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Early to Mid-1930's Lou Gehrig Game Worn New York Yankees Cap, MEARS Authentic....
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$240,000 or more
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Description
True baseball royalty supplies a crown...
Early to Mid-1930's Lou Gehrig Game Worn New York Yankees Cap,
MEARS Authentic. Born and bred in the city where he charted his
path to baseball immortality, Henry Louis Gehrig was not only one
of the greatest players ever to wear a Major League uniform, but
one of the greatest men as well. Everything that the true baseball
fan loves about the sport, and those lost merits we lament in this
modern age of cheats and prima donnas, were embodied in Gehrig's
quiet strength, and epitomized in the bravery of his famous
farewell as he stared down the barrel of his own mortality. That
1939 ceremony in which Gehrig's sturdy number "4" was retired from
the Yankee wardrobe could be considered the groundbreaking ceremony
of the official team pantheon enshrined within Monument Park,
establishing a standard for excellence all but impossible to
match.Gehrig's unparalleled blend of character and achievement has understandably propelled demand for all memorabilia bearing his name or touch to the peak of desirability, and nowhere is this more evident than in the market for his game used gear. Despite an attendance record bested only a single time in baseball history, the availability of Gehrig uniform pieces trails demand by perhaps the widest margin in the sports collectibles realm. Typically it is years between offerings of the rare few surviving relics from the wardrobe of the Hall of Fame first baseman.
The experts at MEARS, the industry's leading authenticator of game used sports memorabilia, is generous with its praise of this important relic, writing, "Its overall condition is superb and extremely well above average and could be considered as a superior example." They note that the unbroken state of cardboard insert in the visor is particularly rare in period caps, especially in those demonstrating the heavy wear one would expect from the sport's most reliable employee. The only condition issues worthy of note are found at the cap's interior, where the green felt lining of the visor underside exhibits wear, as does the sweat-stained leather headband.
It is upon this headband that we encounter the definitive attribution to the Iron Horse, a green embroidered "Lou Gehrig" in distinctive team script, perfectly matching other known caps from the era. The unique construction of the cap itself, from the six-panel construction of the crown to the formation of the logo "NY" at the peak, allows the experts at MEARS to narrow the range of use to the early days of the Great Depression, an era that found Gehrig a perpetual top-five contender for the American League MVP Award. A "Spalding" logo is stamped into the headband but no size markings are evident. A measurement of the band finds it consistent with the few Gehrig caps that have surfaced in the modern hobby, including the example from Gehrig's personal collection that commanded $312,000 in our February 2019 Platinum Night auction. LOA from MEARS, Authentic. LOA from Heritage Auctions.
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