This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 8/23/2015
In 1909, the National League Champion Pittsburgh Pirates met the American League Champion Detroit Tigers in the World Series. It marked just the sixth World Series ever. Pittsburgh secured the N.L. pennant that season behind the brilliant play of its shortstop, Honus Wagner, who led the league with a .339 batting average and 100 RBI. The Tigers, meanwhile, returned for their third consecutive World Series, led by the formidable bat of Ty Cobb, who had just secured his third straight A.L. batting title after hitting .377. When all the dust had settled, the Pirates won the Fall Classic in seven games to capture their first championship of the modern Major League Baseball era and the second championship in the club's history. Wagner paved the way by batting a series-best .333 (8-for-24) that included a Game 3 performance that produced an unusual trifecta for the eight-time N.L. batting champ: three hits, three RBI and three stolen bases.
Offered here is one of the finest panoramic photographs in the hobby featuring the 1909 World Series Champion Pittsburgh Pirates including the incomparable Wagner (third from right). Coincidentally, this was also the same year when the American Tobacco Company began issuing the famous Honus Wagner T206 rookie card inside 16 different brands of its cigarette products. The extremely rare Wagner card continues to be the hobby’s most valuable card with SCP Auctions having procured its highest price ever: $2.8 million. The black-and-white panoramic photo measures nine inches high by 31 inches wide and includes 26 members of the team, three of whom were eventually inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame: Wagner, player/manager Fred Clarke and right-handed pitcher Vic Willis. Despite its age (106 years old), the large-format photograph – shot by R.W. Johnson Studios of Pittsburgh in September 1909 – has been impeccably preserved with absolutely no crazing or cracking evident. It’s now been beautifully framed and matted inside an impressive presentation that measures 16” high by 38” wide. Stunning, life-like focus combines with powerful contrast for the period piece that captures the 1909 World Series Champions. It can accurately be described as the finest of only a handful of original examples known. This hobby treasure was last sold at auction in 2011 for $23,000.