This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 5/20/2011
Sam Crawford is one of the most under-appreciated players in the popular history of Major League Baseball. Indeed, only sabremetricians (or baseball statisticians) and baseball card geeks seem to have any clue who he was or what he accomplished. At 6-foot and a lean 190 pounds, he was a monster of a man for his time, famously fleet-footed for his size, and he is largely considered the greatest slugger of the dead-ball era, though his record-setting stats are really the result of both his size and his speed. From 1905-1915, he was among the AL leaders in hits, extra base hits, total bases, runs batted in, and, not surprisingly, slugging. Ed Barrow once said there was never another hitter like him, and Ed Barrow is of course known for converting Babe Ruth from a pitcher to a slugger. Perhaps Sam's most telling stats, however, are his record 309 career triples and his single season records for inside the park home runs (12) and triples (AL, 26). Apart from remaining records to this day, these stats are significant to understand because most ballparks at the time had no outfield fences or walls to contain the moonshots and bullets blasted by powerful batsmen like Crawford, Honus Wagner, and Joe Jackson, with whom "Wahoo Sam" still shares the AL single-season record of 26 triples. Ahead of his time, Sam Crawford's legacy is bound to increase in stature as we gain better perspective in the wake of the PED scandal. Get ahead of the times yourself with a visionary bid on the offered PSA 8 NM/MT example of his 1914 Cracker Issue, one of the single best Sam Crawford baseball cards currently available. With none higher and only 2 other examples at its tier, this one boasts accurate enough centering for the issue with strong MINT edges between NM/MT+ to MINT top corners and NM to NM/MT bottom corners around two surprisingly stain-free surfaces. A powerful addition to any advanced collection.