the bottom of the eighth inning in the decisive seventh game. It would be the only series appearance for Boston’s legendary Ted Williams.
Musial, Slaughter and fellow Hall of Famer Red Schoendienst all signed this Ford C. Frick Official National ball, as well as outfielder Harry Walker, shortstop Marty Marion (who signed on the sweet spot), catcher Joe Garagiola, and pitcher Howie Pollet who led the National League that year with 21 wins, 2.10 ERA and 266 innings pitched. Other notable signatures include infielder Whitey Kurowski, outfielder Terry Moore, pitcher Murry Dickson and coach Buzzy Wares.
This caramel colored ball circa 1946 has red stitching and contains 25 signatures in all such as: Al Brazle, Ted Wilks, Johnny Gordzicki, Freddy Schmidt, Harry Breechen, Red Barrett, Bill Endicott, Howie Krist, Del Rice, Jeff Cross, Mike Gonzalez and two others.
All signatures are in ballpoint pen and steep-tip ink. Musial’s is the most prominent rating a solid 9-10, Slaughter, Marion and Schoendienst are also prominent; comes with JSA LOA certification #Y47515.