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Thursday, April 30, 2009

REA: Odds & Ends

Here are some more great REA items up for auction.

This poster just makes me laugh. Wasn't it Barnum who said "There's a sucker born every minute." Well this sucker is absolutely smitten with this piece. Below is a 29" x 19.25" poster advertising "Mooney's Giants- The Famous Elephant Baseball Team." This poster is very rare and I suspect it will sell for a tidy sum.

There is nothing better than a photo featuring the stars of the Negro Leagues. Here is a 1916 panoramic team photo of the Chicago American Giants. It goes without saying that vintage negro league memorabilia is exceedingly rare.
This incredible panoramic photograph captures Rube Foster's Chicago American Giants posing together on field during a barnstorming trip to Vancouver, Canada, in 1916. The significance of this rare photo lies in the fact that some of the game's greatest stars, for which few images exist, are on this historic team. Rube Foster (elected to the Hall of Fame in 1981), who was the owner of the Chicago American Giants, is prominently pictured in the center, nattily attired in a three-piece suit and sporting a fedora. He is flanked on either side by twelve members of his club, including shortstop John "Pop" Lloyd (third from the right; considered by many to be the greatest all-around player who ever lived, Negro League or otherwise, elected to the Hall of Fame 1977), outfielder Preston "Pete" Hill (first from the left; one of the greatest outfielders of his day, elected to the Hall of Fame in 2006), first baseman Leroy Grant (fourth from the left), outfielder Jude Gans (fifth from the left), catcher Bruce Petway (sixth from the left; one of the top catchers in Negro League history), third baseman Bill Francis (sixth from the right; ranked among the top third baseman in the League during the early 1900s), pitcher Bill Gatewood (fifth from the left), and first baseman/catcher Pete Booker (first from the right).

Have you ever wondered what the mythical founder of Baseball looked like? Well here he is- Abner Doubleday.

This is probably my favorite non-star 1952 Topps card. What's even better is that this auction lot consist of a group of 6 color-process proof cards. How freaky it must have been for kids in the 50's to see all those Baseballs clinging to the bat like that.

Below is a true rarity. This is Joe DiMaggio's true rookie card. It is a 1934 Zeenut PCL card of DiMaggio playing for the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League.

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