This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 12/20/2013
Graded 35 (2.5) GOOD+ by SGC. Offered is absolutely one of the more underrated cards with the entire hobby. Hornsby played for a lot of clubs, five in all, at a time when players of his magnitude were far less peripatetic than now. But it seemed the Rajah couldn't get along with anybody—not that it bothered him. Wherever he went, he simply busied himself with tearing the cover off the ball. He won seven National League batting championships during his Hall of Fame career, six of them in a row, three with averages over .400. His astonishing .424 in 1924 is the highest average recorded in this century. In fact, from 1920 through 1925, he averaged .397. And he hit with power: 46 doubles and 42 homers in 1922, when he batted .401; 41 doubles and 39 homers in 1925, when he put up a .403. Hornsby was also an above-average second baseman, especially skilled at turning the double play. "The Rajah," who played from 1915 to '37, neither read books nor watched movies, for fear of weakening his unerring batting eye. He didn't smoke, drink, dance or play cards. Of music, he snarled, "How the devil can a fellow talk baseball with these fellers makin' all that racket on them instruments?"- Rogers Hornsby. The featured keepsake offers a splendid view of the great batsman at the very beginning of his career with the St. Louis Cardinals, a well focused central image and tremendous centering are the very first attributes that come to the attention of the enthusiast. Each of the four corners show a pronounced rounding which is not to the point of layering and is sometimes found on specimens that have been graded at the VG level. There are several small unobtrusive wrinkles which are mostly confined to the right edge as well as at the bottom running into the subjects legs which make them all the more difficult to see. The reverse is well struck with a deep black inked advertisement for Collins McCarthy Candy Company of San Francisco and is it is void of any staining or obtrusive problems. A stunning and scarce rookie card of one of the finest players in the history of the game.