1910 Chicago Cubs Team Signed Book Presented to President William Howard Taft....

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Tinker to Evers to Chance to the White House...

1910 Chicago Cubs Team Signed Book Presented to President William Howard Taft. "Scan all the annals of Washington base ball as you will - go back to the very inception of the national game - there will be found no day so altogether glorious no paean of victory changed by rooters and fanatics half so sweet as that witnessed yesterday in honor of the opening of the season on 1910."

While The Washington Post's fawning report of the Senators' Opening Day festivities surely had something to do with Walter Johnson's shutout victory over the Athletics' Eddie Plank, we suspect their enthusiasm was likewise bolstered by the start of a wonderful new baseball tradition--the Presidential first pitch. It was on April 14, 1910 that William Howard Taft debuted that celebrated rite of spring, further cementing baseball's status as our national pastime.

There is little doubt that this overt act of the President's affection for the sport inspired the production of a special copy of John Evers and Hugh Fullerton's book, "Touching Second," a remarkable relic we present here. We first encounter Taft's name in golden embossed lettering on the leather cover, opening to reveal an inscription and autographs from the two authors. The following two pages reveal the signatures of all members of the 1910 Cubs, twenty-eight autographs including Chance, Tinker, Brown, Overall, Schulte, Archer, Reulbach, Steinfeldt, Kling, Sheckard, Hofman and even team owner Charles Murphy. Finally, the great Honus Wagner breaks the Cubs theme in welcome fashion, supplying an autograph to his page 165 photographic portrait. Signature quality is a consistent 9/10.

Wear to the covers and some loosening of the binding are the only condition caveats to report, neither issue having any detrimental effect upon the signatures. Full LOA from PSA/DNA.