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 18 for the other.) This is his highest graded example at PSA VG 3. 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 one has aged very well with far less wear than what would be expected from a century-old card packaged with candy bars. With soft, evenly-rounded corners, clean borders and a smooth, crease-free surface on the front, it earned a higher grade from PSA than any of its seven Texas Tommy peers in the find. If not for botched centering top-to-bottom and one bad corner on the back, we'd have ourselves a mid-grade 1914 candy card here. Back is very clean. Brown-printed bio is nice and sharp.
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/