This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 3/23/2018
Graded GOOD+ 2.5 by PSA. Plank rarely threw to a base to hold a runner close. Sad Sam Jones, good enough to win 229 games over a long career, told Lawrence Ritter, "I once heard Eddie Plank say, 'There are only so many pitches in this old arm, and I don't believe in wasting them throwing to first base.' And he rarely did. Made sense to me. I was just a young punk, and I figured if it was good enough for Plank it should be good enough for me." Somebody that annoying can hang around for only one reason, if he's a winner. Plank was exactly that, winning 326 games, the most by any lefthander until Warren Spahn and Steve Carlton came along. His 69 shutouts remain the standard for southpaws. Despite all his accomplishments, however, it was Eddie Plank's fate to be second banana. He had some great seasons and many good ones, but there always seemed to be someone having a better one. Usually it was Walter Johnson, but there would occasionally be someone like Jack Chesbro, Ed Walsh, or Joe Wood, whose overall careers weren't the equal of Plank's. Accordingly, in no season was he considered the top pitcher in the American League; he had to be satisfied with being one of the top four or five, but he was in that position year after year, and while other pitchers came and went, Plank persevered, helping the Philadelphia Athletics to five American League pennants and three world championships. "Plank was not the fastest," teammate Eddie Collins once observed. "He was not the trickiest, and not the possessor of the most stuff. He was just the greatest." The featured collectible is one of the finest 1909-11 T206 Eddie Plank cards we have ever encountered. The technical grade is a derivative of the small area of staining from a vintage stamp hinge mount at the top of the card on the reverse. It is interesting in itself that the vintage stamp mount was placed on the reverse at all, as it is a testament to the reverence this card has been shown for decades. Each of the four corners stand at attention with an EX+ to EX/MT overall appearance which along with the fact that the card offers a crease free palate and without question the very finest color and focus that we have ever encountered on a T206 Plank card. The centering is absolutely perfect and the remainder of the reverse is stain free aside from the area where the small staining has taken place. The offered keepsake is a recently graded example that has been in private hands for the last thirty years. On visual aesthetics alone the offered example boasts as being one of the very finest examples of this esteemed card in our entire hobby! A chance to acquire one of the very finest examples of this exceptionally important card, please bid accordingly!