Addendum (6/10 - 9:31 am). Please note that the original description for this lot is in error. The signature previously identified as Dick Williams is actually that of Dick Whitman. We have amended the description.
Presented is a rare, autographed program from the Brooklyn Dodgers' Welcome Home Dinner on April 15, 1948, at the Hotel St. George in Brooklyn. The Hotel St. George was often used by the Dodgers for gatherings and parties, and the Welcome Home Dinner was an annual event when the Dodgers would arrive in Brooklyn from spring training. The Dodgers were the 1947 National League pennant winners, and they would win the pennant again in'48. This dinner was held exactly a year from the April,15, 1947 day when Jackie Robinson altered American history when he broke the Major League "color line" for the Dodgers at Ebbets Field. There are (35) autographs: Hall of Famers - Jackie Robinson, Gil Hodges (to be increasingly in the news as he will be posthumously inducted into HOF in July 2022), Roy Campanella, Pee Wee Reese, Duke Snider, and Leo Durocher (manager). Plus, Carl Furillo, Arky Vaughan, Pete Reiser, Gene Hermanski, Ralph Branca, Billy Cox, Preacher Roe, Cookie Lavagetto, Rex Barney, Gene Hermanski, Gene Mauch Dick Whitman and more. There is tape on the spine. A vertical fold is down the middle with small tears on the top and bottom edges of the 6.5" x 10" program. The condition is very good. A Jackie Robinso autograph is always coveted, ad Gil Hodges was a catcher to start this 1948 season, but he would be moved to first base as Campanella took over behind the plate. The 1948 Dodgers won the National League pennant and would face the New York Yankees in the World Series that year and go on to face the Yankees six times in the World Series in the team's final ten years in Brooklyn, winning the club's only Brooklyn Dodger World Championship in 1955 and celebrating at the same Hotel St. George. The autographs on this program are a wonderful find as contain the core players on what became the Brooklyn Dodger Golden Age. PSA LOA.