This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 10/7/2009
Poor ol' Buck Weaver was one of the infamous "Eight Men Out" who were banished from professional baseball by Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis for their suspected participation in the 1919 Black Sox scandal. Weaver, however, batted .324 in the World Series and played errorless ball in the field, maintaining, until the day he died of a heart attack, or, indeed, a broken heart, that he had nothing whatsoever to do with the fix. But he was banned, so Landis claimed, for having knowledge of the fix and for not ratting out his teammates, which of course is a grand hypocrisy considering that the team's penny-pinching owner, Charles Comiskey, also had knowledge of the fix before the series even began, on reports from the team's manager, Kid Gleason, as well as from the reporter who would eventually blow the whistle on the whole rotten affair, Hugh Fullerton. Weaver applied six times for reinstatement to baseball, in hopes that he could return to his hot corner, where he was so proficient at fielding that he was famously known as the only third baseman in the league that Ty Cobb refused to bunt against. His numbers may not have been worthy of the Hall of Fame when he unwillingly left the game, but he was just 29 at that point, with his greatest season coming in his last year, when he batted .331 with 208 hits in 1920. Presented in this lot is 1 of the finest 3 examples of Buck's highly coveted D310 Pacific Coast Biscuit issue on record at both SGC and PSA. Recently graded SGC 60 EX 5, the offered specimen reports just 2 like it in its pinnacle class at SGC, with 0 higher from 7 total copies on record, with just 1 copy known to PSA, and that at the PSA POOR 1Q level. EX to EX/MT corners join NM or better edges on all sides but the bottom, which shows some grade-appropriate and hardly bothersome chipping on the back. The self-evident centering is clearly good enough for NM/MT, while both surfaces are predominantly clean and profoundly bold, with no prominent imperfections whatsoever. The delightfully green-tinted obverse is particularly noteworthy for both its contrast and enchanting precision of image. In short, presented with our highest recommendation is 1 of the finest 3 examples of one of the earliest and most coveted issues depicting the tragic and immortal Buck Weaver! In tribute, here as an excerpt from Ross Tenney's classic account of the ill-fated series: "One by one his mates gave up. Weaver continued to grin and fought harder... Weaver's smile never faded. His spirit never waned... The Reds have beaten the spirit out of the Sox all but Weaver. Buck's spirit is untouched. He was ready to die fighting. Buck is Chicago's one big hero; long may he fight and smile."