Auction Name: 2025 December 19 - 21 Winter Sports Catalog Auction

Lot Number: 82205

Shortcut to Lot: HA.com/50081*82205

1939 Baseball Hall of Fame Inaugural Class Multi-Signed Baseball with Ruth, Cobb, Young, Wagner, etc. The identity of a sleepy little town in upstate New York was transformed forever on June 12, 1939, the day the ribbon was cut at the newly founded Baseball Hall of Fame on the shores of Lake Otsego. Though Cooperstown had enjoyed some limited fame with its controversial proclamation as baseball's birthplace, never had the eyes of the nation been so keenly focused upon the leafy hamlet until the day that the greatest living ballplayers convened to receive the game's highest honor.

A dozen legends of the pre-war game were honored as the inaugural class, and only two of them are absent from the presented sphere--the deceased Christy Mathewson and three-time World Series Champion Tris Speaker. The balance of that esteemed brotherhood is present: Babe Ruth, Connie Mack, Napoleon "Larry" Lajoie, Eddie Collins, Cy Young, Ty Cobb, George Sisler, Honus Wagner, Grover Cleveland Alexander and Walter Johnson. Joining that cast of characters are three participants in the Doubleday Field contest that would likewise find their way into the hallowed halls of Cooperstown: Joe DiMaggio (a later signature in blue ballpoint), Lefty Grove and Dizzy Dean.

Autograph quality ranges from 3/10 to 7/10, with all inhabitants quite readily legible. Medium is an ONL sphere from the presidency of Ford Frick, the proper format for 1939. A spectacularly rare and desirable relic from one of the most important events in 20th century baseball history. Full LOA from PSA/DNA.

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