This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 12/11/2020
Christy Mathewson, The Christian Gentleman. Matty, as he was known, seemed to have been the embodiment of Frank Meriwell, the virtuous baseball hero in a popular serial of the time. His only character flaw seemed to have been his arrogance, but his performance on the field justified this arrogance. He had a good grasp of the standard pitches, the fastball, the curve ball and the change-up, and he had perfected a reverse-curve ball that made him one of the most dominating pitchers of the era. It is known today as a screwball, but players back them called it a fade-away, for it seemed to fade away from the hitter's line of sight. He threw all of these pitches with pinpoint precision. To top it off, Mathewson had a degree of intelligence that was almost impossible to find in early baseball. He was book-smart, having been educated at Bucknell College, in a sport where many of the players could barely read and write, and was known to have been a terrific checkers player. And he was smart on the field. It was Christy Mathewson who coined the phrase, "You can learn little from victory. You can learn everything from defeat." Featured for your consideration is this exceptionally rare recently discovered and fresh to the collecting public single signed sphere of the Christian Gentleman, Christy Mathewson. Few items in the field of baseball autographs are as rare or as highly prized by collectors as this spectacular piece: a single-signed Christy Mathewson ball. The official National League (Heydler) ball has been signed by Mathewson in black fountain pen on a side panel with the signature grading 5/10 overall. This is an terrific Mathewson single and one of the very few examples that we have ever offered. While the ball shows its age, as well the signature is missing ink in several spots. The signature panel remains clean and bright and the ball is in VG/EX to EX condition overall. Based upon the manufacturer's stampings, this ball dates to the 1919-1924 labeling period. The fantastic part of this ball is that until recently it was hidden away in a families belongings in the upper Northwest part of the country and it has just recently been unearthed and found its way into the collecting hobby. Christy Mathewson single signed balls have long been the target of the unscrupulous because of the noted rarity of the collectible. Seeing a ball like this that shows its age and has some slight condition flaws actually produces a feeling of ease when taken into consideration of the aforementioned fact. A terrific copy of a noted rarity. JSA LOA (Full Letter)