Winter 2014 Auction Closing Feb 7
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 2/8/2014
Though forgotten today, Christy Walsh was the original sports agent. In the early 1920's Walsh was a young man with nothing but a grand idea to harness together all the lucrative offers that were casually flung at sports heroes. The typical ballplayer in the 1920's was not well educated and many players were either taken advantage of or sadly overlooked valuable offers because they did not have the knowledge or time to explore them. Walsh changed all that. Starting at the top with the great Babe Ruth, within a few years he'd built himself a syndicate of sports stars that included Knute Rockne, Lou Gehrig and Ty Cobb. The savvy promoter was able to harness together all the lucrative promotional and endorsement deals for his stars and bundle them together for his client's best benefit. Those players lucky enough to be a part of Walsh's stable of heroes reaped the rewards of periodic royalty checks. This is one of Ty Cobb's checks from the Christy Walsh Syndicate. While the $1,000 it is made out for may not seem like much in today's multi-million dollar contracts, that amount in 1926 would come to roughly $15,000 today and was just a portion of what Cobb would have made from Walsh's management. The 3" x 8 1/2" Christy Walsh Syndicate/Harriman National Bank check is made out to "Tyrus R. Cobb" in the amount of $1000. Christy Walsh has signed the check in strong black fountain pen and the immortal Ty Cobb has endorsed the back "Pay to order Ga. R.R. Bank of Augusta, Ga. Tyrus R. Cobb". A nice flourish trails off the last "b" and underscores the rest of his name. A dated bank stamp intrudes lightly over the "Tyrus" as does an embossed ink-free cancellation design but the signature displays well. The check has a warm age coloration and has two creases which do not distract from the signatures. Cancellation holes overlap the "C" in Walsh's signature. Encapsulated by PSA/DNA and graded Authentic.