William Wrigley Signed Baseball w/ Roger Hornsby & 2 Others – COA JSA

Description

In 1916, William Wrigley bought a minority stake in the Chicago Cubs baseball team as part of a group headed by Charles Weeghman, former owner of the Federal League’s Chicago Whales. Over the next four years, as Weeghman’s lunch-counter business declined, he was forced to sell much of his stock in the ball club to Wrigley.

By 1918, Weeghman had sold all of his stock to Wrigley, making Wrigley the largest shareholder and principal owner, and by 1921, Wrigley was the majority owner. Wrigley Field, the Cubs ballpark in Chicago, is named for him. Wrigley purchased the Chicago Cubs from Albert Lasker in 1925.

Rogers Hornsby is regarded as one of the best hitters of all time. He had 2,930 hits and 301 home runs in his career; his career batting average of .358 is second only to Ty Cobb, at .366, in MLB history. He also won two Triple Crowns and batted .400 or more three times during his career. He is the only player to hit 40 home runs and bat .400 in the same year (1922). His batting average for the 1924 season was .424, a mark that no player has matched since.

Presented is an ONL Spalding (Heydler) baseball autographed by four including William Wrigley, Rogers Hornsby, Bing Miller, and Dutch Levens. The ball was signed in steel-tip fountain pen with Wrigley and Miller being the darker autographs on a side panel. Levens (also on the side panel) in blue is a (“5”). Hornsby on the sweet spot is very light (“1-2”).  The ball itself shows toning/soiling from age.

Authentication: JSA Full Letter

This ball is from one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of autographed baseballs in the world. Altogether they were easily displayable in custom shelf form and alphabetically displayed nonetheless. The choice of medium was visually easy for the encyclopedic collector who put these together. It took several decades to amass these rare autographs of the most prominent entertainers, historical figures, and sports players.  It proved quite difficult to acquire autographs of non-ballplayers on such an odd object (a baseball) but diligence proved otherwise and that it’s possible. So, now with the collection complete and his shelves empty there’s only one thing left to do….bid on this item and start the challenge to see how far you can take it.