The first Italian American of baseball.   Ed Abbaticchio.

What was the Black Swamp Find?

Is it unbalievable that a E98 Honus Wagner card exists in a GEM mint 10 conditon?  Well there is a great debate over this rating "Gem Mint 10".  Take a look.  Yes this is a beautiful card.  One of the best I have ever seen.  But Gem Mint?  You be the judge.

Chief Wilson and President Wilson

In an article of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette on November 6, 1912 columnist, James Jerpe, wrote a few lines about the Pirates players of the day.

Honus was saying he thought there ought to be a week off for the players around the 4th of July.  He said it would bring better baseball and it was hard work playing ball all the time.  It didn't sound like he was complaining but just saying.

He talked about how Ham Hyatt was kidding around with some folks at various times.  Maybe the term "Ham" was cause he was a kidder.  Some say he struggled fielding and that is why the name.  But according to others "Ham" refers to "ham-handed".  Webster's Dictionary says that refers to a person that is clumsy or lacks dexterity.

I thought it was interesting that during the game a particular game the Chief Wilson hit a triple but before it he went to bat he said "Here goes for Woodrow, my old college chum from Jersey."  This occurred the same day Woodrow Wilson was nominated to run for President of the United States.

Net54 is a great resource.

http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=147401

Check it out.

SGC Registry - By the way I really like SGC better than PSA right now.

I have recently discovered "Set Registry" on the SGC website.  Check out some of my cards.  Search for 1909 Pittsburg Pirates in the "Collect My Way" section.

http://www.sgccardregistry.com/index.aspx

Of course only the Fred Clarke is registered there out of these two cards but I wanted to show them both.

The Top 8 Most Expensive Baseball Cards Of All Time

Check out Vintagecardprices.com and thank you for the info.

1	1909-11 White Borders (Piedmont & Sweet Caporal) Wagner, Pittsburgh #497 PSA 8			$2,800,000
2	1909-11 White Borders (Piedmont & Sweet Caporal) Wagner, Pittsburgh #497 SGC 40			$826,000
3	1914 Baltimore News Orioles Ruth, Pitcher #9 SGC 40			$517,000
4	1909-11 White Borders (Piedmont & Sweet Caporal) Wagner, Pittsburgh #497 GAI 3.5			$456,057
5	1909-11 White Borders (Piedmont & Sweet Caporal) Wagner, Pittsburgh #497 PSA 1			$399,500
6	1909-11 White Borders (Piedmont & Sweet Caporal) Doyle, N.Y. Nat'L #147 SGC 50			$329,000
7	1909-11 White Borders (Piedmont & Sweet Caporal) Wagner, Pittsburgh #497 BVG 1			$317,250
8	1909-11 White Borders (Piedmont & Sweet Caporal) Wagner, Pittsburgh #497 PSA 2			$294,338

Robert Byrne of the 1909 Pirates

Well I have been working over the past several years to accumulate some cards of the 1909 Pirates players.  I am going to post pictures of some starting today.  Thanks for checking out the site.  Please consider becoming a follower of this site.

This is a M101-2 of Robert Byrne.  It was issued by The Sporting News Jan 26, 1911.  This card is quite large and measure just a bit smaller the a regular sheet of paper at 8 x 10 inches.  The Pirates picked up Robert during the 1909 season to beef up the offense.  He primarily played 3rd base.