Offered here is one of two Vean Gregg cards in the Texas Tommy "Elite Eight" group recently discovered in an old Yahtzee box. (See Lot 15 for the other.) Before this find, there were only two Vean Gregg cards known, rated PSA PR 1 and SGC VG 3. So, we've doubled the population. This PSA PR 1 has aged about as well as could be expected from a century-old card packaged with candy bars. There is a vertical, full-length crease on the right side and a shorter one on the bottom left. The front image has faded quite a bit as well. Centering, on the other hand, is better than most of its Texas Tommy peers. Front creases are visible on the back, which remains very clean with strong brown-printed bio.
Sylveanus Augustus "Vean" Gregg was born and raised in the state of Washington and, like most West Coast ballplayers in the early 1900's, got his start in the Pacific Coast League. After a dominant season with the Portland Beavers, the left-handed starting pitcher joined the Cleveland Naps in 1911 and was teammates wth Cy Young during his final career season. Vean must have been inspired as he went 23-7 and led the American League with a 1.80 ERA as a 26-year-old rookie. Gregg followed that with back-to-back 20-13, sub-3 ERA campaigns for the Naps before developing arm problems. From 2014-16, he was part of two Boston Red Sox World Champiobship teams, pitching alongside another southpaw named Babe Ruth. Vean Gregg remains the only pitcher in the 20th century to win 20 games in his first three MLB seasons.
For more on the "Yahtzee Box Find" and the rest of the "Elite Eight", see Lots 3 and 4.
Here's the Sports Collectors Daily article (6/24/2020) that announced this monumental discovery: https://www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/yahtzee-1914-texas-tommy-find-includes-cobb-jackson/