The Following Lot Originates from the Jake Virtue Estate Collection (click here for info.)
Charles Louis “Chief” Zimmer played 19 Major League Baseball seasons as a catcher from 1884-1903. He played 13 years in Cleveland and served as player- manager for his final team, the Philadelphia Phillies in 1903, then umpired in the National League in 1904 and 1905. Zimmer also became the first president of the Player’s Protective Association and the inventor of a popular mechanical baseball parlor game. A real Renaissance man, his other interests included real estate, and the grocery and restaurant business.
The “Chief” is regarded as the “finest defensive catcher of his day.” As one of the game’s first everyday catchers, he sat Major League records for assists, double plays, games at catcher, career fielding percentage as of 1896 and runners caught stealing including an astounding 125 in 1893 when he solidified his reputation for having the best arm around, by throwing out the great base stealer “Sliding Billy” Hamilton twice in one game. Prior to Zimmer, catchers were typically paired with specific pitchers and did not catch every day. He was called “baseball’s original iron man.” He could hit pretty well too, batting over .300 four times including a career high .340 in 1895 when he led the Cleveland Spiders to the “Temple Cup” and a victory over Baltimore four games to one. In the best of seven series, a precursor to the modern era World Series, he was the batting hero, hitting a two- run homer to win the decisive game.
Perhaps, however, he is best known as Cy Young’s battery mate from 1890-1898 with the Cleveland Spiders. These were Young’s formative, as well as most dominate years as a pitcher. Young and Zimmer were widely acclaimed as the most famous battery of the 1890’s. As Young’s career progressed, no Major League pitcher was more forthcoming in expressing how much a “fine catcher” enhanced his performance on the mound. Young’s biographer, Reed Browning, noted that he always credited Zimmer for his contributions. Young and Zimmer remained friends for 60 years.
After the 1898 season, Young left the Cleveland Spiders, and Zimmer, at age 38, was released by the team in early June 1899, despite holding a .342 batting average through 20 games. Without Young and Zimmer, the 1899 Spiders, after being at or near the top for years, fell to a 20-134 record; the worst in Major League history.
Zimmer is featured here on this stunning cabinet produced by the Pifer & Becker Photo Palace of Cleveland, Ohio. This cabinet, along with the five other Pifer & Becker cabinets in the Jake Virtue Collection featured in this auction bear the same images featured in one of the nineteenth-century collecting world's holy grail card issues, the 1893 Just So Tobacco card set. All Just So Tobacco cards, which exclusively feature Cleveland Spiders players, are exceedingly rare. It has been estimated that fewer than twenty-five examples in total are known in the entire collecting world, with fourteen different players represented. The matching images of these cabinets with their Just So counterparts leaves no doubt that these cabinets are the parents of that revered issue.
The rarity of this Chief Zimmer cabinet is only equaled by its extraordinary condition. From the crystal clear image to the gold gilt edges of the 4-1/8” by 6-1/2” mount, the entire piece demonstrates the highest standards of photographic quality and presentation possible from the era. Mystifyingly Graded VG-EX 4(MK) by PSA, the piece has a minimally EX-MT appearance. The MK qualifier is justified by the pencil writing on the reverse in the hand of Jake Virtue that identifies the subject “Zimmer” and instructs, “Return to J.K. Virtue 637 Vine St. Camden N.J.” LOA from the Jake Virtue Estate.