Historical Hockey Memorabilia Auction June 2016
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 6/15/2016
Despite a line-up that boasted Eddie Plank and Chief Bender on the mound, the Philadelphia Athletics from the fledgling upstart American League were easily defeated in 5 games in the 1905 World Series by John McGraw’s powerful New York Giants. This extremely rare program from the Polo Grounds has been scored in pencil and originates from game 4, as evidenced by the single fourth inning run for a 1-0 Giants victory. Diminutive in stature but extremely large in historic importance, the 6 ¾” x 10 ¼” program features a team photo of the Giants on the cover by noted lensman George Lawrence, with interesting period advertisements placed within. As advanced World Series collectors are astutely aware, examples from the second Fall Classic rarely make themselves available to the collecting community. A 1905 program for game 5 in similar condition sold at Robert Edward Auctions in 2011 for just north of $11000.00.
Game 4 took place Friday, October 13, 1905 at the historic Polo Grounds in upper Manhattan, with Eddie Plank returning for the A's against Joe McGinnity for the Giants. Both left men on in scoring position early, and kept the game scoreless until the bottom of the fourth when Sam Mertes led off the inning by reaching on an error by Monte Cross. After Bill Dahlen flied to right Art Devlin grounded out, moving Mertes to second. With two outs, Billy Gilbert singled to left, bringing Mertes home for the only run of the game, McGinnity outdueling Plank 1–0 and giving the Giants a three-games-to-one lead.
Regarding condition, the program exhibts a large and centralized vertical crease that continues on verso from being folded in half, along with an additional pair of creases that while less obtrusive, are placed equally apart from the center crease. The interior is fairly clean, with the odd small crease present. The cover has two small edge tears starting from the top and bottom, but the staples remain tight and firmly intact, and are free of rust which often plagues publications of this vintage. There are also slightly rounded corners on the left hand side of the cover, with additional small creases present. Despite these flaws, the program displays extremely well, and is a solid and complete example worthy of any advanced World Series or antique baseball publication collection.
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