This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/27/2010
The current high bid for the complete set, $422,500.00, is greater than the aggregate total of the bids on the single cards that comprise this set, $294,310.00 (this lot is currently losing)
Graded NM/MT 8 by PSA. The offered example hails as being the ONE AND ONLY example that has been graded NM/MT 8 by PSA with none graded higher. Eddie Cicotte was one of the preeminent pitchers of his day, amassing a lifetime 208-149 record, but was banned for life along with eight other White Sox players for "throwing" the 1919 World Series. Cicotte's 1919 salary was $6,000, but he had a provision for a $10,000 bonus if he won 30 games. Legend has it that as the season drew to a close, owner Charles Comiskey ordered manager Kid Gleason to bench Cicotte, denying him a chance at a 30-win season and the bonus money. Some have speculated this was his motivation for participating in the fix, and though the facts do not appear to support this conclusion, the book Eight Men Out by Eliot Asinof (and the movie based on the book) does record that Cicotte, despite being grossly underpaid for a pitcher of his ability, resisted repeated attempts by Chick Gandil to get him to throw the series until just days before the World Series opened, when it became clear that Comiskey would never pay him even part of the promised bonus. The fact that the offer price for the fix exactly matched the promised bonus, lends credibility to this version of events. An exceptional card offered in outstanding and strong NM/MT condition. In the 1919 World Series against the Reds, Cicotte pitched in three games, winning one but pitching ineffectively and losing the other two. Cicotte was the first of the eight players to come forward, signing a confession and a waiver of immunity. He later recanted this confession and was acquitted of all charges at trial by jury. Despite this, Cicotte and his alleged co-conspirators were subsequently made permanently ineligible for baseball by Kenesaw Mountain Landis, Major League Baseball's new commissioner, recently hired to restore the integrity of the game in the wake of the 1919 scandal.