Ty-Cobb
Historic 105-year-old Walter Johnson jersey highlights Heritage Spring auction
Walter Johnson’s fastball was so dominant that famous sportswriter Grantland Rice dubbed him “Big Train.”
His teammates called him “Barney” after famous race car driver Barney Oldfield.
Speed was the name of the game for Johnson, the Hall of Famer who ruled the Dead Ball era with his blazing speed ball and ability to dominate the game’s best hitters.
Even Babe Ruth.
Johnson, who was inducted into the inaugural class of the Baseball Hall of Fame, won 417 games (second all-time) in his 21-year career, collecting 3,509 strikeouts (ninth all-time) and a record 110 shutouts. He won two AL MVPs and led the league in strikeouts 12 times.
On April 29, 1920, Johnson’s Washington Nationals beat Ruth’s New York Yankees, 2-1, at the Polo Grounds. Johnson had eight strikeouts, fanning Ruth twice. The future home run king later called Johnson “the best of them all.”
The Washington Nationals jersey Johnson wore that day and during the 1919-1922 seasons is now up for bid in the May 16-18 Spring Sports Catalog Auction at Heritage Auctions, which is filled with historic game-worn jerseys and game-used memorabilia.
Johnson’s 105-year-old pinstriped, gray flannel jersey was gifted to teammate and fellow pitcher Eric “Swat” Erickson when Erickson retired after the 1922 season. The jersey, which has Johnson’s name stitched into the collar just below the A.G. Spalding & Bros. label, was photo-matched to the 1920 game against the Yankees.
It is one of just two known jerseys that have survived Johnson’s storied career. The other is in the Baseball Hall of Fame. The jersey already has a bid of more than $1 million.
“We have had the opportunity at Heritage Auctions to offer some incredible and museum-worthy jerseys over the decades,” says Chris Ivy, Director of Sports Auctions at Heritage. “But this Walter Johnson example, photo-matched to his first dual with the great Babe Ruth in Yankees pinstripes, certainly qualifies it as a cream-of-the-crop rarity.”
Other historic game-worn jerseys featured in the auction include a Yankees road jersey worn by Mickey Mantle during his final season in 1968 and a Brooklyn Dodgers road jersey worn by Sandy Koufax during his rookie season in 1955.
Mantle wore the signed and inscribed Yankees jersey during his final season and then gifted it to Yankees bat boy Bill Hongach.
Koufax wore the Dodgers jersey as a 20-year-old rookie in Brooklyn. It has been photo-matched to two Spring Training games in 1956, when players typically wore uniforms from the previous season. It comes from the collection of James Harwell, a pitcher who played minor-league ball for the Dodgers in the 1950s.
Among the top game-used memorabilia is the bat Ty Cobb used in 1922. Cobb used the spike-scarred, tobacco juice-stained Hillerich & Bradsby model to hit .401 and drive in 99 runs in 1922.
Another historic bat in the auction is the Hillerich & Bradsby model Mantle used to hit two home runs in the 1953 World Series, including a Game 5 grand slam. Mantle donated the bat to a YMCA Junior Baseball banquet.
Heritage’s Spring Sports Catalog Event also features jerseys, sneakers, gloves, bats and helmets worn or used by such sports legends as Willie Mays, Stan Musial, Warren Spahn, Hank Aaron, Carl Hubbell, Reggie Jackson, Gale Sayers, Terry Bradshaw, Tom Brady, Lionel Messi and Kobe Bryant.
The top vintage cards in the auction include:
• A 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card graded 7.5.
New Releases: Topps Heritage, Bowman Baseball highlight new card sets
• A PSA 10 Ty Cobb card from the fabled Black Swamp find.
• A 1955 Topps Sandy Koufax rookie card (PSA 9).
• A 1952 Topps Complete Master Set (491 cards), including a PSA 6 Mantle.
• The only known 1969 Topps Elgin Baylor card graded PSA 10.
