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Lot # 1026: 1951-53 MLB Teams vs. San Francisco Seals Scorecard Album w/Willie Mays

Starting Bid: $200.00

Bids: 1 (Bid History)

Time Left: Auction closed
Lot / Auction Closed




This lot is closed. Bidding is not allowed.

Item was in Auction "2023 Fall Classic",
which ran from 10/29/2023 7:00 PM to
11/18/2023 10:00 PM



Displayed is a unique offering: A scorecard album of the 1951-53 San Francisco Seals in 14 exhibition games against Major League teams, featuring Willie Mays from a March 22, 1952, Seals' game against the New York Giants. The Seals were a team in the Pacific Coast league, a league that had formerly been a Triple A circuit, but was now an unusual "open" classification, meant to signify that the league was higher than Triple A, and desirous of becoming a third Major League, a plan that fell apart when the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants moved to Los Angeles and San Francisco respectively for the 1958 season, and the West Coast had Major League ball. The scorecard album features 16+ pages that are neatly filled with San Francisco Seals scorecards and most of the scorecards come with a newspaper article of the same game that was scored, detailing the Seals' games against their Major League competition. In the aforementioned March 22, 1952, game, the Seals faced the New York Giants, who in the year before one the pennant on Bobby Thomson's "Shot Heard 'Round the World" when the Giants third baseman homered in the bottom of the ninth inning of the third and final pennant playoff game against the Brooklyn Dodgers. Hall of Famer Mays is in the Giants line-up in the scorecard in the album, and Willie is playing center field and batting fifth. Willie went 1-for-5 in the contest, with a run scored as the New Yorkers won 8-3. Bobby Thomson, "The Flying Scot" hero of the 1951 Miracle of Coogan's Bluff Giants, is in the lineup playing third base and batting third. The scorecards and news clippings in the album provide detailed coverage of the 14 exhibition games: The games also included contests with the Pittsburgh Pirates, with Hall of Fame slugger Ralph Kiner, the Cleveland Indians, with Hall of Fame outfielder Larry Doby, the first African American in the American league, plus Hall of Fame pitchers Bob Feller and Early Wynn, and Hall of Fame outfielder Minnie Minoso. Other games included the Chicago Cubs, and the St. Louis Browns. The album measures 8.25x11.75", with its 36 pages approx. 8x11". The irony of the scorecard of the Giants versus the Seals in 1952 is enormous. Who would guess in '52 that in six years, the Giants, still with Mays in center field, would now be San Francisco's Major League team. The album was meticulously put together, and it remains in excellent condition.

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